Just finished reading that. Stock is absolutely on fire. Extraordinary given Stock is relatively evenhanded in her approach to gender politics. She's not holding back here, but speaking truth to power and the emperor with no clothes.
Partly thanks to Knox and the high levels of literacy he encouraged in schoolchildren for Bible-reading purposes, Scottish culture has a long and justly famed tradition of valuing independent thinking. There is a rejection of closed hierarchies of power, and a habit of nose-thumbing authority figures. Outward appearances of prestige are supposed to mean little, and the lowliest and poorest member of society is thought equal to the most powerful and well-connected. “A man’s a man for a’ that,” Robert Burns famously told us. “Trans women are women,” piped the incongruent refrain from Sturgeon. To prove it, she put violent, unstable murderers and paedophiles into close living arrangements with impoverished, abused females. And then she left them to get on with it.
Meanwhile, a trans activist is arguing that trans people have the right to decide for themselves who they are in the eyes of the law. I assume this means one day they can be male and the next female (yes, this does happen), and the law has to bend to that.
Read the tweet in the context of Stock's piece. This is the power she is talking about that Sturgeon enabled. A closed loop between government funding a gender ideology lobby group to tell the government how to write trans identified law. Law that impacted on women and girls (and lesbians and gays, and actually everyone), but where women were excluded from that loop, not just by intentional omission as in NZ, but also by hate politics that Sturgeon no doubt has experienced herself but that she endorsed on her own female MPs.
tl;dr trans activists get to write law, women are ostracised, abused and bullied when they try and retain existing laws that protect women.
Canada fulling supporting the butchering of language as well.
Both uniformed and plainclothes police do regular welfare checks at Lemieux’s apartment after they recieved death threats, according to a law enforcement source.
Yes, once you add that (means what I say it means and not necessarily what I said yesterday) – "Gender Expression" – to the things you may not discriminate against, he can do what he likes at the school that employs him and nobody can do anything about it.
I read somewhere that some of the kids in school think he puts on a game to get fired or reprimanded so that he can sue for a pay out.
Considering that this is Canada where the only people still having rights are people such as this dude, and the fact that the school is bending over back wards to accomodate this person i can imagine that.
Thats right she was raised in Scotland but worked at a minor English university and is obsessed with womens 'safety' and uses the terminology of the segregationists and the anti Semites and maintaining ‘purity’ of womens spaces
"Six first-class counties are demanding urgent answers from the England and Wales Cricket Board as to why a middle-aged player who transitioned from a man to a woman is being allowed to compete against girls as young as 12".
It was not when I posted it. I got it from an archive post. And you can stuff your "rich and angry". A middle aged man identifying as a woman and playing cricket against young women and girls.
It's really annoying when people post inaccessible articles. Should be a rule about it in the policy.
Not up to me to find the free version, which indeed is the theft of property, by the way. I won’t read it because it is stolen.
Also, adults and kids aged 13 regularly play together in adult comps in NZ. Example, this happens in North Harbour hockey which has no youth grade so once kids leave Y8 there, they play in division hockey with adults who are very supportive.
We're a political blog. It doesn't make sense to cut ourselves off from a sizeably chunk of MSM, given how much is paywalled now. Interestingly the only MSM that I can't access via archive.is is NZ. Not sure what that is about. Press Reader is available for library members but it's clunky.
This is a very well constructed tweet that manages the paywall well,
Ianmac writes his opnion, asks a question, gives enough of a quote to work with without going overboad, and links for those that can access (who can then also quote other bits).
oh to be a lazy person. I don't subscribe to the Telegraph, but like many other outlets they let guests read a few stories per month for free. But here, let me help you as clearly you seem to have issues accessing free content on the internet.
From the link posted above these are the first three paragraphs.
Six first-class counties are demanding urgent answers from the England and Wales Cricket Board as to why a middle-aged player who transitioned from a man to a woman is being allowed to compete against girls as young as 12.
Telegraph Sport has seen multiple letters from coaches and parents whose daughters have faced the player, whose case has not previously appeared in the media, in club cricket matches. All express alarm at the safety implications of an adult carrying the residual physical advantages of male puberty playing in the same league as girls. One letter from a coach claims the player “hits the ball harder than any other I have seen in the league”.
It is understood that the player has previously caused injuries,although inadvertently, including one to an umpire and another to an opponent at county trials who was left unable to play for months. Some parents, disturbed at the significant inequalities of power between young girls and an adult who was born male, have threatened to remove their daughters from their league in response. One characterised the situation as “unacceptable, uncomfortable and dangerous”.
I removed the shit that has no importance by strike through.
A middle aged male plays with girls and women (the biological ones not the self id'd ones), managed to injure two people, one who took month to recover and return to play and people are somewhat reluctant to chant 'tranwoman are women' cause in reality all transwomen are men. You know that too.
