Interesting article in a food industry journal overnight reporting on a pre-print (not yet reviewed) of a scientific study evaluating how long COVID-19 can live on frozen food or food packaging. The answer: up to three weeks, and the experimental design specifically tested chilled or frozen foods/packaging in light of the small, but growing, number of incidents like the Auckland outbreak.
Just another reason to ban the import of meat.
Actually the whole pandemic story has proven the consequences of our reckless and cruel animal food industry.
Frozen goods logistics is also essential for our own nourishment. Have a look at where the frozens in your freezer, and the supermarket freezer, come from. A very large proportion of it is imported. Restricting this trade will have consequences around what we eat, and how much it costs. A lot of business models from producers through to supermarkets could be challenged by this affecting a lot of what we eat.
Will be interesting to see what changes have been made already to procedures in the coolstores, and the rest of the supply chain, and what's in the pipeline. Also what changes consumers have already made.
Changes we are unlikely to hear about anytime soon….no one is going to speculate on this possibility without absolute certainty, the price would be too high for everyone.
The principle is often used by policy makers in situations where there is the possibility of harm from making a certain decision (e.g. taking a particular course of action) and conclusive evidence is not yet available.
It implies that there is a social responsibility to protect the public from exposure to such harm, when scientific investigation has found a plausible risk. These protections should be relaxed only if further scientific findings emerge that provide sound evidence that no harm will result.
The frequent problem with invoking the precautionary principle is its abuse by nutters to block "something I don't like but have no rational argument or evidence against". It's a tactic that's very easy to use by simply endlessly calling for more evidence without ever acknowledging the weight of evidence that has already built up on a topic.
As touched on by the Criticisms section in your wikipedia link.
An opinion not based upon facts has no value and needs to be treated that way.
This false dichotomy and binary ‘logic’ is one of the main reasons why many debates fail from the outset, especially the ones on or associated with contentious and complex social issues.
Restricting this trade will have consequences around what we eat, and how much it costs.
So, what you're saying is that the number of farms and farmers in NZ would decrease (as they couldn't export) and what those left would produce would greater diversification?
This sounds good. It'd certainly be good for our environment although we'd still need better environmental protections and enforcement of those protections.
… in light of the small, but growing, number of incidents like the Auckland outbreak.
Please enlighten us what “incidents” you are referring to that involve infection with the virus from frozen food packaging. Have they contract traced any cases to a frozen chicken that crossed the street?
The other incidents referred to in the article are in Vietnam and China where areas that had previously had no infections for many months had an outbreak based around a food processing facility. These were considered interesting both for the possibility that frozen food was the vector of the virus into the facility, plus the crowded and slighly less-than-ideal conditions that food processing workers operate in which creates the perfect environment for rapid infection.
Both those cases, plus Auckland, were cited as being suggestive, and used as justification for the experimental design in which it was established that the virus did indeed remain viable on frozen foods and packaging for three weeks.
Nothing that conclusively makes this the confirmed vector at Americold, but certainly enough evidence to suggest we shouldn't totally discount it and assume that the only possible vector was a person coming over the border.
Paul Buchanan reminds us that spooks spy. I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with Z:
News that Zhenhua Data, an arm of China Zhenhua Electronics Group, itself a subsidiary of the military-connected China Electronic Information Industry Group, maintains a list of 800 New Zealanders on an “Overseas Key Information Database” that contains personal information on more than 2.4 million foreign individuals, has caused some consternation in Kiwi political circles. https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/17-09-2020/china-is-running-furtive-surveillance-of-innocents-lives-online-and-so-are-we/
Zhenhua Data is not alone in using its private business status as a front for or complement to State intelligence-gathering operations. The US firm Palantir, co-founded by New Zealand citizen Peter Thiel with seed money provided by the CIA venture capital arm In-Q-Tel, specialises in big data analysis, including software-based analytic synergies involving data mining, AI and facial recognition technologies.
Palantir has an office in Pipitea House, Headquarters of the GCSB and SIS, and its local clients exclusively reside within the New Zealand Intelligence Community.
So our spooks, working hand in velvet glove with yank spooks, are busy spying. On us, on the Chinese spooks, on the Russian spooks too, no doubt. Do we get value from all that spying, funded by the taxpayer? We'll never know: the establishment prevents accountability to the public. If they've got a list of quarantine rule-breakers then they're not totally useless, eh?
Our 'security' is not upheld when our spooks spy on the wrong folk, eg animal rights or peace activists groups rather than heavily armed 4chan devotees.
An interesting take on Progressives and the Republican party in the U.S.
That Lincoln was not a conservative, in helping to end slavery and that he received fan mail from Karl Marx.
There are plenty of bite size presentations from this journalist, including the US as a failed state and how policing is effective only with the consent of society.
Mental chewing gum for me as I push a lawn mower round today.
Pike River widow Anna Osborne, who is also the Family Reference Group's chair, said the recovery of Pit Bottom in Stone needed strong scrutiny.
"The families need to know that the scene examination will be done by the best experts, using the right equipment and knowledge.
"This is an absolutely critical part of the recovery and we are being very clear with police and the recovery agency that it must be a focused effort and that there needs to be transparency to ensure families can trust the outcome."
Sonya Rockhouse, who lost her son Ben in the explosion, said reaching Pit Bottom in Stone had been an important goal for years.
"This is the one place likely to hold evidence crucial to seeing justice being done.
"There are a lot of conspiracy theories floating around about Pike that have caused a lot of grief to family members. This is the chance to get a clear run at the truth."
Neither the gathering of public information, nor of specific information about persons of interest is in any way different from what might be done by the most benign of states or intelligence organs. More relevant is the use to which it is put, for which we have little evidence, beyond Chinese links with our weakest and most compromised politicians.
There is an issue of potential for abuse. Having an essentially monarchial government, Chinese policy may change very quickly if the head of state does, as it did with the incumbent declaring himself effectively president for life. But of course the same potential for abuse applies with our own intelligence organs, which monitored the Locke family exhaustively but neglected the likes of the Chch shooter.
China may well be up to no good, and certainly shouldn't be let near politicians of weak moral character (most of them, frankly) but this bit of data is no smoking gun.
The next two years will be interesting ones re China.
2021 is the 100 year anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. To celebrate the fact, Xi has repeatedly vowed that Taiwan will return to China by choice or by force by then.
2022 is the next Chinese National Congress, at which time Xi will either be ousted by the far more moderate Li or will indeed become President for Life. Powerful incentive to invade Taiwan before then. Every dictator under pressure needs a war.
re Taiwan. There was a posting on Weixin (the full Chinese version of Wechat only open to those with a Chinese ID) about two weeks ago with a reprint of a Chinese government declaration that Taiwan airspace is considered part of Chinese airspace.
The declaration stated in clear terms that any land or air attempts to intercept Chinese aircraft flying over Taiwan would be considered terrorism. And of course Chinese fighters are now crossing Taiwanese airspace on a near daily basis . Very worrying.
I should have saved and posted here. Have looked extensively on MSM but not a mention. As Weixin is owned by Ten Cent and Ten Cent is a Chinese government company, and given the extreme level of censorship, if it was posted it presumably had government approval.
I've stopped following China closely – I quite liked Hu Jintao – Xi seems to exemplify negative traits.
Taiwan must seen like a ripe durian to China – Is it better to pluck it, or wait till Trump weakens the US so much that it falls into their hands? Because Trump's presidency could really use a short victorious war about now too.
Its not just about the US though, most of the countries bordering the South China Sea (Vietnam, Japan, even the Philippines) are affected by what China does to Taiwan and increasingly forming a combined approach. And Taiwan itself is arming up.
It is not necessarily certain China would succeed in any action against Taiwan, as its forces are spread thinly, and already building up in Tibet so as to be altitude ready by spring for likely conflict with India over the ALOC.
Yes – I follow the military end of things – used to use the Sprattly dispute with English classes.
Things would not be so one-sided that US commitment of air forces would not make invasion difficult to sustain – though preventing occupation falls a long way short of preserving Taiwan.
The Chinese navy still has a few issues, though land based aircraft could probably cover that flank to some extent over Taiwan. The US would probably prefer to avoid or limit committing ground forces, which a conflict centred around Taiwan would allow. A big question would be whether the theatre expanded, and whether merchant shipping would be affected.
Pity that China could not leave Taiwan as it is – a little brother going its own way and China watching how what they do. It could be a measure of how effective the communist-state is in comparison. If they let them go provided that they don't allow the USA to set up bases there, then Taiwan can always choose to do the Prodigal Son thing one day.
If those terms were made clear to Taiwan, it could become an anomaly, also with Hong Kong. This wave of fascism going round the world is odd, and limits humanity and its intelligent expression rather than going towards greater human development, something like Maslow's pyramid. If all our thoughts are directed towards one aim, following one line, the other possibilities of thinking and actions that we and China could take get dismissed, ignored or pushed away beyond thought.
This is an interesting thinkpiece on Maslow's thinking. https://socialcapitalmarkets.net/2010/10/the-pyramid-to-enlightenment-is-upside-down/ My issues are two-fold. One is a corollary of the other, dealing with the progressive manner in which the stages of the pyramid are commonly presented. And the other is a much larger point: our tendency to target the upper stages of the pyramid in developed countries and the lower in developing countries, almost exclusively. I’ll start with the smaller, and I’ll caveat all of this with the fact that this is a “thought-in-progress”; I don’t claim to speak on the pain and potential of humanity with any greater authority than anyone else.
The pyramid of needs is commonly framed as a stepping stone, or a linear path – a progressive hierarchy, where one step leads to the other. I heard this at the conference repeatedly, as very well intentioned entrepreneurs explained that in the US, we were enlightened at the top of the pyramid, but countries in Africa were in need of much greater and fundamental basic needs – they hadn’t advanced to the top of the pyramid yet.
Our great thinker –
Lord Rutherford: “We haven't got the money, so we'll have to think”.
Greywarshark: "We're ruining our world and our humanity, so we'll have to think".
Some more from our 'original thinker' Ernest Rutherford who expressed himself in the popular idiom we can understand:
An alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless it can be explained to a barmaid.
All science is either physics or stamp collecting.
I have broken the machine and touched the ghost of matter.
We're like children who always want to take apart watches to see how they work.
And this, which indicates that if we want to run our country well we have to become like the scientists he describes and work at it thoughtfully together.
Scientists are not dependent on the ideas of a single man, but on the combined wisdom of thousands of men, all thinking of the same problem, and each doing his little bit to add to the great structure of knowledge which is gradually being erected. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford
There has been abuse of confidential information about citizens in NZ in the past. Whether it has come from officialdom or loose tongues allowing info. to get into the wrong hands is beside the point. It has happened. For the target it can be a distressing situation to be in.
Whether China plans to use the information for unethical purposes we don't know yet. They may be doing no more than what the Five Eyes nations – and other nations – do. That is, gather information on citizens from other countries in case they may be of interest one day.
“One of the issues is although the funding has been allocated, a lot of those schools haven’t actually seen it yet, and I can imagine that’s where some of the frustration comes from.” From the budget, more than $68 million of capital funding was spent on Taranaki school property between 2017 and 2019, and $11.75 million had been allocated to 78 schools in the region over the next two years, to accelerate school-led upgrade projects. But Shaw said the funding likely “doesn’t even touch the sides” of the needs schools have these days, and he wanted to change that.
You mean change Grant Robertson's mind?? You & which army?
The head of the organisation representing Taranaki secondary school principals says educators felt the co-leaders of the Green Party had listened to them… “There were some very informed opinions expressed at the meeting by members who had done their homework on the matter.” Shaw said the meeting had been “really productive”.
