ship strike and coincidence stated in article but 'so long….' was first thought that sprang to mind ….some 'odd' shark behaviour been reported recently as well
Article 1 Section 9 Clause 8 of the US Constitution states:
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
Article 2 Section 1 Clause 7 of the US Constitution states:
The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
One or both of these clauses gets violated every time any foreign delegation stays at a Trump Organisation property, or the Secret Service has to pay for the rooms their agents use when protecting the Prez when he goes to a Trump Organisation property.
But the greatest grifter of them all isn't content with forcing the minor cognitive dissonance of ignoring or defending this level of corruption on his cultists. No sirree, he has to go for the big kahuna of using one of his properties to host the G-7 meeting, thereby forcing the US government and all participating foreign governments into massive tribute payments.
I think what this shows, and all the other examples in recent times (whether NZTA, MSD cruelty, the T&C examples, MoBIE employees calling people "scum", etc., etc., etc.), is that if you give state agencies an opportunity, certain elements within will go rogue. EVEN IF they think its all with the best of intentions.
Far worse now as parts of our public service operate as little feifdoms with KPIs et all to meet. Proper oversight and accountability is well overdue
EVEN IF they think its all with the best of intentions.
It's a return to the degrading attitudes of Victorian times and the rigid class distinctions and who is entitled to respect and who not, with punitive punishments meted out by the people in society who see themselves as domatrixes? over the lower class. It's ugly and so are the thoughts behind the well-made up and expensively dressed group. It actually becomes so embedded in society without it being noticed, examined and condemned that it becomes a caste system, with untouchables at the base of it.
Self-delusion is strong amongst UK Conservatives. How do you diagnose the Madness of the Entitled deep into group-think?
The Telegraph passed on this gem from Rees-Mogg (Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council since 2019, Eton and Trinity Colleges), from a report by Asa Bennett, Brexit Commissioning Editor.
Meanwhile, don't miss Jacob Rees-Mogg's column, in which he urges his fellow MPs to pass the deal, adding: "It is a great injustice meted upon the British people by the political class that the joyful decision they took, born out of confidence and resolution, should have become so associated with stasis and stagnation."
I think the time has come to stop taking the p out of Simon. He will end up getting a sympathy vote for being mocked and picked-on. The emotional responses of all our educated citizens are high, compared to the informed judicious approach when deciding on election choice.
A large number of deaths of apparently healthy antelope. Why?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/25/mass-mortality-events-animal-conservation-climate-change Feb 2018 The scientists on the ground pinpointed blood poisoning as the cause, but were puzzled as to why whole herds were dying so quickly. After 32 postmortems, they concluded the culprit was the bacterium Pasteurella multocida, which they believe normally lives harmlessly in the tonsils of some, if not all, of the antelopes. In a research paper published in January in Science Advances, Kock and colleagues contrasted the 2015 MME with the two from the 1980s. They concluded that a rise in temperature to 37C and an increase in humidity above 80% in the previous few days had stimulated the bacteria to pass into the bloodstream where it caused haemorrhagic septicaemia, or blood poisoning.
The weather link raises the spectre of climate change. Just as it is rarely wise to link a single extreme weather event – whether it’s the Australian heatwave, last summer’s Hurricane Harvey or this winter’s North American cold snap – to climate change, it is equally difficult to blame an MME on global warming. But what can be said with confidence is that the sorts of extreme weather events linked to MMEs – such as the temperature and humidity rise that nearly wiped out the saiga – will become more frequent.
And more climate change problems for animals and us?
More than half a century ago, conservationist Rachel Carson sounded an alarm about human impacts on the natural world with her book Silent Spring. Its title alluded to the loss of twittering birds from natural habitats because of indiscriminate pesticide use, and the treatise spawned the modern conservation movement. But new research published Thursday in Science shows bird populations have continued to plummet in the past five decades, dropping by nearly three billion across North America—an overall decline of 29 percent from 1970.
The answer is apparently for ths hoi polloi to elect someone like Harper in Canada 2014 who sacked 2000 scientists and encouraged destruction of archived records. and buffoon politicians with an air of confidence who lie about the conditions, and then there is no need to think. I think this proves that democracy tends to fall into the hands of finaglers and connivers and people are lulled into thinking they don't need to participate in the running of their country and so democracy is never really tried, as has also been said of Christianity.
Hard to see Luxon getting a high (enough) placing on the List and not aiming for a win in his electorate (if he’s selected to stand). OTOH, he could stand and do a Goldsmith.
It would be cynical to parachute Luxon high into the party when he hasn’t done the hard yards yet and not proven himself. That said, he might get a high listing if he takes one for the team in Botany, i.e. do a Goldsmith. I can’t see it nor can I see JLR play along with it but in politics anything is possible.
How the voters vote will depend on the cues from the party (National) and the campaign.
Apparently, having to give up state-of-the-art bang-bangs makes some gun owners "feel like victims".
Fair point, from one perspective. Fuckwits in the world are why we can't have a lot of nice or fun things. Skyrockets, for example.
But I also have the impulse to say "awwww, having your toy taken away makes you feel like you were just going about your daily routine when some fuckwit put several high-velocity projectiles through your body? You poor dear."
Phil Twyford on Q&A was pointing at targeted rates. Where private finance is brought in (such as infrastructure bonds) and paid back through targeted rates or a levy to be added on top of current rate bills. Shifting the debt off council books (helping to address their problem) but which Twyford admitted, will do nothing for ratepayer affordability.
And of course, this will have a flow on effect. Putting further upward pressure on rents, thus putting further pressure on incomes. Which in turn, reduces spending elsewhere.
To better address households ability to pay, rates should be funded through income tax. Which is far more progressive, thus far better suited to address household affordability issues. As those that earn the most pay a larger share.
Nevertheless, while income tax is not perfect, it's the most progressive from of taxation we have, thus the most suited to address household affordability issues.
Central government needs to stop pushing stuff onto councils without thinking of the unintended consequences e.g. increasing immigration as a matter of government policy increases the infrastructure requirements that councils have to meet but the government at the same time as pushing these costs up sides with the developers moaning about the cost of putting in such infrastructure.
Or funding private landlords to buy rental properties through both tax incentives and rent subsidies while at the same time reducing state rentals (both proportionally to population and in some councils in actuality) putting undue pressure on council housing which receives zero central government support for housing.
It was an original accord between councils and government that the state would pick up most of the need for state housing and councils some for the elderly and the disabled. Councils who have retained their housing (and thanks to the ones that have) should get a cash injection from government to upgrade and replace their aging housing. This to compensate for the years of support private landlords have had.
Twyford's subtext for this "uplift" is the light rail deal, and how HLC uplifts development profit out of that deal. Although with TV3 selling out of their Eden Terrace property, there's scope for CRLL to buy it as it's an adjacent property and would then be able to be pulled into a wider redevelopment deal. More scope for betterment there.
If he wants to fund rates through income tax, he should have a sit-downwith an actual tax policy specialist, such as Deb Russel who runs the Finance Committee.
Otherwise he should stop putting up tax policy balloons that have no support.
I think it was The Chairman, not Phil Twyford, who is pushing for nation-wide income tax as mechanism to fund local projects and services at Council level.
Unfortunately, The Chairman did not include a link in his comment @ 12, which would have been helpful.
And the reason I didn't provide a link is because I clearly stated it was on Q&A.
[Whether it is “correct” use of tax funding is a matter of opinion.
Without a link people have to do a search to find what you are referring to in order to verify your comment. How many times has Phil Twyford appeared on Q & A? This does not make for good debate and does not show good faith. It would take you a few seconds to find and post the link here so please correct your omission – Incognito]
I guess we will never know what was fact and what was your opinion. So, sadly, this debate never got off the ground in a good way because of lack of appropriate sharing of information, IMHO.
Commenters here often link to stuff that’s behind paywalls and usually warn about it too. A small gesture goes a long way. In any case, linking gives others an opportunity to go to same source and make up their own minds. Subsequently, a debate might ensue and if new information needs to be included, a new link will appear in the discussion thread, et cetera. It is really that simple.
The rates burden wont be solved by redesignating the collector …regardless the increasing costs will continue (unless you advocate further austerity) as it must occur for as the sum of infrastructure increases so does its maintenance…..such is growth
And there will be the, or should be, the extra personnel keeping an eye on infrastructure for cracks, bulges etc when the materials start breaking down or not performing as required.
Indeed, Pat.With growth comes cost. However, to improve the sustainability in meeting those costs, how rates are collected (or more precisely how the burden is shared) needs to change to a more progressive form.
The Government can't expect people who are currently struggling to take on more costs without the wheels falling off. Which, of course, will result in wider, negative ramifications for the economy and society overall.
Sounds to me you’re conflating a number of things and pushing for some kind of privatising profits/benefits and socialising losses/costs (AKA externalising). Intuitively, the user-pays argument makes a lot of sense. You will have to argue hard to convince a wage earner in Invercargill to pay effectively income tax for a swimming pool in a suburb of Auckland.
Sounds to me you’re conflating a number of things and pushing for some kind of privatising profits/benefits and socialising losses/costs
Not at all. I talking about peoples ability to pay ever increasing costs. Thus, the need to find a more sustainable source of funding.