But then dignity, safety and respect is for males, females needn't apply.
Can you believe the audacity of females demanding spaces away from males.
Don't these things know that when males declare themselves female in order to gain access to female spaces that females have to obey? What do these females think, that they live in a world were they have a right to dignity, safety and respect.
Arnold Rimmer has his "backing the rapists and murderers" moment and I'm surprised more hasn't been made if this dreadfully tasteless politicking while people suffer and lives have been lost:
ACT is criticising the government over its approach to Cyclone Gabrielle and has opposed the adjournment of Parliament, saying Labour "loves disaster politics".
I do fear this stain on humanity will achieve some sort of power at a point in the future. Particular worrying if paired with a weak coalition leader like Luxton.
So 2 to 3 degrees warming of the earth is probably myth making at this point. 2 to 3 degrees warming would be a total disaster, but no we let the fossil fuel companies and the worlds military run amuck, so we now looking down the barrel of a 10 degrees heat increase.
This means a few humans in Antarctica scratching out a living, if we are lucky. As things are going, we are totally screwed.
And there is the real kicker, as things are going. We are beyond reform, we need to act on the advise of the leading scientists and be radical now.
The worlds governments can't act in any other way except slow reform which will mean death, we have to act.
Start by pulling your money out of the banking and finance systems. These are the filth who are keeping this slow heat induced death going.
Thank you for the link to that March 2012 TED talk – are we paying attention now?
James Hansen speaks out about global climate change
This [energy] imbalance, if we want to stabilize climate, means that we must reduce CO2 from 391 ppm, parts per million, back to 350 ppm. That is the change needed to restore energy balance and prevent further warming.
…
The important point is that we will have started a process that is out of humanity’s control.
… So now you know what I know that is moving me to sound this alarm. Clearly, I haven’t gotten this message across. The science is clear. I need your help to communicate the gravity and the urgency of this situation and its solutions more effectively. We owe it to our children and grandchildren.
Thank you.
CO2 is now 417 ppm – we’re seemingly powerless to reverse this anthropogenic trend.
The global average carbon dioxide set a new record high in 2021: 414.72 parts per million.
As a result, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere in 2022 reached a record 417.2 parts per million (ppm) averaged over the year.
Civilisation continues to do a great job of hyper-energising spaceship Earth
An editor at new media start-up The Platform says she was yelled and sworn at by founder Sean Plunket, before he “punched a desk” standing just a metre in front of her.
But while Plunket largely accepts what he describes as “appalling” behaviour, he rejects a personal grievance claim lodged by digital engagement editor Ani O’Brien, who says she feels the workplace is too unsafe to return to and lacks sound dispute resolution processes.
Can anyone familiar with Hawkes Bay explain where all the silt came from?
In the bush when it floods, you get a lot of silt much of which then gets dumped in the bush, this is part of the fertility cycle. But this is an incredible amount of silt which makes me thinks there's been a lot of erosion in the top of the catchment in addition to what the the storm caused. And not enough trees.
Multiple occurrences like the Tarndale Slip. It's best of Gisborne, but the same geology occurs right down the East Coast. The whole place is quite soft rock and eroding rapidly so huge amounts of silt come down in the slightest flood. Makes for some of the best horticultural land in the country, but more arrives on each good flood.
Really the best land use for the eroding hill country is to get it back into permanent forest somehow. We tried with pines on runs that had been abandoned / bought out by Crown in 70's but somewhere along the the track someone thought there was a margin in harvesting the things. Then it rains and the hill and the remains of the forest was down and trash the plains, and everything between.
What's not semi abandoned and reverting to bush would be sheep or cattle country. The cattle might be making money, sheep probably not, both would really classify as lifestyle uses.
Hopefully a lot will be that munted that insurance will be a total loss, and Government buys / takes over the land and reverts it to bush. Been a few signals from ministers that land uses will change.
Of course there will be wails from farming groups that communities will be threatened and lifestyles destroyed, but really strong wool farming is a lifestyle occupation, most are loosing money and it can cost more to shear the sheep than the wool returns.
In the 70's I was an engineering cadet for the old Forest Service roading abandoned stations on the East Coast so the pines could be planted. One station had been abandoned, the owners had just walked off and left a lot of effects in the house we lived in. In a cupboard were 30 years of farm records, interesting reading, the place hadn't made a profit for most of that 30 years and just got further in debt. The neighbour said the owners lost the plot and disappeared.
that's sad. It says a lot about NZ that we leave family farming to the market to sort out.
We should be paying farmers to stay on the land and plant forests. Not plantations, but permanent forest. Could do agroforestry and food forestry in appropriate places as well.
I should go look it up, but from memory the Greens' original tree planting by the millions plan was geared towards this. Then NZF got hold of it and messed it up.