“Many appreciated us taking the time to come and hear what they need from the Government next term,” he said in a text statement. “The issue of deteriorating schools from decades of neglect is a longstanding issue, and the Green Party have long called for better resourcing"
Bipartisan neglect of infrastructure has been a deepening problem for a long time (but is even worse in the USA). Nat/Lab delinquency got institutionalised by a design flaw in representative democracy: the system rewards short-term political partisan strategising, and penalises long-term planning and policy for the common good.
What we get from msm framing. They came with a couple of female organisers who set up a meeting with the Taranaki Greens late in the day, which we appreciated. About a dozen folks showed up.
They told us the day had gone well. It was evident from the body language & natural conversational rapport between the co-leaders that the Green School thing hadn't created a rift. The effortless ease at which they slipped into just being members of our group suggests that they are each adept at connecting into new group situations. I'm therefore not surprised their sessions at the schools were well-received.
Commentariat gets off on it, so gotta toss it out. In theory, the inducement then leads them into comment on the substantive issues. Gotta wait for that, sometimes.
Indeed, the Commentariat gets off on it. It is counter-productive to more substantive comments/commenting. So, why do you do it? Is confirming your bias more important than constructive debate? I do despair about you here at times, Dennis.
What bias?? If being serious was a better option, folks would respond more when I do that, eh? I'm well aware of the contrary pattern: the more serious, the more it scares them. You can always tell by the lack of responses in those instances.
There are dimensions of our shared reality that freak mainstreamers out and they go straight into denial. Indulging that weakness isn't a good idea when the public interest lies in engaging with what is revealed.
Climate change and the pandemic are prime examples but the chronic bipartisan underfunding of infrastructure maintenance is another goody.
Such self-deprecating wit! The irony is that you asked yourself why so few respond to your comments yet you refuse to look in the mirror and accept what you see!?
You can always tell by the lack of responses in those instances.
Not always. Sometimes, people don't respond because what's been posted is incredibly boring, pretentious, repetitive, nonsensical or unhinged. Sometimes, the only response a piece warrants is an eye-roll and a shake of the head. Sometimes, 'mainstreamers' aren't in denial, they just find someone incredibly dull and/or obnoxious.
Leftists on social media posing as members of Retards Anonymous is nothing new. I think the public would be more impressed if they engaged the issues instead.
There's only so many times you can evade them by being trite or banal before other mainstreamers decide leftists are unable to get real (so they may as well vote National).
Connecting those dots will be a struggle, of course, but good luck with the trying…
Infotainment not helpful? I recall having that quaint notion myself for rather a long time. Sometimes, though, we do need to go with the flow of contemporary culture. Flippancy, one could even argue, is timeless…
Sure, but why would you want to perpetuate it? Davidson and Shaw were both there, it's insulting to marginalise MD this way. Had your comment been about MSM framing then some pointed sarcasm might have warranted your framing, but it wasn't.
Still, look at the replies to your comment. No-one is talking about what you actually raised. Framing matters. I know this writing posts. If I put something in the headline or first sentence that goes against what I am writing about there's no pulling the conversation back from that.
Sometimes folks just get the urge to respond to something easy. Doesn't mean they'll never get beyond that. Cerebral process does require energy, and as people age they function more slowly in the mornings. Even at rest the brain uses 20% of our energy intake. Thinking about political issues would ramp that up considerably!
The old canard of Assange recklessly revealing names of informants refuted by Daniel Ellsberg in court yesterday
Daniel Ellsberg’s testimony this afternoon continued to tear down the prosecution’s argument that Julian recklessly released sensitive information that caused harm. Ellsberg noted that Julian “took every effort” to redact or hold back damaging information, even working with media outlets and the government in the redaction process — but that the government “would not lift a finger to help people who might be at risk” because they were more interested in building a case against Julian.
Wikilealks' appalling negligence with vulnerable people's personal information in information releases is well-documented. So I'll take a guess Ellsberg's assertion that every effort was taken to redact sensitive information is strictly limited to the release of military information at issue in the extradition hearing.
You want to link to Ellsberg's actual testimony? Francesca has only linked to the front page of some sort of Assange-cult propaganda outfit.
All other reporting I've seen suggests Ellsberg's testimony about redaction is strictly limited to Wikileaks' releases of the information provided by Manning, and makes no mention of the other incidents where Wikileaks actually was appallingly careless about vulnerable people's personal information.
To be clear, I'm not disputing Ellsberg's suggestion that Wikileaks responsibly redacted information from the info Manning leaked. What I'm pushing against is the apparent attempt to imply Wikileaks was universally careful about personally sensitive information, when it's been clearly documented that their negligent carelessness with personal info in other document releases has put vulnerable people at risk.
About endangering people involved with people in state jobs. I remember that one USA Senator? revealed secret details of a woman CIA agent in the Senate thus putting all her contacts in danger and upsetting whatever lines of communication she had built up. And that was for petty personal revenge on her I think. So worrying about principles of secrecy and behaviour; it depends who's doing it and who's secrets are being revealed.
Sorry can't recall the actual names but it happened about two decades ago. Should be reports on google but haven't time as I have just been doing a bit on thinking (towards a goal of wise and positive humanity and planet), which it seems is an important personal habit that is going out of fashion in lots of places around the world.
tl;dr: Russia is mostly looking to sow chaos and distrust in government, and their man for that is obvious.
China is much more focused on promoting their interests and countering the the propaganda against them, as part of the project of becoming the global dominant competitor to the US.
Iran's efforts are mostly about their local issues – Kurds, Saudis etc.
In general, it seems they all find it more successful to just amplify home-grown nuttery rather than trying to outright fabricate shit and inject it into the discourse.
…and as we watch from the side lines the devolution of many on the 'left' to become nothing more than hysterical mouth pieces of the establishment status quo….
…funny how they have seamlessly morphed to become carbon copies of those they once most probably (and rightly) loudly reviled..
This article demonstrates why Trump is America's president. No evidence of interference just conjecture and conspiracy. And you and your fellow Americas seem to swallow it lock, stock and barrel, without a moment of uncertainty, as proof their election is being meddled with by the wicked Arabs, Orientals, and Commies.
Lets look at the countries whose governments have been interfered with by the United States
"Carnegie Mellon University, has identified 62 American interventions in foreign elections between 1946 and 1989. The large majority—like Russia’s in 2016—were conducted in secret."
Talking about US fuckery in elections elsewhere in reply to a comment about foreign fuckery in US elections is at best mindless diversionary whataboutery, or possibly diversionary schadenfreude. It makes it appear you approve of fuckery in US elections.
When there's evidence of US fuckery here or anywhere else anyone cares about, by all means raise that as a separate topic to be considered on its own merits. Because that kind of fuckery is shitty and wrong, regardless of who does it or how tainted the recipient may be.
All I've seen from them so far is complaints which, as I say, they don't have a right to do because of their own previous actions. Now, if they turned round and apologised for doing it themselves and that they were going to stop doing it then they may have a valid point. But,
Where's the line saying that they're going to stop fucking around in other nations politics?
You might be confusing the ordinary everyday conversation meaning of complaint with criminal complaint, which is a legal term to do with starting actions against people who have broken actual laws. Which happened plenty of times for the 2016 election and quite likely is happening now, by American citizens as well as foreign actors.
I'm fairly confident that when Americans are busted doing illegal election fuckery in other countries, they too get attention from the local law along with their local collaborators.
I'm fairly confident that when Americans are busted doing illegal election fuckery in other countries, they too get attention from the local law along with their local collaborators.
So, according to you the USians fucking around in other countries politics is fine and its only when other countries fuck around in the USians that it isn't?
The impact of Covid-19 on New Zealand has been laid bare in a Salvation Army report which found more than a third of survey respondents had suffered a hit to their income through the loss of a job.
Their State of our Communities report, released on Thursday, was based on more than 500 interviews with residents and key community leaders from Rotorua, Queenstown and Johnsonville and found “almost everybody knew somebody that was financially impacted by Covid-19.”
The report also found a rise in people concerned about mental health provision and housing.
The report authors’ also found communities “crying out for serious effort to deal with a lack of mental health support, insecure housing and inadequate incomes.”
“Any recovery and rebuilding effort from the impacts of Covid-19 must include local communities and address existing and emerging critical social and health issues, and also build on the strength already found in these communities,” said Ika.
“In Election 2020, these real voices of communities must be listened to.”
yeah, nah nah….the government did the best they could, no go to winz beg for some support go to get a study grant for something – anything really and learn the 'value of work', the govenrments spokes person for the poor and needy spoke last week and she said nothing much of substance and certainly is not offering any real and above all 'monetary' help. Besides, Mr. Roberston said to day that the books look scary and we have given you all the money we thought was enough for youse and now we have other priorities. After all we only need the poor every few years to vote for us.
Well The Sally Army did at the very least send someone out to speak to people rather then not, and they covered what they covered. And non of that makes their finding less valid, less in line what people are experiencing in real live and the lack of action in regards to the finding.
New Zealand’s June quarter GDP fell by 12.2 per cent Stats NZ has reported. The decline covers most of the period between the end of March and mid-May, when the whole country spent seven weeks in level 4 and level 3 lockdowns. New Zealand is one of the last developed countries to calculate the decline in its second-quarter GDP. The fall in average GDP within the OECD has been 10.6 per cent.
"Collins says she understands that health and education are priorities for many voters, including many female voters. " So how about some pointed questions from the hacks about their 3 terms of underfunding health, screwing teachers over, closing schools, plummeting ratings etc ?
Collins again doubled down on the line that National would have "not let Covid-19 into New Zealand" as a way of saying what her party would have done differently to the Government. She said tomorrow, when National unveils its economic policy, it would show a clear difference between her party and Labour's. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12365736
It's also the rear view mirror as there is likely a solid bounce back after lockdown that we don't have the figures for. Not that the MSM or Judith will mention this.
The numbers are from June? that was 2 month after lockdown and would have at least reflected the good month of may – after what was a total write off of April?
if there is a bounce its not coming from people spending their money, chances are they are like everyone else putting in extra holes to the belt so as to tighten it further.
Key facts
All figures are actual unless otherwise specified.
For the June 2020 quarter compared with the June 2019 quarter:
total value of retail sales (with price effects included) fell 15 percent ($3.6 billion)
Gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic activity — shrank at an annual rate of 32.9% in the second quarter as restaurants and retailers closed their doors in a desperate effort to slow the spread of the virus, which has killed more than 150,000 people in the U.S.
The economic shock in April, May and June was more than three times as sharp as the previous record — 10% in 1958 — and nearly four times the worst quarter during the Great Recession.
What did Jenny Marcroft do to piss off Winnie so badly? Getting demoted to #17 on the list – that's harsher than what got done to Richard Tosser Prosser who only got bumped down to #15.
With interest rates going negative is it time to cut the banks out with a bit of farm to table lending? The idea of a $10k mortgage advance with interest of an annual meat pack has some appeal?
Commentators here struggled to get their heads around it the other day. Perhaps it may help them clarify their thinking if they were to consider how experts see it…
Ivan Diaz-Rainey, an associate professor at the University of Otago and head of the Climate and Energy Finance Group, told Newsroom the move "could be the biggest win for the Greens in this political term". He said it "will lead to more concrete action and change and investment" than the Zero Carbon Act. https://www.newsroom.co.nz/greenroom/is-this-nzs-most-significant-climate-policy
Mark Baker-Jones, a special counsel at Simpson Grierson and the head of the firm's climate practice, was also effusive. "For me, it's probably the most significant piece of policy work that's come out of this Government," he told Newsroom.
"The Zero Carbon Act introduced a target and [emissions] budgets and the Climate Change Commission and [the Government] reformed the Emissions Trading Scheme, they're all very, very significant and necessary, but this step towards mandating the financial disclosure of that climate-related risk is very significant because it sends such a clear message to our financial institutions and to the markets. I think it will probably have the biggest impact on Aotearoa New Zealand's efforts to reduce emissions.