In this regard, all the Government has done thus far is to come up with a way (infrastructure bonds) to keep the cost off of councils books, while largely overlooking peoples ability to pay growing, ongoing costs moving forward.
And in the case of infrastructure bonds, one would assume the rate will be higher than the rate it currently costs the Government to borrow.
As a funding source, the use of infrastructure bonds will privatize profits. The use of taxes won't.
As for a taxpayer in Invercargill paying for projects elsewhere, taxpayer funding already pays for spending elsewhere throughout the country. Therefore, in that context, what I'm suggesting wouldn't change a thing.
How do Council progress projects and services if they cannot borrow more?
Who will pay for those Infrastructure Bonds?
Will these help to reduce Council debt?
Please provide evidence that a portion of income tax paid by a wage earner in Invercargill goes towards local projects and services elsewhere in the country that are paid for by targeted rates. In any case, if your suggestion “wouldn’t change a thing” what nation-wide projects and services will receive less of the taxpayers’ dollar?
Are you thinking of an extension of the Provincial Growth Fund for local Councils?
Ratepayers largely fund council, thus their costs/debt.
Moody's highlighted Auckland Council could suffer a future credit downgrade if it faces reduced support from the government to deliver its infrastructure program.
Back in April, there was currently $1.2 billion of debt headroom against the internal debt-to-revenue ceiling of 265%. This headroom was projected to be fully utilised over the next couple of years.
The Auditor-General released a report in February which talked about the increasing pressures many of the country’s councils are facing as they tried to deal with increasing costs associated with infrastructure and growth in the face of growing debt levels.
Please provide evidence that a portion of income tax paid by a wage earner in Invercargill goes towards local projects and services elsewhere in the country that are paid for by targeted rates.
I didn't state that. I said as for a taxpayer in Invercargill paying for projects elsewhere, taxpayer funding already pays for spending elsewhere throughout the country. So in that context, nothing would change.
In any case, if your suggestion “wouldn’t change a thing” what nation-wide projects and services will receive less of the taxpayers’ dollar?
Again, you are changing the context. I was alluding to there being no change in the fact tax dollars obtained from one region is already being spent elsewhere. Some even goes offshore as in foreign aid.
In the wider context, as for what nation-wide projects and services will receive less taxpayer funding as a result? That depends on whether or not the Government would opt for an additional infrastructure tax (largely targeted at high income earners, reducing downward in the income scale) opposed to cutting back tax spending elsewhere. Such as defense spending, offshore aid, etc…
Ultimately, I would like to see a total shift away from rates (which are less progressive and don't really take into account people’s income, thus people's ability to pay) moving to all council rates being funded directly via income taxes. Which, of course, does take into account people’s income hence ability to pay, thus is far more sustainable going forward.
Infrastructure bonds will help slow the build up of council debt, but they are not the only solution. Furthermore, they come at a far greater public cost.
I’m afraid you’re shifting the goalposts (context) and roping in all sorts of stuff that have nothing to do with the original discussion topic (hint: it was about what Phil Twyford said during an interview). In other words, you’re conflating a number of things, as I said previously. Please re-read your comment @12 that started this thread. If you want to discuss foreign aid or defense spending, which I know is one bee in your bonnet, and then start a new thread.
Foreign aid and defense spending were examples brought up due to your questioning. Nevertheless, as your questioning indicates, the two are interconnected – i.e. funding and expenditure.
Fascinating that you blame my questioning for you not staying on topic and bringing your hobbyhorses into the conversation. For your convenience, please let me remind you of the topic as started by you @ 12: (alternative) ways of funding/financing targeted rates and reasoning from a Council’s perspective as raised by Phil Twyford in his interview that you couldn’t link to (you got close, in the end). Even within your starting comment @ 12, you already went off track and avoided addressing Twyford’s points with your idiosyncratic way of criticising negatively. You claim to come here to build consensus, which IMHO relies on finding and acknowledging commonality. Your MO, OTOH, is to find and highlight distinction, separation, discord, and discontent, to name just a few, which usually are based on assumptions that you and only you seem to make and rarely based on hard facts.
Talk about not staying on topic, I’m not the topic.
The Government knows the high cost of housing is a problem which has wider, negative ramifications.Yet, they seem intent on adding to it.
Addressing council's affordability via private sector investment will add to household costs (privatizing profits) while also encouraging councils to spend more (via removing current funding constraints) putting more affordability pressures on households.
Can you not see the problems this is going to create going forward?
Nice try of deflecting that you cannot and did not stay on topic and only used Twyford’s interview to spew your usual concern about this country going to hell in a handbasket thanks to the Labour-led Government. Of course, Twyford is flavour target of the month.
Yes, living costs are (too) high and so are Council debts. Projects and services need to be delivered/executed in a timely fashion or costs will rise astronomically – do you follow the NZTA story at all?
Twyford was addressing a possible alternative for Councils to move forward and clear their debts, which are paid for by ratepayers who are likely to benefit, which is one argument for targeted rates, which happened to be one of Twyford’s talking points. You still haven’t given a single decent argument why a wage earner in Invercargill should pay income tax to pay for a local project or service in Auckland, for example, that is/should/could be funded by targeted rates. That argument will, of course, never eventuate because foreign aid and defense spending blablabla.
Could this create (unintended?) problems? Possibly, but neither your problems nor your ‘solutions’ seem to have been thought through for more than a fleeting moment; they just feel good to you so they/you must be right.
I’d never climb a mountain if I were you because the Labour Yetis will get you.
Twyford was addressing a possible alternative for Councils to move forward and clear their debts…
No. Twyford was addressing a possible alternative for Councils to overcome their debt constraints. An alternative that is likely to come in at a higher cost to households.
You still haven’t given a single decent argument why a wage earner in Invercargill should pay income tax to pay for a local project or service in Auckland, for example, that is/should/could be funded by targeted rates.
But I have. To better address household's affordability to pay, avoiding wider, negative ramifications for the economy and society overall. Was one. So can you explain why you don't see that as being a decent argument?
Helping to fund infrastructure throughout the nation is one of the reasons we pay tax.
Unintended problems you say. More like foreseeable problems such as an exacerbation of many of our current problems.
As for my proposal, it's open to suggestions of improvement or do you prefer to continue to dis me?
The intention is for MediaWorks to sell the television side of the business while retaining ownership of radio and QMS. The Flower Street property will also be put up for sale with a lease back option for a buyer to continue to operate television from that location.
Wasn't Media works helped out with a lessening of its licence some years ago when there were money troubles? If it is going to sell up, then we must put our hand out and recover that foregone money.
Media works had their licence payments changed from paying them in advance to in arrears. So there are no foregone money, just the timing on when they pay and the govt received the income. it was made out to be a larger issue than what is was, but that is the game of politics 😉 https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10711051
Investigation of Clinton emails ends, finding no 'deliberate mishandling'
The state department has completed its years-long internal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email and found “no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information”.
The investigation, launched more than three years ago, did find violations by 38 people, some of whom may face disciplinary action.
Investigators determined that those 38 people were “culpable” in 91 cases of sending classified information that ended up in Clinton’s personal email, according to a letter sent to Republican senator Chuck Grassley this week and released on Friday. The 38 are current and former state department officials but were not identified.
Can the Trumpkins and Alt Left Wing Trolls now please give this a rest.
The speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, said he had selected for a vote a proposal to withhold support for Johnson's Brexit deal until formal ratification legislation has passed.
The amendment was put forward by former Conservative MP Oliver Letwin and is backed by a cross-party alliance of opposition MPs. If it passes, it would force Johnson to request an extension to Brexit by the end of Saturday…
Labour –
Main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn told parliament Johnson's deal risks jobs, rights, the environment and health service.
"This deal would be a disaster for working people," he said, adding it was "even worse" than the one it replaces, which was voted down three times.
"Voting for a deal today won't end Brexit. It won't deliver certainty and the people should have the final say," Corbyn said.
He had earlier reiterated that Labour MPs would vote against the revised withdrawal agreement in a post on Twitter.
The BovverBoy –
(Johnson is now casting himself as the clear decision maker turning the Brexit matter around after the unfortunate decision of the referendum.The fact that it was the Conservatives who held it, and then acted on it on a whim really (it appeared), does not enter into the situation.)
They won't give up easily as getting out of Europe will mean changing laws in a swingeing way that give the workers standards under EU rules. Plus everything else and throwing away an Irish solution that resolved the deadly bombings and British shootings and prison sentences with excrement smearing and fasting and men desperate at the intransigence of Britain.
The Cons are so irresponsible and greedy, and Forage is a conniver, schemer and demagogue; a toxic mix.
Carbon is not only bad for Our environment is bad for one's health to. Let do the logical thing and drop carbon out of our society.
Scores more heart attacks and strokes on high pollution days, figures show
Data reveals acute impact on people’s health and the strain it puts on emergency services
Scores of children and adults are being rushed to hospital for emergency treatment on days of high pollution in cities across England, figures show.
Each year emergency services see more than 120 additional cardiac arrests, more than 230 additional strokes and nearly 200 more people with asthma requiring hospital treatment on days of high pollution compared with the average on days of lower pollution
Scores of children and adults are being rushed to hospital for emergency treatment on days of high pollution in cities across England, figures show.