The culture of farming is to develop the land and make it more productive, so clear the bush, sow grass and run stock. To then turn around and let it go back to bush is totally counter to generations of financial and emotional investment.
Also the timeframes of farming are annual, season to season, whereas in forestry or regeneration the timeframes are often multi generational, or at least a generation. It's quite a mental leap to go from farming to forestry, the other way a lot easier.
Agriculture is very communal and co-operative, neighbours / communities co-operate together big tasks done and there can be very strong communities helping each other every year over many generations. The social, community and sporting institutions of agricultural districts all come from, and foster that co-operative society. They see their world very much from a 'we' perspective, but it's a quite exclusive 'we'.
When that annual seasonal interaction breaks down with the loss of agricultural activity the community starts to go to pieces.
Forestry has bigger, but less frequent tasks which are done by contractors, or large work gangs, much larger than shearing and there's no stock to move so the owners having little input.
The tree becomes an existential threat to the farmer's being.
Last year Brazilian presidential candidate, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—known to most as Lula—promised, during his campaign, to protect the Amazon rainforest. In his first month in office, Lula demonstrated that he intends to deliver on that promise.
According to an analysis of satellite data by Reuters, deforestation rates in Brazil fell by 61% in January compared to the year before.
Lula’s environmental protection policies will have global consequences. The Amazon rainforest stores an estimated 150 to 200 billion metric tons of carbon. To put that in context, all countries around the world emit about 35 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year.
So soon just after you've goneMy senses sharpenBut it always takes so damn longBefore I feel how much my eyes have darkenedFear hangs in a plane of gun smokeDrifting in our roomSo easy to disturb, with a thought, with a whisperWith a careless memorySongwriters: Andy Taylor / John Taylor / ...
Can we trust the Trump cabinet to act in the public interest?Nine of Trump’s closest advisers are billionaires. Their total net worth is in excess of $US375b (providing there is not a share-market crash). In contrast, the total net worth of Trump’s first Cabinet was about $6b. (Joe Biden’s Cabinet ...
Welcome back to our weekly roundup. We hope you had a good break (if you had one). Here’s a few of the stories that caught our attention over the last few weeks. This holiday period on Greater Auckland Since our last roundup we’ve: Taken a look back at ...
Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partnerSometimes I feel like my only friendIs the city I live in, The City of AngelsLonely as I am together we crySong: Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith, Flea, John Frusciante.A home is engulfed in flames during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area. ...
Open access notablesLarge emissions of CO2 and CH4 due to active-layer warming in Arctic tundra, Torn et al., Nature Communications:Climate warming may accelerate decomposition of Arctic soil carbon, but few controlled experiments have manipulated the entire active layer. To determine surface-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide and ...
It's election year for Wellington City Council and for the Regional Council. What have the progressive councillors achieved over the last couple of years. What were the blocks and failures? What's with the targeting of the mayor and city council by the Post and by central government? Why does the ...
Over the holidays, there was a rising tide of calls for people to submit on National's repulsive, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill, along with a wave of advice and examples of what to say. And it looks like people rose to the occasion, with over 300,000 ...
The lie is my expenseThe scope of my desireThe Party blessed me with its futureAnd I protect it with fireI am the Nina The Pinta The Santa MariaThe noose and the rapistAnd the fields overseerThe agents of orangeThe priests of HiroshimaThe cost of my desire…Sleep now in the fireSongwriters: Brad ...
This is a re-post from the Climate BrinkGlobal surface temperatures have risen around 1.3C since the preindustrial (1850-1900) period as a result of human activity.1 However, this aggregate number masks a lot of underlying factors that contribute to global surface temperature changes over time.These include CO2, which is the primary ...
There are times when movement around us seems to slow down. And the faster things get, the slower it all appears.And so it is with the whirlwind of early year political activity.They are harbingers for what is to come:Video: Wayne Wright Jnr, funder of Sean Plunket, talk growing power and ...
Hi,Right now the power is out, so I’m just relying on the laptop battery and tethering to my phone’s 5G which is dropping in and out. We’ll see how we go.First up — I’m fine. I can’t see any flames out the window. I live in the greater Hollywood area ...
2024 was a tough year for working Kiwis. But together we’ve been able to fight back for a just and fair New Zealand and in 2025 we need to keep standing up for what’s right and having our voices heard. That starts with our Mood of the Workforce Survey. It’s your ...
Time is never time at allYou can never ever leaveWithout leaving a piece of youthAnd our lives are forever changedWe will never be the sameThe more you change, the less you feelSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan.Babinden - Baba’s DayToday, January 8th, 2025, is Babinden, “The Day of the baba” or “The ...
..I/We wish to make the following comments:I oppose the Treaty Principles Bill."5. Act binds the CrownThis Act binds the Crown."How does this Act "bind the Crown" when Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which the Act refers to, has been violated by the Crown on numerous occassions, resulting in massive loss of ...
