Wearable technology – be it heart-rate monitors or skin response sensors – can give this underlying influence more visibility, says Coates. “You need to figure out whether you should be trading or whether you should go home. If you are trading, should you double up your position because you’re in the zone?”
A technology enhanced financial crash coming to a world near you – soon.
Really, it’s bad enough listening to these psychopaths already without getting them to do more of it faster.
Bank of America used Humanyze’s technology within its call centers to find out what made employees most productive in terms of numbers of completed calls. Yet it found that the biggest predictor of productivity was how staff spoke to their colleagues. Those with the closest ties to others in their group were more productive and less likely to quit than those who worked alone. The bank added a 15-minute shared coffee break to daily routines: productivity increased by 10 per cent and staff turnover dropped by 70 per cent.
Kinda screws the idea that high staff turnover (90 day trials and such like) or no tea breaks improve productivity. Business as sport. What horseshit. Someone having a heart attack or stroke would show up in their data as “highly productive”. I can’t believe we allow these fools to walk around freely and define our futures. I’d attach the “heartbeat” device to my cock and get a bonus every month. haw haw haw.
Just read online by someone that his mother, who is in Greece has just heard monkey being interviewed by CNBC? about the tppa. Where is he and why the secrecy? Didn’t see him rushing onto the paddock to drink from the Bledisoe Cup before anyone else.8
The neo-liberal capitalist system is destroying the earth.
“After seeing the impact of rare earth mining myself, it’s impossible to view the gadgets I use every day in the same way,” he writes. “As I watched Apple announce their smart watch recently, a thought crossed my mind: once we made watches with minerals mined from the Earth and treated them like precious heirlooms; now we use even rarer minerals and we’ll want to update them yearly. ”
Yep, the problem with capitalism is that it does not take into account all the requirements of people and the planet.
Capitalism has a very limited use. Unfortunately the trinkets that it has brought to many has blinded them into thinking that capitalism can be used for all sorts of things…. blinded by bling …..
You forget that Communism has been tried only in poor countries with despotic traditions in government. Russia is still a relatively poor country, and Stalin has been called the most recent of its succession of great but very cruel Tsars.. (A miracle that it got to be a super-power.)
Name one heavily industrialised that has tried Socialism, let alone Communism. You cannot. So there was never an even contest between Capitalism and Communism in the first place.
Easy to set up silly demands, is it not?
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell …
Draco was quite specific. “Communism, expansion, maintenance, capitalism, death.” he said. Pretty much all societies have followed this course, he reckons. I’m just asking him to name one. Hardly unreasonable.
I think that by communism, Draco was not conjuring up Stalin or Mao. He meant ‘primitive’ communities living without as yet notions of private property and profit-gouging..
The word Communism is a red rag to a bull for some people, who go viral over it without thinking about what the basic meaning actually is.
Your challenge is at loggerheads with what Draco intended.
Enough misfires for a while, I think.
I got his book of images of large scale industrial impact when it first came out.
IMHO he is better on some levels than Salgado, but with less of a human touch.
“To reduce the national flag to a brand has to be the most banal, vacuous attempt by Corporate NZ to take over our identity. It shows no respect for who we are, what our national identity is, it’s crass commercialisation, nothing more. He even has the gall to boast of the “billions” we’ll make if we Coca Colarise ourselves.”
and
“The Union Jack is a clever compilation of the crosses of three members, the Stars & Stripes tells how 50 states emerged from the original 13, while the Rainbow Nation acknowledges the plethora of tribes that built South Africa. Now compare those to the Canadian maple leaf – it’s very pretty and instantly recognisable much as many corporate logos are. But what an opportunity lost – there is no underlying story, no mention of where those folk came from, who they are, where they’re going. It’s nothing more than a brand.”
yes we could tell our story, I hope we do, the real story, but somehow I think we will waste this and sell out to a corporate logo – that will fit in with the sellout of this country by TPPA and the rest of the mangey pack of dogs key is running with.
“To reduce the national flag to a brand has to be the most banal, vacuous attempt by Corporate NZ to take over our identity. It shows no respect for who we are, what our national identity is, it’s crass commercialisation, nothing more. He even has the gall to boast of the “billions” we’ll make if we Coca Colarise ourselves.”
I’m guessing he’s referring to the PM’s pushing of the silver fern and Morgan is right. The problem is, amongst others. the silver fern has become a logo.
When I see the silver fern I think All Blacks and our Netball team. It’s become a logo and also has the disadvantage of being difficult to draw. At least the maple leaf has the advantage of being symmetrical.
I quite like the stars but they need to be placed with careful consideration otherwise we end up with a third world country flag.
“Well, we’re not going to put the union jack on stuff are we?”
Well why did Key bring back British honours then? Do you not see the inconsistency? A bloke running the most cravenly sycophantic foreign policy in years pretending to strike a blow for our independent identity by changing the flag?
Hypocritical twerp.
If Morgan wants to keep the flag, he better vote in the referendum.
Key put out this vid on his face book page explaining his view on the flag, got to hand it to the man, he’s brilliant at getting people to see something his way.
yep agreed – he is good at that and we are all the poorer because of it. Often substance is more important than appearances but many in this land are just too foolish to get it – key knows this and plays on it, takes advantage of it – a small town preacher with the gift of the glib and everynight the men (and women) come around and lay their money down…
We’re trying to help you infused – though as a dyed-in-the-wool righty you present pretty strong evidence for the ‘rightwing are chumps’ hypothesis.
The Gnats tend instead to present evidence that the rightwing are crooks. Their rightwingery is secondary to their interest in stealing public property.
“…Now compare those to the Canadian maple leaf – it’s very pretty and instantly recognisable much as many corporate logos are…”
He thinks it’s about the manufacture of maple syrup? Ok so it’s stuff.co.nz opinion, and Gareth Morgan is either willfully misleading people, or doesn’t have Google, but the Canadian maple leaf has been associated with Canadian heraldry as a symbol of Canada for a hundred or so years before 1965, or whenever it was the red/white maple flag was installed.
If he wants to argue that the silver fern isn’t traditionally a NZ heraldic symbol then he might have a point, but NZ doesn’t have much heraldic history yet – people create that with their flag/coat of arms-making. Anyone looking at the Canadian flag now knows what it represents because the Canadian people have presented their actions and attitudes under that banner. Is he saying they have no national identity, no standing? Is he either insulting, stupid or condescending? Sheesh. Why be so sloppy about it if it weren’t just a propagation of lies just because he doesn’t want a new flag. Any flag starts out relatively meaningless, as simply a symbol of ideals, aspirations or values. Meaning is applied to it by people’s memories after the fact.
This was in the comments on Morgans Facebook post today I would be interested to know if this guys onto something.??
“”Hey, don’t mean to to freak y’all out (actually, yes I do!) but there’s a lot more to this NZ flag change malarkey than most people realise…
I was open to changing the current NZ flag, but I also didn’t understand (like most people) the LEGAL significance of doing so…
Why not change the flag?
Here’s why not – its called ‘Due Authority’
DUE AUTHORITY in a nation like NZ is represented on the NZ flag by the Union Jack and signifies that we are a constitutional monarchy.
A change of flag means not only that we have taken a major step to removing the DUE AUTHORITY of the crown. It also means we take away the very power which enforces both the 1981 Bill of Rights Act (the closest thing NZ has to an entrenched Constitution) and the founding plank upon which the Treaty of Waitangi has meaning.
It does not matter if you’re pro or anti monarchy but if you take away the DUE AUTHORITY of law (which includes our flag) you then open the gates of hell, or to be precise the means in which John Key can legally sign the TPPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement). Currently if the matter was taken to court it would undoubtedly end up at the Supreme Court.
The Privy Council is our former chief court and unlike the new US-styled NZ supreme Court, has its legal interpretation interpreted by Judges that are picked by the Law Lords of the Common Wealth.
In the new system those Judges are picked by parliament – uh oh.
At the moment it is likely that a legal challenge could be mounted against the TPPA, even if John does sign it, even with the Supreme Court Change, in that it breaches the 1981 Bill of Rights and the Crowns obligation to Iwi as set out in the Treaty of Waitangi.
However, if the DUE AUTHORITY of the State can be removed then the TPPA can not only be signed but it then means that once signed the DUE AUTHORITY of the TPPA would supersede the power of any NZ laws already in place. Such as the 1981 Bill of Rights etc.””
Please feel free to copy & paste or share… A lot of people don’t seek education but will take it when offered!
Yes just goggled “due authority” and it came up with a couple of fringe looking sites one called misty mountain , basically saying the same as the above, someone causing mischief and leading a few astray .
‘Just on half the country’s directors aren’t happy about their pay as workload piles up and more face the axe for poor performance.
Directors Institute chief executive Simon Arcus said while there had been a “moderate” 4 per cent increase in the past year, workloads had almost doubled, reflecting an environment where boards are facing more scrutiny and regulation than ever before.
Survey data shows only 50.6 per cent are satisfied with their remuneration. Median fees for private listed companies were $78,570, up 22 per cent over the past four years.’
G,Bradley…NZH…..
doesn’t your heart just bleed for these…unfortunates!
you are the one without a clue….there are many professional directors who warm seats on many boards.80hrs a week…what crap…as for fucking up…lets take a look at a few recent cases…Shipley/Mainzeal…now Genesis chair,Withers /Feltex,now at MRP….so you really are quite ignorant ,illinformed or delusional.
“………… your work week is pretty much 80 hours every week. You fuck up and it’s the end of your career. Same with ceos.”
Oh diddums my hearts bleeds for them,
That will be the day I have seen fuck ups by so called “managers” where the remaining staff has to clean up the shit afterwards and nine times out of ten they walk away with a big golden handshake, later to emerge in a top position in another organisation.,
Try running your own business as a small operator see how many hours you then work, or doing two jobs to make ends meet on very low money.
Of course if it is too much for them, they can always find a job with a zero hour contract.
Yeah man, all sympathy to you, I only work about 50 hours a week, in a physically demanding job, must be hard sittin’ on your arse for 80s hours a week!@
Sorry to hear infused but it sounds like you’re not in the ‘Club’ if you work 80+hrs and get shafted.
btw it’s not a club you get asked to join, you’re born into it or you can aspire to it but never be part of it.
Hotchin thought he was in the club like Muir, Watson etc are but he gets to hold the can in public like a good south akl boy while others skate away from the hanover/elders collapse.
Thinking about what we need to be able to manage our world better. It seems that we are at a crucial point in time. We have had two big wars that have taken us near to the highest point of modern day barbarism, have improved on that with acceptance of torture in fact and spirit, and introduced depleted uranium and agent orange. Our destructiveness and drift from afraid or vengeful human beings to callous, murderous behaviour regarded as a norm is frightening.
I think some persistent group has to introduce and carry over the years, a Day of Examination of our Souls where we meet and look at all the things that we humans have done in the past year, and find a way how we can collectively and individually do something about that for the next year. That would include approaching others, talking about how we can do something personally and collectively.
This would be a day for a person’s serious thinking, and not in churches. This is something that needs to come from the heart of people themselves – not diddling around from religions with incense and ritual and asking for forgiveness from the Great Spirit. It’s too late for that. It has happened and we have not been able to stop it. So we need to think, and gather strength from each other, and act on positive ideas put forward.
(About religion, every year the churches go out and intone the same stuff on Anzac Day. They should include something different each year – a reading of some anti-war poetry, some personal anecdote from a returned service survivor. But hey why fix something while its working smoothly. Stick with the status quo. It gives people confidence.)