Each year emergency services see more than 120 additional cardiac arrests, more than 230 additional strokes and nearly 200 more people with asthma requiring hospital treatment on days of high pollution compared with the average on days of lower pollution.
The data, to be published in full next month, shows the extra strain that poor air quality is putting on already stretched NHS emergency resources.
Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, said: “These new figures show air pollution is now causing thousands of strokes, cardiac arrests and asthma attacks, so it’s clear that the climate emergency is in fact also a health emergency. Since these avoidable deaths are happening now, not in 2025 or 2050, together we need to act now
Much of the recent research on air pollution has focused on the lifelong effects of chronic exposure, including cognitive decline, stunted growth in children and premature death. However, it can also bring on serious illness more immediately.
Jenny Bates, an air pollution campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “Many people may not realise how dangerous air pollution at high levels can be, and that it can trigger heart attacks, strokes and asthma attacks as well as having long-term health effects. These figures will be a wake-up call for city leaders to take the strongest possible action.”
The reason the system is failing comes down to that thing called Greed its greed for Putea its greed Mana.
The wealthy do want to ceed Mana to the many pohara tangata they don't want the pohara tangata to become food and energy independent as these 2 thing is what controls the World and control is power they don't want to leave carbon in the ground were mother earth put it because having everyone depending on their carbon is controlling the %99 they would even put humanity’s future in grave jeopardy because of their GREED The wealthy could easily set the pohara tangata up to become independent food and energy producers but that old human Sin stops them from doing the correct things in respecting others tangata happiness and well-being. We are all Tamariki of the Earth and we all deserve to share her bounty EQUALLY.
Failing' food system leaves millions of children malnourished or overweight
Unicef report finds poorest children at greatest risk, while price of healthy food in rich nations drives food poverty
In the UK, the situation is a growing crisis. Almost two million children in England live in food poverty and one in three are overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school, Unicef said.
Globally almost 200 million children under five are malnourished, mostly due to poverty and deprivation, while 340 million suffer from hidden hunger in the form of vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
Poor children are carrying “the greatest burden of all forms of malnutrition”, the agency said, stressing that only one in five children aged six months to 23 months from the poorest families “is fed the minimum recommended diverse diet for healthy growth and brain development
In south Asia 50% of children are undernourished or overweight. The malnutrition rate in east and southern Africa is 42%, and 39% in west and central Africa
Globally, 149 million children under five are stunted, meaning they have low height for their age, and almost 50 million are wasted, with low weight to height ratio
“The number of stunted children has declined in all continents, except in Africa, while the number of overweight children has increased in all continents, including in Africa,” the report said.
Obesity is rapidly rising among children and young people around the world, driving early outbreaks of type 2 diabetes. At least 40 million children over the age of five are overweight. From 2000–2016, the number of overweight children aged five to 19 has doubled from one in 10 to one in five.
“Ten times more girls and 12 times more boys in this age group suffer from obesity today than in 1975,” the agency said.
Poorer children in the UK are twice as likely to be obese compared with those from the wealthier backgrounds. So-called “food swamps” – areas abundant in high-calorie, low-nutrient, processed foods – are disproportionately concentrated in deprived areas. In England, less than one in five children aged five to 15 eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day and the poorest areas have five times more exposure to fast-food chains and corner shops
The report also looks at how globalisation, urbanisation and the climate emergency are compounding unhealthy diets. Just 100 giant firms dominate 77% of global sales of processed food. “Climate shocks, loss of biodiversity and damage to water, air and soil are worsening the nutritional prospects of millions of children and young people, especially among the poor,” said the report.
In Bangladesh alone, up to 19 million children are on the frontline of climate disasters
That's awesome Te Japanese tangata whenua Te Ainu building their own style Marae
I Maori always get the short end of the stick.
I don't think that Kura should turn down our Government funding for free Kai for their tamariki. If you need a new kitchen then get the parents to build it there are many ways to solve a problem.
I was very sceptical with shonky trying to stay in the medias EYE. Here you go Whanau he want his cake and to be able to eat it too as the old saying goes.
He wants to line his pocket with billions and still having a political influence on Aotearoa IE Whanau he is cheating.
Why Is John Key Running Around Trying to Organise a New Political Party?
National is panicking. They have started to realise that they need friends and they’ve also realised that the blue/green party is a stillborn nonsense.
That probably explains why John Key has been tasked with gathering up support for a new political party and has been busily talking up such a prospect to senior and wealthy business people
This is how it works. John Key gets an invite to dinner or a group to talk about whatever. Discussions inevitably steer towards the dreadful leadership of Simon Bridges and the need for a partner for National. At this point John Key suggests that the only viable option is for Judith Collins to go off and start her own party. Otherwise, he says they will have to deal with Winston Peters and he would rather see them booted from parliament than have to deal with him. He then says, that in his considered opinion, it is the only viable option. Those gullible business people, still thinking that John Key is the messiah then run around playing Chinese whispers and spreading the idea.
Quite how he thinks he can go around making such pronouncements is beyond this writer’s comprehension, save the only reasonable assumption one could make and that is that he is doing this with the approval and blessing of Simon Bridges and his leadership team.
However, it does expose Key somewhat as he retired from politics, got his knighthood, and a couple of cushy government appointments
It is obvious that he is still playing politics, but that causes him problems with his board positions, particularly the position he holds at Air New Zealand. That is a government-appointed position, and he has meddled in the selection processes in attempting to anoint Christopher Luxon.
John Key had his time in the sunlight, he got his knighthood, but failed in his other two goals of winning a fourth term and being the longest serving National PM. He should quietly bugger off and do his business thing and stop playing politics. He’s either in politics and out of business, or he’s in business and out of politics. He can’t do both. Not if he wants to keep his government board appointments.
John Key has always had a desire to sit on the board of one of the big Chinese Banks, a desire he expressed often enough to his political colleagues.
Global Warming is here and now it's not a phenomenon of our future its is a phenomenon we have to minimise and mitigate NOW.
Melting glaciers reveal five new islands in the Arctic
Russian navy discovers yet-to-be-named islands previously hidden under glaciers
An expedition in August and September charted the islands, which have yet to be named and were previously hidden under glaciers, said the head of the northern fleet, Vice-Admiral Alexander Moiseyev
Mainly this is of course caused by changes to the ice situation,” Moiseyev, who headed the expedition, said at a press conference in Moscow. “Before these were glaciers; we thought they were (part of) the main glacier.Melting, collapse and temperature changes led to these islands being uncovered.”
Glacier loss in the Arctic in the period from 2015 to 2019 was more than in any other five-year period on record, a United Nations report on global warming said last month
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President respectively for the US 2020 Election, may have dispensed with the erstwhile nemesis, Trump the candidate – but there are numerous critical openings through which much, much worse many out there may yet see fit to ...
I don’t know Taupō well. Even though I stop off there from time to time, I’m always on the way to somewhere else. Usually Taupō means making a hot water puddle in the gritty sand followed by a swim in the lake, noticing with bemusement and resignation the traffic, the ...
Frances Williams, King’s College LondonFor most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection – this has been dubbed “long COVID”. Scientists are ...
Last night, a British court ruled that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US. Unfortunately, its not because all he is "guilty" of is journalism, or because the offence the US wants to charge him with - espionage - is of an inherently political nature; instead the judge accepted ...
Is the Gender Identity Movement a movement for human liberation, or is it a regressive movement which undermines women’s liberation and promotes sexist stereotypes? Should biological males be allowed to play in women’s sport, use women-only spaces (public toilets, changing rooms, other facilities), be able to have access to everything ...
Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University of BirminghamSpace exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth. The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of ...
Michael Head, University of SouthamptonThe UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK – following the Pfizer vaccine. The British government ...
So, Boris Johnson has been footering about in hospitals again. We should be grateful, perhaps, that on this occasion the Clown-in-Chief is only (probably) getting in the way and causing distractions, rather than taking up a bed, vital equipment and resources and adding more strain and danger to exhausted staff.Look at ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to ZeroThat’s one of several recent ...
The situation in the UK is looking catastrophic.Cases: over *70,000* people who were tested in England on 29th December tested positive. This is *not* because there were more tests on that day. It *is* 4 days after Christmas though, around when people who caught Covid on Christmas Day might start ...
by Don Franks For five days over New Year weekend, sixteen prisoners in the archaic pre WW1 block of Waikeria Prison defied authorities by setting fires and occupying the building’s roof. They eventually agreed to surrender after intervention from Maori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi. A message from the protesting men had stated: ...
Lost Opportunity: The powerful political metaphor of the Maori Party leading the despised and marginalised from danger to safety, is one Labour could have pre-empted by taking the uprising at Waikeria Prison much more seriously. AS WORD OF Rawiri Waititi’s successful intervention in the Waikeria Prison stand-off spreads, the Maori ...
Dear friends, it’s been a covidious year,A testing time for all of us here—Citizens of an island nationIn a state of managed isolation,A team (someone said) five million strong,Making it up as we went along:Somehow in typical Kiwi fashion,Without any wild excess ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Dec 27, 2020 through Sat, Jan 2, 2021Editor's Choice7 Graphics That Show Why the Arctic Is in Trouble Arctic Sea Ice: NSIDC It’s no secret that the Arctic is ...