While dozens of other countries are exploring similar regimes, the Tuesday morning announcement by Climate Change Minister James Shaw makes New Zealand the first country in the world to commit to implementing one. The framework to be used was devised by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), led by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney.
I presume James was seeking political advantage for the Greens. Credit for getting it into the legislation pipeline, I mean. Also showing that he's unfazed by the Green School saga – and confident that the Greens will remain in parliament.
This could be the type of news content and scenario we in Aot (NZ) might be likely to see in the near future if things get any worse than they are now.
WAKE UP!
A new strain (animal-human) of Covid_2000+ could be on it's way, and the greenhouse gases surrounding us may soon block most of our hot air from escaping.
Maybe;
BLOCK the damn borders!
STOP using petroleum fuels immediately!
GET PREPARED by purchasing gas masks right now for just in case the face masks are no longer effective!
FOLLOW YOUR LEADERS AND GOVERNMENTAL AS BEST YOU CAN-BUT REMEMBER THAT THEY MAY NOT ALWAYS BE ABLE TO GET THROUGH TO YOU ALL!
If you need to find a supplier of gas masks, I know of a former colleague who had the forethought and wisdom to source a manufacturer of new, full face gas masks and filters that could save ALL of you in the event of things getting even worse.
He is not a greedy person and so I am sure that the masks would be sold at an affordable price, especially for bulk family purchases.
And they come in a variety of colors and sizes for kids, infants and even those domestic pets you love and may soon assist to save you all from a newer form of Corona.
With this website's approval I would endeavor to provide a link to his E-Commerce site.
Let's be safe and kind out there.
We may well be facing worrying times more unique than we might have ever imagined them to be.
No more anything spent on EV. Not time, not resource, nothing. They are probably full of harmful EMF floating around everywhere in any case.
Only horse & cart, horse & buggy, bicycle and tricycle research, development and resourcing should be allowed in AOTearoa (AKA Godzone).
We need to go back about two to three hundred years when things were simple and where every inhabitant appeared charitable and community supportive with another.
A time when they all knew who the chief was, and what their own respective roles and positions were. That is, before technology wrecked it for them all.
Noteworthy is that there are at least 9 million electric bicycles in the category of ride and charge that we know about around the Indo-Pacific and the Pacific region already, and with just a little more CO2 emitted, we could increase this a hundred fold, so as to have bicycles that would last for decades.
I feel that in relation to true socialism and reverting back to; "A La Naturale" transport and domestic methods, we're high on a wire with the world in our sight.
It just takes IMAGINATION AND AOTEAROA WILL POWER! Just like in the good old days.
There is a wealth of opportunity for peddle powered runabout and dinghy motors (additional to oars) for the foreshores, river ways and lakes. It is just that major vested interests as well as both the intelligencia and the bourgeois from our own bordered bourgs have become comfortable with the convenience of modern day technologies.
Look at the Amish, they, at least try to walk (or ride) the talk.
Come on K1W1, let's get our hands really dirty in the soil and get ourselves superbly fit by throwing away all of these 20th and 21st Century luxuries.
Get governmental to seize all motor powered vehicles and convert them to emergency housing or wind powered coastal transport, which is what we have not yet done with freight containers.
Get rid of petrol or electric lawn mowers as well.
Build more maternity hospitals and breed like there is no tomorrow so that we can produce fine farm specimens to work the fields.
Man, the possibilities are limitless.
We could reserve about two thirds of arable land for grass and fodder to feed the horses, sheep and cattle with, and the remainder for growing kai (carrots and other veggies). Broccoli also. No more eating of animals either!
Never again let any store assistant or green grocer tell us; "There is no f…… broccoli"
The other third of arable land for orchards, berry farms and vineyards so we can produce beautiful fruits for consumption, juices, potatoes, hemp, Mary J and copious quantities of precursor alcohol product for a wealth of alcoholic beverage so that most of us can be as happy as sand boys (and sand girls).
But it starts with US, and it starts NOW.
Air New Zealand has taken a good first step by parking up some of it's fleet in the desert mothball fashion, and now we need a good home run (economically, perhaps a 1929 scenario) so that they will have the impetus to follow through and park the entire fleet up.
This is surely the home grown K1W1 spirit, especially from what I've observed throughout rural NZ in small towns in and around the King Country, South Waikato and the Ruapehu District. They may talk grand tourist plans and modernization, but deep down inside they really do foster the simple life and the "back to basic" spirit and they do not really want outsiders or foreigners interfering with them and theirs doing things their way.
Why can we not pick up our pitch forks, our shovels and our ploughshares behind the coulter?
We can then form a massive Campaign for Modern Technology Disablement and organize hikoi as well as home guard units to repel any sod who has any intention of coming to these shores to either introduce or support any of these Technologies of Mass Destruction.
I'm about to stop posting because I have deliberated on collecting up all of my computer related material, my entertainment equipment, all of my household appliances (including whiteware). I will consider only be keeping earthenware and greyware, and I may well gift the rest back to Mother Nature. Back to the good earth.
We must all strive to be good earth worms, my dears.
Live humble, live simple and let hope, faith and charity be our guiding lights (or our Matariki).
As election bribes go it's pretty low ball. At least in the past with interest free student loans and one years free tuition, there's a knock on benefit down the road that doesn't end up costing the health service budget.
Let's hope he won't be in a position to make it come about, or he'll have to raid the super fund to boost oncology departments and palliative care homes.
Nah, that's bollocks. If you're going to reduce it to a fiscal argument, you also have to incorporate the fact that half of smokers won't take a cent in pension money.
Smoking is bad, m'kay. But it's good for the economy.
But we don't just measure in financial terms, do we? There's the human cost, the toll on families, the treating nurses, doctors and care home workers.
If the argument is solely about smokers not getting their pension money, then you may have a point if that amount is transferred to health, but do you think that will happen via Winston, knowing his protector of the gold card club's assets status?
There are many good reasons against smoking. "costing the health service budget" isn't one of them.
Getting lazy about something that should be such a slam dunk is, I believe, actually detrimental to the position. Frankly, I believe that ASH were just as willing to lie about smoking as BAT was – the "healthcare budget" bullshit made a regular apprearance. It was certainly a justification for me to ignore them when I was smoking (a pasttime I miss, but sadly not a long term plan, like the very enjoyable heavy drinking).
And I think that on a wider perspective, making sure our arguments on an easy topic stand up to basic examination is a habit that prepares us for the difficult argument on a different subject entirely.
Despite the attempted smugging (lol), the financial part isn't really getting lazy in debate, as the consequences of smoking do affect the health budget all the way through treatment and palliative care. That has to be undeniable fact as much as your point that dead people don't get the pension, which is also true.
As for making sure our arguments on easy topics stand up to basic examination, in this context, before I'd settle out of court, I'd have to see the costings for treating dying smokers against average length of payments of super, factoring in lost taxes when people get too sick to work including projected losses from the age of death til super eligibility, adding any benefit entitlements paid out along the way.
And I'd also like to see the costs for treating non-smokers intheir last twenty years or so of life, to see if there's actually a difference. Don't forget the excise, as well.
The health budget money comes from somewhere.
The idea that smokers cost money is a common trope that is frankly unsupported. And yet it's an example of "this is bad, therefore it must be bad in every aspect, so I won't check that".
"Low quality Chinese steel cannot be ruled out as the cause of a train derailment in Auckland, though KiwiRail says focusing on faulty steel rails is premature before an investigation is complete."
We've had a housing crisis for the past decade, and successive governments have done nothing to solve it. Why not? Bernard Hickey gets it right when he says its all about protecting the rich: The Government is reluctant to push down house prices fearing they'll loses the support of ...
There’s more of the Obama legacy here and Deporter in Chief: Obama chucks out 2,000,000 and Can Trump really deport more people than Obama? and Obama, gay rights and the killing drones ...
My Department Right Or Wrong: Far from “politicians involving themselves in some Corrections matters” being a bad thing, their involvement – along with that of the Ombudsman – constitutes a necessary check upon the unreasonable and unlawful exercise of authority over prison inmates by prison staff. A Corrections Minister who ...
New Zealand is supposed to have a progressive tax system, which taxes people according to their ability to pay. But it turns out that the rich are cheating: The wealthiest New Zealanders pay just 12 per cent of their total income in tax on average, according to research from ...
Ground truths on warming When we think about rapid climate change of the kind we've accidentally unleashed and the warming of Earth systems inherent in the process, we tend to focus on phenomena in order of their immediate tangibility, their drama. Sea ice loss in the Arctic, atmospheric and ocean ...
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One theme in the literature dedicated to democratic theory is the notion of a “tyranny of the minority.” This is where the desire to protect the interests of and give voice to electoral minorities leads to a tail wagging the dog syndrome whereby minorities wind up having disproportionate influence in ...
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Will the health reforms proposed for the Labour Government make the system better or worse? Health commentator Ian Powell (formerly the Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists) gives his analysis of what change is most necessary, and what should be avoided. The review of the Health ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections An off-course polar vortex meandered toward the Mexican border, bringing with it frigid Arctic air rarely seen as far south as Texas. Frozen equipment rendered power generation systems in the state inoperable, forcing grid operators to begin rolling blackouts to customers then left to fend ...
Just as National once produced a “rock star economy” that Grant Robertson rejected as being only for the rich, the Labour Government has produced an economic “bounce back” that leaves out the poor. Branko Marcetic argues for a rise in benefit levels to give the poor a real bounce back. ...
Virginia has voted to abolish the death penalty: State lawmakers gave final approval on Monday to a bill that will end capital punishment in Virginia, a dramatic turnaround for a state that has executed more people than any other. The legislation repealing the death penalty now heads to the ...
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The Herald reports that there is a "storm brewing for the Climate Change Commission". The "problem"? Polluters are unhappy with its economic projections saying that action will not be as costly as they have previously claimed: Last week a coalition of over a dozen New Zealand business and industry ...
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Just because something is bad, doesn’t mean it’s easy to criminalise. Graham Adams argues that the proposed ban on gay conversion therapy is messier than many realise, and he delves into some of the difficulties facing the Government in their promise to legislate. A highly successful petition has inadvertently ...
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Over the weekend we learned that Turkey plans to deport a New Zealand woman and her children who had fled Syria after previously joing the Islamic State. Which means that Andrew Little's tyrannical Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Act 2019 - rammed through under all-stages urgency on the basis of an ...
While it has made a lot of noise about inequality, Labour has resolutely avoided reversing the 1990 benefit cuts and improving living standards for the poorest in our society. Meanwhile, 70% of kiwis think they should: A survey has found seven out of 10 New Zealanders believe the government ...
Anti-Philosopher President? Emmanuel Macron and his party’s reaction to the terrorist atrocities committed on French soil targets the very same philosophical movements excited and emboldened by New Zealand’s own terrifying tragedy.IT IS NOT the sort of thought experiment New Zealanders are encouraged to conduct in these culturally sensitive times. Even ...
If Jacinda Ardern or ay of her Auckland-based cabinet ministers stepped outside this weekend, they would have realised that this afternoon’s cabinet decision on whether to move Auckland back to Level 1 has already been made. The residents of our biggest city have voted with their feet.While some places where ...
According to epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker, the decision to end the second Auckland lockdown after just three days was a ‘calculated risk’. The possibility of undetected community transmission cannot be ruled out. In the United States, modelling by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that the ...
As I rose for the first time to speak from the Despatch Box in the House of Commons, I had the comfort of seeing that the Despatch Box had on it the inscription “A Gift from the People of New Zealand”. But I was also a little daunted, like so ...
This article is by Laura Biggs, from the Marxist-Feminist blog On the Woman Question. The term ‘sex work’ has come to replace the word ‘prostitution’ in contemporary discussions on the subject. This is not accidental. The phrase ‘sex work’ has been adopted by liberal feminists and powerful lobbyists in a ...