I have the horrible feeling that we have reached the high point in our human time on earth and passed it. But it would be good to be wrong. There are so many wonderful people, lots of ordinary people with good traits, and some very cold, pathological people that we need to look out for and corral. If we look at our politicians and aspirational money and power people who are driven by profit to put life at risk, they are very visible. Less visible are the fellow travellers in our midst, and the weaknesses in our own hearts and minds.
While we can all criticise others, all of us need to have a strong understanding of ourselves that involves our strengths and our humbling faults. Also, then a workable ideal for how things should be, ready for when the old diseased system breaks down. Dreamers then are not much use, the people who know human weaknesses and how to avoid, manage and survive them in the kindest and fairest ways are the stalwarts, along with those with practical skills plus community spirit.
Personally I think the main thing we need is diversity: political, cultural, gender, sexual identity… as much as possible of everything.
Not as a pc platitude, the simple fact is that diversity inhibits groupthink. I was involved in the governance of a reasonable-sized organisation, and one of the most valuable roles was filled by a guy whose job seemed to largely consist of “nope: not possible/legal to do that”. So we’d work our way around the issues until we had a more robust way of actually doing what we wanted. But too many people like that guy would have restricted the variety of ideas we came up with, and we would have been stuck in that narrow “can’t do that” focus, even if the impulse had occurred to us. Different backgrounds mean different skillsets and different ideas.
Don’t get me wrong, I still think lots of people who disagree with me are dicks, but even dicks have a constructive role to play sometimes 🙂
Interesting that National would support leverage and buying businesses with the intention of stripping its assets and scraping it down to bones to get the money to pay back the lender for the purchase price. Yet they make ACC have money in hand for prophesied costs of the present injured and damaged far into the future. One law for the cowboys and another for the poorer Indians.
Key yet again rides the coat tails of the ABs win over the weekend, engineering himself closer to McCaw’s “brand” with a second knighthood offer and by saying he’d make a good prime minister.
It’s called utilitarianism. The problem with it is that the worst off end up being even worse off because the government doesn’t have to be concerned about them.
From the link:
“The Greatest Happiness principle in general is good, but it has many flaws as any ethical systems does. Due to our inability to perfectly predict the future according to our actions (assuming he future is capable of being altered with our actions), the results we desire are capable of, and often do, fall short of what was intended. If unforeseen parameters caused all of our actions to backfire, even though we were attempting to act in accordance with Utilitarianism, we would all be considered immoral as our results only caused pain. If this happened to everyone in the entire world, then no man could be considered moral. The Greatest Happiness principle also allows for us to cause pain to others as long as a majority of the people become happier. We could essentially just steal resources from smaller foreign countries and drive them to poverty as long as more people benefit than lose. Things such as slavery, bullying, rape, racism, and murder could be justified under Utilitarianism as long as the majority prefers it. Murderers could justify their action by simply killing all of those who opposed them. Once their numbers became the majority, murdering became justifiable as moral. Lastly, the Greatest Happiness principle eliminates the usage of the laws provided by our government. As long as the person’s actions increase general utility, then it does not matter how many laws are broken in the process. We could all go speeding down roads and ignoring traffic signals/signs to our full enjoyment despite there being speed limits as long as few people cared and most people would be having a blast.”
Question is what strategies do you use against a utilitarian government?
Paul Henry embarrassed by young caller this morning;
His mood was not improved by the raucous laughter at his expense. Paul Henry, TV3, Monday 17 August 2015, 8:10 a.m.
Paul Henry is a shameless National Party partisan as well as being John Key’s chief cheerleader. He is a control freak, who demands total obedience from his underlings. Neither his newsreader Hillary Barry nor his dim sports guy Jim Kayes has the ability or the gumption to challenge most of the offensive or ignorant things Henry regularly unloads. Occasionally, as we shall see, they will register their disapproval by falling silent or, as happened with the following phone call from a young viewer, join in with the subversive laughter of the technicians and producers. Henry is all too aware when his authority is undermined like this, and he takes it out on Jim Kayes above all.
But first, let’s see how a simple phone call derailed him this morning….
PAUL HENRY: We have Zakaiah from Pahiatua on the phone. How old are you, Zakaiah?
ZAKARAIAH: I’m eleven.
PAUL HENRY: All right, Zakaiah, do you think Richie McCaw would make a good prime minister?
ZAKARAIAH: Yeah, better than John Key!
EVERYONE IN THE STUDIO EXCEPT HENRY: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
….Awkward silence…..
PAUL HENRY:[grinning awkwardly, like a raccoon eating shit off a wire brush] Oooohhhh.
ZAKARAIAH: And he doesn’t need to change the flag.
…..Awkward silence…..
PAUL HENRY: Well I agree with you there, Zakaiah! But not the bit about John Key; I think he’s doing a good job.
…..Awkward silence…..
A little later, Henry reads out the nominations for the New Zealander of the Year award, with his slaves obediently providing the sound effects…
HENRY: Most of them are shite. Professor Jane Kelsey. HILLARY BARRY: Urggghhh! HENRY: Nicky Hager. JIM KAYES: Groan. HILLARY BARRY: Urrrggghh! HENRY: Helen Kelly.
……Silence. Even these two slaves know that it’s not permissible to slag off the very ill Helen Kelly, even if she is one of those despised creatures, a union activist.
HENRY: Tim Finn. JIM KAYES: Why have they nominated Tim Finn and not Neil? HENRY:[suddenly irritated] Oh I don’t know! I’m not up with the minutiae of these things. But the thing is, most of these people are shite. If
Richie was nominated, they would fall off the list. I’m going to nominate Richie McCaw for New Zealander of the Year.
….Awkward pause…..
JIM KAYES: Have you got a man crush on Richie McCaw?
….Awkward pause….
PAUL HENRY:[speaking evenly and slowly, with an angry edge to his voice] No, I haven’t. But I notice that most of the women removed their wedding rings when he came into the studio. Hillary did. HILLARY BARRY: My husband’s watching this….
Voters in rural nz are ripe for the plucking and Winston knows it.
In today’s farmers weekly there is three new listing, short notice auctions ,if kiwi farmers see a flood of land ownership go off shore look out national.
A question for any who may know and who listen to Nine to Noon on RNZ.
Why is Mike Williams unwilling or unable to dispute the propaganda espoused by Matthew Hooton re TPP , particularly noticeable these past 2 weeks. It was left to Kathryn Ryan to bring some semblance of balance and rationale to the topic today…Mr Williams may as well have been absent.
Believe it or not, Williams was there, actually: he backed up Kathryn Ryan by saying “Exactly!” in an emphatic tone of voice after she firmly contradicted one of Hooton’s rants.
At one other point, he actually had the guts to say: “I think Matt’s also been somewhat unfair to Professor Jane Kelsey.”
Otherwise it was a typical Mike Williams performance, including: “I’ve got a lot of time for Tim Groser” and (pathetically) “As Matt put it so eloquently…”
I’d have a lot of time for Groser too, to make sure the garlic, stakes, silver and holy water had taken effect. A pity Williams didn’t mean it that way though. “Useless” doesn’t begin to describe him, and I haven’t the energy to finish.
If he lived in Syria, Grant Smithies would be praising President Assad’s taste in music Morning Report, Radio NZ National, 7:56 a.m., Monday 17 August 2015
adulationn., excessive devotion to someone; servile flattery
SUSIE FERGUSON: President Obama’s Spotify account includes the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Coldplay—Guyon’s favorite band!—and Al Green. To discuss this, welcome to music critic Grant Smithies. Well, what do you reckon about the President’s taste in music?
GRANT SMITHIES: I reckon I’d go around to his place for a beer! It sounds like it’s a genuine list, and not one made up to impress the electorate, unlike, say, Gordon Brown, who proclaimed his “deep love” for the Arctic Monkeys a few years ago. It’s a pretty interesting selection, although I am concerned about the presence of Coldplay on the list. But to be fair, he’s had things to do. He’s been busy!
SUSIE FERGUSON: Ha ha ha ha ha!
GRANT SMITHIES: I wonder what sort of list George W. Bush would have made. Probably from the cheesiest end of the country spectrum, plus some triumphalist rock tunes. It would be the stuff of nightmares!
Listening to Guyon and Susie on Radionz early, I have noticed the odd banter being dropped in which makes me shudder. I am particularly sensitive to this as I have grown to hate the crap on television between partner-faces presenting there. Although there are things that I criticise about RadioNZ, I treasure them, and I also tell them so from time to time. They do a good job, and anyone who wants a reliable, truthful, well run public radio station, must listen to it and give feedback about it and its coverage, support it and ensure that it continues. We don’t want it killed by a thousand poison arrows, weak acid weakening its structure, and termites cutting through its supports!
It already is not being maintained properly as it has a decreasing budget. We don’t want government doing a HousingNZ on our radio, and the whole government house-of-cards decline policy.
I don’t want to hear on Radio details of what goes through presenters’ minds being broadcast to try connecting with the tiny minds in the youthful community. I fear RadioNZ being dumbed down to satisfy the butterfly minds of the masses and the ‘superior but limited’ interests of our chattering classes. I remember Guy and Sus bantering about fave James Bonds. This morning it was whether Cold Play was good. STFU. For sure, keep a bit of lightness in from the news or some recent event in NZ that deserves comment.
I can see the extent of the attacks which RadioNZ suffers from the eternal carping of the RW barbarians firing shots in all directions. I found an example in the July 2008 Listener item from Bill Ralston’s Life. I can’t give you a link because the Listener doesn’t put up content it just lists the headings of items.
His thoughts:’We are currently being served an insipid menu of stewed apple and bananas, admirably suited to the rest home RNZ National has become.” “I am convinced these days RNZ National is broadcasting almost solely to itself and the few dozen people who control its funding.”
Ralston flicks off RNZ to Auckland Maori Mai FM, a hip-hop station. “Aside from developing a taste for the new R&B, I have no idea why I’ve done so except for the fact the hosts sound as if they still live, breathe and have fun.
Actually, it does not matter if commercial radio is good or bad: you can simply change stations. It doesn’t cost you a cent. If public radio is bad, it costs you well north of $25 million a year, whether you listen or not.
The dreadfully smug, hand-wringing liberal contortions of RNZ could originate only from its home in Wellington…” and he has a go at politically-correct politicians. “RNZ National is the voice of Helen Clark’s [NZ]: smug, self-righteous and desperately dull.”
Strange that, to me, the same comments apply directly to his own output. He and his opinion are irrelevant to a well-functioning society. I feel his spite though, and his complaints about cost to the taxpayer echo those used to get rid of our national television service. A mother was used as a bellwether, complaining that her son needed his tv for other purposes than watching programmes, but being registered as owner, had to pay $60? for the privilege. So of course we had to get rid of taxpayer direct charging from the rest of us, despite many of us not getting much value from our general taxes.
There was a good comment by Russell Brown on Ralston’s diatribe even touching on his liberal tribe. Brown makes the point that there was at one time a tendency to resist change and need for more youth input, but that no longer applied. http://publicaddress.net/hardnews/radio-times/
+100… I agree Greywarshark….’Morning Report’ is increasingly nauseating ‘entertainment’ infotainment advertorials for the John Key Nactional Party
…I find Espiner’s ‘interviews’ with John Key ( invitation to spin and slime on and on… ) to be servile ( an interview lie down PR opportunity for John Key) …and Espiner’s questioning of Professor Jane Kelsey to be personal attacking, repetitive and shallow…only she added depth to the non-interview
At least Kathryn Ryan tackled Matthew Hooton’s spin and attacks on Jane Kelsey…rather than discussing the substantive issues at hand ….of the downside of the TPPA…and the extent of New Zealanders opposition to it…with its disadvantages to New Zealand re IT industry , copyright, medicines, sovereignty etc…
Mora in the afternoons is freakin bad too. Either deliberately nieve, plain stupid or weak, probably all of those, he will not hold anyone to account the best he’s got is a forced cold flanelling, something Key probably got from his mother when he was under the age of 10. He says things like, but they wouldn’t sign the TPPA if they knew it was going to be bad would they?