One of the books I read in 2020 was She, by H. Rider Haggard (1887). I thoroughly enjoyed it, as being an exemplar of a good old-fashioned adventure story. I also noted with amusement ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. There’s a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, here’s a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has added her warm congratulations to the New Zealanders recognised for their contributions to their communities and the country in the New Year 2021 Honours List. “The past year has been one that few of us could have imagined. In spite of all the things that ...
Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment David Parker has congratulated two retired judges who have had their contributions to the country and their communities recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. The Hon Tony Randerson QC has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the New Year’s Honours List 2021 highlights again the outstanding contribution made by Pacific people across Aotearoa. “We are acknowledging the work of 13 Pacific leaders in the New Year’s Honours, representing a number of sectors including health, education, community, sports, the ...
The Government’s investment in digital literacy training for seniors has led to more than 250 people participating so far, helping them stay connected. “COVID-19 has meant older New Zealanders are showing more interest in learning how to use technology like Zoom and Skype so they can to keep in touch ...
Despite a popular and unifying leader of the governing party, divisions both in policy and culture will test the progressive movement, writes Peter McKenzie.‘I think we’re confused.” Marlon Drake is an organiser for the Living Wage Movement. His job takes him all over Wellington, trying to convince businesses to increase ...
Covid-19 Recovery Minister Chris Hipkins says vaccinations should be available to the public by the middle of the year, but other countries are prioritised. ...
It’s as true now as it ever has been: nowhere else offers an education experience like that of Dunedin. But rather than resting on their laurels, the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic have plans to make the city an even more inspiring place for students.From high in the summit ...
Haggis, neeps and tatties and whisky may not be a traditional spread for a summer gathering in NZ, but trust Auckland city councillor and Kiwi-Scot Cathy Casey on this one. Gie it laldy! Rule one: Hold it on (or near) January 25Robert Burns was born on January 25, 1759. Since the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University It could be argued artificial intelligence (AI) is already the indispensable tool of the 21st century. From helping doctors diagnose and treat patients to rapidly advancing new drug discoveries, it’s our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Professor, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University Through recent natural disasters, global upheavals and a pandemic, Australia’s political centre has largely held. Australians may have disagreed at times, but they have also kept faith with governmental norms, eschewing the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Holly Seale, Associate professor, UNSW Health workers are at higher risk of COVID infection and illness. They can also act as extremely efficient transmitters of viruses to others in medical and aged care facilities. That’s why health workers have been prioritised to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jim Orchard, Adjunct Lecturer, Monash University Last week, somewhat overshadowed by the events in Washington, the Democrats took control of the US Senate. The Democrats now hold a small majority in both the House and the Senate until 2022, giving President-elect Joe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mittul Vahanvati, Lecturer, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University Heatwaves, floods, bushfires: disaster season is upon us again. We can’t prevent hazards or climate change-related extreme weather events but we can prepare for them — not just as individuals ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mandie Shean, Lecturer, School of Education, Edith Cowan University Starting school is an important event for children and a positive experience can set the tone for the rest of their school experience. Some children are excited to attend school for the first ...
Some families in emergency housing are reporting their children are becoming emotionally distressed because of their living conditions. Demand for emergency accommodation has escalated this past year with the number of emergency housing grants increasing by half. Data showed nearly 10,000 people were given an Emergency Housing Special Needs Grant between ...
Summer reissue: Michèle A’Court, Alex Casey and Leonie Hayden are back for a second season of On the Rag, and where better to start than with the mysterious, exhausting world of wellness?First published June 23, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
With few Covid-19 infections and negiligible natural immunity, New Zealand faces being a victim of its own success when it is left till last to get the vaccines, argues Dr Parmjeet Parmar. ...
Steve Braunias reports on a literary cancelling. The Corrections department has refused to allow Jared Savage's best-selling book Gangland inside prison on the grounds that it "promotes violence and drug use". An inmate at Otago Corrections Facility in Dunedin was sent a copy of the book – but it was ...
New data from the CTU’s annual work life survey shows a snapshot of working people’s experiences and outlook heading out of 2020 and into the new year. Concerningly 42% of respondents cite workplace bullying as an issue in their workplace - a number ...
An international player, selector and self-confessed cricket stats nerd, Penny Kinsella has now played a hand in recording the rich history of the women's game in New Zealand. Penny Kinsella’s cricketing career was perched on the cusp of change for the White Ferns. “My first tour to Australia, we ...
The dramatic capsize of American Magic brought out the best in the America's Cup sailing fraternity. But, Suzanne McFadden asks, what does it mean to the crippled New York Yacht Club campaign and to the Prada Cup? It was a scene as unreal as it was calamitous. Right at the moment the ...
The current number of members of parliament is starting to get too low for the job we expect them to do, argues Alex Braae. As a general rule, with the possible exception of their families, nobody likes backbench MPs. But it’s nevertheless time we accepted that parliament should have more of ...
The experience in the Brazilian city of Manaus reveals how mistaken, and dangerous, the herd-immunity-by-infection theory really is. As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop ...
As New Zealand gears up to fight climate change, experts warn that we need to actually reduce emissions, not just plant trees to offset our greenhouse gases. ...
A nationwide poll has found majority support for the government to continue to closely monitor abortions in New Zealand and the reasons for it, despite the Ministry of Health recently suggesting that there is not a use for collecting much of this information. ...
The out-of-control growth in gangs, gun crime, and violent gang activity is exposing our communities to dangerous levels of violence that will inevitably end in tragedy, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “The recent incidents of people being shot and ...
Successive governments have paid lip service to our productivity challenge but have failed to deliver. It's time to establish a Productivity Council charged with prioritising efforts. ...
Understanding the connection between chronic fatigue syndrome and ‘long Covid’ might be helpful in treating symptoms that doctors will find all too easy to dismiss.When people began to report signs of “long Covid”, characterised by a lack of full recovery from the virus and debilitating fatigue, I recognised their stories. ...
Nadine Anne Hura, who never considered herself an artist, reflects on what art and making has taught her.I couldn’t clean or cook or wash the clothes, but I could sew. That’s a lie, I’m a terrible sewer, but I left work early to fossick around in the $1 bin of ...
Summer reissue: In the final episode of this season of Bad News, Alice is joined by Billy T award winner Kura Forrester to look at how well we’re honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 2020.First published September 3, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The ...
Lucy Revill’s The Residents is a blog about daily life in Wellington that has morphed into a stylish, low-key coffee-table book featuring interviews and photographic portraits of 38 Wellingtonians. In this extract, Revill profiles Eboni Waitere, owner and executive director of Huia Publishers. The Residents features names like Monique Fiso ...
Pacific Media Watch correspondent The pro-independence conflict in West Papua with a missionary plane reportedly being shot down at Intan Jaya has stirred contrasting responses from the TNI/POLRI state sources, church leaders and an independence leader. A shooting caused a plane to catch fire on 6 January 2021 in the ...
“Last year ACT warned that rewarding protestors at Ihumātao with taxpayer money would promote further squatting. We just didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it is in Shelly Bay” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “The prosperity of all ...
Our kindly PM registered her return to work as leader of the nation with yet another statement on the Beehive website, the second in two days (following her appointment of Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council on Wednesday). It’s great to know we don’t have to check with ...
A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past.Content warning: This article contains racist language and images.On a pub wall in ...
Supermarket shoppers looking for citrus are seeing a sour trend at the moment – some stores are entirely tapped out of lemons. But why? Batches of homemade lemonade will be taking a hit this summer, with life not giving New Zealand shoppers lemons. Prices are high at supermarkets and grocers that ...
You’re born either a cheery soul or a gloomy one, reckons Linda Burgess – but what happens when gene pools from opposite ends of the spectrum collide?In our shoeboxes of photos that we have to sort out before we die or get demented – because who IS that kid on ...
Summer reissue: Prisoner voting rights are something that few in government seem particularly motivated to do anything about. Could a catchy charity single help draw attention to the issue?First published September 1, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its ...
Hundreds more Cook Islanders are expected to begin criss-crossing the Pacific, Air NZ will triple the number of flights to Rarotonga next week, and about 300 managed isolation places will be freed up for Kiwis returning from other parts of the world. When Thomas Tarurongo Wynne took a job in Wellington at ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ena Manuireva in Auckland It seems a long time ago – some 124 days – since Mā’ohi Nui deplored its first covid-19 related deaths of an elderly woman on 11 September 2020 followed by her husband just hours later, both over the age of 80. The local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral research associate, UNSW A global coalition of more than 50 countries have this week pledged to protect over 30% of the planet’s lands and seas by the end of this decade. Their reasoning is clear: we need greater protection ...
The Reserve Bank Governor’s apology and claim he will ‘own the issue’ is laughable given the lack of answers and timing of its release. Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union said: “It’s been five days since they came clean, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olga Kokshagina, Researcher – Innovation & Entrepreneurship, RMIT University Are too many online meetings and notifications getting you down? Online communication tools – from email to virtual chat and video-conferencing – have transformed the way we work. In many respects they’ve made ...
