Another drought for Southern Region? How will ..Dairy farmers deal with that? Water is going to be scarce. More pressure on Councils to “allow” water takes?
"The foundations of evolutionary biology had been distorted by prejudice.
Why do you describe sex, as in the male and female categories in species, as anarchical?
I was really surprised when I came to understand how sexual differentiation actually happens. Everybody at school learns that males are XY and females are XX. You think that the genes that govern being male are on the Y chromosome, and the genes that cover being female are on the X, and that the pathways that take you to being male or female are linear and distinct. That’s what I assumed, like many people. And then I spoke to Jenny Graves, who had been studying sexual differentiation and determination for a very long time, in everything from platypus to nematode worms. She was part of the team that found the SRY gene, which is of course the trigger for the male pathway in humans. She’s the one who told me that it’s a pretty anarchic setup.
I was amazed by what she told me. When you have a fetus, it starts off as sexually neutral with a unisex kit of parts. Then there’s a trigger—in humans, the presence or absence of the SRY gene—that starts one of these two pathways. The gonads either start down the pathway of becoming a testes or an ovary. Now, what I didn’t know, which Jenny told me—she had to tell me three times because I couldn’t believe it—is that the genes involved in making testes or ovaries are basically the same 60 genes. They just play to a different tune. And these two pathways involving these 60 genes are neither separate nor linear. They’re enmeshed, and they work antagonistically. So, to create an ovary, you have to suppress the testes at the same time.
They’ve now found in studies of mice that this suppression, this antagonistic relationship between these two pathways, continues into adulthood, which suggests that the gonad is never actually stable in a mouse, an astonishing thing to discover. When she sent me this diagram to explain what these two linear pathways look like, it was like a machine of millions of cogs with these little blue balls being spat out and pumped between things, and destroyed, and the whole thing was like a whirring map. It was chaos. She said that’s what she sees these pathways to be like. This anarchic system is why you get such extraordinary variation "
Read the full article (and I suggest you will find it more than interesting!) here:
Though flavor has become the American spelling, it is not new. Examples of its use are easily found in British texts from the 19th century and earlier. The modern British spelling was not definitively settled until around 1800, which was around the same time that influential American educators and lexicographers began pushing the simpler flavor.
I wonder how many people commenting here read the article. It's pretty interesting. The underlying theme is that sex (how species reproduce) is dimorphic but this doesn't determine behaviour or roles in the way that say Darwin posited. And that Darwin's science was probably affected by his cultural world views.
Also worth noting is that science has been skewed by the historical dominance of men, and that when we allowed more women into science, we can see they asked different questions. I would say because of their experience of being female, and because there is such a thing as women's culture.
Will read the article Robert, but just the title leads me to suspect Jenny has an ideological position that she is fitting her reseach to. Human genes and the process (which happens in the womb, rather than "assigned at birth" is a complex system. But we are either male or female with the very rare exception of intersex people who have nothing to do with being trans or gender ideology.
This issue which features things Queer includes pictures of young women showing their masectomy scars. Itt appears to be part of celebrating all things Queer and Trans.
Reseach like Jenny's I suspect is used to support queer theory.
We are living in a time where being female has never been more scrutinized or politicized. I feel that there’s been a revolution in our understanding of what it means to be female. And that revolution started in the early 1980s with the likes of Sarah Hrdy and Patricia Gowaty first challenging these stereotypes that Darwin had set in stone of the passive female that’s chaste, submissive, and coy. But even though they started those challenges and, in many cases, won them in as early as the 1980s, much of that thinking has taken a long time to permeate into popular culture and even into science.
Might be a revelation to some, but many have heard this dross multiple times.
The ‘recent’ understanding of what it is to be female, the conflation of material sex based body differences, processes and impacts with societal stereotypes, the analogy with sexual reproduction in other species… etcetera etcetera…
Yes. Nothing new in that article you could not have already picked up from any number of David Attenborough shows. Yes we have long understood that sex manifests itself in any number of different ways in a myriad other species.
But crucially most species evolve one strategy, and stick to it. Humans evolved their own highly complex strategy and one closely linked to our complex societies. There is no reason to think we could mate like bonobos, or preying mantis, without also massively upending our entire social orders as well.
But then that may well be the general idea for some.
Year Zero … perpetual anarchy / permanent revolution … all fixed categories & meanings are "oppressive" and must be immediately & aggressively subverted … everyone outside the Critical Theory Cult is a Fascist, lacking the “unusually-refined moral sensibilities” of the self-enamoured erudite.
In other words … Another day, another Queer Theory fantasist.
Over the years here at TS I have noticed the most radical voices eventually revealing an underlying sexual motif behind their desire to upend everything.
The below essay is very quickly written and still very much a work in progress, but I felt it was important to share some of this information as part of Intersex Awareness Day.
As someone born with Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, I had until recently felt fairly neutral about the term Intersex as I could see its value as a political label and as a way of understanding the bodies of those of us living with complex variations of sex development – and I have found it amazing to see young activists embracing and celebrating their bodily differences under an intersex flag.
