This is the latest ride on the merry-go-round of legal shit-fuckery that penalises community groups who dare to face off in opposition to the rape and pillage of the environment. Less than a decade ago, voluntary community organisations were able to apply for Government financed grants, now no longer available, when challenging the likes of Councils, big-moneyed developers, international consortiums and Government agencies in respect of environmental concerns. In almost all but the most frivolous of cases, legal costs were never awarded against community groups but left to lie where they may. This was in the interests of justice being seen to be done in both quasi and full legal proceedings that were being tested by those who were committed to upholding the incrementally unfolding joke of ‘A Clean Green New Zealand’ by their works and deeds. Up and down the country, these communities of voluntary environmental workers and supporters of the notion that we are only caretakers of the land for future generations attempted to mount cases on hard come by donations fund raising efforts and their own knowledge and informational resources that are now regarded as unqualified opinions in hearings, even if they are unpaid witnesses or presenters who are acknowledged experts in their fields. These usually unheralded challengers of 'the system' are rapidly learning that you don’t fuck with rapacious wealth accumulators, Councils, and Government without risking eye-wateringly heavy sanctions and financial penalties. With stuff-all resources, the would-be protectors now not only have to somehow engage expensive lawyers and 'experts' but will be denigrated during hearings by the paid liars who the vested interests can munificently reward, the snide demeaning attitudes of the assembled ‘specialist’ legal teams of the ‘I want brigade’ and usually associated local bodies, various intended beneficiaries of the primary parties and, as in the Coromandel case, the Government, all of who are backed by very deep pockets, often, in part, paid for by the various charges, rates or taxes of the challengers. This could end up a long dissertation of examples and bitter experience from the bottom end of the disenchanted 'protest' chain but no doubt, the shit-fuckery and perversion of environmental legal protection is already sufficiently evident!
I read hundreds of passionate pleas every day. Many of them from people who want to write on this site and are willing to pay money to do it. Those I file them into spam because most of them are made by robots and are passionate about making money for casinos or NGOs. Others are heart rending appeals for donations – like the flood of ones for the Georgian Senate race that I'm getting right now.
My immediate reaction when I read an unformatted message like the one above is that it was probably done by a badly formed robot copy and pasting text (think of tat as the moderator response). My second is that whoever was making it doesn't care enough to make their points readable (I have a lot of reading to do and not a lot of time to do it). My third is is there was a bug in the comment editor (the programmer response).
But an ability to communicate clearly is an essential skill in all of them to get me to read the actual content of what they say. That is the responsibility of the person making the passionate plea.
The link to the RNZ report is contained in the text of the comment. Someone didn't notice the third three words ARE the link. Geez – some people! Not sure what your issue is regarding syntax and grammar but style, like yours is personal and usually experientially influenced.However, if it deters your engagement, perhaps you haven't much of value to contribute on the topic anyway!
@Ad, what the hell is wrong with you?, someone comes on and writes a solid piece on a subject obviously close to their heart and you can do nothing but critique their “syntax, grammar” …maybe you need to go and sit in the corner and think about what you have done.
@Ad,,…..At the current rate of knots it will be you and and a couple others that will bother writing or reply to anything on this site,maybe that's for the better.On second thoughts,, nah
Imagine you go a restaurant and order a three-course meal with drinks. The chef cooks it to your specifications, puts all of it in a blender, and the grumpy waiter dumps a big bowl with the blended mess on your table giving you a straw telling you to “suck it up”.
Style and presentation are important, as are clarity of thought & word, if you wish to engage in on-line discussion. It doesn’t take much effort to make comments more inviting, accessible, and readable.
Many readers access the site on mobile phone with tiny screens and not all have the time, energy, or inclination to turn a dense comment into something that their brain can digest more easily let alone respond to.
Ad has a point, except he missed the link that started at the third word.
I get your blind rage aom. I was just about incandescent when I read about this at about 5am this morning. I don't need to add to your well justified rant.
For a fleeting moment I thought about posting here about this and suggesting a hat-passing to help Catherine Delahunty and Coro Watchdog with these costs. Decided it would be a waste of time considering the drubbing said former Green MP received from some here for her temerity at criticising Shaw over the Privileged Green School debacle.
There is no need to do anything about raising funds Rosemary, that is not the purpose of the Crown's strategy. In days past, the likes of Councils and more so the Crown would not make applicationsfor costs in such cases. It appears that somewhere along the way, it was realised that small 'pain in the arse' organisations could never be sufficiently solvent to comply with Orders for eye-watering costs, hence the applications. It has transpired that small organisations have defaulted and closed down in attempts to financially protect individual members. There is nothing like a legal 'mowing of the lawns' to threaten dissent. Along the similar lines, it was observed in a Wellington case that a developer, enjoined by the Council, attempted to preemptively close down a pending case. The strategy was to lodge an application to have the Court make an Order that funds be lodged in advance to meet indeterminate projected legal fees.
There is nothing like a legal 'mowing of the lawns' to threaten dissent.
Exactly. Like hiring private investigators tp spy on anyone who dared to protest the destruction of forests, birds and other forms of indigenous species. It went on for decades and various public and private entities used them.
"I think that there is clearly public interest when ministers disagree and when the Act is unclear and we sought clarification.
"It's a terrible decision in the sense that if you award costs against people who are standing up for the public interest when government can't agree – to be penalised for that is a real kick in the face to a volunteer group that's been working to protect the environment for more than 40 years, and doing it absolutely with blood sweat and tears, so we're incredibly disappointed and appalled at this decision."
and
"We can't ask the public to pay for this because we have many people who might want to help us, but they don't want to give money to Crown Law and the mining industry.
"This is actually really unfair and a real deterrent to the public interest in taking cases like this."
From the article I completely agree. I'd also say that there is a public interest in finding out the legal position. Funding an appeal about the costs being awarded against the group sounds right to me. Also the ruling does look somewhat suspicious to me. The whole point about legislation is that it needs to be fleshed out in court in the public interest. Penalising groups for doing that is definitely not.
"Less than a decade ago, voluntary community organisations were able to apply for Government financed grants, now no longer available…."
The Environmental Legal Assistance scheme run by the government is still operating. The community group that I am president of gained grants for both legal assistance for a High Court appeal and for expert landscape evidence in an Environment Court case last year.
The problem is that these grants only cover part of the cost and if you lose a case the community group may be liable for costs, though if the case is argued well and without wasting the court's time costs are usually left where they fall.
Thanks for that Bearded Git – my bad for not checking. It is ages since I heard of an organisation having successfully tapped that funding, so worked on an obviously incorrect assumption.
I hope this helps a bit; I took the liberty of making a few edits … chrs.
This is the latest ride on the merry-go-round of legal shit-fuckery that penalises community groups who dare to face off in opposition to the rape and pillage of the environment.
Less than a decade ago, voluntary community organisations were able to apply for Government financed grants, now no longer available, when challenging the likes of Councils, big-moneyed developers, international consortiums and Government agencies in respect of environmental concerns. In almost all but the most frivolous of cases, legal costs were never awarded against community groups but left to lie where they may. This was in the interests of justice being seen to be done in both quasi and full legal proceedings that were being tested by those who were committed to upholding the incrementally unfolding joke of ‘A Clean Green New Zealand’ by their works and deeds.
Up and down the country, these communities of voluntary environmental workers and supporters of the notion that we are only caretakers of the land for future generations attempted to mount cases on hard come by donations fund raising efforts and their own knowledge and informational resources. These are now treated as 'unqualified' opinions in hearings, even if they are unpaid witnesses or presenters who are acknowledged experts in their fields.