Sometimes it’s smaller, intensive studies that shed light on issues. Just reported results of daily sampling of COVID-19 patients indicate patients with the B.1.1.7 variant first observed in Kent, UK may have a longer infection compared to patients infected with non-B.1.1.7 variants. This is the variant seen in NZ’s most ...
Redline has just passed one million views – as I start writing this we have reached 1,000,015 views. It took us nearly seven years to reach our first 500,000 and just three months short of three years to reach our second 500,000, with 2019 being our best year, with over ...
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A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Feb 14, 2021 through Sat, Feb 20, 2021Editor's ChoiceQ&A: Is Elizabeth Kolbert’s New Book a Hopeful Look at the Promise of Technology, or a Cautionary Tale?The Pulitzer Prize-winning ...
Session Thirty-Five. We have had some in-game and out-of-game indication that we are drawing to the end of the Dreamland adventure… which has lasted since the fourth session. Getting back to the Waking World will require some mental adjustment, especially considering that Annalax has spent thirty-odd sessions not ...
A Friend In Need: I have grown up, and grown old, within earshot of New Zealand’s public broadcaster. Through times of peace and plenty, through days of tumult and recrimination, it has been a constant and reliable presence. The calm and authoritative voices of Radio New Zealand kept their fellow ...
This article, authored by Dr Lisa Schipper, Dr Morgan Scoville-Simonds, Dr Katharine Vincent and Prof Siri Eriksen, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Feb 10, 2021. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments posted on Carbon Brief. Photo by ...
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by Georgina Blackmore Instead ask the government to separate the two issues caught under the heading of “Conversion Therapy”. 1) Gay Conversion Therapy which is what 99.9% of people believe this petition is about. It is a ban I personally support. 2) Gender Identity Conversion Therapy which doesn’t have any ...
The burning of books has a long history. That it no reason why we should add to it.If you want to get Burning of the Books: A History of Knowledge Under Attack from the National Library you may have to hurry. It is in the overseas nonfiction section; many books ...
by Daphna Whitmore After promising to tackle poverty, housing, transport, and climate issues in 2017, and failing on all these measures, Labour has moved to a Helen Clark “promise little and disappoint less” style of government. Poverty – perversely called “child poverty” by Ardern – has worsened under Labour. Much ...
This is one of those subject matters better suited to a thesis than a blog post, and far smarter people than I have tackled the question in a more detailed and accurate manner. But it’s a question that’s been running around in my brain for a fortnight or so. ...
Chris Fogwill, Keele University; Alan Hogg, University of Waikato; Chris Turney, UNSW, and Zoë Thomas, UNSWThe world experienced a few centuries of apocalyptic conditions 42,000 years ago, triggered by a reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles combined with changes in the Sun’s behaviour. That’s the key finding of our ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jan Ellen Spiegel Colorado is no stranger to drought. The current one is closing in on 20 years, and a rainy or snowy season here and there won’t change the trajectory. This is what climate change has brought. “Aridification” is what ...
Sweet Surrender: By 1933, Adolf Hitler was the last political leader left standing, and his Nazis the only party Germany had yet to try. It was ever thus. Dictators and dictatorships succeed by being the only medicine a desperately sick nation hasn’t swallowed; the only strength that hasn’t failed.NOT ALL ...
"I know what you're not thinking!" Thanks to their polling agency and the participants in its focus-groups, the Labour leadership possesses a great deal more information about the Kiwis clamouring for action on the housing and inequality fronts than most journalists and lobbyists.ACCORDING TO PEOPLE “in the know”, Labour is ...
James Higham, University of OtagoThe Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s second tourism report urges the government to take advantage of the disruption caused by COVID-19 to transform the tourism industry. Titled “Not 100% – but four steps closer to sustainable tourism”, it builds on commissoner Simon Upton’s 2019 “Pristine, ...
My column over at Newsroom this week points out the fairly obvious. The government can add daily saliva testing for everyone at the border to the existing testing regimen. If daily testing winds up proving the swab tests to be redundant, ditch the swab tests when we find that out. ...
Geoengineering heats up Sorry, that was irresistible. By chance in this edition of New Research are two intriguing papers including different perspectives on the subject of geoengineering, a topic increasingly arousing emotions. Happily both of these papers are open access and free to read. A third article underlines that enthusiasm ...
Tamra Burns Loeb, University of California, Los Angeles; AJ Adkins-Jackson, Harvard University, and Arleen F. Brown, University of California, Los AngelesRacial and ethnic minority communities that lack internet access have been left behind in the race to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The average monthly cost of internet access, about ...
Zach St. GeorgeThe first and only time Steve Jackson spoke to Bill Critchfield was in the late 1980s. Critchfield, an authority on the conifers of North America, was at home recovering from a heart attack. Jackson, then a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University, had called looking for advice on how ...
Richelle Butcher, Massey University; Britta Denise Hardesty, CSIRO, and Lauren Roman, CSIROPlastic in the ocean can be deadly for marine wildlife and seabirds around the globe, but our latest study shows single-use plastics are a bigger threat to endangered albatrosses in the southern hemisphere than we previously thought. You ...
On Monday, the US Congress failed to hold former President Donald Trump accountable for inciting an attempted coup against the US constitution. So now someone is doing it privately, in the traditional American way: suing him: Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani, the former president’s personal lawyer, have been accused ...
The media this morning was full of hopeful stories about how the current lockdown may have been a "false alarm" and an over-reaction and how it would all be over soon (I bet those journalists and editors all feel pretty stupid now). But along the way, National's Michael Woodhouse let ...
Jen Purdie, University of OtagoAs fossil fuels are phased out over the coming decades, the Climate Change Commission (CCC) suggests electricity will take up much of the slack, powering our vehicle fleet and replacing coal and gas in industrial processes. But can the electricity system really provide for this ...
Nearly twenty years after they first arrived, the last New Zealand troops will finally be leaving Afghanistan in May: New Zealand troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by May 2021. The current deployment consists of six Defence Force personnel - three deployed to the Afghanistan National Army Officer Academy, ...
I’m a bit of an ETS-absolutist. Or at least a carbon-pricing absolutist, in a place the size of NZ. I think the Weitzman reasons for preferring a carbon tax to an ETS are second-order relative to political economy considerations, and any weight at all put on switching costs makes it ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson Despite the speed bump posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is rolling toward completion of its Sixth Assessment Report, the latest in a series that began in 1990. IPCC’s assessments, produced by many hundreds of scientists volunteering countless hours, ...
On Friday (5 February) we went for a walk in the Karangahake Gorge, and were very happy to discover (during the Windows Walk) that there are glow-worms in the darker parts of the mine workings. (Strictly speaking they’re glow-maggots as they’re the larvae of small flies/midges, but that is perhaps ...
Alysha JohnsonThey say a good day is a busy day, and aboard the R/V Falkor (Seafloor to Seabirds in the Coral Sea – Schmidt Ocean Institute), almost every day is busy! On this particular day, we deployed a CTD, which stands for Conductivity, Temperature and Density. It is ...
This is a transcript of a speech by developmental biologist Dr Emma Hilton delivered at on 29 November 2020 for the ‘Feminist Academics Talk Back!’ meeting. This talk was originally published by womentalkback.org Sex denialists have captured existing journals We are dealing with a new religion Thank you for the ...
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway wallsAnd tenement halls"Paul Simon, The Sound of Silence, 1963-64 BOMBER’S RIGHT about Adam Curtis’s latest offering, Can’t Get You Out of My Head, it is brilliant. You can tell it’s a work of genius by the ...
Familiar Excuses: Those wondering why our Prime Minister was so willing to countenance a reputationally damaging breaking of Air New Zealand's contract with the Saudi Arabian navy should wonder no longer. Pieces are in motion on the Middle East chessboard. The interests of the majority shareholder in Air New Zealand ...
Three new community cases of Covid-19 and an unknown source have plunged Auckland into lockdown and the rest of the country into alert level two. Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles tackles some of the critical questions we now face. Could we be looking at a situation as worrying as last August in ...
Government data today shows that the wealthiest New Zealanders aren’t paying their fair share of tax, whilst everyone else chips in, Green Party spokesperson on Finance Julie Anne Genter said today. ...
The Green Party welcomes the change in the Reserve Bank’s remit to consider the impacts on housing when making financial decisions, but housing affordability shouldn’t be left to the Reserve Bank, Green Party Co-leader and Housing spokesperson Marama Davidson said today. ...
The Green Party welcomes the passing of the Local Electorate Act Māori Wards Amendment Bill which ensures Māori have a say on local issues across Aotearoa New Zealand. ...
New UMR research reveals that 69 percent of New Zealanders agree that the government should increase the amount if income support paid to those on low incomes or not in paid work. ...
The Green Party are celebrating the Labour Government bringing forward the timeline to ban conversion therapy, and will push to ensure any draft bill properly protects all of our Rainbow communities. ...
The Green Party is joining the call for ‘brave policy action’ to address rapidly increasing inequality in New Zealand, which is likely to be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
Green MPs currently in Auckland, Marama Davidson, Chlöe Swarbrick and Golriz Ghahraman, will remain in Auckland for the next 72 hours. Those in Auckland today for Big Gay Out who have flown home will self-isolate for 72 hours. These decisions will be subject to any new information that may arise ...
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The Green Party strongly condemns the revelation that Air New Zealand may have provided assistance and maintenance to Saudi Arabian vessels involved in committing atrocities in Yemen. ...
This week, Labour MPs headed north to take part in Waitangi events, and acknowledge Aotearoa’s shared history. Here’s a quick look at what our team got up to at Waitangi, and how we’re working together with Māori to build a better future for us all. ...
Major water reform has taken a step closer with the appointment of the inaugural board of the Taumata Arowai water services regulator, Hon Nanaia Mahuta says. Former Director General of Health and respected public health specialist Dame Karen Poutasi will chair the inaugural board of Crown agency Taumata Arowai. “Dame ...
Today the Government has taken a key step to support Pacific people to becoming Community Housing providers, says the Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio. “This will be great news for Pacific communities with the decision to provide Pacific Financial Capability Grant funding and a tender process to ...
Attorney-General David Parker today announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges. Two of the appointees will take up their roles on 1 April, replacing sitting Judges who have reached retirement age. Kirsten Lummis, lawyer of Auckland has been appointed as a District Court Judge with jury jurisdiction to ...
Government announces list of life-shortening conditions guaranteeing early KiwiSaver access The Government changed the KiwiSaver rules in 2019 so people with life-shortening congenital conditions can withdraw their savings early The four conditions guaranteed early access are – down syndrome, cerebral palsy, Huntington’s disease and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder An alternative ...
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The Local Electoral (Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Bill passed its third reading today and will become law, Minister of Local Government Hon Nanaia Mahuta says. “This is a significant step forward for Māori representation in local government. We know how important it is to have diversity around ...
The Government has added 1,000 more transitional housing places as promised under the Aotearoa New Zealand Homelessness Action Plan (HAP), launched one year ago. Minister of Housing Megan Woods says the milestone supports the Government’s priority to ensure every New Zealander has warm, dry, secure housing. “Transitional housing provides people ...
A second batch of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines arrived safely yesterday at Auckland International Airport, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. “This shipment contained about 76,000 doses, and follows our first shipment of 60,000 doses that arrived last week. We expect further shipments of vaccine over the coming weeks,” Chris Hipkins said. ...
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Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little today welcomed Moriori to Parliament to witness the first reading of the Moriori Claims Settlement Bill. “This bill is the culmination of years of dedication and hard work from all the parties involved. “I am delighted to reach this significant milestone today,” Andrew ...