However, the recent appropriation, misrepresentation and even fetishizing of ‘intersex’ has led to me increasingly believing that the term is doing more harm than good.
I am also increasingly contacted by young people, adults and new parents that have never met anyone else with the same variation of sex development, possibly as they do not feel represented by current activism that focuses only on those who identify as intersex. Peer support can be hugely valuable – and I would like this to be available for all, regardless of how they identify.
I do not mean this essay to be a criticism of people using the term intersex to describe themselves, however, I am critical of using intersex to describe babies and children, who do not have a choice.
On Intersex Awareness Day, I want to start with what has sadly become a controversial statement.
I want to support ALL people born with variations or differences of sex development (DSD) and not only those who choose to identify as intersex. I want to ensure that all children born with differences in their sex or reproductive development, get the family, psychological and peer support they need, to make informed choices about their healthcare. Most importantly, I want them to have access to accurate and precise information about their bodies and to have the opportunity to meet other young people who share their experience.
For this to be possible, there needs to be activism, advocacy and academic research that is truly inclusive and centres the children and families most in need of support – and listens to a diverse range of voices and not only to adults who identify as intersex.
O.k read the article and it is interesting about the differenct species. Thanks for posting Robert
The edition I posted of Salient show what universities are peddling in terms of Queer Theory and Gender Ideology. The fact that they are showing pictures of young women who have had double mascectomies as something to celebrate should cause a few wake up calls I would hope.
In the meantime, Order has been restored in the Universe, and Justice has been Served, as the Time Honoured game of Quidditch is renamed "Quadball"… because players no longer want to be associated with the inventor of said sport who has been deservedly cancelled due to her outrageous claims that sex is a biological reality.
"There should be a lesson for those Governments who want to have Private Equity investment funds being able to invest in strategic assets."
What lesson do you think they should take? Do you propose they should take the most obvious one? That is that Government should sell all the businesses they own to organisations such as BlackRock. Then when the share price falls it will be BlackRock clients who lose money rather than the taxpayer?
This sort of story reminds me of a question Bill Gates was asked in 2000, and the answer he is supposed to have given.
Some reporter asked him, during the dotcom crash, how it felt to have lost a billion dollars in a day. Gates responded that Microsoft was the same company as it had been yesterday and that he still owned the same fraction of it that he had owned yesterday. He hadn't lost anything.
I have a problem with Governments owning any business.
It is that politicians will never admit that they have made a mistake and therefore will never stop throwing money at a business that should be allowed to die. Hence they keep wasting more and more money on stupid investments rather than say that it was a mistake and the business should be wound up.
Sooner or later, in the private sector people will stop putting money into a company and it will collapse if it can't produce goods at a price that people are willing to pay. Governments don't have that constraint. It isn't their money and their only real interest is in trying to show that their judgement was infallible.
The only time a stupid Government owned business gets closed down is after a change of Government. I vote for a change of Government after 9 years so that this can happen. I was really pissed off in 2017 because there wasn't a competent opposition to come to power. Events since then have shown how correct my opinion was.
I never said anything about firms being more, or less, honest or efficient.
I was only discussing whether they were more likely to give up on doing something stupid. Sooner or later a Company has to stop money-losing endeavours. This often coincides with the CEO being sacked. With Politicians running things it happens when they lose an election. A new Government can stop the madder things and talk about how bad their predecessors were. A Government that remains in power doesn't stop things they started. It has nothing to do with their political leanings. They are all the same.
If this is contagious does this mean that the NZRFU might actually be able to acquire Silverlake. That would delight me enormously. Don’t fuck with theAllBlacks!
It would be laughable to look at the latest edition of Salient, if queer theory didn't impact so negatively young women's (and men's ) who get caught up in it so significantly
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A report released today shows Government support has lifted incomes for Beneficiaries by 40 percent over and above inflation since 2018. “This is the first time this data set has been collected, and it clearly shows Government action is having an impact,” Carmel Sepuloni said. “This Government made a commitment ...
Thirty new warm, safe and affordable apartments to be delivered by Tauhara North No 2 Trust in Tāmaki Makaurau Delivered through Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga programme, jointly delivered by Te Puni Kōkiri and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development Allocation of the apartments will be prioritised to support ...
Disarmament and Arms Control Minister Phil Twyford will lead Aotearoa New Zealand’s delegation to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference at the United Nations in New York next week. “Aotearoa New Zealand has a long history of advocating for a world free of nuclear weapons,” Phil Twyford said. “The NPT has ...
Associate Minister of Transport Kieran McAnulty was joined this morning by the Mayors of Carterton and Masterton, local Iwi and members of the Wairarapa community to turn the first sod on a package of crucial safety improvements for State Highway 2 in Wairarapa. “The work to improve safety on this ...
A new three year plan to transform the construction industry into a high-performing sector with increased productivity, diversity and innovation has been unveiled by the Minister for Building and Construction Dr Megan Woods and Accord Steering group this morning. As lead minister for the Construction Sector Accord, Dr Woods told ...