These usually unheralded challengers of 'the system' are rapidly learning that you don’t fuck with rapacious wealth accumulators, Councils, and Government without risking eye-wateringly heavy sanctions and financial penalties.
With stuff-all resources, these would-be protectors now not only have to somehow engage expensive lawyers and 'experts', but will be denigrated during hearings by the paid liars who the vested interests can munificently reward, the snide demeaning attitudes of the assembled ‘specialist’ legal teams of the ‘I want brigade’ and usually associated local bodies, various intended beneficiaries of the primary parties and, as in the Coromandel case, the Government. All of whom are backed by very deep pockets, often, in part, paid for by the various charges, rates or taxes of the challengers.
This could end up a long dissertation of examples and bitter experience from the bottom end of the disenchanted 'protest' chain but no doubt, the shit-fuckery and perversion of environmental legal protection is already sufficiently evident!
I suspect it is an effort issue. By breaking up the text into what are essentially related argument points, you reduce the amount of brain parsing and reparsing.
Computers are good at state engines and will happily churn through code without any formatting after the pre-parser removes the unrequired white space. Humans have some pretty severe stack limits for processing straight logic. Our writing styles reflect that.
Humans are way way better as inference and associative engines though. You only need to read the text of any conspiracy theory to see the extremities of that.
Nonsense. Paragraphs provide structure to style & contents in and of written comments and help to present a clear and logical argument, just as sentences convey meaning by stringing together certain words in a certain order. In order to achieve this, you don’t pull apart the components but you group them together.
If you could write properly, you would, so I get why someone with your ‘can’t be wrong’ personality uses an easy cop out like 'evolving language' to try and disguise the fact.
The world is a complex place and our issues are complex too. Therefore, I don’t see any point in trying to reduce things to single sentences that lack cohesion. Often, one ends up with just simplistic common sense and banal clichés. So, in general, for me, paragraphs are paramount.
Yes aom, this is a strategy. When the mine first wanted to do work in the area it was stopped as the land was slipping. You are right about deep pockets. They afford expensive ranks of lawyers which increases costs.
My late Mother and I asked how Waihi's water table would be affected. We received a 70 page document which made it plain they would seek costs… made it scary.
My Aunt and Uncle had a neighbour whose property subsided into old workings disturbed by the underground drilling, and subsequently their own property was shifted to a new section. That whole area has been bought by the mine and is sealed off.
So much of Waihi has become dangerous or out of bounds. I admire the groups trying to make these mining bodies ethical. We could be worse off without the watch dogs.
I hope now that police no longer chase, there will not be more of this where a person causes an accident and fails to stop to even see if anyone injured. Time will tell.
It will be seen if the end of police pursuits is actually going to improve the situation. The people fleeing the now non-chasing police probably still drive dangerously anyway.
I also think the fines for hit-and-run and other serious traffic offences should be increased significantly, for example to several years of suspended driver licenses as a starting point.
Driving a car – especially dangerously – should not be an untouchable entitlement.
Errm, how is this in any way relevant to a pursuit policy?
It appears to be a case of a clueless menace on four wheels changing multiple lanes at once, causing other drivers to take evasive action resulting in those other drivers having a crash.
The original clueless menace that caused it all is likely completely unaware of the carnage they were directly responsible for unfolding behind them.
Fatalities from police chases will reduce significantly now as there will be hardly any police chases. I just hope deaths don't increase from more dangerous drivers on the road like the dickhead who caused this crash. Lucky they didn't kill anyone.
When people quote you GDP numbers to claim that we, as a country are doing well, tell them they're dreaming.
Right now, as has been the case for a long time, the rich are getting very rich and looking forward to their Christmas holidays on the waterways at Pauanui, Omaha and Queenstown.
Meanwhile, under this government, this is the reality for many:
Anyone can forgive, it doesn't require a Christian belief system (which, in case a clue of some kind were needed, shows she wouldn't have made a good PM anyway)
"You're lucky I'm a Christian," Judith Collins said to me, like a bolt from the blue, in a radio studio the other day.
I was incredulous. "Why's that, Judith?"
"That way, I can forgive you," she replied.
"Forgive me for what? I'm not seeking your forgiveness."
Instead of elaborating, she turned to the other panellists to tell them what kind of person I was. Much awkward shuffling ensued.
Usually, I would observe the unspoken kaupapa that what happens off-air stays off-air. But the truth is, this kind of unpleasant interaction is a rarity – in fact, I'd go as far as to say it was a first for me. Despite what you see and hear in the media, those of us who participate in the New Zealand political discourse are almost always respectful, friendly even, to one another when nobody's watching. We might disagree fiercely on issues but rarely does that translate to personal hostility. New Zealand's too small and, frankly, life's too short to turn every political disagreement into utu.
So why am I sharing details of my exchange with Collins? It's simple really. She wants to be Prime Minister, and what Collins' conduct reveals about her temperament and mindset should be taken into account when we consider whether she's up to the task.
Exposing that kind of sanctimonious 'forgiveness' is always a worth while activity.
As Shane points out it, it just reeks of someone who is unprepared to deal with reality of other people and prefers to try to set their rules about the behaviour of others.
Not someone suitable for any kind of politics in NZ. They'd never be able to make the kinds of decisions required for people that weren't exactly like their sanctimonious and their probably false internal image of who they are. Someone completely incapable of living up to the actual precepts of their own faith because they’re so busy passing judgement on others – they never look at them as being a person.
Seen others do that. It never seems to end well. Just think of the fate of damn near every judgemental 'christian' party over the last 40 years in NZ.
As opposed to those who actually live their faith. Who I usually look at as being somewhat brain strained – but usually trustworthy.
I agree, as someone with track record with religion, I find her comment quite odd really. It's like she's learned a good concept, but hasn't worked out how to use it properly.
Shane's response nails it really; forgiveness is a delicate interchange, and only has meaning when it's sincerely asked for and given.
Either that or Judith was just taking the piss … she does have an acerbic sense of humour that trips over itself from time to time.
“We are amazed that there are no government, private, or nongovernmental organisation programs or entities dedicated to attempting to understand and calculate EROI and its effects as well and as objectively as possible given that it may be the largest determinant of many aspects of our future.”
I was just thinking that there seems to be a lot less stories in the media about homeless people and people unable to afford Christmas this year. Have things improved?
No the housing situation hasn't improved. There needs to be a major change in policy settings. The last 30 years of neoliberal settings is not working. NZ needs to try something new. I suggest a housing commissioner with specific targets (address poor housing for low-income earners first) and tools. Check it out. https://medium.com/land-buildings-identity-and-values/depoliticising-housing-e9c157f1ad6
Well unfortunately as long as we have this current neo liberal duopoly (Labour/National) that completely control and dominate the political landscape and are protected by a complicit media in New Zealand, then nothing of substance can or will change.
Ardern has proved herself to be little more than Tony Blair in heels (or flats), and we all know what he represents…but as has been pointed out on this forum many times, no one should have been surprised at this outcome, after all we all knew Arden worked for the war criminal Tony Blair after Iraq (Adren on this issue "It was totally pragmatic. I wanted to live overseas. I wanted to have that time and experience abroad.")…enough said.
Jacinda Ardern is no radical, but the 21st-century face of Blair’s Third Way
So sadly we will see no end any time soon of what is obviously nothing more than a ponzi scheme that pretends itself a political ideology, wreak havoc and rip apart any semblance that remains of local community though it’s unhinged and unquenchable thirst for endless growth…oh yeah and burn the planet while it’s at it…happy Christmas one and all!