Everything is good and brownI'm here againWith a sunshine smile upon my faceMy friends are close at handAnd all my inhibitions have disappeared without a traceI'm glad, oh, that I found oohSomebody who I can rely onSongwriter: Jay KayGood morning, all you lovely people. Today, I’ve got nothing except a ...
Welcome to 2025. After wrapping up 2024, here’s a look at some of the things we can expect to see this year along with a few predictions. Council and Elections Elections One of the biggest things this year will be local body elections in October. Will Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Canadians can take a while to get angry – but when they finally do, watch out. Canada has been falling out of love with Justin Trudeau for years, and his exit has to be the least surprising news event of the New Year. On recent polling, Trudeau’s Liberal party has ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Much like 2023, many climate and energy records were broken in 2024. It was Earth’s hottest year on record by a wide margin, breaking the previous record that was set just last year by an even larger margin. Human-caused climate-warming pollution and ...
Submissions on National's racist, white supremacist Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill are due tomorrow! So today, after a good long holiday from all that bullshit, I finally got my shit together to submit on it. As I noted here, people should write their own submissions in their own ...
Ooh, baby (ooh, baby)It's making me crazy (it's making me crazy)Every time I look around (look around)Every time I look around (every time I look around)Every time I look aroundIt's in my faceSongwriters: Alan Leo Jansson / Paul Lawrence L. Fuemana.Today, I’ll be talking about rich, middle-aged men who’ve made ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 29, 2024 thru Sat, January 4, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Hi,The thing that stood out at me while shopping for Christmas presents in New Zealand was how hard it was to avoid Zuru products. Toy manufacturer Zuru is a bit like Netflix, in that it has so much data on what people want they can flood the market with so ...
And when a child is born into this worldIt has no conceptOf the tone of skin it's living inAnd there's a million voicesAnd there's a million voicesTo tell you what you should be thinkingSong by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour.The moment you see that face, you can hear her voice; ...
While we may not always have quality political leadership, a couple of recently published autobiographies indicate sometimes we strike it lucky. When ranking our prime ministers, retired professor of history Erik Olssen commented that ‘neither Holland nor Nash was especially effective as prime minister – even his private secretary thought ...
Baby, be the class clownI'll be the beauty queen in tearsIt's a new art form, showin' people how little we care (yeah)We're so happy, even when we're smilin' out of fearLet's go down to the tennis court and talk it up like, yeah (yeah)Songwriters: Joel Little / Ella Yelich O ...
Open access notables Why Misinformation Must Not Be Ignored, Ecker et al., American Psychologist:Recent academic debate has seen the emergence of the claim that misinformation is not a significant societal problem. We argue that the arguments used to support this minimizing position are flawed, particularly if interpreted (e.g., by policymakers or the public) as suggesting ...
What I’ve Been Doing: I buried a close family member.What I’ve Been Watching: Andor, Jack Reacher, Xmas movies.What I’ve Been Reflecting On: The Usefulness of Writing and the Worthiness of Doing So — especially as things become more transparent on their own.I also hate competing on any day, and if ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by John Wihbey. A version of this article first appeared on Yale Climate Connections on Nov. 11, 2008. (Image credits: The White House, Jonathan Cutrer / CC BY 2.0; President Jimmy Carter, Trikosko/Library of Congress; Solar dedication, Bill Fitz-Patrick / Jimmy Carter Library; Solar ...
Morena folks,We’re having a good break, recharging the batteries. Hope you’re enjoying the holiday period. I’m not feeling terribly inspired by much at the moment, I’m afraid—not from a writing point of view, anyway.So, today, we’re travelling back in time. You’ll have to imagine the wavy lines and sci-fi sound ...
Completed reads for 2024: Oration on the Dignity of Man, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola A Platonic Discourse Upon Love, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Of Being and Unity, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola The Life of Pico della Mirandola, by Giovanni Francesco Pico Three Letters Written by Pico ...
Welcome to 2025, Aotearoa. Well… what can one really say? 2024 was a story of a bad beginning, an infernal middle and an indescribably farcical end. But to chart a course for a real future, it does pay to know where we’ve been… so we know where we need ...
Welcome to the official half-way point of the 2020s. Anyway, as per my New Years tradition, here’s where A Phuulish Fellow’s blog traffic came from in 2024: United States United Kingdom New Zealand Canada Sweden Australia Germany Spain Brazil Finland The top four are the same as 2023, ...
Completed reads for December: Be A Wolf!, by Brian Strickland The Magic Flute [libretto], by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Emanuel Schikaneder The Invisible Eye, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Owl’s Ear, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Waters of Death, by Erckmann-Chatrian The Spider, by Hanns Heinz Ewers Who Knows?, by Guy de Maupassant ...