For the first time counsellors will be able to become accredited to work in publicly funded clinical roles to support the mental wellbeing of New Zealanders. The Government and the board of the New Zealand Association of Counsellors (NZAC) have developed a new opt-in accreditation pathway so NZCA members can ...
Kua waitohua he Whakaaetanga Whakataunga i waenga i a Ngāti Tara Tokanui me te Karauna, te kī a te Minita mō ngā Take Tiriti o Waitangi, a Andrew Little. Ko Ngāti Tara Tokanui tētahi o ngā iwi 12 o Hauraki, ko te pokapū o tōna rohe whai pānga ko Paeroa, ...
An advisory board has been established to help ensure existing Treaty settlements are upheld under the new resource management system. “The Government is committed to upholding Treaty settlements that intersect with the Resource Management Act as we move to a new system, and we are working with settled groups to ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today that she will lead a Parliamentary and community delegation to Apia, Samoa from the 1–2 August to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, between Aotearoa New Zealand and Samoa. “It is an honour to be invited to Samoa ...
Minister for Internal Affairs, Jan Tinetti, and Minister of Defence, Peeni Henare, have today announced that 150 Fire and Emergency New Zealand personnel and 145 members of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) have been awarded the Australian National Emergency Medal, with Bushfires 19/20 Clasp, as part of a group ...
Today Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall is launching a national hepatitis C awareness campaign to mark World Hepatitis Day. “It’s really important we do everything we can to raise awareness of hepatitis C so we can eliminate the virus that approximately 40,000-45,000 New Zealanders live with,” said Dr Ayesha ...
The Government is co-investing in a $22 million programme aimed at significantly reducing agricultural greenhouse gases and nitrate leaching, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced. “The Government has committed $7.3 million over seven years to the N-Vision NZ programme through the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFF ...
Myanmar Executions: Minister of Foreign Affairs Statement to the House Mr Speaker On Monday 25 July, Myanmar’s state-run newspaper announced the execution of four people, including political figures – Phyo Zeya Thaw, Kyaw Min Yu - known as Ko Jimmy, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw. The four were ...
Three new residence pathways: Straight to residence Work to residence Highly paid - 'twice the median wage’ Straight to residence pathway will be ready for people to apply for from 5 September 2022. Work to Residence and Highly Paid pathways will be available for people to apply in September ...
With the first of three monthly Government Cost of Living payments due to be made on Monday, Revenue Minister David Parker is urging people to make sure Inland Revenue has their bank account details. From 1 August, Inland Revenue will pay three monthly instalments each of about $116 into the ...
The Government has today opened the Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund, the first stage of a new approach to cultural sector funding designed to support strategic, sector-led initiatives, that will have lasting benefits for arts, culture, and heritage in Aotearoa New Zealand. “The opening today of the Te Tahua Whakamarohi i ...
Four alternative plasterboard products able to be used as substitutes for GIB 12 importers of plasterboard– four of them new - have 100 containers of product en route to New Zealand Regular updating of guidance and ongoing communication with sector to encourage use of alternative products Step-by-step, practical information ...
Significant progress is being made towards the Government’s goal of eliminating family violence and sexual violence, Minister Davidson confirmed today at the first ever annual hui to take stock of the work underway to ensure all children, families and whānau can thrive in safe homes and communities. Speaking to more ...
Construction of relief homes is underway for Westport residents affected by flooding with the first houses expected to be delivered to site next month and families moving in from October, Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods has announced. Buller District Council has granted land-use consent for the Temporary Accommodation Village to ...
Climate Change Minister James Shaw has welcomed recommendations from He Pou a Rangi – Climate Change Commission (the Commission) on Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) settings. “For the ETS to do its job and drive real emissions cuts, it’s vital we have the right settings in place to ensure a fair ...
Free trade with the United Kingdom is a step closer with the United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement Legislation Bill having its first reading in Parliament today, Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor announced. “We’re continuing steady progress toward ratifying this historic free trade agreement (FTA) and having its benefits ...
Our goal of becoming free of the devastating harm caused by tobacco has today moved a step closer as the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill passed its first reading. “We have more regulations in this country on the safety of a sandwich than a cigarette, this ...
The Bill to create a new public media entity, Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media, had its first reading in Parliament today. “The Bill brings in the changes needed to make sure that our public media will keep delivering for future generations. “With increasing levels of misinformation around the world, a ...
Grant Robertson departs tomorrow for engagements in his finance portfolios and to support New Zealand’s athletes at the Commonwealth Games in the United Kingdom. He will attend the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham from the evening of August 2. Before that he will travel to Paris for meetings with political, sport ...
Improvements to processes for electing councils at the next local government elections in 2025 have been introduced to Parliament. Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta says the legislation covers decisions about Māori wards, the number of councillors at Auckland Council, more consistent rules for a coin toss if an election result ...