It is to my mind criminal that the marketing industry now rules our media because they fund it, and that even affects State-Owned Enterprises like TVNZ, whose current CEO is a guy from the marketing industry, not from broadcasting.
So we now have, as you say, the team of two announcers introducing their personal views onto what should be impartially-presented news, where one person is quite enough.
To make it worse, we now have regular advertising on Radio NZ. After each news-on-the-hour, RNZ advertise their own programmes, with increasingly commercial techniques.
God in heaven – I take refuge in the National Programme to get away from the vile commercial cacklemush of ads on commercial radio. And what do I find? Radio NZ National is now mimicking its inferiors. (Actually, it should still be called National Radio.)
Somebody needs to throw the money-changers out of the temple again – the best thing Christ ever supposedly did.
Are they making RNZ so close to commercial so that nobody will miss it when they finally sell it off?
@In Vino
Your opinions are what I feel. I am not absolutist about presentation, it doesn’t have to be totally dry, but I fear that the boffins at the top are hell-bent on matching targets rather than adopting a balanced viewpoint to change of presentation and introducing some ‘lighter’ news. Where is the line in the sand I wonder? And of course such lines can be washed away.
I fear that they want to dilute the hard NZ news, with world news from a narrow base, and exaggerating the importance of hard news from overseas, ie interviews with officials in the USA about their latest disaster or outrage which then gets repeated in short form every news hour during the day. That fits the mindset of politicians following ‘overseas’ practices when considering new policies, which implies worldwide, but is limited to the 5-Eyes countries only., being the dominant comet USA, trailing in its tail – UK, Canada, Australia and ….panting along, NZ.
I fear too they wish to bring magazine-type weekend listening into the Kim Hill/Wallace Chapman slot with art, leisure, food and wine, style, with middle class women and men dominating. They represent those on household incomes higher than most, and can consider such pleasant things and fob off concerns that should have time for serious discussion in these slots.
Yesterday I gave Bill Ralston’s deriding take on the RadioNZ, in 2008. I suggest that now he would come up with a similar cant, except with different targets. No changes would appease his wonky viewpoint. And aligning with him are people like Hosking, whose very expression in today’s post displays a mixture of derisive attitudes.
Personally, I do know about presentation of content from long interest in consuming it, and some efforts at presentation of facts and discussion of ideas, so when I like something on radio or not, it isn’t some random whim.
Heard that but IMO Kathryn needs to be a lot tougher on Hooton he is constantly interrupting and boring us with his right wing rubbish.
Mike also should crunch Hooton more often.
Take a leaf out of WC Fields book.
“Never give a sucker a second break”
The object I think is to draw out the right and left approach without dissecting it or boning it for the fillets! It is interesting as stats for employment are interesting – they remain committed to a method, and the differences then show up as attention grabbing and indicative.
& right at the end, when discussing the flag, Hooton checks his cards
and plays a ‘do this or the terrorists win!’
“The only issue against the black flag of course is ISIS.
The funny thing is are we going to allow ISIS because it happens to have a black flag, determine that we shouldn’t?” *Dubya & Cheney wipe away a tear*
“The point is that Mike Hosking is extremely influential because of his involvement with Newstalk ZB, TVNZ and the Herald.”
Shaw said the whole media industry was going through a period of “huge turmoil” and the result was a move away from reporting towards editorialising.
“Mike is symptomatic of a broader trend.”
Psychobabble theory says people see the world as containing more of their self-affirming beliefs than it actually does. Shaw has an interest in people being scared by various things, so he’s the opposite of the phenomena, but do people really adjust their lives to suit a Hosking/Herald/radio opinion? I regularly test the absurdity of my opinions by opening my mouth, and no one else holds my views, but what Shaw claims is that a large number – we’re talking millions – slavishly adhere to Hoskings implied commands. None them have preferences, or can choose anything of their own accord. It isn’t a very convincing claim. I’d expect people to be driving off bridges or walking in circles for hours at the supermarket if they were that lost for what to think or do. Hosking is an expression of the environment he works in, and co-incidentally, people would like to own his car. Not sure that is the same as them arriving at the conclusion that thinking like Mike Hosking will get them a Maserati. They could just steal his one, for instance, or go all hopelessly surly and scratch it, out of spite.
I bet keys thinking about leaving again now things ain’t going so good .
I just had a vision of you and hoskings hugging his leg and pleading for him not to leave yous behind as he jets off to foreign shores for good.
So, you remember when the Problem Gambling Foundation lost it’s government contract and all the RWNJs, including Peter Dunne, said it was all done above board? Yeah, about that:
So, to summarise, the High Court has just told us that the PGF lost its government contract after being very vocally critical of government policy through a process that;
1. Changed the ground-rules as to how the contracts would be awarded after organisations had bid for them;
2. So wrongly assessed the PGF’s application that the apparent result couldn’t be trusted; and
3. Used people to assess who should get the contract who were at least apparently biased in favour of some applicants over others.
“We believe a CITS would lift the standards of the cleaning industry leading to greater economic productivity, but equally important, provide a sea change in the attitudes and behaviours of cleaners as training provides them with greater skills and opportunities,” Grant says.
So, I wonder how many RWNJs are going to continue to claim that cleaners don’t have any skills or don’t take any risks.
I can’t stand this certification and having industry standards for literally everything. If you are a good cleaner then you can obviously clean well. Why should a piece of paper represent how good you are at the said skill. Say in IT, I could have all the experience in the world and not be certified, while someone could have zero experience but be certified and be looked at as the better candidate because they’re done a two day training course or something. There’s a whole lot of bullshit going around in our business world.
While I agree with you to a large extent my point was that the RWNJS always come out with the idea that cleaners and other under paid people don’t have any skills so a professional body saying that we need to recognise the skill set should put paid to that.
China’s policy shift to support exporters and stem the deepest economic slowdown since 1990 heightens the risk of competitive currency devaluations as global demand wanes.
See, this is why you don’t have FTAs that lock you into trading with a country that acts like this.
Prof. Al Gillespie: “To a degree we have to trust the government.”
Why did Jim Mora ask this fellow to talk about the TPPA? The Panel, Radio NZ National, Monday 17 August 2015
Jim Mora, Joe Bennett, Susan Guthrie, Noelle McCarthy
Jim Mora’s producers try to impart the appearance of credibility to this light chat show by going to a regular stable of academics, to get their thoughts on various issues. This can be a useful and enlightening exercise, but all too often it is neither, as anyone unfortunate enough to have listened to such academic guests as Tim Dare, Robert Patman, Jacqueline Rowarth, or Michael Bassett will testify.
Today’s big topic was the undemocratic and highly secretive TPPA talks that our government is engaged in. The token academic chosen to comment on it was Professor Al Gillespie from Waikato University. Long time Mora-sufferers will be familiar with Prof. Gillespie, who seems to have earned a doctorate in How To Say Nothing Meaningful. Unlike the formidably intelligent and forthright Jane Kelsey, Professor Gillespie is all wide-eyed optimism: “I think they will learn from this ,” he states in a tone of high seriousness, “and negotiations will not be as secretive in the future.”
A few minutes later he advises, again in the most scholarly manner he can muster: “To a degree we have to trust the government.”
Why did their producers go to this mealy-mouthed drip, instead of asking someone who actually knows something about the issue?
At 4:42 p.m. the host made what was quite possibly the most cynical and ignorant statement of the year so far—even on this dog of a programme. After Susan Guthrie, in her “Soapbox” contribution, had expressed her delight at the popularity of Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders, he posed the following question, in the loftiest tone he could muster….
JIM MORA: It’s one thing to say Jeremy Corbyn’s lovely and pure, but it’s another thing to make him Prime Minister, isn’t it?
If it doesn’t restore your faith in humanity, you would be one of the more than one thousand dolts—give or take a few comedians with a very dark sense of irony—-who clicked on the “He’s an outstanding journalist” option in the Hosking poll over on Stuff.
I see the Fucking Spiv and his pack of crooks are now clamping down on items bought overseas on the internet, and these items are going to be subject to GST. Excellent, first class, as it will “level” the playing field for the struggling retailers. The Fucking Spiv said it will “collect” the millions that is not being paid in GST. When do you think we can expect a similiar “clamp down” on the millions of tax not paid by his spiv mates through tax avoidance and tax evasion
Sooner or later, like a gym bro flexing in the mirror, like a teen rolling their eyes, like a mansplainer patronisingly clearing his throat, the ACT party will start talking about privatisation.In the eyes of David Seymour and his LinkedIn ACTolytes, there's not a thing in this world that cannot ...
Confession: I used to follow US politics and UK politics - never as closely as this - but enough to identify the broad themes.I stopped following US politics after I came to the somewhat painful realisation that my perception was simply that - a perception. Mountain Tui is a reader-supported ...
Life is cruel, life is toughLife is crazy, then it all turns to dustWe let 'em out, we let 'em inWe'll let 'em know when it's the tipping point. The tipping point.Songwriters: Roland Orzabal / Charlton PettusYesterday, we saw the annual pilgrimage to Rātana, traditionally the first event in our ...
The invitation to comment on the proposed Regulatory Standards Bill opens with Minister David Seymour stating ‘[m]ost of New Zealand's problems can be traced to poor productivity, and poor productivity can be traced to poor regulations’. I shall have little to say about the first proposition except I can think ...
My friend Selwyn Manning and I are wondering what to do with our podcast “A View from Afar.” Some readers will also have tuned into the podcast, which I regularly feature on KP as a media link. But we have some thinking to do about how to proceed, and it ...
Don't try to hide it; love wears no disguiseI see the fire burning in your eyesSong: Madonna and Stephen BrayThis week, the National Party held its annual retreat to devise new slogans, impressing the people who voted for them and making the rest of us cringe at the hollow words, ...
Support my work through a paid subscription, a coffee or reading and sharing. Thank you - I appreciate you all.Luxon’s penchant for “economic growth”Yesterday morning, I warned libertarianism had penetrated the marrow of the NZ Coalition agenda, and highlighted libertarian Peter Thiel’s comments that democracy and freedom are unable to ...
A couple of recent cases suggest that the courts are awarding significant sums for defamation even where the publication is very small. This is despite the new rule that says plaintiffs, if challenged, have to show that the publication they are complaining about has caused them “more then minor harm.” ...
Damages for breaches of the Privacy Act used to be laughable. The very top award was $40,000 to someone whose treatment in an addiction facility was revealed to the media. Not only was it taking an age for the Human Rights Review Tribunal to resolve cases, the awards made it ...
It’s Friday and we’ve got Auckland Anniversary weekend ahead of us so we’ve pulled together a bumper crop of things that caught our attention this week. This post, like all our work, is brought to you by a largely volunteer crew and made possible by generous donations from our readers ...
Long stories short, the six things of interest in the political economy in Aotearoa around housing, climate and poverty on Friday January 24 are:PM Christopher Luxon’s State of the Nationspeech in Auckland yesterday, in which he pledged a renewed economic growth focus;Luxon’s focused on a push to bring in ...
Hi,It’s been ages since I’ve done an AMA on Webworm — and so, as per usual, ask me what you want in the comments section, and over the next few days I’ll dive in and answer things. This is a lil’ perk for paying Webworm members that keep this place ...