Well, it’s the last day of the year, so it’s time for a quick wrap-up of the most important things that happened in 2024 for urbanism and transport in our city. A huge thank you to everyone who has visited the blog and supported us in our mission to make ...
Leave your office, run past your funeralLeave your home, car, leave your pulpitJoin us in the streets where weJoin us in the streets where weDon't belong, don't belongHere under the starsThrowing light…Song: Jeffery BuckleyToday, I’ll discuss the standout politicians of the last 12 months. Each party will receive three awards, ...
Hi,A lot’s happened this year in the world of Webworm, and as 2024 comes to an end I thought I’d look back at a few of the things that popped. Maybe you missed them, or you might want to revisit some of these essay and podcast episodes over your break ...
Hi,I wanted to share this piece by film editor Dan Kircher about what cinema has been up to in 2024.Dan edited my documentary Mister Organ, as well as this year’s excellent crowd-pleasing Bookworm.Dan adores movies. He gets the language of cinema, he knows what he loves, and writes accordingly. And ...
Without delving into personal details but in order to give readers a sense of the year that was, I thought I would offer the study in contrasts that are Xmas 2023 and Xmas 2024: Xmas 2023 in Starship Children’s Hospital (after third of four surgeries). Even opening presents was an ...
Heavy disclaimer: Alpha/beta/omega dynamics is a popular trope that’s used in a wide range of stories and my thoughts on it do not apply to all cases. I’m most familiar with it through the lens of male-focused fanfic, typically m/m but sometimes also featuring m/f and that’s the situation I’m ...
Hi,Webworm has been pretty heavy this year — mainly because the world is pretty heavy. But as we sprint (or limp, you choose) through the final days of 2024, I wanted to keep Webworm a little lighter.So today I wanted to look at one of the biggest and weirdest elements ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 22, 2024 thru Sat, December 28, 2024. This week's roundup is the second one published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, ...
We’ll have a climate change ChristmasFrom now until foreverWarming our hearts and mindsAnd planet all togetherSpirits high and oceans higherChestnuts roast on wildfiresIf coal is on your wishlistMerry Climate Change ChristmasSong by Ian McConnellReindeer emissions are not something I’d thought about in terms of climate change. I guess some significant ...
KP continues to putt-putt along as a tiny niche blog that offers a NZ perspective on international affairs with a few observations about NZ domestic politics thrown in. In 2024 there was also some personal posts given that my son was in the last four months of a nine month ...
I can see very wellThere's a boat on the reef with a broken backAnd I can see it very wellThere's a joke and I know it very wellIt's one of those that I told you long agoTake my word I'm a madman, don't you knowSongwriters: Bernie Taupin / Elton JohnIt ...
.Acknowledgement: Tim PrebbleThanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work..With each passing day of bad headlines, squandering tax revenue to enrich the rich, deep cuts to our social services and a government struggling to keep the lipstick on its neo-liberal pig ...
This is from the 36th Parallel social media account (as brief food for thought). We know that Trump is ahistorical at best but he seems to think that he is Teddy Roosevelt and can use the threat of invoking the Monroe Doctrine and “Big Stick” gunboat diplomacy against Panama and ...
Don't you cry tonightI still love you, babyAnd don't you cry tonightDon't you cry tonightThere's a heaven above you, babyAnd don't you cry tonightSong: Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so”, said possibly the greatest philosopher ever to walk this earth, Douglas Adams.We have entered the ...
Because you're magicYou're magic people to meSong: Dave Para/Molly Para.Morena all, I hope you had a good day yesterday, however you spent it. Today, a few words about our celebration and a look at the various messages from our politicians.A Rockel XmasChristmas morning was spent with the five of us ...
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). 2024 has been a series of bad news for climate change. From scorching global temperatures leading to devastating ...
Ríu Ríu ChíuRíu Ríu Chíu is a Spanish Christmas song from the 16th Century. The traditional carol would likely have passed unnoticed by the English-speaking world had the made-for-television American band The Monkees not performed the song as part of their special Christmas show back in 1967. The show's ...
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This morning’s six standouts for me at 6.30 am include:Kāinga Ora is quietly planning to sell over $1 billion worth of state-owned land under 300 state homes in Auckland’s wealthiest suburbs, including around Bastion Point, to give the Government more fiscal room to pay for tax cuts and reduce borrowing.A ...
Hi,It’s my birthday on Christmas Day, and I have a favour to ask.A birthday wish.I would love you to share one Webworm story you’ve liked this year.The simple fact is: apart from paying for a Webworm membership (thank you!), sharing and telling others about this place is the most important ...
The last few days have been a bit too much of a whirl for me to manage a fresh edition each day. It's been that kind of year. Hope you don't mind.I’ve been coming around to thinking that it doesn't really matter if you don't have something to say every ...