Kei te whanake tonu te Kāwanatanga i ngā mahi tautoko i te iwi Māori ki te tiaki i ngā mātauranga Māori e noho mōrearea nei, kia whakahaumarutia ngā mātauranga taketake i ngā pānga o te mate korona. “Kei te whakatakotoria haerehia te tūāpapa tiaki i te mātauranga Māori me tōna ...
The Government is continuing to take action to support Māori to safeguard at-risk mātauranga from the ongoing threat of COVID-19, through the extension of the Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku programme. “We’re continuing to lay the foundations for a better future by prioritising the protection of mātauranga Māori and its ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta has condemned the executions of four people, including pro-democracy activists and opposition leaders, in Myanmar. “Aotearoa New Zealand has a strong and long standing opposition to the death penalty in all cases and under all circumstances,” said Nanaia Mahuta. “This was a barbaric act by ...
The New Zealand Defence Force will support Pacific Island partners through a range of maritime security and other support in the next three months, Minister of Defence Peeni Henare announced today. “The Pacific is who we are as well as where we are. The challenges our region faces are New ...
Tēnā koutou katoa Tenei te mihi ki a koutou Kua tae mai i runga i te kaupapa o te ra Ara ko Te Royal New Zealand College of GPs hui Tēnā tatou katoa Thank you for the opportunity to address you today. I acknowledge Samantha Murton, President of the Royal ...
Associate Health Minister and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs Aupito William Sio has congratulated the Premier of Niue, Dalton Tagelagi who is visiting Aotearoa New Zealand this week, for the tremendous success of Niue’s COVID-19 vaccination programme. Niue has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, with 99 percent ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Premier Dalton Tagelagi signed a new Statement of Partnership between Aotearoa New Zealand and Niue during talks in Wellington, today. The leaders reaffirmed the close friendship, forged through shared people and constitutional ties. The new Statement of Partnership reflects our long-term cooperation on priority areas ...
Speech to Local Government New Zealand, 21 July 2022 Tēnā koutou katoa. I am pleased to be here today to discuss the reform of the resource management system with you and in particular to update you on governance and decision making in the new system. This speech is one ...
June Quarter Benefit statistics released today show the number of people receiving a Main Benefit continues to fall. “There are 3,717 fewer people on a Main Benefit compared to March 2022,” Carmel Sepuloni said. “However, while we are still seeing a good number of people move off benefit and into ...
Seven centres first to get Government housing infrastructure funding, enabling over 8,000 more new homes to be built New homes to be enabled in Rotorua, Ōmokoroa, Kaikōura, Ōtaki, Napier, Gisborne and New Plymouth 28 further projects undergoing due diligence and negotiations for allocation from $1 billion Infrastructure Acceleration Fund ...
The biggest polluters will have to do more to help meet climate targets because of changes the Government is making to decade-old settings that have allocated far too many free climate pollution credits to New Zealand’s largest emitters, Climate Change Minister James Shaw announced today. “Tackling climate change is a ...
Russia's foreign ministry has slapped New Zealand journalists and officials with sanctions for supporting what it called the country's "Russophobic agenda." ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bhiamie Williamson, Research Associate & PhD Candidate, Australian National University Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people. Archie Roach’s family have given permission for his name and image to be shared. ...
By Miriam Zarriga in Port Moresby The two-week extension on the return of Papua New Guinea’s general election writs date has been knocked as unconstitutional. A former Chief Justice, Sir Arnold Amet, said there were no provisions in the Constitution for any extension of writs beyond the fifth anniversary of ...
COMMENTARY: By Prue Taylor in Auckland From 1949 to 1996 more than 300 nuclear devices were detonated in the Pacific. In the mid-1990s a generation of political leaders had the foresight, wisdom and courage to support a civil society initiative that led to an International Court of Justice advisory opinion ...
COMMENTARY:By Ajay Bhai Amrit in Suva Bula readers. As some of you might be aware, I am a member of various media bodies and human rights international bodies such as Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, who do an excellent job as a watchdog on human rights and also ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Twomey, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Sydney AAP/Aaron Bunch Ideas are powerful, but when it comes to a constitutional amendment, they need to be put into words before they can be debated seriously. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ...
Buzz from the Beehive The Beehive’s on-line bulletin board today brings news of another Minister headed overseas for very important business, another Māori housing project getting under way with the help of millions of government dollars, and beneficiaries being enabled by our beneficent government to beat inflation. The travel plans ...
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee is now seeking public submissions on the Foreign Affairs (Consular Loans) Amendment Bill. The bill would expressly authorise the long-standing practice of the Minister of Foreign Affairs lending money ...
RNZ News After guiding New Zealand through two and a half years of a pandemic, Dr Ashley Bloomfield’s time as Director-General of Health has come to an end. We look back on some of the key moments during his time in the role: 22 May 2018 Dr Ashley Bloomfield was ...
The first week of a major trial concerning political donations has started to unravel the alleged money trail from anonymous donors to Labour and National. ...