I’m trying a new way to do a more regular and timely daily Dawn Choruses for paying subscribers through a live video chat about the day’s key six things @ 6.30 am lasting about 10 minues. This email is the invite to that chat on the substack app on your ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on Donald Trump’s first executive orders to reverse Joe Biden’s emissions reductions policies and pull the United States out of ...
The Prime Minister’s State of the Nation speech yesterday was the kind of speech he should have given a year ago.Finally, we found out why he is involved in politics.Last year, all we heard from him was a catalogue of complaints about Labour.But now, he is redefining National with its ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and ...
Aotearoa's science sector is broken. For 35 years it has been run on a commercial, competitive model, while being systematically underfunded. Which means we have seven different crown research institutes and eight different universities - all publicly owned and nominally working for the public good - fighting over the same ...
One of the best speakers I ever saw was Sir Paul Callaghan.One of the most enthusiastic receptions I have ever, ever seen for a speaker was for Sir Paul Callaghan.His favourite topic was: Aotearoa and what we were doing with it.He did not come to bury tourism and agriculture but ...
The Tertiary Education Union is predicting a “brutal year” for the tertiary sector as 240,000 students and teachers at Te Pūkenga face another year of uncertainty. The Labour Party are holding their caucus retreat, with Chris Hipkins still reflecting on their 2023 election loss and signalling to media that new ...
The Prime Minister’s State of the Nation speech is an exercise in smoke and mirrors which deflects from the reality that he has overseen the worst economic growth in 30 years, said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff. “Luxon wants to “go for growth” but since he and Nicola ...
People get readyThere's a train a-comingYou don't need no baggageYou just get on boardAll you need is faithTo hear the diesels hummingDon't need no ticketYou just thank the LordSongwriter: Curtis MayfieldYou might have seen Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde's speech at the National Prayer Service in the US following Trump’s elevation ...
Long stories short, the six things of interest in the political economy in Aotearoa around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday January 23 are:PM Christopher Luxon’s State of the Nation speech after midday today, which I’ll attend and ask questions at;Luxon is expected to announce “new changes to incentivise research ...
I’m trying a new way to do a more regular and timely daily Dawn Choruses for paying subscribers through a live video chat about the day’s key six things @ 6.30 am lasting about 10 minues. This email is the invite to that chat on the substack app on your ...
Yesterday, Trump pardoned the founder of Silk Road - a criminal website designed to anonymously trade illicit drugs, weapons and services. The individual had been jailed for life in 2015 after an FBI sting.But libertarian interest groups had lobbied Donald Trump, saying it was “government overreach” to imprison the man, ...
The Prime Minister will unveil more of his economic growth plan today as it becomes clear that the plan is central to National’s election pitch in 2026. Christopher Luxon will address an Auckland Chamber of Commerce meeting with what is being billed a “State of the Nation” speech. Ironically, after ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). 2025 has only just begun, but already climate scientists are working hard to unpick what could be in ...
The NZCTU’s view is that “New Zealand’s future productivity to 2050” is a worthwhile topic for the upcoming long-term insights briefing. It is important that Ministers, social partners, and the New Zealand public are aware of the current and potential productivity challenges and opportunities we face and the potential ...
The NZCTU supports a strengthening of the Commerce Act 1986. We have seen a general trend of market consolidation across multiple sectors of the New Zealand economy. Concentrated market power is evident across sectors such as banking, energy generation and supply, groceries, telecommunications, building materials, fuel retail, and some digital ...
The maxim is as true as it ever was: give a small boy and a pig everything they want, and you will get a good pig and a terrible boy.Elon Musk the child was given everything he could ever want. He has more than any one person or for that ...
A food rescue organisation has had to resort to an emergency plea for donations via givealittle because of uncertainty about whether Government funding will continue after the end of June. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Wednesday, January 22: Kairos Food ...
Leo Molloy's recent "shoplifting" smear against former MP Golriz Ghahraman has finally drawn public attention to Auror and its database. And from what's been disclosed so far, it does not look good: The massive privately-owned retail surveillance network which recorded the shopping incident involving former MP Golriz Ghahraman is ...
The defence of common law qualified privilege applies (to cut short a lot of legal jargon) when someone tells someone something in good faith, believing they need to know it. Think: telling the police that the neighbour is running methlab or dobbing in a colleague to the boss for stealing. ...
NZME plans to cut 38 jobs as it reorganises its news operations, including the NZ Herald, BusinessDesk, and Newstalk ZB. It said it planned to publish and produce fewer stories, to focus on those that engage audience. E tū are calling on the Government to step in and support the ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed that inflation remains unchanged at 2.2%, defying expectations of further declines, said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “While inflation holding steady might sound like good news, the reality is that prices for the basics—like rent, energy, and insurance—are still rising. ...
I never mentioned anythingAbout the songs that I would singOver the summer, when we'd go on tourAnd sleep on floors and drink the bad beerI think I left it unclearSong: Bad Beer.Songwriter: Jacob Starnes Ewald.Last night, I was watching a movie with Fi and the kids when I glanced ...
Last night I spoke about the second inauguration of Donald Trump with in a ‘pop-up’ Hoon live video chat on the Substack app on phones.Here’s the summary of the lightly edited video above:Trump's actions signify a shift away from international law.The imposition of tariffs could lead to increased inflation ...
An interesting article in Stuff a few weeks ago asked a couple of interesting questions in it’s headline, “How big can Auckland get? And how big is too big?“. Unfortunately, the article doesn’t really answer those questions, instead focusing on current growth projections, but there were a few aspects to ...
Today is Donald J Trump’s second inauguration ceremony.I try not to follow too much US news, and yet these developments are noteworthy and somehow relevant to us here.Only hours in, parts of their Project 2025 ‘think/junk tank’ policies — long planned and signalled — are already live:And Elon Musk, who ...
How long is it going to take for the MAGA faithful to realise that those titans of Big Tech and venture capital sitting up close to Donald Trump this week are not their allies, but The Enemy? After all, the MAGA crowd are the angry victims left behind by the ...
California Burning: The veteran firefighters of California and Los Angeles called it “a perfect storm”. The hillsides and canyons were full of “fuel”. The LA Fire Department was underfunded, below-strength, and inadequately-equipped. A key reservoir was empty, leaving fire-hydrants without the water pressure needed for fire hoses. The power companies had ...
The Waitangi Tribunal has been one of the most effective critics of the government, pointing out repeatedly that its racist, colonialist policies breach te Tiriti o Waitangi. While it has no powers beyond those of recommendation, its truth-telling has clearly gotten under the government's skin. They had already begun to ...
I don't mind where you come fromAs long as you come to meBut I don't like illusionsI can't see them clearlyI don't care, no I wouldn't dareTo fix the twist in youYou've shown me eventually what you'll doSong: Shimon Moore, Emma Anzai, Antonina Armato, and Tim James.National Hugging Day.Today, January ...
Is Rwanda turning into a country that seeks regional dominance and exterminates its rivals? This is a contention examined by Dr Michela Wrong, and Dr Maria Armoudian. Dr Wrong is a journalist who has written best-selling books on Africa. Her latest, Do Not Disturb. The story of a political murder ...
The economy isn’t cooperating with the Government’s bet that lower interest rates will solve everything, with most metrics indicating per-capita GDP is still contracting faster and further than at any time since the 1990-96 series of government spending and welfare cuts. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short in ...
Hi,Today is the day sexual assaulter and alleged rapist Donald Trump officially became president (again).I was in a meeting for three hours this morning, so I am going to summarise what happened by sharing my friend’s text messages:So there you go.Welcome to American hell — which includes all of America’s ...
This is a re-post from the Climate BrinkI have a new paper out today in the journal Dialogues on Climate Change exploring both the range of end-of-century climate outcomes in the literature under current policies and the broader move away from high-end emissions scenarios. Current policies are defined broadly as policies in ...
Long story short: I chatted last night with ’s on the substack app about the appointment of Chris Bishop to replace Simeon Brown as Transport Minister. We talked through their different approaches and whether there’s much room for Bishop to reverse many of the anti-cycling measures Brown adopted.Our chat ...
Last night I chatted with Northland emergency doctor on the substack app for subscribers about whether the appointment of Simeon Brown to replace Shane Reti as Health Minister. We discussed whether the new minister can turn around decades of under-funding in real and per-capita terms. Our chat followed his ...
Christopher Luxon is every dismal boss who ever made you wince, or roll your eyes, or think to yourself I have absolutely got to get the hell out of this place.Get a load of what he shared with us at his cabinet reshuffle, trying to be all sensitive and gracious.Dr ...
The text of my submission to the Ministry of Health's unnecessary and politicised review of the use of puberty blockers for young trans and nonbinary people in Aotearoa. ...
Hi,Last night one of the world’s biggest social media platforms, TikTok, became inaccessible in the United States.Then, today, it came back online.Why should we care about a social network that deals in dance trends and cute babies? Well — TikTok represents a lot more than that.And its ban and subsequent ...
Sometimes I wake in the middle of the nightAnd rub my achin' old eyesIs that a voice from inside-a my headOr does it come down from the skies?"There's a time to laugh butThere's a time to weepAnd a time to make a big change"Wake-up you-bum-the-time has-comeTo arrange and re-arrange and ...
Former Health Minister Shane Reti was the main target of Luxon’s reshuffle. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short to start the year in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate: Christopher Luxon fired Shane Reti as Health Minister and replaced him with Simeon Brown, who Luxon sees ...
Yesterday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced a cabinet reshuffle, which saw Simeon Brown picking up the Health portfolio as it’s been taken off Dr Shane Reti, and Transport has been given to Chris Bishop. Additionally, Simeon’s energy and local government portfolios now sit with Simon Watts. This is very good ...
The sacking of Health Minister Shane Reti yesterday had an air of panic about it. A media advisory inviting journalists to a Sunday afternoon press conference at Premier House went out on Saturday night. Caucus members did not learn that even that was happening until yesterday morning. Reti’s fate was ...
Yesterday’s demotion of Shane Reti was inevitable. Reti’s attempt at a re-assuring bedside manner always did have a limited shelf life, and he would have been a poor and apologetic salesman on the campaign trail next year. As a trained doctor, he had every reason to be looking embarrassed about ...
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 12, 2025 thru Sat, January 18, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
After another substantial hiatus from online Chess, I’ve been taking it up again. I am genuinely terrible at five-minute Blitz, what with the tight time constraints, though I periodically con myself into thinking that I have been improving. But seeing as my past foray into Chess led to me having ...
Rise up o children wont you dance with meRise up little children come and set me freeRise little ones riseNo shame no fearDon't you know who I amSongwriter: Rebecca Laurel FountainI’m sure you know the go with this format. Some memories, some questions, letsss go…2015A decade ago, I made the ...
In 2017, when Ghahraman was elected to Parliament as a Green MP, she recounted both the highlights and challenges of her role -There was love, support, and encouragement.And on the flipside, there was intense, visceral and unchecked hate.That came with violent threats - many of them. More on that later.People ...
It gives me the biggest kick to learn that something I’ve enthused about has been enough to make you say Go on then, I'm going to do it. The e-bikes, the hearing aids, the prostate health, the cheese puffs. And now the solar power. Yes! Happy to share the details.We ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Can CO2 be ...
The old bastard left his ties and his suitA brown box, mothballs and bowling shoesAnd his opinion so you'd never have to choosePretty soon, you'll be an old bastard tooYou get smaller as the world gets bigThe more you know you know you don't know shit"The whiz man" will never ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The Numbers2024 could easily have been National’s “Annus Horribilis” and 2025 shows no signs of a reprieve for our Landlord PM Chris Luxon and his inept Finance Minister Nikki “Noboats” Willis.Several polls last year ...