The Reserve Bank acknowledges information about some of its stakeholders may have been breached in a malicious data hack. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has commissioned an independent inquiry into how stakeholders' information was compromised when hackers breached a file sharing service used by the bank. “We ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland This story contains spoilers for Ammonite Palaeontologist Mary Anning is known for discovering a multitude of Jurassic fossils from Lyme Regis on England’s Dorset Coast from the age of ten in 1809. ...
A tribute to the sitcoms of old? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Yup. Sam Brooks reviews the audacious WandaVision.Nothing sends a chill up my spine like the phrase “Marvel Cinematic Universe”. Since launching in 2008 with Iron Man, the MCU has become a shambling behemoth, with over 23 films (not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University The alt-right, QAnon, paramilitary and Donald Trump-supporting mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6 claimed they were only doing what the so-called “founding fathers” of the US had done in ...
The Point of Order Ministerial Workload Watchdog and our ever-vigilant Trough Monitor were both triggered yesterday by an item of news from the office of Conservation Minister Kititapu Allan. The minister was drawing attention to new opportunities to dip into the Jobs for Nature programme (and her statement was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Kupz, Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University In July 1921, a French infant became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), after the mother had died from the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is ...
The first Friday Poem for 2021 is by Wellington poet Rebecca Hawkes.While you were partying I studied the bladeI your ever-loving edgelord God-emperorof the bot army & bitcoin mine subsistingon an IV drip of gamer girl bathwaterfinally my lonelinessis your responsibility………. you seeI need a girlfriend assigned to me by the ...
The arming of police officers in Canterbury was inevitable with the growing numbers and brazenness of the gangs across the country – this should be a permanent step, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is unfortunate that we have come to the point ...
Celebrations in Aotearoa New Zealand to mark the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will begin on Thursday 21 January with ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand’s Wellington and online event, and continue on Friday ...
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change.As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer ...
On the East Coast, a group of Māori-owned enterprises is innovating to create new revenue streams while doing what they love.New Zealand’s remote and sparsely populated regions are typically not the best places to create thriving brick-and-mortar businesses. In small communities miles away from any major centres, there are so ...
As we reach the height of summer, it’s not too late to do a safety check on your gas bottle. The Environmental Protection Authority’s Safer Homes programme has some tips and tricks to keep in mind before you fire up the grill. "If you’ve ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)If you’re in any way unsure about ...
“We may as well knock on the gang headquarters around this country and tell them we all give up," says Darroch Ball co-leader of Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is simply outrageous that violent offender, James Tuwhangai, has been released from ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Ireland, Israel, and Lebanon. Chart by Keith Rankin. The countries with the most recent large outbreaks of Covid19 are those with large numbers of recent recorded cases, but yet to record the deaths that most likely will result. In this camp, this time, are Ireland, Israel ...
RuPaul is in Aotearoa, kicking back in managed isolation to await the filming of an Australasian version of her hugely popular reality show Drag Race. But not everyone is happy about, explains Eli Matthewson. The world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, is in New Zealand, the government confirmed earlier this week ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong What can we make of Clive Palmer? This week, he announced his United Australia Party (UAP) would not contest the upcoming West Australian state election on March 13. After a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England Have you ever seenmagpies play-fighting with one another, or rolling around in high spirits? Or an apostlebird running at full speed with a stick in its beak, chased by a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Jackson, Program Director, Centre for Policy Development, and Associate Professor of Education, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Childcare centres across Australia are suffering staff shortages, which have been exacerbated by the COVID crisis. Many childcare workers across Australia left when parents started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Rhetoric plays an important role in tax debate and therefore tax policy. If your side manages to gain traction in the public imagination with labels such as “death ...
*This article was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission* Whoever leads the Republican Party post-Trump will need to consider how they will maintain the rabid support of his “base”, while working to regain more moderate voters who defected from the party in the 2020 election. In a historic ...
Covid-19 fears accelerated banks’ moves towards cashless transactions. But the Reserve Bank is fighting to protect cash, and those who still use it. ...
Good morning and welcome to this one-off edition of The Bulletin, covering major stories from the last few weeks.A quick preamble to this: Today’s special edition of The Bulletin is all about filling you in on some of the stories you might have missed over the summer period. Perhaps you had ...
Summer reissue: In this episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden is forced to confront her own mortality before hosting a very special dinner party to get to grips with the euthanasia debate.First published August 27, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
The debate over cutting down a large macrocarpa to make way for a new residential development has highlighted a wider agreement between developers and protesters: that we also need to be planting far more trees. At the corner of Great North Road and Ash Street in Avondale, a 150-year-old macrocarpa stands its ground ...
The contrast between the words of John F Kennedy and today’s anti-democratic demagogue is inescapable, writes Dolores Janiewski I still remember three eloquent speeches by an American president. One happened in January 1961 and spoke about a “torch being passed to a new generation”. Two years later and one day apart, ...
More infectious variants of Covid-19 are increasingly being intercepted at the country’s borders, but the minister running New Zealand’s response is resisting pressure to accelerate vaccination plans despite demands from health experts as well as political friends and foes, Justin Giovannetti reports.New Zealand’s first Covid-19 jabs will be administered in ...
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/18/second-whale-in-10-days-found-dead-in-river-thames
whales have been dying in the US this years in large numbers. Just washed up in numbers of one to three here and there every other day.
No whales showing up around cape town where they supposed to come by every year and this is after no sharks showed up.
I think we are doing a bang on job of killing everything we can as fast as we can because why not.
here https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/03/humpback-whales-unusual-mortality-event/
https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/whales-are-dying-round-alaska-and-scientists-dont-know-why/
https://phys.org/news/2019-06-feds-declare-emergency-gray-whale.html
ship strike and coincidence stated in article but 'so long….' was first thought that sprang to mind ….some 'odd' shark behaviour been reported recently as well
Japanese whale meat consumption has sky rocketed this year ?
We're removing millions of sharks each year for consumption, some just remove the fin and toss them back.
The experts say ecosystem collapse is inevitable with Apex predators removed.
Article 1 Section 9 Clause 8 of the US Constitution states:
Article 2 Section 1 Clause 7 of the US Constitution states:
One or both of these clauses gets violated every time any foreign delegation stays at a Trump Organisation property, or the Secret Service has to pay for the rooms their agents use when protecting the Prez when he goes to a Trump Organisation property.
But the greatest grifter of them all isn't content with forcing the minor cognitive dissonance of ignoring or defending this level of corruption on his cultists. No sirree, he has to go for the big kahuna of using one of his properties to host the G-7 meeting, thereby forcing the US government and all participating foreign governments into massive tribute payments.
https://www.vox.com/2019/10/17/20919414/trump-g7-doral-resort-2020-mulvaney
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/116039166/prison-spying-scandal-drugs-the-unauthorised-operation-and-the-police-investigation
I think what this shows, and all the other examples in recent times (whether NZTA, MSD cruelty, the T&C examples, MoBIE employees calling people "scum", etc., etc., etc.), is that if you give state agencies an opportunity, certain elements within will go rogue. EVEN IF they think its all with the best of intentions.
Far worse now as parts of our public service operate as little feifdoms with KPIs et all to meet. Proper oversight and accountability is well overdue
OwT +100
EVEN IF they think its all with the best of intentions.
It's a return to the degrading attitudes of Victorian times and the rigid class distinctions and who is entitled to respect and who not, with punitive punishments meted out by the people in society who see themselves as domatrixes? over the lower class. It's ugly and so are the thoughts behind the well-made up and expensively dressed group. It actually becomes so embedded in society without it being noticed, examined and condemned that it becomes a caste system, with untouchables at the base of it.
Unfortunately you can add the police and the military to that list.
Self-delusion is strong amongst UK Conservatives. How do you diagnose the Madness of the Entitled deep into group-think?
The Telegraph passed on this gem from Rees-Mogg (Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council since 2019, Eton and Trinity Colleges), from a report by Asa Bennett, Brexit Commissioning Editor.
Meanwhile, don't miss Jacob Rees-Mogg's column, in which he urges his fellow MPs to pass the deal, adding: "It is a great injustice meted upon the British people by the political class that the joyful decision they took, born out of confidence and resolution, should have become so associated with stasis and stagnation."
Rats:
Bad news in the USA. New York in 2018
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/21/new-york-rat-crisis-climate-change
Good news in agricultural Canada – Alberta. 2018 Vigilance and death.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/15/alberta-rat-catcher-phil-merill-canada-pest-free
I think the time has come to stop taking the p out of Simon. He will end up getting a sympathy vote for being mocked and picked-on. The emotional responses of all our educated citizens are high, compared to the informed judicious approach when deciding on election choice.
Japanese whale meat consumption has sky rocketed this year ?
Whats that got to do with the price of fish?
A large number of deaths of apparently healthy antelope. Why?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/25/mass-mortality-events-animal-conservation-climate-change Feb 2018
The scientists on the ground pinpointed blood poisoning as the cause, but were puzzled as to why whole herds were dying so quickly. After 32 postmortems, they concluded the culprit was the bacterium Pasteurella multocida, which they believe normally lives harmlessly in the tonsils of some, if not all, of the antelopes. In a research paper published in January in Science Advances, Kock and colleagues contrasted the 2015 MME with the two from the 1980s. They concluded that a rise in temperature to 37C and an increase in humidity above 80% in the previous few days had stimulated the bacteria to pass into the bloodstream where it caused haemorrhagic septicaemia, or blood poisoning.