By Marjorie Finkeo in Port Moresby Nine suspects arrested over a barbaric machete attack on Sunday outside the counting venue at Port Moresby’s Sir John Guise Stadium have been labelled “innocent” and released this week from Papua New Guinean police custody at Waigani. The act stirred up public fear, anxiety ...
By Vijay Narayan of Fijivillage People’s Alliance leader Sitiveni Rabuka says a People’s Alliance government will scrap the draconian Media Industry Development Act and allow a free press to thrive in Fiji. Rabuka has condemned the decision of the FijiFirst government to amend its Media Act by outlawing the appointment ...
RNZ Pacific Former prime ministers, an opposition leader, and an ex-central bank governor have added their voices to a growing chorus of concerns about the Fiji government’s “close association” with a Korean doomsday Christian cult that has reportedly benefited from millions of dollars from a state-backed institution. Award-winning investigative journalism ...
RNZ Pacific The Federated States of Micronesia will reopen its international borders on Monday. President David Panuelo said anyone wishing to travel will need to be fully vaccinated, including boosters, against covid-19 and have had a PCR test 72 hours prior to departure. The moves comes despite the country discovering ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Anthony Albanese will propose draft wording to insert into the constitution an Indigenous “Voice” to parliament when he addresses the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land on Saturday. The Prime Minister is also releasing a ...
The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee is now seeking public submissions on the United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement Legislation Bill. The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was signed between New Zealand and the United Kingdom on 1 March 2022. This ...
Opposition parties are crying foul over a donations law change, while the government is considering a separate fix to prevent big foreign funders secretly influencing elections. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gina Louise Hawkes, Research associate, University of Wollongong AAP/Steven Saphore This week, seven NRL players boycotted a potentially crucial season game over their club’s introduction of a “pride” jersey celebrating inclusivity and the LGBTQIA+ community. Six of these players ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luc Doucet, Research Fellow at the Earth Dynamics Research Group, member of TIGeR, Curtin University Lucapa Diamond Company/EPA Usually when goods are flawed, we expect their value to drop, but it’s the exact opposite for diamonds. Ironically, it is imperfections ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Simpson, Senior Lecturer, International Studies, University of South Australia The military junta’s execution of four pro-democracy activists earlier this week has again shone a spotlight on the appalling judgement and brutality of the junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra AAP/Mick Tsikas University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan discusses the week in politics with University of Canberra Associate Professor Caroline Fisher. This week saw parliament meet for the first time since the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Casey, Program Coordinator: Bachelor of Communication, University of the Sunshine Coast As Neighbours ended after 37 years, viewers were treated to a smorgasbord of familiar favourites from Erinsborough’s back catalogue. For decades there were always two characters, though, who remained just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Miriama Young, Associate Director of Research, Senior Lecturer in Music, The University of Melbourne Chamber Made/Pia JohnsonReview: My Self in That Moment, directed by Tamara Saulwick for Chamber Made In his visionary essay published almost a century ago, Walter ...
Analysis - The Green Party's instability has implications reaching through to the next election, while Christopher Luxon is caught up in another unnecessary muddle. ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Chart by Keith Rankin. Respiratory Virus Hospitalisations in Counties-Manukau, as reported by Stuff The chart above splits the patients in Middlemore Hospital into the different categories of Severe Acute Respiratory Illness. The vast majority are what in the past we have called ‘common colds’. There is ...
When Nanaia Mahuta talks about improving local government processes, alarm bells should ring. In a statement earlier this week, the Minister of Local Government said improvements to processes for electing councils at the next local government elections in 2025 have been introduced to Parliament in a measure called the Local ...
In a High Court decision released today, Justice Churchman found errors and procedural defects in the Government’s process when reissuing the rodeo code of welfare in 2018. While the Court declined to make a ruling on the legality of rodeo, the Court ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joo-Cheong Tham, Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock Before the pandemic, working from home was a luxury. Then it became a necessity. Since lockdowns have eased it has become a contested space between what employers and workers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University Greening the Greyfields, Author provided Our ageing cities are badly in need of regeneration. Many established residential areas, the “greyfields”, are becoming physically, technologically and environmentally obsolete. They are typically located in low-density, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two of five press statements issued from the Beehive over the past 24 hours have a Treaty of Waitangi focus, two include the interests of Maori in their considerations, and the fifth mentions the presence of local iwi at a sod-turning ceremony. The Associate ...
Unite Union is declaring victory in its campaign to achieve a Living Wage in the Hotel sector. “As of today, all the major employers we deal with, except one [SkyCity], are paying the current Living Wage to all their staff” says John Crocker, Unite ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Welch, Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland Getty Images New Zealand has likely passed the peak of the most recent COVID-19 wave, thanks to strong hybrid immunity in the community and with the number of hospitalisations at the lower end ...
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk Frontline investigative articles on Aotearoa New Zealand’s 23-day Parliament protester siege, social media disinformation and Asia-Pacific media changes and adaptations are featured in the latest Pacific Journalism Review. The assault on “truth telling” reportage is led by The Disinformation Project, which warns that “conspiratorial thought continues ...