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Three new Jobs for Nature projects will help nature thrive in the Bay of Plenty and keep local people in work says Conservation Minister Kiri Allan. “Up to 30 people will be employed in the projects, which are aimed at boosting local conservation efforts, enhancing some of the region’s most ...
The Government has accepted all of the Holidays Act Taskforce’s recommended changes, which will provide certainty to employers and help employees receive their leave entitlements, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood announced today. Michael Wood said the Government established the Holidays Act Taskforce to help address challenges with the ...
The Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and faster than expected economic recovery has been acknowledged in today’s credit rating upgrade. Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) today raised New Zealand’s local currency credit rating to AAA with a stable outlook. This follows Fitch reaffirming its AA+ rating last ...
Tena koutou e nga Maata Waka Ngai Tuahuriri, Ngai Tahu whanui, Tena koutou. Nau mai whakatau mai ki tenei ra maumahara i te Ru Whenua Apiti hono tatai hono, Te hunga mate ki te hunga mate Apiti hono tatai hono, Te hunga ora ki te hunga ora Tena koutou, Tena ...
The Minister of Justice has reaffirmed the Government’s urgent commitment, as stated in its 2020 Election Manifesto, to ban conversion practices in New Zealand by this time next year. “The Government has work underway to develop policy which will bring legislation to Parliament by the middle of this year and ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage and Social Development Hon Carmel Sepuloni today launched a new Creative Careers Service, which is expected to support up to 1,000 creatives, across three regions over the next two years. The new service builds on the most successful aspects of the former Pathways to ...
Overseas consumers eager for natural products in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic have helped boost honey export revenue by 20 percent to $425 million in the year to June 30, 2020, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says. “The results from the latest Ministry for Primary Industries’ 2020 Apiculture Monitoring ...
Thanks to more than $10-million in new services from the Government, more rangatahi will be able to access mental health and addiction support in their community. Minister of Health Andrew Little made the announcement today while visiting Odyssey House Christchurch and acknowledged that significant events like the devastating earthquakes ten ...
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The Government is providing certainty for the dietary supplements industry as we work to overhaul the rules governing the products, Minister for Food Safety Dr Ayesha Verrall said. Dietary supplements are health and wellness products taken orally to supplement a traditional diet. Some examples include vitamin and mineral supplements, echinacea, ...
The Government is joining the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime (the Budapest Convention), Justice Minister Kris Faafoi and Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications Dr David Clark announced today. The decision progresses a recommendation by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch terror attack to accede to ...
Attorney-General David Parker announced today that an appointment round for Queen’s Counsel will take place in 2021. Appointments of Queen’s Counsel are made by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Attorney-General and with the concurrence of the Chief Justice. The Governor-General retains the discretion to appoint Queen’s Counsel in ...
The new Resurgence Support Payment passed by Parliament this week will be available to eligible businesses now that Auckland will be in Alert Level 2 until Monday. “Our careful management of the Government accounts means we have money aside for situations like this. We stand ready to share the burden ...
A dry run of the end-to-end process shows New Zealand’s COVID-19 vaccination programme is ready to roll from Saturday, when the first border workers will receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. “The trial run took place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch yesterday afternoon, ahead of the ...
From June this year, all primary, intermediate, secondary school and kura students will have access to free period products, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti announced today. The announcement follows a successful Access to Period Products pilot programme, which has been running since Term 3 last ...
The latest update shows the Government’s books are again in better shape than forecast, meaning New Zealand is still in a strong position to respond to any COVID-19 resurgence. The Crown Accounts for the six months to the end of December were better than forecast in the Half-year Economic and ...
The Department of Conservation’s (DOC) new Heritage and Visitor Strategy is fully focused on protecting and enhancing the value of New Zealand’s natural, cultural and historic heritage, while also promoting a sustainable environmental experience, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “It has been a quarter of a century since DOC first developed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Defence Minister Peeni Henare have announced that New Zealand will conclude its deployment of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) to Afghanistan by May 2021. “After 20 years of a NZDF presence in Afghanistan, it is now time to conclude ...
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. This is a special time in our country. A little over a week ago, it was the anniversary of the signature by Māori and the British Crown of Te Tiriti O Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi), a founding document in ...
The Government is in contact with relevant authorities in Turkey following the arrest of a former Australian and New Zealand dual citizen there, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “Contingency planning for the potential return of any New Zealander who may have been in the conflict zone has been underway for ...
Figures released today by Stats NZ show there was strong growth in median household incomes in 2020, before surveying was halted due to COVID-19. Stats NZ found the median annual household income rose 6.9 percent to $75,024 in the year to June 2020 compared with a year earlier. The survey ...
Legislation will be introduced under urgency today to set up a new Resurgence Support Payment for businesses affected by any resurgence of COVID-19. “Since the scheme was announced in December we have decided to make a change to the payment – reducing the time over which a revenue drop is ...
Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor congratulated Nigeria’s Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on her ground-breaking selection as the next Director General of the World Trade Organization last night. Dr Okonjo-Iweala will be the first female and first African Director General of the organisation. She has a strong background in international ...
From 1 April 2021, people getting a benefit will be able to earn more through work before their benefit payments are affected, Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni has announced. “Overall, around 82,900 low-income people and families will be better off by $18 a week on average,” says Carmel ...
The first batch of COVID-19 vaccine arrived in New Zealand this morning, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has confirmed. The shipment of around 60,000 doses arrived as airfreight at Auckland International Airport at 9.34am today. “The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine’s arrival allows us to start New Zealand’s largest-ever immunisation programme,” Jacinda Ardern said. ...
Good evening Cabinet has met this evening to make decisions on our response to the three cases reported earlier within a household in Auckland. Shortly I will ask Dr Bloomfield to set out some further information we now have relating to these cases. New Zealanders have enjoyed more freedoms for ...
Our Beehive Bulletin … While Housing Minister Megan Woods was being grilled at Question Time in Parliament about the government’s performance in her portfolio domain, the Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito Williams Sio, was announcing new initiatives to provide housing. Attorney-General David Parker, meanwhile, was announcing the appointments of three ...
Asia Pacific Report Papua New Guineans awoke this morning to great sadness, reports the PNG Post-Courier. As the bells tolled with the sad news of the passing of the much beloved statesman and the founding father of the nation, newsfeeds and social media were abuzz with shock, grief, sadness and ...
In remarks for a Monetary Policy Statement presentation to the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce today, Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr has elaborated on the direction received from the Minister of Finance, to have regard to house price sustainability ...
Critic's Chair: Guy Somerset watches the first of four documentaries on the allegations against Woody Allen in his years in the Farrow household, and hears the air of truth in the early testimonies against him. Of all the witness statements with the air of truth about them in the first ...
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Asia Pacific Report Indonesian police have asked participants at a protest action against Special Autonomy (Otsus) in Papua to take covid-19 rapid tests at the site of the demonstration in front of the Home Affairs Ministry office in Jakarta this week, reports CNN Indonesia. The protesters refused, saying it was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter S. Field, Head of Humanities and Creative Arts and Associate Professor of American History, University of Canterbury The idea of “news” is a pretty new thing. So is the concept of “fake news”, as in false or misleading information presented as ...
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Last year 320 people were killed on New Zealand’s roads. Alex Braae spoke to the people on the front line of road safety about the plan to turn that around. When the goal is to bring the road toll down to zero deaths a year, there’s no one simple solution. ...
Its 2012 investment prospectus was all suits, cigars, guns, sports cars and models in short skirts, and its consumer advertising was possibly even worse. Did the Moa brand’s misogyny contribute to its huge losses?The middle of the road can wind up being a risky place for a business. Typically a ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Georgina Heydon, Associate professor, RMIT University The alleged rape of former Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins has raised many questions about how sexual assault gets reported. Members of the Morrison government have repeatedly stressed the appropriate response to allegations of sexual assault ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dana M Bergstrom, Principal Research Scientist, University of Wollongong In 1992, 1,700 scientists warned that human beings and the natural world were “on a collision course”. Seventeen years later, scientists described planetary boundaries within which humans and other life could have a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sally Patfield, Postdoctoral Fellow, Teachers and Teaching Research Centre, University of Newcastle It’s that time of year again when hundreds of thousands of Australian students start university for the first time. Commencing students account for about 40% of the more than 1.6 ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Edwards, Associate Professor, Sydney School of Health Sciences, University of Sydney Brisbane has just been confirmed as the preferred host for the 2032 Olympics. But Olympic organisers have more immediate concerns in mind — how to safely run the postponed Tokyo ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for February 26. All the latest news from New Zealand, updated throughout the day. Reach me at stewart@thespinoff.co.nzOur Members make The Spinoff happen. Every dollar contributed directly funds our editorial team – click here to learn more about how you can support us from ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Reserve Bank put in bind by Robertson move, Bridges clashes with top cop, and critical migrant health workers can’t get families in while new arrivals can.Finance minister Grant Robertson will be requiring the Reserve Bank to consider the impact on ...
There are clues globally that the avalanche threat is escalating in some regions as the planet warms, triggered by greater temperature swings and more intense rain and snow storms. Bob Berwyn reports for Inside Climate News Big dumps of powder snow are a precious gift in the best of times ...
District health board members have been made aware of a new problem with a just-opened Christchurch Hospital building. Oliver Lewis reports. It was two years late and plagued by errors during construction, now a further major issue can be revealed at the new $525 million Christchurch Hospital building, Waipapa. Hundreds ...
As further reports of torture and systemic rape emerge from Xinjiang, the PRC’s propaganda machine is hard at work in New Zealand. Laura Walters looks at why a Chinese New Year performance in Wellington was more than just cultural appropriation State-sponsored appropriation of Uyghur culture has been labelled “disgusting” and “disrespectful” ...
Covid-19 vaccination won’t be enough to save us from hard choices that will need to be made during our second or even third year of living with the coronavirus. Keeping Covid-19 mostly out of New Zealand has been a Herculean feat, drawing praise from around the world. Over the next year, ...
If there’s a time for screaming into the void, 2021 is surely it. Josie Adams shares a baker’s dozen of Aotearoa’s top contenders.When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you, and it’s nice to have company. New Zealand’s geography is perfect for abysses, or abyssoi ...
Jake Millar is an extraordinary young man. The young entrepreneur who convinced the rich and famous to invest millions in his business has now disappeared - and so has the money. Jake Millar was just a teenager in 2015 when he sold his first business to the government for six figures. ...
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Asia Pacific Report The indigenous people of West Papua have rejected the extension of special autonomy and the planned expansion of new provinces announced by the central government of Indonesia. The rejection comes from grassroots communities across West Papua and Papuan students who are studying in Indonesia and overseas. Responding ...
The man who led the review into the dysfunctional Tauranga City Council before it was taken over by a commissioner has been appointed to lead the review into Wellington's council. ...
Opposition MPs are questioning whether there had been any special treatment from immigration officials in regards to Ricardo Menéndez March's partner's application. ...
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Health officials have contacted attendees of a Papatoetoe home viewing for a property in which a tenant later tested positive for Covid-19. Alex Braae reports. An open home took place at a Papatoetoe address on Saturday while a tenant who had been deemed a “causal-plus contact” was present. The tenant later ...
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Before his passing in 2020, Weta frontman Aaron Tokona initiated the vinyl reissue of the band’s sole album Geographica. Released last week, it’s a poignant reminder that the band were on the cusp of cracking Australia 20 years ago. Rock bands in Australia reside at one of two poles, according ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Holcombe, Senior Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Just as the parliamentary inquiry into Rio Tinto’s destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters was reconvening in Canberra, another culturally significant site was damaged at one of BHP’s iron ore mines in ...