The worms will live in every hostIt's hard to pick which one they eat the mostThe horrible people, the horrible peopleIt's as anatomic as the size of your steepleCapitalism has made it this wayOld-fashioned fascism will take it awaySongwriter: Twiggy Ramirez Read more ...
Hi,It’s almost Christmas Day which means it is almost my birthday, where you will find me whimpering in the corner clutching a warm bottle of Baileys.If you’re out of ideas for presents (and truly desperate) then it is possible to gift a full Webworm subscription to a friend (or enemy) ...
This morning’s six standouts for me at 6.30am include:Rachel Helyer Donaldson’s scoop via RNZ last night of cuts to maternity jobs in the health system;Maddy Croad’s scoop via The Press-$ this morning on funding cuts for Christchurch’s biggest food rescue charity;Benedict Collins’ scoop last night via 1News on a last-minute ...
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
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. ...
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 ...
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Minister for Children and for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Karen Chhour is encouraging people to use the resources available to them to get help, and to report instances of family and sexual violence amongst their friends, families, and loved ones who are in need. “The death of a ...
Uia te pō, rangahaua te pō, whakamāramatia mai he aha tō tango, he aha tō kāwhaki? Whitirere ki te ao, tirotiro kau au, kei hea taku rātā whakamarumaru i te au o te pakanga mo te mana motuhake? Au te pō, ngū te pō, ue hā! E te kahurangi māreikura, ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says people with diabetes and other painful conditions will benefit from a significant new qualification to boost training in foot care. “It sounds simple, but quality and regular foot and nail care is vital in preventing potentially serious complications from diabetes, like blisters or sores, which can take a long time to heal ...
Associate Health Minister with responsibility for Pharmac David Seymour is pleased to see Pharmac continue to increase availability of medicines for Kiwis with the government’s largest ever investment in Pharmac. “Pharmac operates independently, but it must work within the budget constraints set by the government,” says Mr Seymour. “When this government assumed ...
Mā mua ka kite a muri, mā muri ka ora e mua - Those who lead give sight to those who follow, those who follow give life to those who lead. Māori recipients in the New Year 2025 Honours list show comprehensive dedication to improving communities across the motu that ...
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NewsroomBy Penny Matkin-Hussey and Katherine Black
Long term Republicans leaving the party.
Weekend reading
https://twitter.com/docstockk/status/1626481188742352896
You beat me to it Weka. Kathleen Stock was hounded out of her University position for daring to say that sex is real and has consequences for women.
Just finished reading that. Stock is absolutely on fire. Extraordinary given Stock is relatively evenhanded in her approach to gender politics. She's not holding back here, but speaking truth to power and the emperor with no clothes.
Meanwhile, a trans activist is arguing that trans people have the right to decide for themselves who they are in the eyes of the law. I assume this means one day they can be male and the next female (yes, this does happen), and the law has to bend to that.
Read the tweet in the context of Stock's piece. This is the power she is talking about that Sturgeon enabled. A closed loop between government funding a gender ideology lobby group to tell the government how to write trans identified law. Law that impacted on women and girls (and lesbians and gays, and actually everyone), but where women were excluded from that loop, not just by intentional omission as in NZ, but also by hate politics that Sturgeon no doubt has experienced herself but that she endorsed on her own female MPs.
tl;dr trans activists get to write law, women are ostracised, abused and bullied when they try and retain existing laws that protect women.
Always the question – is this a "piss take" or not?
https://nypost.com/2023/02/17/kayla-lemieux-ditches-her-z-size-breasts-outside-the-classroom/
lawsuit payout or AGP. Or both.
Canada fulling supporting the butchering of language as well.
Yes, once you add that (means what I say it means and not necessarily what I said yesterday) – "Gender Expression" – to the things you may not discriminate against, he can do what he likes at the school that employs him and nobody can do anything about it.
I read somewhere that some of the kids in school think he puts on a game to get fired or reprimanded so that he can sue for a pay out.
Considering that this is Canada where the only people still having rights are people such as this dude, and the fact that the school is bending over back wards to accomodate this person i can imagine that.
What Scottish university was Stock employed at ?
Thats right she was raised in Scotland but worked at a minor English university and is obsessed with womens 'safety' and uses the terminology of the segregationists and the anti Semites and maintaining ‘purity’ of womens spaces
Yeah – these spaces are important.
"Six first-class counties are demanding urgent answers from the England and Wales Cricket Board as to why a middle-aged player who transitioned from a man to a woman is being allowed to compete against girls as young as 12".
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2023/02/17/parents-demands-answers-ecb-trans-woman-competing-against-girls/
And you got done over here yesterday for your "transperbole".
[paywall free link added https://archive.is/jIQJz%5D
Impossible to know what you are talking about because it's behind a paywall.