New Zealand Nurses Organisation Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa (NZNO) delegates at Whangārei Hospital met with their employer today to demand better winter payment incentives. Within 18 hours, more than 80 percent of affected staff were willing ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: Another trial over secret political donations Allegations of political corruption are once again at the heart of a new High Court trial this week. The trial follows straight on from the “not guilty” verdict for those running the New Zealand First Foundation. And this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meredith Nash, Professor and Associate Dean – Community, Australian National University Shutterstock Women have been doing fieldwork in Antarctica for more than 40 years. Yet they comprise just 25% of expeditioners in the Australian Antarctic Program. Despite decades of progress, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Sussex, Fellow, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Russian President Vladimir Putin habitually rattles his nuclear sabres when things start looking grim for Moscow, and has done so long before his ill-advised invasion of Ukraine. In February 2008, he ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Benjamin Cooke, Senior lecturer, RMIT University Getty You would have heard Australia’s environment isn’t doing well. A grim story of “crisis and decline” was how Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek described the situation when she launched the State of the Environment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Neil Saintilan, Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Image: Pamela Marcum, GTM Research Reserve, Florida, Author provided It may not always be clear why global temperature rise must be kept below 1.5℃, compared to 2℃ or 3℃. Research published ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lucas Walsh, Professor and Director of the Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice, Monash University Darren England/AAP You might think that in 2022 it would be utterly uncontroversial for a footy club to have rainbow colours on a jersey ...
RNZ Pacific The French nuclear compensation commission CIVEN says that last year it paid out US$16.6 million to victims of France’s nuclear weapons tests. France tested 193 atomic weapons in French Polynesia over three decades from 1966 to 1996 after abandoning its testing regime in Algeria. In its report for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Lukas Coch/AAP Jim Chalmers delivers bad economic news well, which is a good thing because there’s a great deal of it about, with a lot more to come. The treasurer – at ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s Sheriff Security at the Waigani Supreme and National Court have stepped up their surveillance of the court premises following this week’s lawlessness in the city. All court users including staff and visitors will be strictly monitored, says a statement. All hazardous and dangerous weapons like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Saul Eslake, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, University of Tasmania As he had promised to do almost since the day he became treasurer, Jim Chalmers has presented a gloomy set of forecasts for the Australian economy in his first formal economic statement to the new ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amanda Coles, Senior Lecturer, Employment Relations, Department of Management, Deakin University, Deakin University Shutterstock It has been a fantastic year for Australian cinematographers in Hollywood. Australian directors of photography represented two of the five nominees for best cinematography at ...
Essay by Keith Rankin. I try to write about general issues of importance, in a general – indeed global – context. This time I will write just about me.Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. ...
Buzz from the Beehive News of the PM’s next overseas travel plans flowed from the Beehive along with a fanfaronade of self-congratulation for work coming along nicely, thank you, announcements of fresh projects and programmes for consuming our taxes, and advice aimed at enhancing our wellbeing. The overseas travel is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Therésa Jones, Associate Professor in Evolution and Behaviour, The University of Melbourne shutterstock As the Moon rises on a warm evening in early summer, thousands of baby turtles emerge and begin their precarious journey towards the ocean, while millions of ...
Today, Auckland Council announced $8 million of new funding that will see bus drivers receive an average 8% pay rise from $23.71 to $25.62 per hour. The decision is in response to a massive driver shortage that has led to 2,000 bus cancellations a day. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Shutterstock Looking for something spectacular to brighten a cold, dark winter’s night? Well, this weekend might just have something in store: not one, not two, but three meteor showers active at ...
The country’s three biggest unions, with a combined membership of 186,000, NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa, NZEI Te Riu Roa and the PSA Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi, are supporting Vote Climate, the campaign to get voters to support ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asher Flynn, Associate Professor of Criminology, Monash University Shutterstock Technology-facilitated abuse is a form of interpersonal violence using mobile, online and/or digital technologies. It includes four main types of behaviours: monitoring and controlling, such as keeping track of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dennis Altman, VC Fellow LaTrobe University, La Trobe University La Boite/Morgan RobertsReview: An Ideal Husband, directed by Bridget Boyle An Ideal Husband was first performed in January 1895. Less than two months later Lord Queenberry left his infamous card ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Newly-elected senator David Pocock has already made history by becoming the first independent to hold a senate seat for the ACT. On the progressive side of politics, Pocock is in a potentially powerful position, ...
A shot in the arm for the province of Southland came this week with the news that the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will not shut down in 2024 — and could have a long term future. Since the global giant Rio Tinto renegotiated the last electricity contract, extending the life ...
New Zealand Defence Force personnel will have access to greater support when leaving the military thanks to a new partnership between the RNZRSA and ELE Group. Aimed at providing transition support the partnership, which was launched in Wellington ...
New resources to make businesses age friendly has been released as part of New Zealand’s first age friendly business programme being run in Gore. The Age friendly Business Guide was developed through a collaboration with Gore District ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Freya Saich, Lead Policy Officer, Burnet Institute Shutterstock While most medical attention has been on COVID, work has been underway to eliminate another viral disease, hepatitis C. In Australia, approximately 120,000 people have hepatitis C. It’s mostly spread through injecting ...