The weather link raises the spectre of climate change. Just as it is rarely wise to link a single extreme weather event – whether it’s the Australian heatwave, last summer’s Hurricane Harvey or this winter’s North American cold snap – to climate change, it is equally difficult to blame an MME on global warming. But what can be said with confidence is that the sorts of extreme weather events linked to MMEs – such as the temperature and humidity rise that nearly wiped out the saiga – will become more frequent.
And more climate change problems for animals and us?
Ticks. 2018
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/as-winters-warm-blood-sucking-ticks-drain-moose-dry/
https://geographical.co.uk/nature/wildlife/item/3008-ghost-moose
Caring idealists doing what they can to help themselves and species survive.
https://www.dw.com/en/dying-fish-and-drying-rivers-consequences-of-europes-summer-heat-wave/a-45019500
.
Uncaring idealists who are too purist and sensitive for this world! 2017
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/nov/01/animal-rights-activists-inuit-clash-canada-indigenous-food-traditions
We're going to kill everything.
More than half a century ago, conservationist Rachel Carson sounded an alarm about human impacts on the natural world with her book Silent Spring. Its title alluded to the loss of twittering birds from natural habitats because of indiscriminate pesticide use, and the treatise spawned the modern conservation movement. But new research published Thursday in Science shows bird populations have continued to plummet in the past five decades, dropping by nearly three billion across North America—an overall decline of 29 percent from 1970.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/silent-skies-billions-of-north-american-birds-have-vanished/
A new study suggests that 40 percent of insect species are in decline, a sobering finding that has jarred researchers worldwide.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/02/why-insect-populations-are-plummeting-and-why-it-matters/
The answer is apparently for ths hoi polloi to elect someone like Harper in Canada 2014 who sacked 2000 scientists and encouraged destruction of archived records. and buffoon politicians with an air of confidence who lie about the conditions, and then there is no need to think. I think this proves that democracy tends to fall into the hands of finaglers and connivers and people are lulled into thinking they don't need to participate in the running of their country and so democracy is never really tried, as has also been said of Christianity.
including ourselves
https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2095707/great-tea-robbery-how-british-stole-chinas
China has been 'got at' by the west. This may be at the back of their minds as they organise their political blocs in the world.
Laying the narrative for Kiwibank to be sold?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/115992087/18yearold-kiwibank-still-has-only-4-per-cent-of-the-market-whats-happened
Not a chance in Hell, unless Nats get back to power. They'd sell their mothers if it helps with funding tax cuts for the rich and moar roads.
Unfortunately, at some stage, National will get back into power.
Hopefully they spend a bit of time in the wilderness first, meditating on their wretched failure to govern.
you have misunderstood conservative.
they don't give up on their plans.
they don't worry about the time it takes
and they can never failed, they can only ever befailed. ( see republicans in the us, or tories in england, or cdu/csu germany etc etc etc )
only liberals need to reflect, pontificate, meditate and be bipartisan. 🙂 And sadly more often then not they are.
What's the chance of Jami-Lee Ross winning Botany come next election?
And if he did, what's the chance he'd help National over the line if need be?
Ross has NO chance.The true blues in Botany are staunch to the Natz.JLR needs to be given a job.
Yes, but they can party vote National and also vote for JLR. Which may provide National with help getting over the line.
Good thinking JLR is well disposed to the Natz=a match made in..heaven.
When it comes to National not having friends, could this be the "space" that Simon keeps telling us to watch for?
Simon Luxon?
Bridges.
Luxon
If National voters vote strategically, they can party vote National and for JLR as a potential to help National over the line.
Luxon doesn't offer them that potential. And if he (Luxon) has a high listing, he'll get in regardless.
I don’t smoke my own dope.
Hard to see Luxon getting a high (enough) placing on the List and not aiming for a win in his electorate (if he’s selected to stand). OTOH, he could stand and do a Goldsmith.
He (Luxon) may aim to win but ultimately that will come down to how strategically National voters in Botany decide to vote.
Considering his high profile, one would expect a safe listing.
A high or high enough listing?
It would be cynical to parachute Luxon high into the party when he hasn’t done the hard yards yet and not proven himself. That said, he might get a high listing if he takes one for the team in Botany, i.e. do a Goldsmith. I can’t see it nor can I see JLR play along with it but in politics anything is possible.
How the voters vote will depend on the cues from the party (National) and the campaign.
Apparently, having to give up state-of-the-art bang-bangs makes some gun owners "feel like victims".
Fair point, from one perspective. Fuckwits in the world are why we can't have a lot of nice or fun things. Skyrockets, for example.
But I also have the impulse to say "awwww, having your toy taken away makes you feel like you were just going about your daily routine when some fuckwit put several high-velocity projectiles through your body? You poor dear."
Phil Twyford on Q&A was pointing at targeted rates. Where private finance is brought in (such as infrastructure bonds) and paid back through targeted rates or a levy to be added on top of current rate bills. Shifting the debt off council books (helping to address their problem) but which Twyford admitted, will do nothing for ratepayer affordability.
And of course, this will have a flow on effect. Putting further upward pressure on rents, thus putting further pressure on incomes. Which in turn, reduces spending elsewhere.
To better address households ability to pay, rates should be funded through income tax. Which is far more progressive, thus far better suited to address household affordability issues. As those that earn the most pay a larger share.
What are your thoughts?
As those that earn the most pay a larger share.
Yeah, Right. TUI!
Yeah, sure.
Nevertheless, while income tax is not perfect, it's the most progressive from of taxation we have, thus the most suited to address household affordability issues.
Central government needs to stop pushing stuff onto councils without thinking of the unintended consequences e.g. increasing immigration as a matter of government policy increases the infrastructure requirements that councils have to meet but the government at the same time as pushing these costs up sides with the developers moaning about the cost of putting in such infrastructure.
Or funding private landlords to buy rental properties through both tax incentives and rent subsidies while at the same time reducing state rentals (both proportionally to population and in some councils in actuality) putting undue pressure on council housing which receives zero central government support for housing.
It was an original accord between councils and government that the state would pick up most of the need for state housing and councils some for the elderly and the disabled. Councils who have retained their housing (and thanks to the ones that have) should get a cash injection from government to upgrade and replace their aging housing. This to compensate for the years of support private landlords have had.
Twyford's subtext for this "uplift" is the light rail deal, and how HLC uplifts development profit out of that deal. Although with TV3 selling out of their Eden Terrace property, there's scope for CRLL to buy it as it's an adjacent property and would then be able to be pulled into a wider redevelopment deal. More scope for betterment there.
If he wants to fund rates through income tax, he should have a sit-downwith an actual tax policy specialist, such as Deb Russel who runs the Finance Committee.
Otherwise he should stop putting up tax policy balloons that have no support.
I think it was The Chairman, not Phil Twyford, who is pushing for nation-wide income tax as mechanism to fund local projects and services at Council level.
Unfortunately, The Chairman did not include a link in his comment @ 12, which would have been helpful.
Yes, that's correct re use of tax funding.
And the reason I didn't provide a link is because I clearly stated it was on Q&A.
[Whether it is “correct” use of tax funding is a matter of opinion.
Without a link people have to do a search to find what you are referring to in order to verify your comment. How many times has Phil Twyford appeared on Q & A? This does not make for good debate and does not show good faith. It would take you a few seconds to find and post the link here so please correct your omission – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 3:03 PM.
Latest episode.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/episodes
This one: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/episodes/s2019-e32?
That’s no good because you need to “Login to unlock this video.”
It could have been this clip: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/clips/twyford-says-pressure-on-councils-to-grow-cities-up-and-out
But you didn’t link to that one!?
I guess we will never know what was fact and what was your opinion. So, sadly, this debate never got off the ground in a good way because of lack of appropriate sharing of information, IMHO.
Yes, I was referring to the latest episode and of course the clip from it that you linked too.
I have no control over who can and can’t log into TVNZ. Therefore, what clips and episodes people can see.
This proposal (not Twyford's one re infrastructure bonds) is all my opinion.
Thank you.
Commenters here often link to stuff that’s behind paywalls and usually warn about it too. A small gesture goes a long way. In any case, linking gives others an opportunity to go to same source and make up their own minds. Subsequently, a debate might ensue and if new information needs to be included, a new link will appear in the discussion thread, et cetera. It is really that simple.
Speaking of light rail, have you seen this?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/116705422/light-rail-reality-the-six-power-point-slides-that-stopped-a-city
The rates burden wont be solved by redesignating the collector …regardless the increasing costs will continue (unless you advocate further austerity) as it must occur for as the sum of infrastructure increases so does its maintenance…..such is growth
And there will be the, or should be, the extra personnel keeping an eye on infrastructure for cracks, bulges etc when the materials start breaking down or not performing as required.
Indeed, Pat.With growth comes cost. However, to improve the sustainability in meeting those costs, how rates are collected (or more precisely how the burden is shared) needs to change to a more progressive form.
The Government can't expect people who are currently struggling to take on more costs without the wheels falling off. Which, of course, will result in wider, negative ramifications for the economy and society overall.