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Interesting article in a food industry journal overnight reporting on a pre-print (not yet reviewed) of a scientific study evaluating how long COVID-19 can live on frozen food or food packaging. The answer: up to three weeks, and the experimental design specifically tested chilled or frozen foods/packaging in light of the small, but growing, number of incidents like the Auckland outbreak.
https://www.foodnavigator-asia.com/Article/2020/09/16/COVID-19-virus-can-survive-on-chilled-and-frozen-salmon-chicken-and-pork-for-three-weeks-Study?utm_source=meat_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=16-Sep-2020#
Maybe the Ministry of Health shouldn't be dismissing this so quickly as a plausible explanation of the Americold outbreak.
Just another reason to ban the import of meat.
Actually the whole pandemic story has proven the consequences of our reckless and cruel animal food industry.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/4/22/21228158/coronavirus-pandemic-risk-factory-farming-meat
And a very good reason for a produce exporting country not to consider that as a method of transmission unless absolutely certain.
Frozen goods logistics is also essential for our own nourishment. Have a look at where the frozens in your freezer, and the supermarket freezer, come from. A very large proportion of it is imported. Restricting this trade will have consequences around what we eat, and how much it costs. A lot of business models from producers through to supermarkets could be challenged by this affecting a lot of what we eat.
Will be interesting to see what changes have been made already to procedures in the coolstores, and the rest of the supply chain, and what's in the pipeline. Also what changes consumers have already made.
Changes we are unlikely to hear about anytime soon….no one is going to speculate on this possibility without absolute certainty, the price would be too high for everyone.
There is no absolute certainty in this. Just probabilities and the precautionary principle:
The frequent problem with invoking the precautionary principle is its abuse by nutters to block "something I don't like but have no rational argument or evidence against". It's a tactic that's very easy to use by simply endlessly calling for more evidence without ever acknowledging the weight of evidence that has already built up on a topic.
As touched on by the Criticisms section in your wikipedia link.
There are faults in everything we come up with. We're not perfect after all.
That said, there is a simple solution to no rational argument or evidence against: Ignore all arguments that have no basis.
An opinion not based upon facts has no value and needs to be treated that way.
This false dichotomy and binary ‘logic’ is one of the main reasons why many debates fail from the outset, especially the ones on or associated with contentious and complex social issues.
Simple fact really.
Even the contentious social issues have research on them showing the better option. Like, say, the smacking issue.
So, what you're saying is that the number of farms and farmers in NZ would decrease (as they couldn't export) and what those left would produce would greater diversification?
This sounds good. It'd certainly be good for our environment although we'd still need better environmental protections and enforcement of those protections.
Actually, this would indicate that we need to ban the import of food and the factory farming of meat here in NZ.
You want to ban the import of food? Hope you aren't a fan of pineapple or coffee…
Being a fan of those things means that I should be in favour of endangering others?
Can’t wait until you launch a political party. Telling people they can only eat what grows here is bound to be a vote winner.
Apparently, telling people that they can continue to kill random people just so that they can have coffee is.
I’m going to regret asking because I know the answer will be asinine but in what way does importing coffee kill people?
Did you miss the bit that this thread was about the potential of food to carry the covid-19 virus and this it is thus a threat vector?
Totally agreed.
We need to ban:
a. the import of all meat
b. factory farming.
Please enlighten us what “incidents” you are referring to that involve infection with the virus from frozen food packaging. Have they contract traced any cases to a frozen chicken that crossed the street?
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-can-you-catch-covid-19-from-frozen-or-chilled-food-12008007
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/science/covid-19-infected-frozen-food-can-cause-virus-outbreaks-report/article32421192.ece#
https://news.yahoo.com/chinese-cities-coronavirus-frozen-food-215128757.html
The other incidents referred to in the article are in Vietnam and China where areas that had previously had no infections for many months had an outbreak based around a food processing facility. These were considered interesting both for the possibility that frozen food was the vector of the virus into the facility, plus the crowded and slighly less-than-ideal conditions that food processing workers operate in which creates the perfect environment for rapid infection.
Both those cases, plus Auckland, were cited as being suggestive, and used as justification for the experimental design in which it was established that the virus did indeed remain viable on frozen foods and packaging for three weeks.
The original scientific article (pre-print) that the trade journal was referring to is here: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.17.255166v1.full
Nothing that conclusively makes this the confirmed vector at Americold, but certainly enough evidence to suggest we shouldn't totally discount it and assume that the only possible vector was a person coming over the border.
Excellent comment, thank you!
Paul Buchanan reminds us that spooks spy. I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with Z:
So our spooks, working hand in velvet glove with yank spooks, are busy spying. On us, on the Chinese spooks, on the Russian spooks too, no doubt. Do we get value from all that spying, funded by the taxpayer? We'll never know: the establishment prevents accountability to the public. If they've got a list of quarantine rule-breakers then they're not totally useless, eh?
Tiresome false equivalence from Buchanan.
Spying for our security is necessary.
We contract Palantir.
We don't contract CCP fronts.
Our 'security' is not upheld when our spooks spy on the wrong folk, eg animal rights or peace activists groups rather than heavily armed 4chan devotees.
Correct but that just means that we need better regulations to prevent them from doing so not that we need to do without the security apparatus.
Yes, we do.
Perhaps you need to re-read Tsun Zu.
An interesting take on Progressives and the Republican party in the U.S.
That Lincoln was not a conservative, in helping to end slavery and that he received fan mail from Karl Marx.
There are plenty of bite size presentations from this journalist, including the US as a failed state and how policing is effective only with the consent of society.
Mental chewing gum for me as I push a lawn mower round today.
Pike River widow Anna Osborne, who is also the Family Reference Group's chair, said the recovery of Pit Bottom in Stone needed strong scrutiny.
"The families need to know that the scene examination will be done by the best experts, using the right equipment and knowledge.
"This is an absolutely critical part of the recovery and we are being very clear with police and the recovery agency that it must be a focused effort and that there needs to be transparency to ensure families can trust the outcome."
Sonya Rockhouse, who lost her son Ben in the explosion, said reaching Pit Bottom in Stone had been an important goal for years.
"This is the one place likely to hold evidence crucial to seeing justice being done.
"There are a lot of conspiracy theories floating around about Pike that have caused a lot of grief to family members. This is the chance to get a clear run at the truth."
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/west-coast/pike-river-mine-recovery-team-reach-critical-part
Aye !
Neither the gathering of public information, nor of specific information about persons of interest is in any way different from what might be done by the most benign of states or intelligence organs. More relevant is the use to which it is put, for which we have little evidence, beyond Chinese links with our weakest and most compromised politicians.
There is an issue of potential for abuse. Having an essentially monarchial government, Chinese policy may change very quickly if the head of state does, as it did with the incumbent declaring himself effectively president for life. But of course the same potential for abuse applies with our own intelligence organs, which monitored the Locke family exhaustively but neglected the likes of the Chch shooter.
China may well be up to no good, and certainly shouldn't be let near politicians of weak moral character (most of them, frankly) but this bit of data is no smoking gun.
The next two years will be interesting ones re China.
2021 is the 100 year anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. To celebrate the fact, Xi has repeatedly vowed that Taiwan will return to China by choice or by force by then.
2022 is the next Chinese National Congress, at which time Xi will either be ousted by the far more moderate Li or will indeed become President for Life. Powerful incentive to invade Taiwan before then. Every dictator under pressure needs a war.
re Taiwan. There was a posting on Weixin (the full Chinese version of Wechat only open to those with a Chinese ID) about two weeks ago with a reprint of a Chinese government declaration that Taiwan airspace is considered part of Chinese airspace.
The declaration stated in clear terms that any land or air attempts to intercept Chinese aircraft flying over Taiwan would be considered terrorism. And of course Chinese fighters are now crossing Taiwanese airspace on a near daily basis . Very worrying.
I should have saved and posted here. Have looked extensively on MSM but not a mention. As Weixin is owned by Ten Cent and Ten Cent is a Chinese government company, and given the extreme level of censorship, if it was posted it presumably had government approval.
I've stopped following China closely – I quite liked Hu Jintao – Xi seems to exemplify negative traits.
Taiwan must seen like a ripe durian to China – Is it better to pluck it, or wait till Trump weakens the US so much that it falls into their hands? Because Trump's presidency could really use a short victorious war about now too.
Its not just about the US though, most of the countries bordering the South China Sea (Vietnam, Japan, even the Philippines) are affected by what China does to Taiwan and increasingly forming a combined approach. And Taiwan itself is arming up.
It is not necessarily certain China would succeed in any action against Taiwan, as its forces are spread thinly, and already building up in Tibet so as to be altitude ready by spring for likely conflict with India over the ALOC.
Yes – I follow the military end of things – used to use the Sprattly dispute with English classes.
Things would not be so one-sided that US commitment of air forces would not make invasion difficult to sustain – though preventing occupation falls a long way short of preserving Taiwan.
The Chinese navy still has a few issues, though land based aircraft could probably cover that flank to some extent over Taiwan. The US would probably prefer to avoid or limit committing ground forces, which a conflict centred around Taiwan would allow. A big question would be whether the theatre expanded, and whether merchant shipping would be affected.
Pity that China could not leave Taiwan as it is – a little brother going its own way and China watching how what they do. It could be a measure of how effective the communist-state is in comparison. If they let them go provided that they don't allow the USA to set up bases there, then Taiwan can always choose to do the Prodigal Son thing one day.
If those terms were made clear to Taiwan, it could become an anomaly, also with Hong Kong. This wave of fascism going round the world is odd, and limits humanity and its intelligent expression rather than going towards greater human development, something like Maslow's pyramid. If all our thoughts are directed towards one aim, following one line, the other possibilities of thinking and actions that we and China could take get dismissed, ignored or pushed away beyond thought.
This is an interesting thinkpiece on Maslow's thinking.
https://socialcapitalmarkets.net/2010/10/the-pyramid-to-enlightenment-is-upside-down/
My issues are two-fold. One is a corollary of the other, dealing with the progressive manner in which the stages of the pyramid are commonly presented. And the other is a much larger point: our tendency to target the upper stages of the pyramid in developed countries and the lower in developing countries, almost exclusively. I’ll start with the smaller, and I’ll caveat all of this with the fact that this is a “thought-in-progress”; I don’t claim to speak on the pain and potential of humanity with any greater authority than anyone else.
The pyramid of needs is commonly framed as a stepping stone, or a linear path – a progressive hierarchy, where one step leads to the other. I heard this at the conference repeatedly, as very well intentioned entrepreneurs explained that in the US, we were enlightened at the top of the pyramid, but countries in Africa were in need of much greater and fundamental basic needs – they hadn’t advanced to the top of the pyramid yet.
Our great thinker –
Lord Rutherford: “We haven't got the money, so we'll have to think”.
Greywarshark: "We're ruining our world and our humanity, so we'll have to think".
Some more from our 'original thinker' Ernest Rutherford who expressed himself in the popular idiom we can understand:
And this, which indicates that if we want to run our country well we have to become like the scientists he describes and work at it thoughtfully together.
Scientists are not dependent on the ideas of a single man, but on the combined wisdom of thousands of men, all thinking of the same problem, and each doing his little bit to add to the great structure of knowledge which is gradually being erected.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford
SM @ 5
There has been abuse of confidential information about citizens in NZ in the past. Whether it has come from officialdom or loose tongues allowing info. to get into the wrong hands is beside the point. It has happened. For the target it can be a distressing situation to be in.
Whether China plans to use the information for unethical purposes we don't know yet. They may be doing no more than what the Five Eyes nations – and other nations – do. That is, gather information on citizens from other countries in case they may be of interest one day.
It's been going on for umpteen decades.
With the way China is acting I'm pretty sure we can make a valid assumption that they do, as a matter of fact, intend to.
Centuries if not longer. I'm pretty sure that Caesar would have had people watching his enemies leaders as well.
The James gang rode into town yesterday. Flew, actually.
You mean change Grant Robertson's mind?? You & which army?