To be a rich and angry Telegraph subscriber…
It was not when I posted it. I got it from an archive post. And you can stuff your "rich and angry". A middle aged man identifying as a woman and playing cricket against young women and girls.
Well, you posted a paywalled article and that's that. No-one can read it so your point, whatever it is, is lost.
you couldn't read it and now you can. You can also stop being a troll.
https://archive.is/jIQJz
It's really annoying when people post inaccessible articles. Should be a rule about it in the policy.
Not up to me to find the free version, which indeed is the theft of property, by the way. I won’t read it because it is stolen.
Also, adults and kids aged 13 regularly play together in adult comps in NZ. Example, this happens in North Harbour hockey which has no youth grade so once kids leave Y8 there, they play in division hockey with adults who are very supportive.
We're a political blog. It doesn't make sense to cut ourselves off from a sizeably chunk of MSM, given how much is paywalled now. Interestingly the only MSM that I can't access via archive.is is NZ. Not sure what that is about. Press Reader is available for library members but it's clunky.
This is a very well constructed tweet that manages the paywall well,
.https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-17-02-2023/#comment-1935743
Ianmac writes his opnion, asks a question, gives enough of a quote to work with without going overboad, and links for those that can access (who can then also quote other bits).
oh to be a lazy person. I don't subscribe to the Telegraph, but like many other outlets they let guests read a few stories per month for free. But here, let me help you as clearly you seem to have issues accessing free content on the internet.
From the link posted above these are the first three paragraphs.
I removed the shit that has no importance by strike through.
A middle aged male plays with girls and women (the biological ones not the self id'd ones), managed to injure two people, one who took month to recover and return to play and people are somewhat reluctant to chant 'tranwoman are women' cause in reality all transwomen are men. You know that too.
But then dignity, safety and respect is for males, females needn't apply.
Not up to me to chase paywalled content.
Can you believe the audacity of females demanding spaces away from males.
Don't these things know that when males declare themselves female in order to gain access to female spaces that females have to obey? What do these females think, that they live in a world were they have a right to dignity, safety and respect.
Such silly things, females ey? You tell em.
the audacity of a woman in a minor English university having an opinion about women's rights! Or safety!!
Great three part blog article here about the self-supporting circular nature of funding and political influence and advocacy:
https://www.the11thhourblog.com/post/all-aboard-the-human-rights-campaign-and-the-making-of-transgender-industry-leaders-part-i
https://www.the11thhourblog.com/post/all-aboard-the-human-rights-campaign-and-the-making-of-transgender-industry-leaders-part-2
https://www.the11thhourblog.com/post/all-aboard-the-human-rights-campaign-and-the-making-of-transgender-industry-leaders-part-3
(Not paywalled for the copyright conscious, )
Don't expect gold-plated Cyclone Gabrielle roading fixes – Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/484412/don-t-expect-gold-plated-cyclone-gabrielle-roading-fixes-te-tai-tokerau-mp-kelvin-davis
Good on Kelvin Davis for being realistic and not being afraid to say it.
Yes.
Engineers – "Give us a shedload of $$$$$ and we will build you a road here."
Mother Nature – "Hold my glass of organic dandelion wine".
Well fwiw, they are used to their single lane metal roads anyways. Can't expect better. That building back better is slogans only.
Arnold Rimmer has his "backing the rapists and murderers" moment and I'm surprised more hasn't been made if this dreadfully tasteless politicking while people suffer and lives have been lost:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/484228/act-criticises-cyclone-response-parliament-hiatus
I do fear this stain on humanity will achieve some sort of power at a point in the future. Particular worrying if paired with a weak coalition leader like Luxton.
I thought it was Rimmer playing disaster politics!!
Was browsing another forum and one of the resident nut jobs claimed, "Labour loves a good disaster".
He was rightly roundly and harshly criticised and I am left wondering why Seymour hasn't received the same backlash.
So 2 to 3 degrees warming of the earth is probably myth making at this point. 2 to 3 degrees warming would be a total disaster, but no we let the fossil fuel companies and the worlds military run amuck, so we now looking down the barrel of a 10 degrees heat increase.
This means a few humans in Antarctica scratching out a living, if we are lucky. As things are going, we are totally screwed.
And there is the real kicker, as things are going. We are beyond reform, we need to act on the advise of the leading scientists and be radical now.
The worlds governments can't act in any other way except slow reform which will mean death, we have to act.
Start by pulling your money out of the banking and finance systems. These are the filth who are keeping this slow heat induced death going.
https://www.marinebio.org/james-hansen-speaks-out-about-global-climate-change/
Thank you for the link to that March 2012 TED talk – are we paying attention now?
CO2 is now 417 ppm – we’re seemingly powerless to reverse this anthropogenic trend.