Sounds to me you’re conflating a number of things and pushing for some kind of privatising profits/benefits and socialising losses/costs (AKA externalising). Intuitively, the user-pays argument makes a lot of sense. You will have to argue hard to convince a wage earner in Invercargill to pay effectively income tax for a swimming pool in a suburb of Auckland.
Not at all. I talking about peoples ability to pay ever increasing costs. Thus, the need to find a more sustainable source of funding.
In this regard, all the Government has done thus far is to come up with a way (infrastructure bonds) to keep the cost off of councils books, while largely overlooking peoples ability to pay growing, ongoing costs moving forward.
And in the case of infrastructure bonds, one would assume the rate will be higher than the rate it currently costs the Government to borrow.
As a funding source, the use of infrastructure bonds will privatize profits. The use of taxes won't.
As for a taxpayer in Invercargill paying for projects elsewhere, taxpayer funding already pays for spending elsewhere throughout the country. Therefore, in that context, what I'm suggesting wouldn't change a thing.
Who’s currently paying for Council debt?
How do Council progress projects and services if they cannot borrow more?
Who will pay for those Infrastructure Bonds?
Will these help to reduce Council debt?
Please provide evidence that a portion of income tax paid by a wage earner in Invercargill goes towards local projects and services elsewhere in the country that are paid for by targeted rates. In any case, if your suggestion “wouldn’t change a thing” what nation-wide projects and services will receive less of the taxpayers’ dollar?
Are you thinking of an extension of the Provincial Growth Fund for local Councils?
Ratepayers largely fund council, thus their costs/debt.
Moody's highlighted Auckland Council could suffer a future credit downgrade if it faces reduced support from the government to deliver its infrastructure program.
Back in April, there was currently $1.2 billion of debt headroom against the internal debt-to-revenue ceiling of 265%. This headroom was projected to be fully utilised over the next couple of years.
The Auditor-General released a report in February which talked about the increasing pressures many of the country’s councils are facing as they tried to deal with increasing costs associated with infrastructure and growth in the face of growing debt levels.
https://www.interest.co.nz/bonds/98926/auckland-councils-12-bln-debt-headroom-keeps-credit-rating-agency-happy-meantime-using
I didn't state that. I said as for a taxpayer in Invercargill paying for projects elsewhere, taxpayer funding already pays for spending elsewhere throughout the country. So in that context, nothing would change.
Again, you are changing the context. I was alluding to there being no change in the fact tax dollars obtained from one region is already being spent elsewhere. Some even goes offshore as in foreign aid.
In the wider context, as for what nation-wide projects and services will receive less taxpayer funding as a result? That depends on whether or not the Government would opt for an additional infrastructure tax (largely targeted at high income earners, reducing downward in the income scale) opposed to cutting back tax spending elsewhere. Such as defense spending, offshore aid, etc…
Ultimately, I would like to see a total shift away from rates (which are less progressive and don't really take into account people’s income, thus people's ability to pay) moving to all council rates being funded directly via income taxes. Which, of course, does take into account people’s income hence ability to pay, thus is far more sustainable going forward.
Infrastructure bonds will help slow the build up of council debt, but they are not the only solution. Furthermore, they come at a far greater public cost.
I’m afraid you’re shifting the goalposts (context) and roping in all sorts of stuff that have nothing to do with the original discussion topic (hint: it was about what Phil Twyford said during an interview). In other words, you’re conflating a number of things, as I said previously. Please re-read your comment @12 that started this thread. If you want to discuss foreign aid or defense spending, which I know is one bee in your bonnet, and then start a new thread.
Foreign aid and defense spending were examples brought up due to your questioning. Nevertheless, as your questioning indicates, the two are interconnected – i.e. funding and expenditure.
Fascinating that you blame my questioning for you not staying on topic and bringing your hobbyhorses into the conversation. For your convenience, please let me remind you of the topic as started by you @ 12: (alternative) ways of funding/financing targeted rates and reasoning from a Council’s perspective as raised by Phil Twyford in his interview that you couldn’t link to (you got close, in the end). Even within your starting comment @ 12, you already went off track and avoided addressing Twyford’s points with your idiosyncratic way of criticising negatively. You claim to come here to build consensus, which IMHO relies on finding and acknowledging commonality. Your MO, OTOH, is to find and highlight distinction, separation, discord, and discontent, to name just a few, which usually are based on assumptions that you and only you seem to make and rarely based on hard facts.
Talk about not staying on topic, I’m not the topic.
The Government knows the high cost of housing is a problem which has wider, negative ramifications.Yet, they seem intent on adding to it.
Addressing council's affordability via private sector investment will add to household costs (privatizing profits) while also encouraging councils to spend more (via removing current funding constraints) putting more affordability pressures on households.
Can you not see the problems this is going to create going forward?
Nice try of deflecting that you cannot and did not stay on topic and only used Twyford’s interview to spew your usual concern about this country going to hell in a handbasket thanks to the Labour-led Government. Of course, Twyford is
flavourtarget of the month.Yes, living costs are (too) high and so are Council debts. Projects and services need to be delivered/executed in a timely fashion or costs will rise astronomically – do you follow the NZTA story at all?
Twyford was addressing a possible alternative for Councils to move forward and clear their debts, which are paid for by ratepayers who are likely to benefit, which is one argument for targeted rates, which happened to be one of Twyford’s talking points. You still haven’t given a single decent argument why a wage earner in Invercargill should pay income tax to pay for a local project or service in Auckland, for example, that is/should/could be funded by targeted rates. That argument will, of course, never eventuate because foreign aid and defense spending blablabla.
Could this create (unintended?) problems? Possibly, but neither your problems nor your ‘solutions’ seem to have been thought through for more than a fleeting moment; they just feel good to you so they/you must be right.
I’d never climb a mountain if I were you because the Labour Yetis will get you.
No. Twyford was addressing a possible alternative for Councils to overcome their debt constraints. An alternative that is likely to come in at a higher cost to households.
But I have. To better address household's affordability to pay, avoiding wider, negative ramifications for the economy and society overall. Was one. So can you explain why you don't see that as being a decent argument?
Helping to fund infrastructure throughout the nation is one of the reasons we pay tax.
Unintended problems you say. More like foreseeable problems such as an exacerbation of many of our current problems.
As for my proposal, it's open to suggestions of improvement or do you prefer to continue to dis me?
channel 3 for sale.
The intention is for MediaWorks to sell the television side of the business while retaining ownership of radio and QMS. The Flower Street property will also be put up for sale with a lease back option for a buyer to continue to operate television from that location.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1910/S00422/mediaworks-to-pursue-a-sales-process-for-television-business.htm
Wasn't Media works helped out with a lessening of its licence some years ago when there were money troubles? If it is going to sell up, then we must put our hand out and recover that foregone money.
CRL's Mt Eden Station – now under construction – is right next door to the TV3 site.
CRLL should buy it and fold it into their post-CRL construction plan.
Media works had their licence payments changed from paying them in advance to in arrears. So there are no foregone money, just the timing on when they pay and the govt received the income. it was made out to be a larger issue than what is was, but that is the game of politics 😉
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10711051
Thanks I thought it important then, so am glad they did pay it back.
But her emails!
Can the Trumpkins and Alt Left Wing Trolls now please give this a rest.
Brexit –
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/10/uk-brexit-showdown-latest-updates-191019080100527.html
The speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, said he had selected for a vote a proposal to withhold support for Johnson's Brexit deal until formal ratification legislation has passed.
The amendment was put forward by former Conservative MP Oliver Letwin and is backed by a cross-party alliance of opposition MPs. If it passes, it would force Johnson to request an extension to Brexit by the end of Saturday…
Labour –
Main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn told parliament Johnson's deal risks jobs, rights, the environment and health service.
"This deal would be a disaster for working people," he said, adding it was "even worse" than the one it replaces, which was voted down three times.
"Voting for a deal today won't end Brexit. It won't deliver certainty and the people should have the final say," Corbyn said.
He had earlier reiterated that Labour MPs would vote against the revised withdrawal agreement in a post on Twitter.
The BovverBoy –
(Johnson is now casting himself as the clear decision maker turning the Brexit matter around after the unfortunate decision of the referendum.The fact that it was the Conservatives who held it, and then acted on it on a whim really (it appeared), does not enter into the situation.)
They won't give up easily as getting out of Europe will mean changing laws in a swingeing way that give the workers standards under EU rules. Plus everything else and throwing away an Irish solution that resolved the deadly bombings and British shootings and prison sentences with excrement smearing and fasting and men desperate at the intransigence of Britain.
The Cons are so irresponsible and greedy, and Forage is a conniver, schemer and demagogue; a toxic mix.
Kia Ora Breakfast.
Kia Kaha to all the Teams who didn't make the semi finals at the Rugby World Cup.
Tui
Still Lives Book by Maderlin all humans should be treated humanly by other people.
Ka kite Ano
Te Tui is my favourite Titi
Carbon is not only bad for Our environment is bad for one's health to. Let do the logical thing and drop carbon out of our society.
Scores more heart attacks and strokes on high pollution days, figures show
Data reveals acute impact on people’s health and the strain it puts on emergency services
Scores of children and adults are being rushed to hospital for emergency treatment on days of high pollution in cities across England, figures show.