Labour is not the same party of 30 years ago and introducing a wellbeing budget, a world's first, is a step away from "orthodox neoliberal economic policies" It will take a number of years to fix the mess inherited from the previous National government.
Not sure what the connection is between your link and J Ardern but thanks for reminding me of Wayne Mapp. He has been conspicuous by his absence from TS. Quote from link:
He [Mapp] said when he checked his diary – which he had under his house – he realised he did get a briefing.
"Somehow it surfaced back into my memory that I could remember Colonel Blackwell sitting opposite me.”
He was commenting on his previous claims he had never been told there were casualties.
I have empathy for him because it happened to me. I was attempting to get to the bottom of some covert incidents in my life and then one day while checking some old material – also under my house – my subconscious threw up an image from a long forgotten occasion and I knew instantly it was the cause of the problems I was encountering.
It's an intriguing story which should be of much interest to political historians at the least but that is for another time.
Without wanting to pry into your past life, Anne, Mapp was being briefed on NZ Defence Force personnel murdering civilians and children. That sort of thing must leave an impact.
As it appears now, there seems to be a culture of 'men behaving badly' in Afghanistan among the US, Aus and NZ special forces. So this briefing is hardly likely to be an isolated affair
It would depend on the way it was delivered to him. If the military officer in question had just mentioned there may have been one or two casualties and gave no further detail, I can well imagine it not registering with Mapp what it meant at the time. It is also what happened to me, and I have wanted to kick myself over and over again for not realising what was going on.
This is just another episode or chapter in and of NZ politics and another will follow it. Ardern and Robertson are stereotypical exemplars of their generation and others from the next and different generation will succeed them.
I have been reading, in the paper, about Mike Hosking's gains from crypto currency trading, and wondered what the source of the gain was. Income comes from providing a product or service, and even capital gain comes from some enhancement in the location of, or performance of, an asset, but I don't see either of the above in the case of crypto currencies. In investing in these, as far as I can see see, one is just putting one's cash into sophisticated ponzi schemes.
In investing in these, as far as I can see see, one is just putting one's cash into sophisticated ponzi schemes.
Not quite, but very close. There is a scarcity factor in that it takes resources and effort to mine the bit chain.
However most of the demand, in my opinion, appears to intimately be driven by demand for untraceable transportable realisable currency from unlawful sources.
Those mining resources and efforts are permanently gone. A bitcoin is simply a certificate of gratuitously wasted electricity. It's of zero use for creating anything tangible. It's the ultimate expression of something that has value purely and only because a bunch of people collectively decide it has value.
Shit, even a small rectangle of printed plastic issued by a government has a tangible worth expressed in units of that government's powers of compulsion. Or you can at least grow a pretty flower from a tulip bulb. But a bitcoin has nothing, nada, zilch …
Slightly paradoxically it appears to be a good way to get illegal activities paid for on a public ledger. I imagine if the govt could identify a buyer and sellers bitcoin identities the amount of drugs they traded could be easily traced for the courts pleasure.
Good to see The Warehouse doing the morally correct thing and paying back the government covid wage subsidy. I'm sure they would have been legally entitled to claim it as their turnover would have reduced way more than 30% while closed down. As the economy has bounced back and they have made up the lost turnover in subsequent months they will get good PR out of paying it back.
Well that's a good thing. And as they are now sitting on piles of cash perhaps they could look at making up the lower end wages back to 100% (I suspect that legally firms who pay back the subsidy can no longer leave the wages paid in that period at the 80% mark?) for the relevant periods.
That's about it for the top 50 on the NZX -apart from Fletchers.
Peru has suspended flights from Europe for two weeks and has put its health and travel authorities on high alert to prevent the entry of a new strain of coronavirus that appeared in the UK.
It is indeed a state of courageous hopelessness that might lead one to tackle viewing an hour and three quarters of what looks likely to be just rambling from someone that has dedicated a large portion of their life's efforts to dumping on the idea of happiness. With no further hints as to why that might be a worthwhile use of that time, that is.
Agreed, Andre. I read at least five times as fast as a speaker. I would have read that script of Slavov Zizek in twenty minutes, been able to re-read parts if needed and had 80 minutes left- three of which to write this reply.
That's why I don't really get Ted Talks et al.
Also, why I agree with lprent up further where he made a plea for proper paragraphing. How we present arguments, and material for discussion, is important.
Today I read a poster advertising a talk about conspiracy theory, entitled "Conspiacy Theory." Won't go there either.
It's an interesting question; like a few others here I'm fortunate to be a pretty good speed reader. I can scan a document about five times faster than my partner for instance. (Oddly enough I sometimes start at the end of a document and then flip backward through the paragraphs to reconstruct the argument. It's not a substitute for a complete and considered read, and sometime I make silly mistakes doing it, but overall it's a handy skill in a world saturated in information.)
On the other hand unlimited streaming video has been a revolution; I probably listen to as much as I read now. More importantly, while not everyone is a good reader, almost everyone can watch and listen very well. I agree however that it's not always the most time efficient mode, and if that's a concern, I'll listen to podcasts while doing something else.
Two good YT tricks, one is that you can turn on an 'audio only mode' that saves bandwidth if you're only listening. The other is that you can speed up the playback speed, often to about 1.5 times with most speakers and still track the content just fine. Works well with people who have a naturally slower cadence.
And if you want to learn something, it's almost certainly on YT. The depth of content is astonishing; future generations may well look back on this past decade where unlimited video streaming became available to a mass audience, as something of equal or even greater significance as the invention of the printing press.
I think there is a real place for both the text and visual modes; I like the written mode because it's concise, efficient and it favours clear, rigorous thought. But the video mode can be a lot richer and persuasive, and for many people it's a better learning method.
We're lucky to have both, and I'd never choose one over the other.
I find YT good for seeing how things are done, made, or designed. Someone actually talking and pointing to the specific cam or roller in question is much more informative than "see photo B", in my experience. It's been really useful for a lot of home projects.
But a person delivering a powerpoint or speech for an hour? Meh. Firstly, my undergrad reflex is still with me to this day – staying awake is always an issue. Secondly, having it on in the background/second monitor while working always seems to end up with one task being tuned out. Usually the one that doesn't attract brain power.
If things are going well, it's classical. Otherwise there seems to be a scale of 80s new wave, anything that would be on a Tarantino soundtrack, club stuff like KMFDM, or Rammstein/Laibach if everything's gone to crap.
Even background music disappears when fully engaged in another task. As a muso, it is too distracting. But, music must be heard- it's not much good to me for reading. It must be experienced at its own tempo.
The only time I found it useful playing music faster was as a bass player to work out the bass line listening to vinyl recordings. There is no 'speed listening' to music.
When I was young, I did a holiday job pressing vinyl recordings. After visual inspection, we had to check the sound quality on special sound-tables and usually at 45 rpm to speed up the process while the press was running. I remember that Gregorian chants had a ‘bit of swing’ at 45 rpm 😉
Classical music LPs were the hardest because they required the highest/perfect quality.
That was one of the more fun jobs (evening and night shifts) I did in my summer holidays although the smell of overheated/burning vinyl is awful.
I find YT good for seeing how things are done, made, or designed.
Yes I find that's much the case as well. The channels I subscribe to are usually of this nature. Yet that can't be the whole story; you only have to look at content creators like Joe Rogan to see a quite different and huge demand for people having conversations in a way they can't access in print.