Civilisation continues to do a great job of hyper-energising spaceship Earth
Bugger, we've been outed.
https://twitter.com/LizerReal/status/1626257565528080384
incel virtue signalling
One right-wing crank to another:
Oh, for safe workplaces!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/employee-alleges-broadcaster-sean-plunket-yelled-at-her-punched-desk/FWES6UEFSVCELMXHOTUCCXYETY/
Can anyone familiar with Hawkes Bay explain where all the silt came from?
In the bush when it floods, you get a lot of silt much of which then gets dumped in the bush, this is part of the fertility cycle. But this is an incredible amount of silt which makes me thinks there's been a lot of erosion in the top of the catchment in addition to what the the storm caused. And not enough trees.
https://twitter.com/MichaelMorrah/status/1625771552196415489
It is the price of unregulated growth in unsuitable areas. Might get away with it for 10 years or 50, but not 100.
Multiple occurrences like the Tarndale Slip. It's best of Gisborne, but the same geology occurs right down the East Coast. The whole place is quite soft rock and eroding rapidly so huge amounts of silt come down in the slightest flood. Makes for some of the best horticultural land in the country, but more arrives on each good flood.
Really the best land use for the eroding hill country is to get it back into permanent forest somehow. We tried with pines on runs that had been abandoned / bought out by Crown in 70's but somewhere along the the track someone thought there was a margin in harvesting the things. Then it rains and the hill and the remains of the forest was down and trash the plains, and everything between.
impressive slip. Pine forest is also fire prone. Native and/or mix forest that doesn't burn is urgently needed in many places.
What are the hills used for currently? Sheep? Wine?
What's not semi abandoned and reverting to bush would be sheep or cattle country. The cattle might be making money, sheep probably not, both would really classify as lifestyle uses.
Hopefully a lot will be that munted that insurance will be a total loss, and Government buys / takes over the land and reverts it to bush. Been a few signals from ministers that land uses will change.
Of course there will be wails from farming groups that communities will be threatened and lifestyles destroyed, but really strong wool farming is a lifestyle occupation, most are loosing money and it can cost more to shear the sheep than the wool returns.
In the 70's I was an engineering cadet for the old Forest Service roading abandoned stations on the East Coast so the pines could be planted. One station had been abandoned, the owners had just walked off and left a lot of effects in the house we lived in. In a cupboard were 30 years of farm records, interesting reading, the place hadn't made a profit for most of that 30 years and just got further in debt. The neighbour said the owners lost the plot and disappeared.
that's sad. It says a lot about NZ that we leave family farming to the market to sort out.
We should be paying farmers to stay on the land and plant forests. Not plantations, but permanent forest. Could do agroforestry and food forestry in appropriate places as well.
I should go look it up, but from memory the Greens' original tree planting by the millions plan was geared towards this. Then NZF got hold of it and messed it up.
There's a cultural disconnect there.
The culture of farming is to develop the land and make it more productive, so clear the bush, sow grass and run stock. To then turn around and let it go back to bush is totally counter to generations of financial and emotional investment.
Also the timeframes of farming are annual, season to season, whereas in forestry or regeneration the timeframes are often multi generational, or at least a generation. It's quite a mental leap to go from farming to forestry, the other way a lot easier.
Agriculture is very communal and co-operative, neighbours / communities co-operate together big tasks done and there can be very strong communities helping each other every year over many generations. The social, community and sporting institutions of agricultural districts all come from, and foster that co-operative society. They see their world very much from a 'we' perspective, but it's a quite exclusive 'we'.
When that annual seasonal interaction breaks down with the loss of agricultural activity the community starts to go to pieces.
Forestry has bigger, but less frequent tasks which are done by contractors, or large work gangs, much larger than shearing and there's no stock to move so the owners having little input.
The tree becomes an existential threat to the farmer's being.
Sounds utopian I admit, but there are different cultures associated with trees.(Not just short rotation timber production)
A lot of us have connections to these European traditions
http://www.woodlanders.com/
Walking the talk.
Last year Brazilian presidential candidate, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—known to most as Lula—promised, during his campaign, to protect the Amazon rainforest. In his first month in office, Lula demonstrated that he intends to deliver on that promise.
According to an analysis of satellite data by Reuters, deforestation rates in Brazil fell by 61% in January compared to the year before.
Lula’s environmental protection policies will have global consequences. The Amazon rainforest stores an estimated 150 to 200 billion metric tons of carbon. To put that in context, all countries around the world emit about 35 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year.
https://www.distilled.earth/p/deforestation-in-brazil-falls-by
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/deforestation-brazils-amazon-falls-first-month-under-lula-2023-02-10/
Of ourse Rimmer will be vocal in his condemnation of these road blocks, too.
//
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/cyclone-gabrielle-police-urge-hawkes-bay-village-against-arming-forming-blockades-after-looting/5EFJ72XX2BFGRACWZL4JI2O2K4/