This Friday afternoon, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced an overhaul of the Waitangi Tribunal.The government has effectively cleared house - appointing 8 new members - and combined with October’s appointment of former ACT leader Richard Prebble, that’s 9 appointees.[I am not certain, but can only presume, Prebble went in ...
The state of the current economy may be similar to when National left office in 2017.In December, a couple of days after the Treasury released its 2024 Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HEYFU24), Statistics New Zealand reported its estimate for volume GDP for the previous September 24 quarter. Instead ...
So what becomes of you, my love?When they have finally stripped you ofThe handbags and the gladragsThat your poor old granddadHad to sweat to buy you, babySongwriter: Mike D'aboIn yesterday’s newsletter, I expressed sadness at seeing Golriz Ghahraman back on the front pages for shoplifting. As someone who is no ...
It’s Friday and time for another roundup of things that caught our attention this week. This post, like all our work, is brought to you by a largely volunteer crew and made possible by generous donations from our readers and fans. If you’d like to support our work, you can join ...
Note: This Webworm discusses sexual assault and rape. Please read with care.Hi,A few weeks ago I reported on how one of New Zealand’s richest men, Nick Mowbray (he and his brother own Zuru and are worth an estimated $20 billion), had taken to sharing posts by a British man called ...
The final Atlas Network playbook puzzle piece is here, and it slipped in to Aotearoa New Zealand with little fan fare or attention. The implications are stark.Today, writes Dr Bex, the submission for the Crimes (Countering Foreign Interference) Amendment Bill closes: 11:59pm January 16, 2025.As usual, the language of the ...
Excitement in the seaside village! Look what might be coming! 400 million dollars worth of investment! In the very beating heart of the village! Are we excited and eager to see this happen, what with every last bank branch gone and shops sitting forlornly quiet awaiting a customer?Yes please, apply ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to stand firm and work with allies to progress climate action as Donald Trump signals his intent to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. ...
The Green Party has welcomed the provisional ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and reiterated its call for New Zealand to push for an end to the unlawful occupation of Palestine. ...
The Green Party welcomes the extension of the deadline for Treaty Principles Bill submissions but continues to call on the Government to abandon the Bill. ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Jon Kroll and Aimee McCammon have been appointed to the New Zealand Film Commission Board, Arts Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “I am delighted to appoint these two new board members who will bring a wealth of industry, governance, and commercial experience to the Film Commission. “Jon Kroll has been an ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has hailed a drop in the domestic component of inflation, saying it increases the prospect of mortgage rate reductions and a lower cost of living for Kiwi households. Stats NZ reported today that inflation was 2.2 per cent in the year to December, the second consecutive ...
Two new appointed members and one reappointed member of the Employment Relations Authority have been announced by Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden today. “I’m pleased to announce the new appointed members Helen van Druten and Matthew Piper to the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and welcome them to ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has delivered a refreshed team focused on unleashing economic growth to make people better off, create more opportunities for business and help us afford the world-class health and education Kiwis deserve. “Last year, we made solid progress on the economy. Inflation has fallen significantly and now ...
Veterans’ Affairs and a pan-iwi charitable trust have teamed up to extend the reach and range of support available to veterans in the Bay of Plenty, Veterans Minister Chris Penk says. “A major issue we face is identifying veterans who are eligible for support,” Mr Penk says. “Incredibly, we do ...
A host of new appointments will strengthen the Waitangi Tribunal and help ensure it remains fit for purpose, Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka says. “As the Tribunal nears its fiftieth anniversary, the appointments coming on board will give it the right balance of skills to continue its important mahi hearing ...
Almost 22,000 FamilyBoost claims have been paid in the first 15 days of the year, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The ability to claim for FamilyBoost’s second quarter opened on January 1, and since then 21,936 claims have been paid. “I’m delighted people have made claiming FamilyBoost a priority on ...
The Government has delivered a funding boost to upgrade critical communication networks for Maritime New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand, ensuring frontline search and rescue services can save lives and keep Kiwis safe on the water, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “New Zealand has ...
Mahi has begun that will see dozens of affordable rental homes developed in Gisborne - a sign the Government’s partnership with Iwi is enabling more homes where they’re needed most, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. Mr Potaka attended a sod-turning ceremony to mark the start of earthworks for 48 ...
New Zealand welcomes the ceasefire deal to end hostilities in Gaza, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Over the past 15 months, this conflict has caused incomprehensible human suffering. We acknowledge the efforts of all those involved in the negotiations to bring an end to the misery, particularly the US, Qatar ...
The Associate Minster of Transport has this week told the community that work is progressing to ensure they have a secure and suitable shipping solution in place to give the Island certainty for its future. “I was pleased with the level of engagement the Request for Information process the Ministry ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour says he is proud of the Government’s commitment to increasing medicines access for New Zealanders, resulting in a big uptick in the number of medicines being funded. “The Government is putting patients first. In the first half of the current financial year there were more ...
New Zealand's first-class free trade deal and investment treaty with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been signed. In Abu Dhabi, together with UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, New Zealand Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, witnessed the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and accompanying investment treaty ...
The latest NZIER Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion, which shows the highest level of general business confidence since 2021, is a sign the economy is moving in the right direction, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “When businesses have the confidence to invest and grow, it means more jobs and higher ...
Events over the last few weeks have highlighted the importance of strong biosecurity to New Zealand. Our staff at the border are increasingly vigilant after German authorities confirmed the country's first outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in nearly 40 years on Friday in a herd of water buffalo ...
Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee reminds the public that they now have an opportunity to have their say on the rewrite of the Arms Act 1983. “As flagged prior to Christmas, the consultation period for the Arms Act rewrite has opened today and will run through until 28 February 2025,” ...
Complaints about disruptive behaviour now handled in around 13 days (down from around 60 days a year ago) 553 Section 55A notices issued by Kāinga Ora since July 2024, up from 41 issued during the same period in the previous year. Of that 553, first notices made up around 83 ...
The time it takes to process building determinations has improved significantly over the last year which means fewer delays in homes being built, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “New Zealand has a persistent shortage of houses. Making it easier and quicker for new homes to be built will ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is pleased to announce the annual list of New Zealand’s most popular baby names for 2024. “For the second consecutive year, Noah has claimed the top spot for boys with 250 babies sharing the name, while Isla has returned to the most popular ...
Work is set to get underway on a new bus station at Westgate this week. A contract has been awarded to HEB Construction to start a package of enabling works to get the site ready in advance of main construction beginning in mid-2025, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“A new Westgate ...
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Why your boss wants to track your heartbeat
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/71168837/why-your-boss-wants-to-track-your-heartbeat
A technology enhanced financial crash coming to a world near you – soon.
Really, it’s bad enough listening to these psychopaths already without getting them to do more of it faster.
Kinda screws the idea that high staff turnover (90 day trials and such like) or no tea breaks improve productivity. Business as sport. What horseshit. Someone having a heart attack or stroke would show up in their data as “highly productive”. I can’t believe we allow these fools to walk around freely and define our futures. I’d attach the “heartbeat” device to my cock and get a bonus every month. haw haw haw.
Just read online by someone that his mother, who is in Greece has just heard monkey being interviewed by CNBC? about the tppa. Where is he and why the secrecy? Didn’t see him rushing onto the paddock to drink from the Bledisoe Cup before anyone else.8
He was one TV one this morn will be on delay about 8:15 belittling protesters and saying labour did it to so snafu
The neo-liberal capitalist system is destroying the earth.
“After seeing the impact of rare earth mining myself, it’s impossible to view the gadgets I use every day in the same way,” he writes. “As I watched Apple announce their smart watch recently, a thought crossed my mind: once we made watches with minerals mined from the Earth and treated them like precious heirlooms; now we use even rarer minerals and we’ll want to update them yearly. ”
More here
http://inhabitat.com/chinas-massive-toxic-lake-will-make-you-question-buying-another-electronic-device/
Trotter had an article on that up on The Daily Blog yesterday. I left a comment:
That latter is actually the problem, the prime cause of the destruction caused by capitalism.
Yep, the problem with capitalism is that it does not take into account all the requirements of people and the planet.
Capitalism has a very limited use. Unfortunately the trinkets that it has brought to many has blinded them into thinking that capitalism can be used for all sorts of things…. blinded by bling …..
After reading history I’ve come to the conclusion that capitalism is what societies go into before they die. Like people get to old age and then die.
Life of a person goes: Born, youth, middle age, old age, death.
Life of a society goes: Communism, expansion, maintenance, capitalism, death.
Got an example of a society that has followed this cycle?
Pretty much all of them.
Pick one at random. Show how what it started with was communism. Define “death” as you have used it in this context.
You forget that Communism has been tried only in poor countries with despotic traditions in government. Russia is still a relatively poor country, and Stalin has been called the most recent of its succession of great but very cruel Tsars.. (A miracle that it got to be a super-power.)
Name one heavily industrialised that has tried Socialism, let alone Communism. You cannot. So there was never an even contest between Capitalism and Communism in the first place.
Easy to set up silly demands, is it not?
Draco was quite specific. “Communism, expansion, maintenance, capitalism, death.” he said. Pretty much all societies have followed this course, he reckons. I’m just asking him to name one. Hardly unreasonable.
I think that by communism, Draco was not conjuring up Stalin or Mao. He meant ‘primitive’ communities living without as yet notions of private property and profit-gouging..
The word Communism is a red rag to a bull for some people, who go viral over it without thinking about what the basic meaning actually is.
Your challenge is at loggerheads with what Draco intended.
Enough misfires for a while, I think.
I don’t think any of your previous history teachers would be very impressed DTB.
I suspect that consensus democracy is the early stage of societies – band cultures usually have one.
Yeah, that’s what I said.
You people will probably also enjoy this guy:
http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/
I got his book of images of large scale industrial impact when it first came out.
IMHO he is better on some levels than Salgado, but with less of a human touch.
morgan is on the money
“To reduce the national flag to a brand has to be the most banal, vacuous attempt by Corporate NZ to take over our identity. It shows no respect for who we are, what our national identity is, it’s crass commercialisation, nothing more. He even has the gall to boast of the “billions” we’ll make if we Coca Colarise ourselves.”
and
“The Union Jack is a clever compilation of the crosses of three members, the Stars & Stripes tells how 50 states emerged from the original 13, while the Rainbow Nation acknowledges the plethora of tribes that built South Africa. Now compare those to the Canadian maple leaf – it’s very pretty and instantly recognisable much as many corporate logos are. But what an opportunity lost – there is no underlying story, no mention of where those folk came from, who they are, where they’re going. It’s nothing more than a brand.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/71124585/the-new-zealand-flag-should-be-more-than-a-brand
yes we could tell our story, I hope we do, the real story, but somehow I think we will waste this and sell out to a corporate logo – that will fit in with the sellout of this country by TPPA and the rest of the mangey pack of dogs key is running with.
“To reduce the national flag to a brand has to be the most banal, vacuous attempt by Corporate NZ to take over our identity. It shows no respect for who we are, what our national identity is, it’s crass commercialisation, nothing more. He even has the gall to boast of the “billions” we’ll make if we Coca Colarise ourselves.”
I’m guessing he’s referring to the PM’s pushing of the silver fern and Morgan is right. The problem is, amongst others. the silver fern has become a logo.
Well, we’re not going to put the union jack on stuff are we?
Maybe the Kiwi with the taiaha, but it’s a bit aggressive.
The stars are a bit nondescript
Which leaves the silver fern.
When I see the silver fern I think All Blacks and our Netball team. It’s become a logo and also has the disadvantage of being difficult to draw. At least the maple leaf has the advantage of being symmetrical.
I quite like the stars but they need to be placed with careful consideration otherwise we end up with a third world country flag.