Right now for instance I've got six YT tabs open, one on COVID, two on next gen nuclear, another on Peter Sagan's 2108 highlights (pro-cycling), a Canadian guy homesteading in the northern wilderness, and finally my favourite sailing channel on a massive 4yr long yacht rebuild. Yes my mind is a bit of a mess … but you knew that already
I've watched some interesting interviews, sure. And I'm not saying that YT lectures aren't popular.
But a written article or a blog can deliver most lectures in a fraction of the time – and that includes speeding up the "is this a waste of my time" assessment. And most of the internet fails that assessment, probably for everyone.
Yes, we do have favoured and different learning modes, and for some it's reading, some listening and some it's doing.
They do all have their place. At least with a document you can scan it for a quick appraisal.
Adrian Thornton's recommendation had no supporting argument, synopsis or 'taster' for a 107 minute video, such as is useful for a prospective user. Adrian's say-so is not of itself a strong enough persuader, nor is the topic tempting enough with its enigmatic title. "The courage of hopelessness."
Some YT clips have transcripts as do some Zoom recordings, depending on settings used. With a little bit of fiddling, one can transcribe any audio into text and vice versa.
I’m definitely a text person but when I watch videos or Zoom recordings, I use double playback speed and videos that rely on visual more than text I watch on mute (i.e. sound off). My auditory processing (not my actual hearing) of spoken information is relatively poor (and checked out by a specialist).
Oh what a surprise! The Wellington City Council administration seems to have a few dodgy associations in its closet! The former Mayor was officially involved with The Property Council – the developer's outfit. He was than replaced by Mayor Wade Brown's neoliberal acolyte from the UK, the previous CEO. It seems that further down the executive tree there are other questionable associations given the behind closed door contracts that seem to be written up by the commercial beneficiaries rather than the Council. Wellingtonians hoped that a longstanding Councillor who is now Mayor would know where the skeletons for be hidden and lay them to rest. Instead, a newby Councillor did the detective work to uncover the link with the preposterously titled New Zealand Initiative think tank.
Interesting thoughts from one expert, which could mean that the new variant might be heading in the direction of a less harmful endemic variant strain of Covid-19 virus:
As viruses are transmitted, those that allow for increased virological ‘success’ can be selected for, which changes the properties of the virus over time. This typically leads to more transmission and less virulence and for human infecting coronaviruses the end result of this evolutionary process might look like the other 4 commonly found coronaviruses that cause symptoms that we recognise as the common cold – however, these 4 common cold viruses are highly contagious. The new B.1.1.7 may be on the path towards this but is not there yet, and still appears to have all the human lethality that the original had but with an increased ability to transmit.
For a while now I've been vaguely musing on the topic of coronavirus lethality and long term effects.
Consider: almost all of us are exposed to the common cold coronaviruses as infants, and very few of us die or apparently suffer long term ill effects from that very early infection. While there's really not yet enough time and data to make a definitive similar statement about SARS-CoV-2, I haven't seen reports of long covid in infants or very young children, but the data seems clear the mortality rate is way way lower in infants.
It occurs to me that this new covid-causing coronavirus may be more similar to the cold coronaviruses than we currently think, and that the deaths and long-term harms we're getting are almost entirely because none of us have had that exposure as infants with subsequent partial immunity. The difference may be us, the host population, through not having had early exposure, and maybe the new coronavirus won't actually be significantly more dangerous to a population when it becomes endemic.
No de-lethalisation through evolution needed, maybe we just need to make it through this first pandemic through vaccination and other measures, and then we can live with it just like we live with other cold coronaviruses.
So once the current pandemic is extinguished by the vulnerable people (basically everyone currently alive that hasn't been exposed as an infant) getting vaccinated (or infected), we may find the new coronavirus behaviour becomes similar to the other cold coronaviruses. It might become something you get as an infant, no biggie, then again occasionally over the rest of your life as just a minor inconvenience. In which case, the benefit from the vaccine might become so minor it's no longer worth administering routinely to infants.
That cross-protection from other coronaviruses is another whole field all on its own.
I can't help wondering if that's part of the reason places like Vietnam and Taiwan have had success that seems out of proportion to the stringency of their response in dealing with the pandemic. Perhaps they've had other coronaviruses circulating in their populations that happen to give good cross-protection.
The spike protein is gonna be one hellluva intensively studied molecule for quite a while still to come.
countries with high levels of malaria seem to be less affected by covid..
and on a personal level I was pleased to hear one of jim moras' (professorial) guests uttering the aside: 'of course if you have had malaria..you have immunity to covid'..
'cos while in new guinea..I contracted malaria..
also interesting with the flu thing…
since having had malaria(a fucken hellish experience..I must say)..
I have never had the flu..
and I really thought i would never have anything good to say about the malaria thing..but there ya go..
and on a personal level I was pleased to hear one of jim moras’ (professorial) guests uttering the aside: ‘of course if you have had malaria..you have immunity to covid’..
I think that either you may have misheard or the unnamed “(professorial) guests” [plural?] may have misspoken.
Basically arguing that QAnon has a number of structural tweaks that make it look more like a free-form game (not just computer – escape rooms, LARP, all that stuff. "Games" in the widest sense) than someone leaking hidden knowledge.
Part of the giveaway is "do your own research". The players (played) are primed for a particular finding, then encouraged to look for evidence to support the claim. They find it, so the idea becomes theirs (rather than them having to be persuaded by someone else), they get a wee clickbait rush as a reward for their achievement, and they get a sense of community.
Interesting article from a completely unexpected perspective.
It continues to support via sampling that the variant is more transmissable, but also goes into a little bit of biological detail as to how a specific mutation might increase transmissability.
But we're still talking <double transmissability, not like an order of magnitude or anything. So everyone suddenly going "isolate UK!" and bojo going "lockdown" is a bit of a joke. If we should do it now, we should have done it months ago.
Nobody likes surprises, least of all politicians who are already under considerable pressure.
I found this recent update by CDC in the US illuminating too:
The VUI 202012/01 variant has not been identified through sequencing efforts in the United States, although viruses have only been sequenced from about 51,000 of the 17 million US cases.
…
Of the approximately 275,000 full-genome sequences currently in public databases, 51,000 are from the United States. (The UK currently has the most sequences, with 125,000).
Same here, and it was like a gathering in Glencoe during Summer Solstice without the horrible midges – the bitches. No sight of the celestial event though 🙁
Glencoe is a fey place, On my mother's side I am a Glencoe McDonald. It was a memorable place to visit. I went there on a Rabbi's tour bus. The driver/guide asked the twelve passengers why they were going to Glencoe. I was last to answer and said I was going there because on my mother's side I am a McDonald of Glencoe
There was a long pause. I thought, "Oh, no, he's a Campbell."
Then he replied,"I, too, am a McDonald of Glencoe on my mother's side." He really looked after us after that!
He showed me when we reached Glencoe the three islands in the loch, one of which was the ancestral burial ground close to the water, another the island where clans met to sort grievances, the third where clans met to sign their agreements.
Yup, a very special place. My most memorable trip was camping there in a little tent. The midges managed to get through the fly screen and into my tent. I used so much mozzie repellent (lotion) that my plastic cutlery started to dissolve in my hands; it must have been some cheap crap with some nasty chemical solvent – it certainly smelled like a clandestine chemical lab. The only place safe from the midges was literally in the smouldering and smoking campfire – I probably inhaled enough carcinogens to give me lung cancer combined with the chemical poisoning by the repellent. It was also the place and start of a lifelong friendship with a fellow traveller. Bloody good memories of that place 🙂
Alas twas not to be with all that cloud cover.