The prime minister, the opposition leader and a slew of ministers are set to visit Samoa next week to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Friendship. ...
The majority of councils around the country want vaping products to only be sold at specialist R18 retailers to curb the rise in youth vaping. Local Government New Zealand’s (LGNZ) member councils have today passed a remit, proposed by Kaipara ...
In response to criticism of the Reserve Bank’s performance over the past four years, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have accused critics of applying ‘hindsight economics’. Nothing could be further from the truth. The New Zealand ...
Yesterday’s second reading of the Oversight of Oranga Tamariki System and Children and Young People's Commission Bill has seen it progress largely unchanged, despite a chorus of voices calling for it to be overhauled, or at least delayed until we ...
“Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s move to make it mandatory for councils to consider introducing Maori Wards is unconstitutional and depicts a seismic shift in our democracy,” says Winston Peters Leader of New Zealand First. “This is ...
The Government should be congratulated on its commitment to Smokefree 2025. However, it’s three legislative measures to achieve 95% of New Zealanders being smokefree won’t be enough to reach the goal in three years’ time, says ASH Action for Smokefree ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Goodall, Emeritus Professor, Writing and Society Research Centre, Western Sydney University This week’s announcement that Stan Grant will be permanent host of the ABC’s Q&A follows widespread speculation about the future of the program. On some estimates, ratings have fallen by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Professor, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University When Bill Clinton’s campaign manager, James Carville, scrawled, “the economy, stupid” on a sign in 1992, he merely wanted the campaign volunteers to stick to their presidential candidate’s talking points. After Clinton became ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Toole, Associate Principal Research Fellow, Burnet Institute Australia’s elimination strategy during the first two years of the COVID pandemic was one of the most effective in the world. Through a combination of early border closures, widespread testing and meticulous contact tracing, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Norman Duke, Professor of Mangrove Ecology, James Cook University Norman Duke, Author providedEnvironmental scientists see flora, fauna and phenomena the rest of us rarely do. In this series, we’ve invited them to share their unique photos from the field. ...
Another drought for Southern Region? How will ..Dairy farmers deal with that? Water is going to be scarce. More pressure on Councils to “allow” water takes?
Plenty in the Waikato and taranaki currently. Knock knock dairy industry this is the reality of CC calling.
Canterbury and Otago dairy production is in large part secured through irrigation.
Southland could do the same with massive irrigation if it wants to secure dairy production.
Just need to extrude some multi-kilometer pipes straight out of Tiwai Point.
It will be an excellent quandary when growing trees becomes more profitable than milk, now that trees are rapidly overtaking sheep.
Ready for a fascinating read?
Overthrowing the patriarchy with ecstatic sex
Read the full article (and I suggest you will find it more than interesting!) here:
https://nautil.us/overthrowing-the-patriarchy-through-ecstatic-sex-21451/
As this was written by an 18th century English poet shouldn't that be "flavour"?
Possibly BG – it was a 'cut-and-paste' job
Thanks BG and Drowsy. It is only an aside, but I think we all benefit from knowing about such 'sidelines'.
Or maybe I just have morbid interests..
Interesting…thanks.
Flavour to everyone other than Americans.
https://qz.com/596395/the-case-of-the-missing-us-in-american-english/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Webster
Very interesting Robert. Thanks.
I suppose that if the antagonistic battle was a draw, then the person could be hermathrodite.
Steady on. You'll be challenging some folk's worldviews there.
I wonder how many people commenting here read the article. It's pretty interesting. The underlying theme is that sex (how species reproduce) is dimorphic but this doesn't determine behaviour or roles in the way that say Darwin posited. And that Darwin's science was probably affected by his cultural world views.
Also worth noting is that science has been skewed by the historical dominance of men, and that when we allowed more women into science, we can see they asked different questions. I would say because of their experience of being female, and because there is such a thing as women's culture.
Will read the article Robert, but just the title leads me to suspect Jenny has an ideological position that she is fitting her reseach to. Human genes and the process (which happens in the womb, rather than "assigned at birth" is a complex system. But we are either male or female with the very rare exception of intersex people who have nothing to do with being trans or gender ideology.
On a separate but related note, this from Salient
https://www.salient.org.nz/
This issue which features things Queer includes pictures of young women showing their masectomy scars. Itt appears to be part of celebrating all things Queer and Trans.
Reseach like Jenny's I suspect is used to support queer theory.
From Robert's link:
Might be a revelation to some, but many have heard this dross multiple times.
The ‘recent’ understanding of what it is to be female, the conflation of material sex based body differences, processes and impacts with societal stereotypes, the analogy with sexual reproduction in other species… etcetera etcetera…
Yes. Nothing new in that article you could not have already picked up from any number of David Attenborough shows. Yes we have long understood that sex manifests itself in any number of different ways in a myriad other species.