Each year emergency services see more than 120 additional cardiac arrests, more than 230 additional strokes and nearly 200 more people with asthma requiring hospital treatment on days of high pollution compared with the average on days of lower pollution
Scores of children and adults are being rushed to hospital for emergency treatment on days of high pollution in cities across England, figures show.
Each year emergency services see more than 120 additional cardiac arrests, more than 230 additional strokes and nearly 200 more people with asthma requiring hospital treatment on days of high pollution compared with the average on days of lower pollution.
The data, to be published in full next month, shows the extra strain that poor air quality is putting on already stretched NHS emergency resources.
Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, said: “These new figures show air pollution is now causing thousands of strokes, cardiac arrests and asthma attacks, so it’s clear that the climate emergency is in fact also a health emergency. Since these avoidable deaths are happening now, not in 2025 or 2050, together we need to act now
Much of the recent research on air pollution has focused on the lifelong effects of chronic exposure, including cognitive decline, stunted growth in children and premature death. However, it can also bring on serious illness more immediately.
Jenny Bates, an air pollution campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “Many people may not realise how dangerous air pollution at high levels can be, and that it can trigger heart attacks, strokes and asthma attacks as well as having long-term health effects. These figures will be a wake-up call for city leaders to take the strongest possible action.”
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/21/scores-more-heart-attacks-and-strokes-on-high-pollution-days-figures-show
Kia Ora 1 News.
Japan can be proud of the way there Rugby team played and hold their heads up they have made vast improvement in their team and games.
The engineered stone used for kitchen bench tops cutting causeing lung damage is quite a bit of a hazard.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
That's cool more putea for trade training for our youth I will be making sure my mokopuna get a good education.
Rudolph being treated badly is sad because he was different people can be cruel.
We do need more Maori teachers in university but I say we are discriminated against I have seen the proof.
Good on Te Tai tokarau for their WAKA build with the Tahitians. I want to see Ngāti Porou WAKA building revived.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Breakfast.
I tau toko tangata who champion mitigating Global Warming.
(Well Hello)
Ka kite Ano
Some Eco Maori Music For The Minute.
The reason the system is failing comes down to that thing called Greed its greed for Putea its greed Mana.
The wealthy do want to ceed Mana to the many pohara tangata they don't want the pohara tangata to become food and energy independent as these 2 thing is what controls the World and control is power they don't want to leave carbon in the ground were mother earth put it because having everyone depending on their carbon is controlling the %99 they would even put humanity’s future in grave jeopardy because of their GREED The wealthy could easily set the pohara tangata up to become independent food and energy producers but that old human Sin stops them from doing the correct things in respecting others tangata happiness and well-being. We are all Tamariki of the Earth and we all deserve to share her bounty EQUALLY.
Failing' food system leaves millions of children malnourished or overweight
Unicef report finds poorest children at greatest risk, while price of healthy food in rich nations drives food poverty
In the UK, the situation is a growing crisis. Almost two million children in England live in food poverty and one in three are overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school, Unicef said.
Globally almost 200 million children under five are malnourished, mostly due to poverty and deprivation, while 340 million suffer from hidden hunger in the form of vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
Poor children are carrying “the greatest burden of all forms of malnutrition”, the agency said, stressing that only one in five children aged six months to 23 months from the poorest families “is fed the minimum recommended diverse diet for healthy growth and brain development
In south Asia 50% of children are undernourished or overweight. The malnutrition rate in east and southern Africa is 42%, and 39% in west and central Africa
Globally, 149 million children under five are stunted, meaning they have low height for their age, and almost 50 million are wasted, with low weight to height ratio
“The number of stunted children has declined in all continents, except in Africa, while the number of overweight children has increased in all continents, including in Africa,” the report said.
Obesity is rapidly rising among children and young people around the world, driving early outbreaks of type 2 diabetes. At least 40 million children over the age of five are overweight. From 2000–2016, the number of overweight children aged five to 19 has doubled from one in 10 to one in five.
“Ten times more girls and 12 times more boys in this age group suffer from obesity today than in 1975,” the agency said.
Poorer children in the UK are twice as likely to be obese compared with those from the wealthier backgrounds. So-called “food swamps” – areas abundant in high-calorie, low-nutrient, processed foods – are disproportionately concentrated in deprived areas. In England, less than one in five children aged five to 15 eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day and the poorest areas have five times more exposure to fast-food chains and corner shops
The report also looks at how globalisation, urbanisation and the climate emergency are compounding unhealthy diets. Just 100 giant firms dominate 77% of global sales of processed food. “Climate shocks, loss of biodiversity and damage to water, air and soil are worsening the nutritional prospects of millions of children and young people, especially among the poor,” said the report.
In Bangladesh alone, up to 19 million children are on the frontline of climate disasters
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/oct/15/failing-food-system-means-millions-of-children-are-malnourished-or-overweight-unicef
Some Eco Maori Music For The Minute.
Kia Ora 1 News.
Hope that they can get the fire under control in Tamiki Makaru before to much damage is caused.
That explaine the small swam today
There you go.
Congratulations to the left Canadian Prime Minister for his re election Kia Kaha
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Condolences to Tommy's Whanau for their loss.
Big fires at sky city convention centre.
That's awesome Te Japanese tangata whenua Te Ainu building their own style Marae
I Maori always get the short end of the stick.
I don't think that Kura should turn down our Government funding for free Kai for their tamariki. If you need a new kitchen then get the parents to build it there are many ways to solve a problem.
I learnt never turn down koha putea or Kai
Kia Kaha Albe.
I tau toko Te Anglican Church.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Breakfast.
Richard.
Isn't it deja vu Whutu paoro
I can carry on with my project
Ka kite Ano
I was very sceptical with shonky trying to stay in the medias EYE. Here you go Whanau he want his cake and to be able to eat it too as the old saying goes.
He wants to line his pocket with billions and still having a political influence on Aotearoa IE Whanau he is cheating.
Why Is John Key Running Around Trying to Organise a New Political Party?
National is panicking. They have started to realise that they need friends and they’ve also realised that the blue/green party is a stillborn nonsense.
That probably explains why John Key has been tasked with gathering up support for a new political party and has been busily talking up such a prospect to senior and wealthy business people
This is how it works. John Key gets an invite to dinner or a group to talk about whatever. Discussions inevitably steer towards the dreadful leadership of Simon Bridges and the need for a partner for National. At this point John Key suggests that the only viable option is for Judith Collins to go off and start her own party. Otherwise, he says they will have to deal with Winston Peters and he would rather see them booted from parliament than have to deal with him. He then says, that in his considered opinion, it is the only viable option. Those gullible business people, still thinking that John Key is the messiah then run around playing Chinese whispers and spreading the idea.
Quite how he thinks he can go around making such pronouncements is beyond this writer’s comprehension, save the only reasonable assumption one could make and that is that he is doing this with the approval and blessing of Simon Bridges and his leadership team.
However, it does expose Key somewhat as he retired from politics, got his knighthood, and a couple of cushy government appointments
It is obvious that he is still playing politics, but that causes him problems with his board positions, particularly the position he holds at Air New Zealand. That is a government-appointed position, and he has meddled in the selection processes in attempting to anoint Christopher Luxon.
John Key had his time in the sunlight, he got his knighthood, but failed in his other two goals of winning a fourth term and being the longest serving National PM. He should quietly bugger off and do his business thing and stop playing politics. He’s either in politics and out of business, or he’s in business and out of politics. He can’t do both. Not if he wants to keep his government board appointments.
John Key has always had a desire to sit on the board of one of the big Chinese Banks, a desire he expressed often enough to his political colleagues.
This is yet another dog that won’t hunt
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://thebfd.co.nz/2019/10/why-is-john-key-running-around-trying-to-organise-a-new-political-party/
Global Warming is here and now it's not a phenomenon of our future its is a phenomenon we have to minimise and mitigate NOW.
Melting glaciers reveal five new islands in the Arctic
Russian navy discovers yet-to-be-named islands previously hidden under glaciers
An expedition in August and September charted the islands, which have yet to be named and were previously hidden under glaciers, said the head of the northern fleet, Vice-Admiral Alexander Moiseyev
Mainly this is of course caused by changes to the ice situation,” Moiseyev, who headed the expedition, said at a press conference in Moscow. “Before these were glaciers; we thought they were (part of) the main glacier.Melting, collapse and temperature changes led to these islands being uncovered.”
Glacier loss in the Arctic in the period from 2015 to 2019 was more than in any other five-year period on record, a United Nations report on global warming said last month
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/22/melting-glaciers-reveal-five-new-islands-in-the-arctic
Kia Ora 1 News.
A referendum would be OK.
I think that it would be sad if the aluminium smelter shut down with the cleaner aluminium that's produced by our Awa power.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
The building has heaps of carbon in it.
Every culture has to abide by the rules.
Ka pai to Tangata Whenua getting a stronger voice in the Rotorua lakes councils kia kaha.
Awsome to see Te Carving Hinemateioro back in Turangi A Kiwa.
Its great to see Te reo being digitised that will make tangata learning Te reo easer to learn .
Jo Joe rabbit will be a good move to watch.
Ka kite Ano.