The kiwi emblem I associate with our military.
You are repeating the line you are told to like a good lapdog. Some people just can’t think for themselves.
no, BM has honestly held that belief ever since he read the talking points for the day.
I liked the one the other day – the one with the fish hook on it. I feel that it represents NZ well.
“Well, we’re not going to put the union jack on stuff are we?”
Well why did Key bring back British honours then? Do you not see the inconsistency? A bloke running the most cravenly sycophantic foreign policy in years pretending to strike a blow for our independent identity by changing the flag?
Hypocritical twerp.
+1
‘Twerp’. Now I haven’t heard that word for years..but AB You’re so right. It’s a perfect descriptor.
If Morgan wants to keep the flag, he better vote in the referendum.
Key put out this vid on his face book page explaining his view on the flag, got to hand it to the man, he’s brilliant at getting people to see something his way.
https://www.facebook.com/pmjohnkey/videos/vb.12635800428/10153534317450429/?type=2&theater
Already got 563,493 Views.
yep agreed – he is good at that and we are all the poorer because of it. Often substance is more important than appearances but many in this land are just too foolish to get it – key knows this and plays on it, takes advantage of it – a small town preacher with the gift of the glib and everynight the men (and women) come around and lay their money down…
The Left- Telling everyone they are stupid since ages ago.
foolish is not stupid but you are
No. Just pointing out the snake oil salesman.
Have you never seen anyone taken advantage of by a snake oil merchant infused?
No infused, just keeping smug arrogant wankers like yourself in line.
We’re trying to help you infused – though as a dyed-in-the-wool righty you present pretty strong evidence for the ‘rightwing are chumps’ hypothesis.
The Gnats tend instead to present evidence that the rightwing are crooks. Their rightwingery is secondary to their interest in stealing public property.
Morgan is simply exercising his right to an opinion, just like John Key is in his Facebook clip.
Don’t tell me you advocate the silencing of voices like Morgan’s and others.
Not at all.
Opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one.
Morgan likes the current flag and wants to keep it, which is hardly surprising because he’s an old boy.
Myself, I want the flag changed because its naff and unrepresentative of modern NZ.
Tell the truth BM. You want to change the flag to a fern because that’s what John Key has told you you want.
So transparent.
“Morgan likes the current flag and wants to keep it”
which is why he ran a competition for ideas on a new flag…
I doubt there are half a million people who care about the flag debate enough to watch. Clearly fake view count.
Do you not under stand the power of the like button.?
Sums up BM’s world.
You do know how elections work right? It tends to help if the majority of the voting public like what you have to say
Do you not understand the power of scripts?
“…Now compare those to the Canadian maple leaf – it’s very pretty and instantly recognisable much as many corporate logos are…”
He thinks it’s about the manufacture of maple syrup? Ok so it’s stuff.co.nz opinion, and Gareth Morgan is either willfully misleading people, or doesn’t have Google, but the Canadian maple leaf has been associated with Canadian heraldry as a symbol of Canada for a hundred or so years before 1965, or whenever it was the red/white maple flag was installed.
If he wants to argue that the silver fern isn’t traditionally a NZ heraldic symbol then he might have a point, but NZ doesn’t have much heraldic history yet – people create that with their flag/coat of arms-making. Anyone looking at the Canadian flag now knows what it represents because the Canadian people have presented their actions and attitudes under that banner. Is he saying they have no national identity, no standing? Is he either insulting, stupid or condescending? Sheesh. Why be so sloppy about it if it weren’t just a propagation of lies just because he doesn’t want a new flag. Any flag starts out relatively meaningless, as simply a symbol of ideals, aspirations or values. Meaning is applied to it by people’s memories after the fact.
This was in the comments on Morgans Facebook post today I would be interested to know if this guys onto something.??
“”Hey, don’t mean to to freak y’all out (actually, yes I do!) but there’s a lot more to this NZ flag change malarkey than most people realise…
I was open to changing the current NZ flag, but I also didn’t understand (like most people) the LEGAL significance of doing so…
Why not change the flag?
Here’s why not – its called ‘Due Authority’
DUE AUTHORITY in a nation like NZ is represented on the NZ flag by the Union Jack and signifies that we are a constitutional monarchy.
A change of flag means not only that we have taken a major step to removing the DUE AUTHORITY of the crown. It also means we take away the very power which enforces both the 1981 Bill of Rights Act (the closest thing NZ has to an entrenched Constitution) and the founding plank upon which the Treaty of Waitangi has meaning.
It does not matter if you’re pro or anti monarchy but if you take away the DUE AUTHORITY of law (which includes our flag) you then open the gates of hell, or to be precise the means in which John Key can legally sign the TPPA (Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement). Currently if the matter was taken to court it would undoubtedly end up at the Supreme Court.
The Privy Council is our former chief court and unlike the new US-styled NZ supreme Court, has its legal interpretation interpreted by Judges that are picked by the Law Lords of the Common Wealth.
In the new system those Judges are picked by parliament – uh oh.
At the moment it is likely that a legal challenge could be mounted against the TPPA, even if John does sign it, even with the Supreme Court Change, in that it breaches the 1981 Bill of Rights and the Crowns obligation to Iwi as set out in the Treaty of Waitangi.
However, if the DUE AUTHORITY of the State can be removed then the TPPA can not only be signed but it then means that once signed the DUE AUTHORITY of the TPPA would supersede the power of any NZ laws already in place. Such as the 1981 Bill of Rights etc.””
Please feel free to copy & paste or share… A lot of people don’t seek education but will take it when offered!
Given that we only got the flag in 1902, it looks like bollocks to me.
It reminds me of the militia-types in the US who get in a tizz because the flag in the courtroom has gold trim.
Yes just goggled “due authority” and it came up with a couple of fringe looking sites one called misty mountain , basically saying the same as the above, someone causing mischief and leading a few astray .
Dunno about causing mischief, at least intentionally.
It’s the standard internet drill: too much overthinking, not enough understanding.
‘Just on half the country’s directors aren’t happy about their pay as workload piles up and more face the axe for poor performance.
Directors Institute chief executive Simon Arcus said while there had been a “moderate” 4 per cent increase in the past year, workloads had almost doubled, reflecting an environment where boards are facing more scrutiny and regulation than ever before.
Survey data shows only 50.6 per cent are satisfied with their remuneration. Median fees for private listed companies were $78,570, up 22 per cent over the past four years.’
G,Bradley…NZH…..
doesn’t your heart just bleed for these…unfortunates!
Just shows you don’t have a clue.
As one of these people, your work week is pretty much 80 hours every week. You fuck up and it’s the end of your career. Same with ceos.
Jaysus. You work 80 hours/week and still find the time to clog the internet bitching and moaning about the Labour Party.
Depending on whom infused works for, the two aren’t completely exclusive 🙂
The other option is that the effort infused puts in to their “work” is as half-arsed as the effort they put into their thoughts here.
Poor infused, working 80 hours a week to barely achieve what others do in 40…
you are the one without a clue….there are many professional directors who warm seats on many boards.80hrs a week…what crap…as for fucking up…lets take a look at a few recent cases…Shipley/Mainzeal…now Genesis chair,Withers /Feltex,now at MRP….so you really are quite ignorant ,illinformed or delusional.
Really? So why is it that so many bank CEOs, directors and other sundries are still in control of our economies after they crashed it?
“………… your work week is pretty much 80 hours every week. You fuck up and it’s the end of your career. Same with ceos.”
Oh diddums my hearts bleeds for them,
That will be the day I have seen fuck ups by so called “managers” where the remaining staff has to clean up the shit afterwards and nine times out of ten they walk away with a big golden handshake, later to emerge in a top position in another organisation.,
Try running your own business as a small operator see how many hours you then work, or doing two jobs to make ends meet on very low money.
Of course if it is too much for them, they can always find a job with a zero hour contract.
Yeah man, all sympathy to you, I only work about 50 hours a week, in a physically demanding job, must be hard sittin’ on your arse for 80s hours a week!@
Sorry to hear infused but it sounds like you’re not in the ‘Club’ if you work 80+hrs and get shafted.
btw it’s not a club you get asked to join, you’re born into it or you can aspire to it but never be part of it.
Hotchin thought he was in the club like Muir, Watson etc are but he gets to hold the can in public like a good south akl boy while others skate away from the hanover/elders collapse.
“As one of these people, your work week is pretty much 80 hours every week. ”
Umm….. directors wouldn’t even do 8hrs per week. It’s not a full time job.
LOL who ya kidding
We need progressives to be on Boards.
And they will have to train and qualify with experience for it, like everyone else.
Thinking about what we need to be able to manage our world better. It seems that we are at a crucial point in time. We have had two big wars that have taken us near to the highest point of modern day barbarism, have improved on that with acceptance of torture in fact and spirit, and introduced depleted uranium and agent orange. Our destructiveness and drift from afraid or vengeful human beings to callous, murderous behaviour regarded as a norm is frightening.
I think some persistent group has to introduce and carry over the years, a Day of Examination of our Souls where we meet and look at all the things that we humans have done in the past year, and find a way how we can collectively and individually do something about that for the next year. That would include approaching others, talking about how we can do something personally and collectively.
This would be a day for a person’s serious thinking, and not in churches. This is something that needs to come from the heart of people themselves – not diddling around from religions with incense and ritual and asking for forgiveness from the Great Spirit. It’s too late for that. It has happened and we have not been able to stop it. So we need to think, and gather strength from each other, and act on positive ideas put forward.
(About religion, every year the churches go out and intone the same stuff on Anzac Day. They should include something different each year – a reading of some anti-war poetry, some personal anecdote from a returned service survivor. But hey why fix something while its working smoothly. Stick with the status quo. It gives people confidence.)
I have the horrible feeling that we have reached the high point in our human time on earth and passed it. But it would be good to be wrong. There are so many wonderful people, lots of ordinary people with good traits, and some very cold, pathological people that we need to look out for and corral. If we look at our politicians and aspirational money and power people who are driven by profit to put life at risk, they are very visible. Less visible are the fellow travellers in our midst, and the weaknesses in our own hearts and minds.
While we can all criticise others, all of us need to have a strong understanding of ourselves that involves our strengths and our humbling faults. Also, then a workable ideal for how things should be, ready for when the old diseased system breaks down. Dreamers then are not much use, the people who know human weaknesses and how to avoid, manage and survive them in the kindest and fairest ways are the stalwarts, along with those with practical skills plus community spirit.
Personally I think the main thing we need is diversity: political, cultural, gender, sexual identity… as much as possible of everything.
Not as a pc platitude, the simple fact is that diversity inhibits groupthink. I was involved in the governance of a reasonable-sized organisation, and one of the most valuable roles was filled by a guy whose job seemed to largely consist of “nope: not possible/legal to do that”. So we’d work our way around the issues until we had a more robust way of actually doing what we wanted. But too many people like that guy would have restricted the variety of ideas we came up with, and we would have been stuck in that narrow “can’t do that” focus, even if the impulse had occurred to us. Different backgrounds mean different skillsets and different ideas.
Don’t get me wrong, I still think lots of people who disagree with me are dicks, but even dicks have a constructive role to play sometimes 🙂
The damage of inflating one asset class using low cost credit
http://www.mybudget360.com/the-average-net-worth-by-age-real-estate-boost-housing-net-worth/
Interesting that National would support leverage and buying businesses with the intention of stripping its assets and scraping it down to bones to get the money to pay back the lender for the purchase price. Yet they make ACC have money in hand for prophesied costs of the present injured and damaged far into the future. One law for the cowboys and another for the poorer Indians.