But crucially most species evolve one strategy, and stick to it. Humans evolved their own highly complex strategy and one closely linked to our complex societies. There is no reason to think we could mate like bonobos, or preying mantis, without also massively upending our entire social orders as well.
But then that may well be the general idea for some.
.
Year Zero … perpetual anarchy / permanent revolution … all fixed categories & meanings are "oppressive" and must be immediately & aggressively subverted … everyone outside the Critical Theory Cult is a Fascist, lacking the “unusually-refined moral sensibilities” of the self-enamoured erudite.
In other words … Another day, another Queer Theory fantasist.
Over the years here at TS I have noticed the most radical voices eventually revealing an underlying sexual motif behind their desire to upend everything.
“You know what they're all obsessed with don't you?”
Yes and with the passing of years I only get to manage it about once a day now …
Congrats, you've 'out-Fawltied' Basil – knew you were still up to it
You know she's not talking from gender ideology, right?
Lucy Cooke, (who Robert is quoting @2) seems to be having great fun here.
Might suggesting that Jenny Graves has "an ideological position that she is fitting her reseach to" be akin to judging a book by someone else’s cover?
Pot, meet kettle
I was going to ask you to elaborate Populuxe 1, but you know what? No worries.
Another interesting read:
https://differently-normal.com/2021/10/25/the-invention-of-intersex/
O.k read the article and it is interesting about the differenct species. Thanks for posting Robert
The edition I posted of Salient show what universities are peddling in terms of Queer Theory and Gender Ideology. The fact that they are showing pictures of young women who have had double mascectomies as something to celebrate should cause a few wake up calls I would hope.
….the different species.
Oh yes.
In the meantime, Order has been restored in the Universe, and Justice has been Served, as the Time Honoured game of Quidditch is renamed "Quadball"… because players no longer want to be associated with the inventor of said sport who has been deservedly cancelled due to her outrageous claims that sex is a biological reality.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/uk/300642352/quidditch-is-now-quadball-distancing-the-game-from-harry-potter-author-jk-rowling-league-says
(I wouldn't be relying on those wake-up calls Anker.)
Maybe not Rosemary.
Yes we must all ban and punish and distance ourselves from J K Rowling immediately.! She has said biological sex is real and women exist!
Have they not yet realized that Rowling want care a toss about this and it only makes the cancellers look petty, ridiculous and authoritarian?
Blackrock signals change in investment strategy,with a change from ESG to value stocks.
Having lost this financial year an equivalent value of around Australia's GDP.
There should be a lesson for those Governments who want to have Private Equity investment funds,being able to invest in strategic assets.
"There should be a lesson for those Governments who want to have Private Equity investment funds being able to invest in strategic assets."
What lesson do you think they should take? Do you propose they should take the most obvious one? That is that Government should sell all the businesses they own to organisations such as BlackRock. Then when the share price falls it will be BlackRock clients who lose money rather than the taxpayer?
This sort of story reminds me of a question Bill Gates was asked in 2000, and the answer he is supposed to have given.
Some reporter asked him, during the dotcom crash, how it felt to have lost a billion dollars in a day. Gates responded that Microsoft was the same company as it had been yesterday and that he still owned the same fraction of it that he had owned yesterday. He hadn't lost anything.
It seems to me that Govts should Nationalise everything, then use the same argument as Gates.
I have a problem with Governments owning any business.
It is that politicians will never admit that they have made a mistake and therefore will never stop throwing money at a business that should be allowed to die. Hence they keep wasting more and more money on stupid investments rather than say that it was a mistake and the business should be wound up.
Sooner or later, in the private sector people will stop putting money into a company and it will collapse if it can't produce goods at a price that people are willing to pay. Governments don't have that constraint. It isn't their money and their only real interest is in trying to show that their judgement was infallible.
The only time a stupid Government owned business gets closed down is after a change of Government. I vote for a change of Government after 9 years so that this can happen. I was really pissed off in 2017 because there wasn't a competent opposition to come to power. Events since then have shown how correct my opinion was.
Sorry, but I don't think of the private sector as being any more honest (often a lot less) or efficient (they hide most of their stuff-ups.)
The privately-owned fossil fuel industry deliberately lied about global warning, and has probably brought us to the edge of extinction.
Utter ratbags.
I never said anything about firms being more, or less, honest or efficient.
I was only discussing whether they were more likely to give up on doing something stupid. Sooner or later a Company has to stop money-losing endeavours. This often coincides with the CEO being sacked. With Politicians running things it happens when they lose an election. A new Government can stop the madder things and talk about how bad their predecessors were. A Government that remains in power doesn't stop things they started. It has nothing to do with their political leanings. They are all the same.
If this is contagious does this mean that the NZRFU might actually be able to acquire Silverlake. That would delight me enormously. Don’t fuck with theAllBlacks!
Exactly Swordfish.
It would be laughable to look at the latest edition of Salient, if queer theory didn't impact so negatively young women's (and men's ) who get caught up in it so significantly