Bipartisan neglect of infrastructure has been a deepening problem for a long time (but is even worse in the USA). Nat/Lab delinquency got institutionalised by a design flaw in representative democracy: the system rewards short-term political partisan strategising, and penalises long-term planning and policy for the common good.
The “James gang”? Are you another one who thinks that the Green Party is a one-man show? Your poor choice of words seems to suggest so.
In some ways maybe prophetic. We all know what happened to the real James gang, and Jesse himself, ( shot in the back by a member of his crew) 😊
Different Party, wrong gang.
What we get from msm framing. They came with a couple of female organisers who set up a meeting with the Taranaki Greens late in the day, which we appreciated. About a dozen folks showed up.
They told us the day had gone well. It was evident from the body language & natural conversational rapport between the co-leaders that the Green School thing hadn't created a rift. The effortless ease at which they slipped into just being members of our group suggests that they are each adept at connecting into new group situations. I'm therefore not surprised their sessions at the schools were well-received.
Little snippets for parrots?
Commentariat gets off on it, so gotta toss it out. In theory, the inducement then leads them into comment on the substantive issues. Gotta wait for that, sometimes.
Indeed, the Commentariat gets off on it. It is counter-productive to more substantive comments/commenting. So, why do you do it? Is confirming your bias more important than constructive debate? I do despair about you here at times, Dennis.
What bias?? If being serious was a better option, folks would respond more when I do that, eh? I'm well aware of the contrary pattern: the more serious, the more it scares them. You can always tell by the lack of responses in those instances.
There are dimensions of our shared reality that freak mainstreamers out and they go straight into denial. Indulging that weakness isn't a good idea when the public interest lies in engaging with what is revealed.
Climate change and the pandemic are prime examples but the chronic bipartisan underfunding of infrastructure maintenance is another goody.
Such self-deprecating wit! The irony is that you asked yourself why so few respond to your comments yet you refuse to look in the mirror and accept what you see!?
Yet again you evade the issue by being flippant. Still, you've proved my point effectively thereby. Have a nice day. 😇
I’m sad I could confirm your bias yet again for you. Sadly, you run away from debating and potentially resolving this issue. Therefore: QED.
Not always. Sometimes, people don't respond because what's been posted is incredibly boring, pretentious, repetitive, nonsensical or unhinged. Sometimes, the only response a piece warrants is an eye-roll and a shake of the head. Sometimes, 'mainstreamers' aren't in denial, they just find someone incredibly dull and/or obnoxious.
Not always… but sometimes.
not sometimes… but often.
Leftists on social media posing as members of Retards Anonymous is nothing new. I think the public would be more impressed if they engaged the issues instead.
There's only so many times you can evade them by being trite or banal before other mainstreamers decide leftists are unable to get real (so they may as well vote National).
Connecting those dots will be a struggle, of course, but good luck with the trying…
So why call it 'the James gang'? You are not helping.
Infotainment not helpful? I recall having that quaint notion myself for rather a long time. Sometimes, though, we do need to go with the flow of contemporary culture. Flippancy, one could even argue, is timeless…
Sometimes it's almost as if Oscar Wilde was in the room.
Feels more like James Joyce.
And reads like Enid Blyton.
Oh Timmy, you're so licky
Flippant infotainment: a new lens for (re)viewing past and future comments
Flippant: frivolously disrespectful, shallow, or lacking in seriousness
Just joking. Hur hur
"What we get from msm framing."
Sure, but why would you want to perpetuate it? Davidson and Shaw were both there, it's insulting to marginalise MD this way. Had your comment been about MSM framing then some pointed sarcasm might have warranted your framing, but it wasn't.
I don't believe, based on my conversations with her, that she'd be insulted! She's got a sense of humour. 🙄
Still, look at the replies to your comment. No-one is talking about what you actually raised. Framing matters. I know this writing posts. If I put something in the headline or first sentence that goes against what I am writing about there's no pulling the conversation back from that.
Sometimes folks just get the urge to respond to something easy. Doesn't mean they'll never get beyond that. Cerebral process does require energy, and as people age they function more slowly in the mornings. Even at rest the brain uses 20% of our energy intake. Thinking about political issues would ramp that up considerably!
Your framing heightens the activation barrier. If I want flippant infotainment, I’m spoiled for choice, elsewhere.
So, make a bigger effort. Eat some fish or sutin.
If mainstreamers were to eat fish for breakfast they'd stop being mainstreamers toot sweet. Therefore I suspect they'll ignore you.
Doubleyouteeeff!
For a moment you sounded like a dentist on drugs 😉
There are dentists on drugs!!!!
So try it, you may get beyond it.
Activating the brain well before the mouth might help.
The fontal lips are directly connected to the frontal lobe hence the saying ‘shooting off one’s mouth’.
The old canard of Assange recklessly revealing names of informants refuted by Daniel Ellsberg in court yesterday
https://assangedefense.org/
Wikilealks' appalling negligence with vulnerable people's personal information in information releases is well-documented. So I'll take a guess Ellsberg's assertion that every effort was taken to redact sensitive information is strictly limited to the release of military information at issue in the extradition hearing.
https://apnews.com/b70da83fd111496dbdf015acbb7987fb/private-lives-are-exposed-wikileaks-spills-its-secrets
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wikileaks-documents-private-lives-become-collateral-damage/
A few more linlks.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/world/private-lives-exposed-wikileaks-spills-its-secrets
https://www.abc12.com/content/news/Private-lives-are-exposed-as-WikiLeaks-spills-its-secrets-391046071.html
https://panow.com/2016/08/23/private-lives-are-exposed-as-wikileaks-spills-its-secrets/
https://bostonglobalforum.org/global-cybersecurity/initiatives/wikileaks-destroys-privacy-of-many-innocent-people/
https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/14698747.rape-victims-among-private-lives-exposed-as-wikileaks-spills-its-secrets/
Wikileaks details how NZ spies will work – Nicky Hager, Sep 08 2013
"Wikilealks' appalling negligence with vulnerable people's personal information"
It might be an idea to read Ellsberg's testimony.
You want to link to Ellsberg's actual testimony? Francesca has only linked to the front page of some sort of Assange-cult propaganda outfit.
All other reporting I've seen suggests Ellsberg's testimony about redaction is strictly limited to Wikileaks' releases of the information provided by Manning, and makes no mention of the other incidents where Wikileaks actually was appallingly careless about vulnerable people's personal information.
To be clear, I'm not disputing Ellsberg's suggestion that Wikileaks responsibly redacted information from the info Manning leaked. What I'm pushing against is the apparent attempt to imply Wikileaks was universally careful about personally sensitive information, when it's been clearly documented that their negligent carelessness with personal info in other document releases has put vulnerable people at risk.
The Assange defense link takes you to a daily coverage of the trial
Not covered by any of your fave corporate media
Funny that
I understand that there is little or no evidence to support the contention that Assange endangered families of serving military, as has been claimed.
The release of diplomatic correspondence, however amusing, didn't really meet the standards of public good journalism however.
About endangering people involved with people in state jobs. I remember that one USA Senator? revealed secret details of a woman CIA agent in the Senate thus putting all her contacts in danger and upsetting whatever lines of communication she had built up. And that was for petty personal revenge on her I think. So worrying about principles of secrecy and behaviour; it depends who's doing it and who's secrets are being revealed.
Sorry can't recall the actual names but it happened about two decades ago. Should be reports on google but haven't time as I have just been doing a bit on thinking (towards a goal of wise and positive humanity and planet), which it seems is an important personal habit that is going out of fashion in lots of places around the world.
Valery Plame I think Grey
An interesting compare and contrast of the US election fuckery efforts by Russia, China, and Iran.
https://www.vox.com/21418513/china-iran-us-election-meddling-russia
tl;dr: Russia is mostly looking to sow chaos and distrust in government, and their man for that is obvious.
China is much more focused on promoting their interests and countering the the propaganda against them, as part of the project of becoming the global dominant competitor to the US.
Iran's efforts are mostly about their local issues – Kurds, Saudis etc.
In general, it seems they all find it more successful to just amplify home-grown nuttery rather than trying to outright fabricate shit and inject it into the discourse.
…and as we watch from the side lines the devolution of many on the 'left' to become nothing more than hysterical mouth pieces of the establishment status quo….
…funny how they have seamlessly morphed to become carbon copies of those they once most probably (and rightly) loudly reviled..
Good grief.
This article demonstrates why Trump is America's president. No evidence of interference just conjecture and conspiracy. And you and your fellow Americas seem to swallow it lock, stock and barrel, without a moment of uncertainty, as proof their election is being meddled with by the wicked Arabs, Orientals, and Commies.
" There is no evidence any votes were changed, though another bipartisan Senate report found that in some instances, the Russians could have if they wanted to."
'could have if they wanted to' That's hilarious!!
Lets look at the countries whose governments have been interfered with by the United States
"Carnegie Mellon University, has identified 62 American interventions in foreign elections between 1946 and 1989. The large majority—like Russia’s in 2016—were conducted in secret."
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/07/the-us-has-a-long-history-of-election-meddling/565538/
Talking about US fuckery in elections elsewhere in reply to a comment about foreign fuckery in US elections is at best mindless diversionary whataboutery, or possibly diversionary schadenfreude. It makes it appear you approve of fuckery in US elections.
When there's evidence of US fuckery here or anywhere else anyone cares about, by all means raise that as a separate topic to be considered on its own merits. Because that kind of fuckery is shitty and wrong, regardless of who does it or how tainted the recipient may be.
No, I just say that their previous actions give the US no right to complain when it happens to them.
And, here's the thing, the US still fuck around in other peoples elections. They have an entire NGO to do it with.
Where's the line between publicising it to raise awareness, and complaining about it?
All I've seen from them so far is complaints which, as I say, they don't have a right to do because of their own previous actions. Now, if they turned round and apologised for doing it themselves and that they were going to stop doing it then they may have a valid point. But,
Where's the line saying that they're going to stop fucking around in other nations politics?
You might be confusing the ordinary everyday conversation meaning of complaint with criminal complaint, which is a legal term to do with starting actions against people who have broken actual laws. Which happened plenty of times for the 2016 election and quite likely is happening now, by American citizens as well as foreign actors.
I'm fairly confident that when Americans are busted doing illegal election fuckery in other countries, they too get attention from the local law along with their local collaborators.
So, according to you the USians fucking around in other countries politics is fine and its only when other countries fuck around in the USians that it isn't?
Engage your reading comprehension skills and read the whole thread. My view is expressed a few comments upthread. See if you can find it.
More about one nation under god pissing into the wind and getting its own back.
no one could have predicted this
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122782352/i-feel-like-i-have-failed-covid19s-impact-on-kiwis-revealed-in-new-report
yeah, nah nah….the government did the best they could, no go to winz beg for some support go to get a study grant for something – anything really and learn the 'value of work', the govenrments spokes person for the poor and needy spoke last week and she said nothing much of substance and certainly is not offering any real and above all 'monetary' help. Besides, Mr. Roberston said to day that the books look scary and we have given you all the money we thought was enough for youse and now we have other priorities. After all we only need the poor every few years to vote for us.
Not good outcomes. Would be good for the interviews to have covered a wider selection of communities
Well The Sally Army did at the very least send someone out to speak to people rather then not, and they covered what they covered. And non of that makes their finding less valid, less in line what people are experiencing in real live and the lack of action in regards to the finding.
Recession now official: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300109161/election-2020-live-judith-collins-holds-press-conference-as-nz-falls-into-recession
12.2%…sounds impressively accurate dosnt it?
Wonder what number the subsequent reviews will place on it?
"Collins says she understands that health and education are priorities for many voters, including many female voters. " So how about some pointed questions from the hacks about their 3 terms of underfunding health, screwing teachers over, closing schools, plummeting ratings etc ?