Those sky train/satellites are wierd when the sun catches them tracking in a line across the night sky .
Planned another 10,000 or so over the next few years with the inevitable congestion issues in the orbital space.
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
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This is the latest ride on the merry-go-round of legal shit-fuckery that penalises community groups who dare to face off in opposition to the rape and pillage of the environment. Less than a decade ago, voluntary community organisations were able to apply for Government financed grants, now no longer available, when challenging the likes of Councils, big-moneyed developers, international consortiums and Government agencies in respect of environmental concerns. In almost all but the most frivolous of cases, legal costs were never awarded against community groups but left to lie where they may. This was in the interests of justice being seen to be done in both quasi and full legal proceedings that were being tested by those who were committed to upholding the incrementally unfolding joke of ‘A Clean Green New Zealand’ by their works and deeds. Up and down the country, these communities of voluntary environmental workers and supporters of the notion that we are only caretakers of the land for future generations attempted to mount cases on hard come by donations fund raising efforts and their own knowledge and informational resources that are now regarded as unqualified opinions in hearings, even if they are unpaid witnesses or presenters who are acknowledged experts in their fields. These usually unheralded challengers of 'the system' are rapidly learning that you don’t fuck with rapacious wealth accumulators, Councils, and Government without risking eye-wateringly heavy sanctions and financial penalties. With stuff-all resources, the would-be protectors now not only have to somehow engage expensive lawyers and 'experts' but will be denigrated during hearings by the paid liars who the vested interests can munificently reward, the snide demeaning attitudes of the assembled ‘specialist’ legal teams of the ‘I want brigade’ and usually associated local bodies, various intended beneficiaries of the primary parties and, as in the Coromandel case, the Government, all of who are backed by very deep pockets, often, in part, paid for by the various charges, rates or taxes of the challengers. This could end up a long dissertation of examples and bitter experience from the bottom end of the disenchanted 'protest' chain but no doubt, the shit-fuckery and perversion of environmental legal protection is already sufficiently evident!
Some semblance of syntax, grammar, and a link to whatever you're on about would be useful if you want any kind of engagement.
For example you could always publish the High Court decision on the reasons that their costs application was not considered in the public interest.
Agree about the link, but not a lot wrong with the grammar and syntax.
A few paragraphs wouldn't go amiss. It means that I'd actually try to read the comment for a starter.
You appear more annoyed by poor grammar than the rape and pillage of our environment Ad.
aom’s passionate piece highlights how far our nation has fallen into being a neoliberal playground for massive multinational corporations.
Whose side are on, Ad?
I read hundreds of passionate pleas every day. Many of them from people who want to write on this site and are willing to pay money to do it. Those I file them into spam because most of them are made by robots and are passionate about making money for casinos or NGOs. Others are heart rending appeals for donations – like the flood of ones for the Georgian Senate race that I'm getting right now.
My immediate reaction when I read an unformatted message like the one above is that it was probably done by a badly formed robot copy and pasting text (think of tat as the moderator response). My second is that whoever was making it doesn't care enough to make their points readable (I have a lot of reading to do and not a lot of time to do it). My third is is there was a bug in the comment editor (the programmer response).
But an ability to communicate clearly is an essential skill in all of them to get me to read the actual content of what they say. That is the responsibility of the person making the passionate plea.
In addition to your premise being wrong, Ad’s record is here for all to judge for themselves: https://thestandard.org.nz/author/advantage/
The link to the RNZ report is contained in the text of the comment. Someone didn't notice the third three words ARE the link. Geez – some people! Not sure what your issue is regarding syntax and grammar but style, like yours is personal and usually experientially influenced.However, if it deters your engagement, perhaps you haven't much of value to contribute on the topic anyway!
@Ad, what the hell is wrong with you?, someone comes on and writes a solid piece on a subject obviously close to their heart and you can do nothing but critique their “syntax, grammar” …maybe you need to go and sit in the corner and think about what you have done.
@Ad,,…..At the current rate of knots it will be you and and a couple others that will bother writing or reply to anything on this site,maybe that's for the better.On second thoughts,, nah
Imagine you go a restaurant and order a three-course meal with drinks. The chef cooks it to your specifications, puts all of it in a blender, and the grumpy waiter dumps a big bowl with the blended mess on your table giving you a straw telling you to “suck it up”.
Style and presentation are important, as are clarity of thought & word, if you wish to engage in on-line discussion. It doesn’t take much effort to make comments more inviting, accessible, and readable.
Many readers access the site on mobile phone with tiny screens and not all have the time, energy, or inclination to turn a dense comment into something that their brain can digest more easily let alone respond to.
Ad has a point, except he missed the link that started at the third word.
Slightly off choice of analogy I think. Ad has used the phrase "suck it up" plenty of times on here.
Here's the link for those who failed to read the article.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/433343/environmental-group-to-pay-cost-of-failed-bid-to-review-gold-mining-consent
I get your blind rage aom. I was just about incandescent when I read about this at about 5am this morning. I don't need to add to your well justified rant.
For a fleeting moment I thought about posting here about this and suggesting a hat-passing to help Catherine Delahunty and Coro Watchdog with these costs. Decided it would be a waste of time considering the drubbing said former Green MP received from some here for her temerity at criticising Shaw over the Privileged Green School debacle.
There is no need to do anything about raising funds Rosemary, that is not the purpose of the Crown's strategy. In days past, the likes of Councils and more so the Crown would not make applicationsfor costs in such cases. It appears that somewhere along the way, it was realised that small 'pain in the arse' organisations could never be sufficiently solvent to comply with Orders for eye-watering costs, hence the applications. It has transpired that small organisations have defaulted and closed down in attempts to financially protect individual members. There is nothing like a legal 'mowing of the lawns' to threaten dissent. Along the similar lines, it was observed in a Wellington case that a developer, enjoined by the Council, attempted to preemptively close down a pending case. The strategy was to lodge an application to have the Court make an Order that funds be lodged in advance to meet indeterminate projected legal fees.
Exactly. Like hiring private investigators tp spy on anyone who dared to protest the destruction of forests, birds and other forms of indigenous species. It went on for decades and various public and private entities used them.
Thanks for bringing the subject up aom.
and
From the article I completely agree. I'd also say that there is a public interest in finding out the legal position. Funding an appeal about the costs being awarded against the group sounds right to me. Also the ruling does look somewhat suspicious to me. The whole point about legislation is that it needs to be fleshed out in court in the public interest. Penalising groups for doing that is definitely not.
Does anyone have a link to the judgement?
lprent: Is this what you were after?
Yes thank you. I'll read it next coffee break. I'd better get back to work. Lunch is well over.
"Less than a decade ago, voluntary community organisations were able to apply for Government financed grants, now no longer available…."
The Environmental Legal Assistance scheme run by the government is still operating. The community group that I am president of gained grants for both legal assistance for a High Court appeal and for expert landscape evidence in an Environment Court case last year.
The problem is that these grants only cover part of the cost and if you lose a case the community group may be liable for costs, though if the case is argued well and without wasting the court's time costs are usually left where they fall.
Thanks for that Bearded Git – my bad for not checking. It is ages since I heard of an organisation having successfully tapped that funding, so worked on an obviously incorrect assumption.
No worries….I have much sympathy with your post….the system works against small community groups and community interests
I hope this helps a bit; I took the liberty of making a few edits … chrs.
Way better.