Key yet again rides the coat tails of the ABs win over the weekend, engineering himself closer to McCaw’s “brand” with a second knighthood offer and by saying he’d make a good prime minister.
Disgraceful highjacking of the National team.
Key is becoming a parody of himself with these displays and nice to see the true intent of knighthoods being put out there by Te kaihokohoko
Why National keeps winning.
Note: Opinion.
Because they’ve figured out you don’t have to make everyone happy, you only have to make the majority happy.
http://parenethical.com/phil140win11/tag/greatest-happiness-principle/
It’s called utilitarianism. The problem with it is that the worst off end up being even worse off because the government doesn’t have to be concerned about them.
From the link:
“The Greatest Happiness principle in general is good, but it has many flaws as any ethical systems does. Due to our inability to perfectly predict the future according to our actions (assuming he future is capable of being altered with our actions), the results we desire are capable of, and often do, fall short of what was intended. If unforeseen parameters caused all of our actions to backfire, even though we were attempting to act in accordance with Utilitarianism, we would all be considered immoral as our results only caused pain. If this happened to everyone in the entire world, then no man could be considered moral. The Greatest Happiness principle also allows for us to cause pain to others as long as a majority of the people become happier. We could essentially just steal resources from smaller foreign countries and drive them to poverty as long as more people benefit than lose. Things such as slavery, bullying, rape, racism, and murder could be justified under Utilitarianism as long as the majority prefers it. Murderers could justify their action by simply killing all of those who opposed them. Once their numbers became the majority, murdering became justifiable as moral. Lastly, the Greatest Happiness principle eliminates the usage of the laws provided by our government. As long as the person’s actions increase general utility, then it does not matter how many laws are broken in the process. We could all go speeding down roads and ignoring traffic signals/signs to our full enjoyment despite there being speed limits as long as few people cared and most people would be having a blast.”
Question is what strategies do you use against a utilitarian government?
National aren’t making the majority happy – they’re only making the rich happy by helping them fuck everybody else over.
Even if that’s true people are still voting for them.
Yes, it’s truly amazing how many people will vote against their own self-interest.
Lies, damned lies, and oh look a flag!
Yep. He has spilt society and set us against one another.
An example this morning was when he trivialised the TPPA protests and compartmentalised the protesters into a box of people who don’t vote for him.
Paul Henry embarrassed by young caller this morning;
His mood was not improved by the raucous laughter at his expense.
Paul Henry, TV3, Monday 17 August 2015, 8:10 a.m.
Paul Henry is a shameless National Party partisan as well as being John Key’s chief cheerleader. He is a control freak, who demands total obedience from his underlings. Neither his newsreader Hillary Barry nor his dim sports guy Jim Kayes has the ability or the gumption to challenge most of the offensive or ignorant things Henry regularly unloads. Occasionally, as we shall see, they will register their disapproval by falling silent or, as happened with the following phone call from a young viewer, join in with the subversive laughter of the technicians and producers. Henry is all too aware when his authority is undermined like this, and he takes it out on Jim Kayes above all.
But first, let’s see how a simple phone call derailed him this morning….
PAUL HENRY: We have Zakaiah from Pahiatua on the phone. How old are you, Zakaiah?
ZAKARAIAH: I’m eleven.
PAUL HENRY: All right, Zakaiah, do you think Richie McCaw would make a good prime minister?
ZAKARAIAH: Yeah, better than John Key!
EVERYONE IN THE STUDIO EXCEPT HENRY: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
….Awkward silence…..
PAUL HENRY: [grinning awkwardly, like a raccoon eating shit off a wire brush] Oooohhhh.
ZAKARAIAH: And he doesn’t need to change the flag.
…..Awkward silence…..
PAUL HENRY: Well I agree with you there, Zakaiah! But not the bit about John Key; I think he’s doing a good job.
…..Awkward silence…..
A little later, Henry reads out the nominations for the New Zealander of the Year award, with his slaves obediently providing the sound effects…
HENRY: Most of them are shite. Professor Jane Kelsey.
HILLARY BARRY: Urggghhh!
HENRY: Nicky Hager.
JIM KAYES: Groan.
HILLARY BARRY: Urrrggghh!
HENRY: Helen Kelly.
……Silence. Even these two slaves know that it’s not permissible to slag off the very ill Helen Kelly, even if she is one of those despised creatures, a union activist.
HENRY: Tim Finn.
JIM KAYES: Why have they nominated Tim Finn and not Neil?
HENRY: [suddenly irritated] Oh I don’t know! I’m not up with the minutiae of these things. But the thing is, most of these people are shite. If
Richie was nominated, they would fall off the list. I’m going to nominate Richie McCaw for New Zealander of the Year.
….Awkward pause…..
JIM KAYES: Have you got a man crush on Richie McCaw?
….Awkward pause….
PAUL HENRY: [speaking evenly and slowly, with an angry edge to his voice] No, I haven’t. But I notice that most of the women removed their wedding rings when he came into the studio. Hillary did.
HILLARY BARRY: My husband’s watching this….
+1
+2
“PAUL HENRY: [grinning awkwardly, like a raccoon eating shit off a wire brush] Oooohhhh. ”
I like it, That must be the quote of the year
“……..eating shit off a wire brush” – the best !
Winston has been reading the standard.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11498424
Excellent piece but Winston had better be prepared for his column to be discontinued for criticising the government.
Voters in rural nz are ripe for the plucking and Winston knows it.
In today’s farmers weekly there is three new listing, short notice auctions ,if kiwi farmers see a flood of land ownership go off shore look out national.
It’s already happening. Not just Asian investors either – the whole world knows our country is ripe for the plucking..
In the US farms are generally only owned by big companies – they control everything – farming are monocultures and collect they collect the subsidies.
NZ are not selling the milk in these free trade deals they are selling the farms.
We are giving free access to buy us up, not trade with us.
QFT
Does read like it…
A question for any who may know and who listen to Nine to Noon on RNZ.
Why is Mike Williams unwilling or unable to dispute the propaganda espoused by Matthew Hooton re TPP , particularly noticeable these past 2 weeks. It was left to Kathryn Ryan to bring some semblance of balance and rationale to the topic today…Mr Williams may as well have been absent.
Believe it or not, Williams was there, actually: he backed up Kathryn Ryan by saying “Exactly!” in an emphatic tone of voice after she firmly contradicted one of Hooton’s rants.
At one other point, he actually had the guts to say: “I think Matt’s also been somewhat unfair to Professor Jane Kelsey.”
Otherwise it was a typical Mike Williams performance, including: “I’ve got a lot of time for Tim Groser” and (pathetically) “As Matt put it so eloquently…”
I’d have a lot of time for Groser too, to make sure the garlic, stakes, silver and holy water had taken effect. A pity Williams didn’t mean it that way though. “Useless” doesn’t begin to describe him, and I haven’t the energy to finish.
If he lived in Syria, Grant Smithies would be praising President Assad’s taste in music
Morning Report, Radio NZ National, 7:56 a.m., Monday 17 August 2015
adulation n., excessive devotion to someone; servile flattery
SUSIE FERGUSON: President Obama’s Spotify account includes the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Coldplay—Guyon’s favorite band!—and Al Green. To discuss this, welcome to music critic Grant Smithies. Well, what do you reckon about the President’s taste in music?
GRANT SMITHIES: I reckon I’d go around to his place for a beer! It sounds like it’s a genuine list, and not one made up to impress the electorate, unlike, say, Gordon Brown, who proclaimed his “deep love” for the Arctic Monkeys a few years ago. It’s a pretty interesting selection, although I am concerned about the presence of Coldplay on the list. But to be fair, he’s had things to do. He’s been busy!
SUSIE FERGUSON: Ha ha ha ha ha!
GRANT SMITHIES: I wonder what sort of list George W. Bush would have made. Probably from the cheesiest end of the country spectrum, plus some triumphalist rock tunes. It would be the stuff of nightmares!
SUSIE FERGUSON: Ha ha ha ha ha!
For the benefit of people like Grant Smithies, THIS is the stuff of nightmares…..
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/-sp-us-drone-strikes-kill-1147
Listening to Guyon and Susie on Radionz early, I have noticed the odd banter being dropped in which makes me shudder. I am particularly sensitive to this as I have grown to hate the crap on television between partner-faces presenting there. Although there are things that I criticise about RadioNZ, I treasure them, and I also tell them so from time to time. They do a good job, and anyone who wants a reliable, truthful, well run public radio station, must listen to it and give feedback about it and its coverage, support it and ensure that it continues. We don’t want it killed by a thousand poison arrows, weak acid weakening its structure, and termites cutting through its supports!
It already is not being maintained properly as it has a decreasing budget. We don’t want government doing a HousingNZ on our radio, and the whole government house-of-cards decline policy.
I don’t want to hear on Radio details of what goes through presenters’ minds being broadcast to try connecting with the tiny minds in the youthful community. I fear RadioNZ being dumbed down to satisfy the butterfly minds of the masses and the ‘superior but limited’ interests of our chattering classes. I remember Guy and Sus bantering about fave James Bonds. This morning it was whether Cold Play was good. STFU. For sure, keep a bit of lightness in from the news or some recent event in NZ that deserves comment.
I can see the extent of the attacks which RadioNZ suffers from the eternal carping of the RW barbarians firing shots in all directions. I found an example in the July 2008 Listener item from Bill Ralston’s Life. I can’t give you a link because the Listener doesn’t put up content it just lists the headings of items.
His thoughts:’We are currently being served an insipid menu of stewed apple and bananas, admirably suited to the rest home RNZ National has become.” “I am convinced these days RNZ National is broadcasting almost solely to itself and the few dozen people who control its funding.”
Ralston flicks off RNZ to Auckland Maori Mai FM, a hip-hop station. “Aside from developing a taste for the new R&B, I have no idea why I’ve done so except for the fact the hosts sound as if they still live, breathe and have fun.
Actually, it does not matter if commercial radio is good or bad: you can simply change stations. It doesn’t cost you a cent. If public radio is bad, it costs you well north of $25 million a year, whether you listen or not.
The dreadfully smug, hand-wringing liberal contortions of RNZ could originate only from its home in Wellington…” and he has a go at politically-correct politicians. “RNZ National is the voice of Helen Clark’s [NZ]: smug, self-righteous and desperately dull.”
Strange that, to me, the same comments apply directly to his own output. He and his opinion are irrelevant to a well-functioning society. I feel his spite though, and his complaints about cost to the taxpayer echo those used to get rid of our national television service. A mother was used as a bellwether, complaining that her son needed his tv for other purposes than watching programmes, but being registered as owner, had to pay $60? for the privilege. So of course we had to get rid of taxpayer direct charging from the rest of us, despite many of us not getting much value from our general taxes.
There was a good comment by Russell Brown on Ralston’s diatribe even touching on his liberal tribe. Brown makes the point that there was at one time a tendency to resist change and need for more youth input, but that no longer applied.
http://publicaddress.net/hardnews/radio-times/
+100… I agree Greywarshark….’Morning Report’ is increasingly nauseating ‘entertainment’ infotainment advertorials for the John Key Nactional Party
…I find Espiner’s ‘interviews’ with John Key ( invitation to spin and slime on and on… ) to be servile ( an interview lie down PR opportunity for John Key) …and Espiner’s questioning of Professor Jane Kelsey to be personal attacking, repetitive and shallow…only she added depth to the non-interview
At least Kathryn Ryan tackled Matthew Hooton’s spin and attacks on Jane Kelsey…rather than discussing the substantive issues at hand ….of the downside of the TPPA…and the extent of New Zealanders opposition to it…with its disadvantages to New Zealand re IT industry , copyright, medicines, sovereignty etc…
Mora in the afternoons is freakin bad too. Either deliberately nieve, plain stupid or weak, probably all of those, he will not hold anyone to account the best he’s got is a forced cold flanelling, something Key probably got from his mother when he was under the age of 10. He says things like, but they wouldn’t sign the TPPA if they knew it was going to be bad would they?