Hey Jude, don't make it bad. Take a sad song, and make it better… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_MjCqQoLLA
Jude should be asked if they learned their lessons from PSA, as they let that in.
Will someone call out this BS, they show how owned they are by letting it go as national was all for herd immunity at some point.
Conservative govt's around the world have the worst records of containing Covid 19.
A well funded public service is required to provide the healthcare levels contact tracing and economic response
It's also the rear view mirror as there is likely a solid bounce back after lockdown that we don't have the figures for. Not that the MSM or Judith will mention this.
The numbers are from June? that was 2 month after lockdown and would have at least reflected the good month of may – after what was a total write off of April?
Since then consumer confidence has been down
https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8506-anz-roy-morgan-nz-consumer-confidence-rating-august-2020-202008280153
business confidence is a mixed bag of goods
https://www.anz.co.nz/content/dam/anzconz/documents/economics-and-market-research/2020/ANZ-BusinessOutlook-20200909-Prelim.pdf
and income is down:
https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/labour-market-statistics-income-june-2020-quarter
if there is a bounce its not coming from people spending their money, chances are they are like everyone else putting in extra holes to the belt so as to tighten it further.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/retail-trade-survey-june-2020-quarter
By comparison US GDP fell 32.9% in second quarter 2020.
What did Jenny Marcroft do to piss off Winnie so badly? Getting demoted to #17 on the list – that's harsher than what got done to Richard
TosserProsser who only got bumped down to #15.https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122800003/election-2020-nz-first-drops-sitting-mp-jenny-marcroft-to-number-17-on-list
Maybe, in her capacity as health spokesperson, told him to stop smoking
That'd do it, fer sure.
Maybe threw something in about the amount of scotch he enjoys for good measure….
on the bright side, NZF still have two women MPs in the top ten.
For as long as they don't mention the smokes or the scotch.
or presumably the sexism
With interest rates going negative is it time to cut the banks out with a bit of farm to table lending? The idea of a $10k mortgage advance with interest of an annual meat pack has some appeal?
A few decades ago a cheque on a piece of paper or even a steel plate was classed as legal tender. Wonder when it became not legal?
Pretty sure it wasn't.
An agreed method of payment between parties, sure, but not Legal Tender.
A cheque is a contract and therefore enforceable
But not legal tender.
That’s why I put in the RBNZ link.
fair enough..youre right, not legal tender
As far as I know it still is…but the post was because as soon as I read RBCVs post I envisaged the cheque cow….pure reflex
Commentators here struggled to get their heads around it the other day. Perhaps it may help them clarify their thinking if they were to consider how experts see it…
Not there yet…
"If approved by Parliament, financial entities could be required to make disclosures in 2023 at the earliest."
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2009/S00127/new-zealand-first-in-the-world-to-require-climate-risk-reporting.htm
Now i may be being somewhat cynical but I find it curious that this should be announced post the rising of Parliament and pre election.
I presume James was seeking political advantage for the Greens. Credit for getting it into the legislation pipeline, I mean. Also showing that he's unfazed by the Green School saga – and confident that the Greens will remain in parliament.
Indeed. The guy's good.
Theres something to be said for confidence….what, Im not sure
I've just found a very scary clip on youtube that does not look like nonsense to me (as a K1W1 identity):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI2z27Ufy8k
This could be the type of news content and scenario we in Aot (NZ) might be likely to see in the near future if things get any worse than they are now.
WAKE UP!
A new strain (animal-human) of Covid_2000+ could be on it's way, and the greenhouse gases surrounding us may soon block most of our hot air from escaping.
Maybe;
BLOCK the damn borders!
STOP using petroleum fuels immediately!
GET PREPARED by purchasing gas masks right now for just in case the face masks are no longer effective!
FOLLOW YOUR LEADERS AND GOVERNMENTAL AS BEST YOU CAN-BUT REMEMBER THAT THEY MAY NOT ALWAYS BE ABLE TO GET THROUGH TO YOU ALL!
If you need to find a supplier of gas masks, I know of a former colleague who had the forethought and wisdom to source a manufacturer of new, full face gas masks and filters that could save ALL of you in the event of things getting even worse.
He is not a greedy person and so I am sure that the masks would be sold at an affordable price, especially for bulk family purchases.
And they come in a variety of colors and sizes for kids, infants and even those domestic pets you love and may soon assist to save you all from a newer form of Corona.
With this website's approval I would endeavor to provide a link to his E-Commerce site.
Let's be safe and kind out there.
We may well be facing worrying times more unique than we might have ever imagined them to be.
"STOP using petroleum fuels immediately!"
So no more fuel for extraction of raw materials for EV's
OR feedstock for the 750 kgs of plastics and composites in each EV
OR insulation for the wiring on EV's
OR fuel for transport of EV's to market
OR fuel for Bulldozers and other equipment and transport in remote areas
Nice idea …. BUT very destructive to any changes yet to be made by other than muscle power.
YES!
Entirely, Maurice. Muscle power only.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE AND POWER TO THE ANIMALS.
No more anything spent on EV. Not time, not resource, nothing. They are probably full of harmful EMF floating around everywhere in any case.
Only horse & cart, horse & buggy, bicycle and tricycle research, development and resourcing should be allowed in AOTearoa (AKA Godzone).
We need to go back about two to three hundred years when things were simple and where every inhabitant appeared charitable and community supportive with another.
A time when they all knew who the chief was, and what their own respective roles and positions were. That is, before technology wrecked it for them all.
Noteworthy is that there are at least 9 million electric bicycles in the category of ride and charge that we know about around the Indo-Pacific and the Pacific region already, and with just a little more CO2 emitted, we could increase this a hundred fold, so as to have bicycles that would last for decades.
I feel that in relation to true socialism and reverting back to; "A La Naturale" transport and domestic methods, we're high on a wire with the world in our sight.
It just takes IMAGINATION AND AOTEAROA WILL POWER! Just like in the good old days.
There is a wealth of opportunity for peddle powered runabout and dinghy motors (additional to oars) for the foreshores, river ways and lakes. It is just that major vested interests as well as both the intelligencia and the bourgeois from our own bordered bourgs have become comfortable with the convenience of modern day technologies.
Look at the Amish, they, at least try to walk (or ride) the talk.
Come on K1W1, let's get our hands really dirty in the soil and get ourselves superbly fit by throwing away all of these 20th and 21st Century luxuries.
Get governmental to seize all motor powered vehicles and convert them to emergency housing or wind powered coastal transport, which is what we have not yet done with freight containers.
Get rid of petrol or electric lawn mowers as well.
Build more maternity hospitals and breed like there is no tomorrow so that we can produce fine farm specimens to work the fields.
Man, the possibilities are limitless.
We could reserve about two thirds of arable land for grass and fodder to feed the horses, sheep and cattle with, and the remainder for growing kai (carrots and other veggies). Broccoli also. No more eating of animals either!
Never again let any store assistant or green grocer tell us; "There is no f…… broccoli"
The other third of arable land for orchards, berry farms and vineyards so we can produce beautiful fruits for consumption, juices, potatoes, hemp, Mary J and copious quantities of precursor alcohol product for a wealth of alcoholic beverage so that most of us can be as happy as sand boys (and sand girls).
But it starts with US, and it starts NOW.
Air New Zealand has taken a good first step by parking up some of it's fleet in the desert mothball fashion, and now we need a good home run (economically, perhaps a 1929 scenario) so that they will have the impetus to follow through and park the entire fleet up.
This is surely the home grown K1W1 spirit, especially from what I've observed throughout rural NZ in small towns in and around the King Country, South Waikato and the Ruapehu District. They may talk grand tourist plans and modernization, but deep down inside they really do foster the simple life and the "back to basic" spirit and they do not really want outsiders or foreigners interfering with them and theirs doing things their way.
Why can we not pick up our pitch forks, our shovels and our ploughshares behind the coulter?
We can then form a massive Campaign for Modern Technology Disablement and organize hikoi as well as home guard units to repel any sod who has any intention of coming to these shores to either introduce or support any of these Technologies of Mass Destruction.
I'm about to stop posting because I have deliberated on collecting up all of my computer related material, my entertainment equipment, all of my household appliances (including whiteware). I will consider only be keeping earthenware and greyware, and I may well gift the rest back to Mother Nature. Back to the good earth.
We must all strive to be good earth worms, my dears.
Live humble, live simple and let hope, faith and charity be our guiding lights (or our Matariki).
New Zealand First aims to cut price of cigarettes to $20
As election bribes go it's pretty low ball. At least in the past with interest free student loans and one years free tuition, there's a knock on benefit down the road that doesn't end up costing the health service budget.
Horrible little man and nasty little party.
Next, subsidising sherry and Best Bets..
And court case where you've no chance of winning
Saves on pensions, though.
Let's hope he won't be in a position to make it come about, or he'll have to raid the super fund to boost oncology departments and palliative care homes.
Or 'donors' as he calls them.
With every trip to the cancer doctor you get a NZ1st foundation membership
Collect a thousand empty whisky bottles for a free kidney upgrade.
Nah, that's bollocks. If you're going to reduce it to a fiscal argument, you also have to incorporate the fact that half of smokers won't take a cent in pension money.
Smoking is bad, m'kay. But it's good for the economy.
But we don't just measure in financial terms, do we? There's the human cost, the toll on families, the treating nurses, doctors and care home workers.
If the argument is solely about smokers not getting their pension money, then you may have a point if that amount is transferred to health, but do you think that will happen via Winston, knowing his protector of the gold card club's assets status?
There are many good reasons against smoking. "costing the health service budget" isn't one of them.
Getting lazy about something that should be such a slam dunk is, I believe, actually detrimental to the position. Frankly, I believe that ASH were just as willing to lie about smoking as BAT was – the "healthcare budget" bullshit made a regular apprearance. It was certainly a justification for me to ignore them when I was smoking (a pasttime I miss, but sadly not a long term plan, like the very enjoyable heavy drinking).
And I think that on a wider perspective, making sure our arguments on an easy topic stand up to basic examination is a habit that prepares us for the difficult argument on a different subject entirely.
Despite the attempted smugging (lol), the financial part isn't really getting lazy in debate, as the consequences of smoking do affect the health budget all the way through treatment and palliative care. That has to be undeniable fact as much as your point that dead people don't get the pension, which is also true.
As for making sure our arguments on easy topics stand up to basic examination, in this context, before I'd settle out of court, I'd have to see the costings for treating dying smokers against average length of payments of super, factoring in lost taxes when people get too sick to work including projected losses from the age of death til super eligibility, adding any benefit entitlements paid out along the way.
And I'd also like to see the costs for treating non-smokers intheir last twenty years or so of life, to see if there's actually a difference. Don't forget the excise, as well.
The health budget money comes from somewhere.
The idea that smokers cost money is a common trope that is frankly unsupported. And yet it's an example of "this is bad, therefore it must be bad in every aspect, so I won't check that".
Finance ministers love euthanasia.
Rail problems
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/426300/britomart-train-station-shuts-after-cracks-found-on-tracks
Over 2 years ago….
"Low quality Chinese steel cannot be ruled out as the cause of a train derailment in Auckland, though KiwiRail says focusing on faulty steel rails is premature before an investigation is complete."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/103850254/chinese-steel-cant-be-ruled-out-as-cause-of-auckland-train-derailment
I did have big debates re the neolib nats allowing sub grade Chinese "steel" into NZ. I wonder how the "Investgations" went ?
They are using any means to take this whanau Whare from them twisting the court once again to suppress the poorest people tangata whenua
Link below.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300111036/crowds-gather-at-maketu-to-fight-eviction-from-inherited-land
How did I get here?
Here's another link to prove my point suppressing the brown tangata.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018764472/major-ethnic-pay-gap-in-dhbs-revealed-in-research