It's quite peculiar how a bit of white space makes such a difference … the human brain really is quite odd at times.
I suspect it is an effort issue. By breaking up the text into what are essentially related argument points, you reduce the amount of brain parsing and reparsing.
Computers are good at state engines and will happily churn through code without any formatting after the pre-parser removes the unrequired white space. Humans have some pretty severe stack limits for processing straight logic. Our writing styles reflect that.
Humans are way way better as inference and associative engines though. You only need to read the text of any conspiracy theory to see the extremities of that.
@red logix..
if you get into the habit of giving each sentence its' own line…
soon the paragraphs that most use start to look like bricks..
and you ask yourself 'why?'
especially because the paragraph is a habit dictated by the high cost of paper/printing..
pushing a bunch of sentences together under those circumstances makes perfect sense..
but not so now..
we all have acres of white space to stretch/loll about in…
let your words breathe/gambol..
banish the brick..
(and I speak up on this ‘cos sentences don’t have a voice…eh..? they have nobody to speak for them..)
Mr Ure giving writing lessons…….
Now that’s gold that will keep me smiling….
Merry xmas..
good use of white space there..
Nonsense. Paragraphs provide structure to style & contents in and of written comments and help to present a clear and logical argument, just as sentences convey meaning by stringing together certain words in a certain order. In order to achieve this, you don’t pull apart the components but you group them together.
I can see times when what you say would apply..
(say in the presentation of complex ideas..they are invaluable then..)
but in general.. the paragraph has seen its' day…
doomed to go the way of the whorl..
If you could write properly, you would, so I get why someone with your ‘can’t be wrong’ personality uses an easy cop out like 'evolving language' to try and disguise the fact.
The world is a complex place and our issues are complex too. Therefore, I don’t see any point in trying to reduce things to single sentences that lack cohesion. Often, one ends up with just simplistic common sense and banal clichés. So, in general, for me, paragraphs are paramount.
QED
Yes aom, this is a strategy. When the mine first wanted to do work in the area it was stopped as the land was slipping. You are right about deep pockets. They afford expensive ranks of lawyers which increases costs.
My late Mother and I asked how Waihi's water table would be affected. We received a 70 page document which made it plain they would seek costs… made it scary.
My Aunt and Uncle had a neighbour whose property subsided into old workings disturbed by the underground drilling, and subsequently their own property was shifted to a new section. That whole area has been bought by the mine and is sealed off.
So much of Waihi has become dangerous or out of bounds. I admire the groups trying to make these mining bodies ethical. We could be worse off without the watch dogs.
I hope now that police no longer chase, there will not be more of this where a person causes an accident and fails to stop to even see if anyone injured. Time will tell.
Southern Motorway crash: Car flips, police trying to locate vehicle that crossed two lanes – NZ Herald
The police policy on chase had no bearing on this person leaving the scene.
It is a good decision to end these pursuits, and I applaud the police on taking it.
It will be seen if the end of police pursuits is actually going to improve the situation. The people fleeing the now non-chasing police probably still drive dangerously anyway.
I also think the fines for hit-and-run and other serious traffic offences should be increased significantly, for example to several years of suspended driver licenses as a starting point.
Driving a car – especially dangerously – should not be an untouchable entitlement.
Errm, how is this in any way relevant to a pursuit policy?
It appears to be a case of a clueless menace on four wheels changing multiple lanes at once, causing other drivers to take evasive action resulting in those other drivers having a crash.
The original clueless menace that caused it all is likely completely unaware of the carnage they were directly responsible for unfolding behind them.
Fatalities from police chases will reduce significantly now as there will be hardly any police chases. I just hope deaths don't increase from more dangerous drivers on the road like the dickhead who caused this crash. Lucky they didn't kill anyone.
When people quote you GDP numbers to claim that we, as a country are doing well, tell them they're dreaming.
Right now, as has been the case for a long time, the rich are getting very rich and looking forward to their Christmas holidays on the waterways at Pauanui, Omaha and Queenstown.
Meanwhile, under this government, this is the reality for many:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/christchurch-city-mission-struggling-under-christmas-pressure/34A3KUPIBPVTT5THF5PPC46W4Q/
Looks like Judith Collins has made a pointless personal enemy of Shane Te Pou if his Herald column today is any guide!
Anyone can forgive, it doesn't require a Christian belief system (which, in case a clue of some kind were needed, shows she wouldn't have made a good PM anyway)
I don't think they ever would of been friends anyway.
Even though it is pay-walled, you should still provide the link for those who can access the content and read it in full
As such, your comment contains nothing of substance.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/shane-te-pou-why-what-judith-collins-said-to-me-matters/ZQDFFLLOZNYWPSKN3C3XDIP5HY/
Interesting. I'll quote the relevant interaction.
Exposing that kind of sanctimonious 'forgiveness' is always a worth while activity.
As Shane points out it, it just reeks of someone who is unprepared to deal with reality of other people and prefers to try to set their rules about the behaviour of others.
Not someone suitable for any kind of politics in NZ. They'd never be able to make the kinds of decisions required for people that weren't exactly like their sanctimonious and their probably false internal image of who they are. Someone completely incapable of living up to the actual precepts of their own faith because they’re so busy passing judgement on others – they never look at them as being a person.
Seen others do that. It never seems to end well. Just think of the fate of damn near every judgemental 'christian' party over the last 40 years in NZ.
As opposed to those who actually live their faith. Who I usually look at as being somewhat brain strained – but usually trustworthy.
I agree, as someone with track record with religion, I find her comment quite odd really. It's like she's learned a good concept, but hasn't worked out how to use it properly.
Shane's response nails it really; forgiveness is a delicate interchange, and only has meaning when it's sincerely asked for and given.
Either that or Judith was just taking the piss … she does have an acerbic sense of humour that trips over itself from time to time.
Judith Collins, at least the one who is spoken of in Shane Te Pou's story, seems not to understand what forgiveness is.
It's not a gift bestowed by a generous benefactor, but an act that frees the giver from the negativity of bearing a hurt.
If Collins gave forgiveness, she benefits.
If she still goes on about another's hurtful ways, then she has not forgiven them.
Instead, the Collins in the story seems to be 'holier than thou', sanctimonious and requiring forgiveness?
Ah! … but will Shane Te Pou ever forgive Judith Collins?
“We are amazed that there are no government, private, or nongovernmental organisation programs or entities dedicated to attempting to understand and calculate EROI and its effects as well and as objectively as possible given that it may be the largest determinant of many aspects of our future.”
Amazed….or dumbfounded? I'd go with the latter.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/is-our-renewable-energy-future-what-we-think
I think we need a simplified two word petition, "DO SOMETHING", directed to the Ministers of Housing.
Yesterday it was Christmas in a caravan, now this today
I was just thinking that there seems to be a lot less stories in the media about homeless people and people unable to afford Christmas this year. Have things improved?
No the housing situation hasn't improved. There needs to be a major change in policy settings. The last 30 years of neoliberal settings is not working. NZ needs to try something new. I suggest a housing commissioner with specific targets (address poor housing for low-income earners first) and tools. Check it out.
https://medium.com/land-buildings-identity-and-values/depoliticising-housing-e9c157f1ad6
Well unfortunately as long as we have this current neo liberal duopoly (Labour/National) that completely control and dominate the political landscape and are protected by a complicit media in New Zealand, then nothing of substance can or will change.