Great post, greywarshark.
It is to my mind criminal that the marketing industry now rules our media because they fund it, and that even affects State-Owned Enterprises like TVNZ, whose current CEO is a guy from the marketing industry, not from broadcasting.
So we now have, as you say, the team of two announcers introducing their personal views onto what should be impartially-presented news, where one person is quite enough.
To make it worse, we now have regular advertising on Radio NZ. After each news-on-the-hour, RNZ advertise their own programmes, with increasingly commercial techniques.
God in heaven – I take refuge in the National Programme to get away from the vile commercial cacklemush of ads on commercial radio. And what do I find? Radio NZ National is now mimicking its inferiors. (Actually, it should still be called National Radio.)
Somebody needs to throw the money-changers out of the temple again – the best thing Christ ever supposedly did.
Are they making RNZ so close to commercial so that nobody will miss it when they finally sell it off?
@In Vino
Your opinions are what I feel. I am not absolutist about presentation, it doesn’t have to be totally dry, but I fear that the boffins at the top are hell-bent on matching targets rather than adopting a balanced viewpoint to change of presentation and introducing some ‘lighter’ news. Where is the line in the sand I wonder? And of course such lines can be washed away.
I fear that they want to dilute the hard NZ news, with world news from a narrow base, and exaggerating the importance of hard news from overseas, ie interviews with officials in the USA about their latest disaster or outrage which then gets repeated in short form every news hour during the day. That fits the mindset of politicians following ‘overseas’ practices when considering new policies, which implies worldwide, but is limited to the 5-Eyes countries only., being the dominant comet USA, trailing in its tail – UK, Canada, Australia and ….panting along, NZ.
I fear too they wish to bring magazine-type weekend listening into the Kim Hill/Wallace Chapman slot with art, leisure, food and wine, style, with middle class women and men dominating. They represent those on household incomes higher than most, and can consider such pleasant things and fob off concerns that should have time for serious discussion in these slots.
Yesterday I gave Bill Ralston’s deriding take on the RadioNZ, in 2008. I suggest that now he would come up with a similar cant, except with different targets. No changes would appease his wonky viewpoint. And aligning with him are people like Hosking, whose very expression in today’s post displays a mixture of derisive attitudes.
Personally, I do know about presentation of content from long interest in consuming it, and some efforts at presentation of facts and discussion of ideas, so when I like something on radio or not, it isn’t some random whim.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201766766/political-commentators-mike-williams-and-matthew-hooton
Kathryn Ryan gets rather stroppy at old Matt Hoots…onya Kathryn.
Heard that but IMO Kathryn needs to be a lot tougher on Hooton he is constantly interrupting and boring us with his right wing rubbish.
Mike also should crunch Hooton more often.
Take a leaf out of WC Fields book.
“Never give a sucker a second break”
The object I think is to draw out the right and left approach without dissecting it or boning it for the fillets! It is interesting as stats for employment are interesting – they remain committed to a method, and the differences then show up as attention grabbing and indicative.
& right at the end, when discussing the flag, Hooton checks his cards
and plays a ‘do this or the terrorists win!’
“The only issue against the black flag of course is ISIS.
The funny thing is are we going to allow ISIS because it happens to have a black flag, determine that we shouldn’t?”
*Dubya & Cheney wipe away a tear*
http://upriser.com/posts/you-grow-up-wanting-to-be-luke-skywalker-then-realize-you-ve-become-a-stormtrooper-for-the-empire
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/71179822/opposition-political-leaders-accusing-mike-hosking-of-political-bias
Theres no arguement now that Winston Peters is the leader of the opposition
Psychobabble theory says people see the world as containing more of their self-affirming beliefs than it actually does. Shaw has an interest in people being scared by various things, so he’s the opposite of the phenomena, but do people really adjust their lives to suit a Hosking/Herald/radio opinion? I regularly test the absurdity of my opinions by opening my mouth, and no one else holds my views, but what Shaw claims is that a large number – we’re talking millions – slavishly adhere to Hoskings implied commands. None them have preferences, or can choose anything of their own accord. It isn’t a very convincing claim. I’d expect people to be driving off bridges or walking in circles for hours at the supermarket if they were that lost for what to think or do. Hosking is an expression of the environment he works in, and co-incidentally, people would like to own his car. Not sure that is the same as them arriving at the conclusion that thinking like Mike Hosking will get them a Maserati. They could just steal his one, for instance, or go all hopelessly surly and scratch it, out of spite.
No, no there isn’t.
If you want to make that assertion, there might be. What with the seating plan in the House, party votes, and suchlike.
But then you’re just shitting yourself because the opposition parties are fighting the government rather than each other.
Far too early in the election cycle to be worried about anything
I bet keys thinking about leaving again now things ain’t going so good .
I just had a vision of you and hoskings hugging his leg and pleading for him not to leave yous behind as he jets off to foreign shores for good.
This is good, now we can openly talk about media bias. Maybe we can see if any parts of the corporate sellout media don’t show a National bias.
So, you remember when the Problem Gambling Foundation lost it’s government contract and all the RWNJs, including Peter Dunne, said it was all done above board? Yeah, about that:
Totally corrupt in other words.
Federated Farmers complaining about proposed water quality standards in Southland –
http://www.fedfarm.org.nz/publications/media-releases/article.asp?id=2461#.VdFW_bKqpHw
This one is so ironic, it is actually quite funny. I recommend checking out Federated Farmer’s Facebook page to keep abreast of its latest musings.
Federated Farmers wants government to fast track dairy irrigation projects to help communities hit by the falling price of milk – http://www.fedfarm.org.nz/publications/media-releases/article.asp?id=2455#.VdFYw7KqpHx
CrestClean calls for Cleaning Industry Training Standards
So, I wonder how many RWNJs are going to continue to claim that cleaners don’t have any skills or don’t take any risks.
I can’t stand this certification and having industry standards for literally everything. If you are a good cleaner then you can obviously clean well. Why should a piece of paper represent how good you are at the said skill. Say in IT, I could have all the experience in the world and not be certified, while someone could have zero experience but be certified and be looked at as the better candidate because they’re done a two day training course or something. There’s a whole lot of bullshit going around in our business world.
While I agree with you to a large extent my point was that the RWNJS always come out with the idea that cleaners and other under paid people don’t have any skills so a professional body saying that we need to recognise the skill set should put paid to that.
China’s yuan move could reignite Asian currency wars
See, this is why you don’t have FTAs that lock you into trading with a country that acts like this.
So, RadiolLive had this poll, right, where people voted four their preferred flags, right?
This person combined them. (Warning for possible damage to sight and mind.)
Kyle Lockwood will be knighted next year for services to the National Party.
Prof. Al Gillespie: “To a degree we have to trust the government.”
Why did Jim Mora ask this fellow to talk about the TPPA?
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Monday 17 August 2015
Jim Mora, Joe Bennett, Susan Guthrie, Noelle McCarthy
Jim Mora’s producers try to impart the appearance of credibility to this light chat show by going to a regular stable of academics, to get their thoughts on various issues. This can be a useful and enlightening exercise, but all too often it is neither, as anyone unfortunate enough to have listened to such academic guests as Tim Dare, Robert Patman, Jacqueline Rowarth, or Michael Bassett will testify.
Today’s big topic was the undemocratic and highly secretive TPPA talks that our government is engaged in. The token academic chosen to comment on it was Professor Al Gillespie from Waikato University. Long time Mora-sufferers will be familiar with Prof. Gillespie, who seems to have earned a doctorate in How To Say Nothing Meaningful. Unlike the formidably intelligent and forthright Jane Kelsey, Professor Gillespie is all wide-eyed optimism: “I think they will learn from this ,” he states in a tone of high seriousness, “and negotiations will not be as secretive in the future.”
A few minutes later he advises, again in the most scholarly manner he can muster: “To a degree we have to trust the government.”
Why did their producers go to this mealy-mouthed drip, instead of asking someone who actually knows something about the issue?
At 4:42 p.m. the host made what was quite possibly the most cynical and ignorant statement of the year so far—even on this dog of a programme. After Susan Guthrie, in her “Soapbox” contribution, had expressed her delight at the popularity of Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders, he posed the following question, in the loftiest tone he could muster….
JIM MORA: It’s one thing to say Jeremy Corbyn’s lovely and pure, but it’s another thing to make him Prime Minister, isn’t it?
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
On the few occasions there HAVE been decent and rigorous academics on the programme, they are likely to be subjected to ridicule by “comedians” like Gary McCormick….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11032011/#comment-306974
‘Had enough of Mike Hosking?’ – seventy percent voted to say, yes, he is clearly politically biased.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/71189005/had-enough-of-mike-hosking
For what it was worth, I registered my vote along with others who felt the same way.
Voted
At time of voting: 72% consider Hosking biased
And over 8,000 votes for the 72%.
Can anyone provide me a link to a UK based blog similar to The Standard? By similar I mean left leaning with a level of intelligent debate?
I’m keen to see how the Corbyn debate is going.
Go immediately to this site….
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/
If it doesn’t restore your faith in humanity, you would be one of the more than one thousand dolts—give or take a few comedians with a very dark sense of irony—-who clicked on the “He’s an outstanding journalist” option in the Hosking poll over on Stuff.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/08/14/fda-approves-oxycontin-kids/31711929/
Expanding the oversupply of powerful opiate based drugs to children now
Whatever could possibly go wrong….
http://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/overdose.html
Perhaps the expectation is by expanding the market, the number of opiate over-dose deaths may fall
You’re right, pain relief is for adults only, children should suffer….
//
Perhaps you left the sarcasm tag off, or perhaps you are just a bit thick
Nothing to note about the powerful painkillers already available to all and sundry
How about the >16,000 opiate over-doses every year in the USA alone
I wonder how many orders of magnitude it is for lives ruined / impacted through the addictions and suffering caused by these drugs
Oh, but the pain Joe, think of all the pain that has been prevented by the drugs…./sarc
Yes, people, and particularly children, should suffer with dignity and die in agony because drugs ….
//
@joe90 DNFTT
I suspect that DNFTT only works on trools, not nutbars.
Jesus Christ you actually are an idiot
Apologies, I thought you were joking
@northshoredic
Having been called out by Bill a few days back it seems you dont learn
I appreciate you have a career of endorsing protocols which are collapsing around you, that’s not an easy thing to deal with.
Either make a comment about the links and comments or take a fucken hike
Let me guess, you’re a seventh dilution woo-believer?.
Projection Deflection and Transference
These are the tactics of cowards
Run along Joe, you’re not up to it
I see the Fucking Spiv and his pack of crooks are now clamping down on items bought overseas on the internet, and these items are going to be subject to GST. Excellent, first class, as it will “level” the playing field for the struggling retailers. The Fucking Spiv said it will “collect” the millions that is not being paid in GST. When do you think we can expect a similiar “clamp down” on the millions of tax not paid by his spiv mates through tax avoidance and tax evasion
America.
julia cravenVerified account
@CurlyCrayy
Very bad call by NYT. Horrid, actually.
https://twitter.com/CurlyCrayy/status/633077080037687296
Storm clouds are gathering
“Doomsday clock for global market crash strikes one minute to midnight as central banks lose control
China currency devaluation signals endgame leaving equity markets free to collapse under the weight of impossible expectations”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/11805523/Doomsday-clock-for-global-market-crash-strikes-one-minute-to-midnight-as-central-banks-lose-control.html