Ardern has proved herself to be little more than Tony Blair in heels (or flats), and we all know what he represents…but as has been pointed out on this forum many times, no one should have been surprised at this outcome, after all we all knew Arden worked for the war criminal Tony Blair after Iraq (Adren on this issue "It was totally pragmatic. I wanted to live overseas. I wanted to have that time and experience abroad.")…enough said.
Jacinda Ardern is no radical, but the 21st-century face of Blair’s Third Way
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/15-01-2018/jacinda-ardern-is-no-radical-but-the-21st-century-face-of-blairs-third-way/
So sadly we will see no end any time soon of what is obviously nothing more than a ponzi scheme that pretends itself a political ideology, wreak havoc and rip apart any semblance that remains of local community though it’s unhinged and unquenchable thirst for endless growth…oh yeah and burn the planet while it’s at it…happy Christmas one and all!
Rubbish, Ardern is nothing like Blair. Written by former Nat minister Wayne Mapp who "forgot' about civilian casualties"
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/422487/operation-burnham-former-minister-wayne-mapp-forgot-about-civilian-casualties
On.foreign policy she is different.
However Robertson and Ardern follow orthodox neoliberal economic policies.
The policies in place since the betrayal of the working class of New Zealand by Lange, Douglas and that traitorous crew.
Labour is not the same party of 30 years ago and introducing a wellbeing budget, a world's first, is a step away from "orthodox neoliberal economic policies" It will take a number of years to fix the mess inherited from the previous National government.
It is a step….a tiny step.
Tinkering isn’t going to break the grip neoliberal economic thinking has on this country.
The Wellbeing budget is a significant step.
@ louis..
we are in year four now..
and still waiting..
how much longer do you think..
..before we can be a bit questioning..?
possibly even grumpy..?
Good things do take time. The second term has barely started.
OK, it is me not Mapp saying Ardern js in the ideological mold of Blair…how about that?
Disagree with your opinion.
Apart from them both winning landslide general elections, although at present, Blair has two more in the bag.
Whilst both are not as left leaning as I had hoped for, they do have similarly impressive records in taking the public with them as they rout tories.
Not sure what the connection is between your link and J Ardern but thanks for reminding me of Wayne Mapp. He has been conspicuous by his absence from TS. Quote from link:
He was commenting on his previous claims he had never been told there were casualties.
I have empathy for him because it happened to me. I was attempting to get to the bottom of some covert incidents in my life and then one day while checking some old material – also under my house – my subconscious threw up an image from a long forgotten occasion and I knew instantly it was the cause of the problems I was encountering.
It's an intriguing story which should be of much interest to political historians at the least but that is for another time.
conspicuous by his absence from TS
It's an involuntary but self-inflicted absence. The involuntary bit is finished with around Jan 1st or 2nd.
Thanks. I missed it.
Without wanting to pry into your past life, Anne, Mapp was being briefed on NZ Defence Force personnel murdering civilians and children. That sort of thing must leave an impact.
As it appears now, there seems to be a culture of 'men behaving badly' in Afghanistan among the US, Aus and NZ special forces. So this briefing is hardly likely to be an isolated affair
It would depend on the way it was delivered to him. If the military officer in question had just mentioned there may have been one or two casualties and gave no further detail, I can well imagine it not registering with Mapp what it meant at the time. It is also what happened to me, and I have wanted to kick myself over and over again for not realising what was going on.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Totally agree Adrian.
Comment of the day.
This is just another episode or chapter in and of NZ politics and another will follow it. Ardern and Robertson are stereotypical exemplars of their generation and others from the next and different generation will succeed them.
https://thestandard.org.nz/colin-james-looking-forward/
https://thestandard.org.nz/beyond-jacinda-colin-james-and-cr-tamatha-paul/
Make it so.
I have been reading, in the paper, about Mike Hosking's gains from crypto currency trading, and wondered what the source of the gain was. Income comes from providing a product or service, and even capital gain comes from some enhancement in the location of, or performance of, an asset, but I don't see either of the above in the case of crypto currencies. In investing in these, as far as I can see see, one is just putting one's cash into sophisticated ponzi schemes.
Not quite, but very close. There is a scarcity factor in that it takes resources and effort to mine the bit chain.
However most of the demand, in my opinion, appears to intimately be driven by demand for untraceable transportable realisable currency from unlawful sources.
Those mining resources and efforts are permanently gone. A bitcoin is simply a certificate of gratuitously wasted electricity. It's of zero use for creating anything tangible. It's the ultimate expression of something that has value purely and only because a bunch of people collectively decide it has value.
Shit, even a small rectangle of printed plastic issued by a government has a tangible worth expressed in units of that government's powers of compulsion. Or you can at least grow a pretty flower from a tulip bulb. But a bitcoin has nothing, nada, zilch …
Hosking and Bitcoin make perfect sense together.
Slightly paradoxically it appears to be a good way to get illegal activities paid for on a public ledger. I imagine if the govt could identify a buyer and sellers bitcoin identities the amount of drugs they traded could be easily traced for the courts pleasure.
Good to see The Warehouse doing the morally correct thing and paying back the government covid wage subsidy. I'm sure they would have been legally entitled to claim it as their turnover would have reduced way more than 30% while closed down. As the economy has bounced back and they have made up the lost turnover in subsequent months they will get good PR out of paying it back.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300190019/the-warehouse-group-to-repay-68-million-in-wage-subsidy
I find little to admire about the Warehouse as a company – ethically or environmentally.
Well that's a good thing. And as they are now sitting on piles of cash perhaps they could look at making up the lower end wages back to 100% (I suspect that legally firms who pay back the subsidy can no longer leave the wages paid in that period at the 80% mark?) for the relevant periods.
That's about it for the top 50 on the NZX -apart from Fletchers.
Props to Jilnaught Wong, who seems to have helped them find their moral compass.
heh..!..yeah…I heard a couple of interviews he gave..
and he clearly wasn't going to let up..
until this was sorted..
good on him..
Peru has suspended flights from Europe for two weeks and has put its health and travel authorities on high alert to prevent the entry of a new strain of coronavirus that appeared in the UK.
We should too.
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN28V2MF
No
The Courage of Hopelessness
It is indeed a state of courageous hopelessness that might lead one to tackle viewing an hour and three quarters of what looks likely to be just rambling from someone that has dedicated a large portion of their life's efforts to dumping on the idea of happiness. With no further hints as to why that might be a worthwhile use of that time, that is.
Agreed, Andre. I read at least five times as fast as a speaker. I would have read that script of Slavov Zizek in twenty minutes, been able to re-read parts if needed and had 80 minutes left- three of which to write this reply.
That's why I don't really get Ted Talks et al.
Also, why I agree with lprent up further where he made a plea for proper paragraphing. How we present arguments, and material for discussion, is important.
Today I read a poster advertising a talk about conspiracy theory, entitled "Conspiacy Theory." Won't go there either.
Unless I were Australian……….
I read at least five times as fast as a speaker.
It's an interesting question; like a few others here I'm fortunate to be a pretty good speed reader. I can scan a document about five times faster than my partner for instance. (Oddly enough I sometimes start at the end of a document and then flip backward through the paragraphs to reconstruct the argument. It's not a substitute for a complete and considered read, and sometime I make silly mistakes doing it, but overall it's a handy skill in a world saturated in information.)
On the other hand unlimited streaming video has been a revolution; I probably listen to as much as I read now. More importantly, while not everyone is a good reader, almost everyone can watch and listen very well. I agree however that it's not always the most time efficient mode, and if that's a concern, I'll listen to podcasts while doing something else.
Two good YT tricks, one is that you can turn on an 'audio only mode' that saves bandwidth if you're only listening. The other is that you can speed up the playback speed, often to about 1.5 times with most speakers and still track the content just fine. Works well with people who have a naturally slower cadence.
And if you want to learn something, it's almost certainly on YT. The depth of content is astonishing; future generations may well look back on this past decade where unlimited video streaming became available to a mass audience, as something of equal or even greater significance as the invention of the printing press.
I think there is a real place for both the text and visual modes; I like the written mode because it's concise, efficient and it favours clear, rigorous thought. But the video mode can be a lot richer and persuasive, and for many people it's a better learning method.
We're lucky to have both, and I'd never choose one over the other.
I find YT good for seeing how things are done, made, or designed. Someone actually talking and pointing to the specific cam or roller in question is much more informative than "see photo B", in my experience. It's been really useful for a lot of home projects.
But a person delivering a powerpoint or speech for an hour? Meh. Firstly, my undergrad reflex is still with me to this day – staying awake is always an issue. Secondly, having it on in the background/second monitor while working always seems to end up with one task being tuned out. Usually the one that doesn't attract brain power.
YT is also good for background music, though
I immediately thought of you:
Ha.
If things are going well, it's classical. Otherwise there seems to be a scale of 80s new wave, anything that would be on a Tarantino soundtrack, club stuff like KMFDM, or Rammstein/Laibach if everything's gone to crap.
But I'll try something more serene next year…
Even background music disappears when fully engaged in another task. As a muso, it is too distracting. But, music must be heard- it's not much good to me for reading. It must be experienced at its own tempo.
The only time I found it useful playing music faster was as a bass player to work out the bass line listening to vinyl recordings. There is no 'speed listening' to music.
Hans Zimmer
When I was young, I did a holiday job pressing vinyl recordings. After visual inspection, we had to check the sound quality on special sound-tables and usually at 45 rpm to speed up the process while the press was running. I remember that Gregorian chants had a ‘bit of swing’ at 45 rpm 😉
Classical music LPs were the hardest because they required the highest/perfect quality.
That was one of the more fun jobs (evening and night shifts) I did in my summer holidays although the smell of overheated/burning vinyl is awful.
I find YT good for seeing how things are done, made, or designed.
Yes I find that's much the case as well. The channels I subscribe to are usually of this nature. Yet that can't be the whole story; you only have to look at content creators like Joe Rogan to see a quite different and huge demand for people having conversations in a way they can't access in print.
Right now for instance I've got six YT tabs open, one on COVID, two on next gen nuclear, another on Peter Sagan's 2108 highlights (pro-cycling), a Canadian guy homesteading in the northern wilderness, and finally my favourite sailing channel on a massive 4yr long yacht rebuild. Yes my mind is a bit of a mess … but you knew that already
I've watched some interesting interviews, sure. And I'm not saying that YT lectures aren't popular.
But a written article or a blog can deliver most lectures in a fraction of the time – and that includes speeding up the "is this a waste of my time" assessment. And most of the internet fails that assessment, probably for everyone.
Yes, we do have favoured and different learning modes, and for some it's reading, some listening and some it's doing.
They do all have their place. At least with a document you can scan it for a quick appraisal.
Adrian Thornton's recommendation had no supporting argument, synopsis or 'taster' for a 107 minute video, such as is useful for a prospective user. Adrian's say-so is not of itself a strong enough persuader, nor is the topic tempting enough with its enigmatic title. "The courage of hopelessness."
Some YT clips have transcripts as do some Zoom recordings, depending on settings used. With a little bit of fiddling, one can transcribe any audio into text and vice versa.
I’m definitely a text person but when I watch videos or Zoom recordings, I use double playback speed and videos that rely on visual more than text I watch on mute (i.e. sound off). My auditory processing (not my actual hearing) of spoken information is relatively poor (and checked out by a specialist).
Oh what a surprise! The Wellington City Council administration seems to have a few dodgy associations in its closet! The former Mayor was officially involved with The Property Council – the developer's outfit. He was than replaced by Mayor Wade Brown's neoliberal acolyte from the UK, the previous CEO. It seems that further down the executive tree there are other questionable associations given the behind closed door contracts that seem to be written up by the commercial beneficiaries rather than the Council. Wellingtonians hoped that a longstanding Councillor who is now Mayor would know where the skeletons for be hidden and lay them to rest. Instead, a newby Councillor did the detective work to uncover the link with the preposterously titled New Zealand Initiative think tank.
Wellington seems to have managed to get itself a good group of councillors who are intelligently challenging the old boys back room MO.
anyone remember Simon Bridges comments about how National was going to 'light a bonfire under good ideas' and become a "red tape factory"
Simon who ?
Interesting thoughts from one expert, which could mean that the new variant might be heading in the direction of a less harmful endemic variant strain of Covid-19 virus:
https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-brief-summary-of-nervtag-opinion-from-the-nervtag-meeting-on-sars-cov-2-variant-under-investigation-vui-202012-01/
For a while now I've been vaguely musing on the topic of coronavirus lethality and long term effects.
Consider: almost all of us are exposed to the common cold coronaviruses as infants, and very few of us die or apparently suffer long term ill effects from that very early infection. While there's really not yet enough time and data to make a definitive similar statement about SARS-CoV-2, I haven't seen reports of long covid in infants or very young children, but the data seems clear the mortality rate is way way lower in infants.
It occurs to me that this new covid-causing coronavirus may be more similar to the cold coronaviruses than we currently think, and that the deaths and long-term harms we're getting are almost entirely because none of us have had that exposure as infants with subsequent partial immunity. The difference may be us, the host population, through not having had early exposure, and maybe the new coronavirus won't actually be significantly more dangerous to a population when it becomes endemic.
No de-lethalisation through evolution needed, maybe we just need to make it through this first pandemic through vaccination and other measures, and then we can live with it just like we live with other cold coronaviruses.
So once the current pandemic is extinguished by the vulnerable people (basically everyone currently alive that hasn't been exposed as an infant) getting vaccinated (or infected), we may find the new coronavirus behaviour becomes similar to the other cold coronaviruses. It might become something you get as an infant, no biggie, then again occasionally over the rest of your life as just a minor inconvenience. In which case, the benefit from the vaccine might become so minor it's no longer worth administering routinely to infants.
It is actually quite fascinating if one ignores the negative effects of this pandemic for a moment.
In a nutshell, snotty & runny noses might be a good thing and provide some limited (?) and temporary (?) protection against Covid-19.
Preexisting and de novo humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in humans
That cross-protection from other coronaviruses is another whole field all on its own.
I can't help wondering if that's part of the reason places like Vietnam and Taiwan have had success that seems out of proportion to the stringency of their response in dealing with the pandemic. Perhaps they've had other coronaviruses circulating in their populations that happen to give good cross-protection.
The spike protein is gonna be one hellluva intensively studied molecule for quite a while still to come.
malaria is an interesting factor to look at..
countries with high levels of malaria seem to be less affected by covid..
and on a personal level I was pleased to hear one of jim moras' (professorial) guests uttering the aside: 'of course if you have had malaria..you have immunity to covid'..
'cos while in new guinea..I contracted malaria..
also interesting with the flu thing…
since having had malaria(a fucken hellish experience..I must say)..
I have never had the flu..
and I really thought i would never have anything good to say about the malaria thing..but there ya go..
I think that either you may have misheard or the unnamed “(professorial) guests” [plural?] may have misspoken.
Without a link we will never know 🙁
'one of'..
and I couldn't face going back to listen/wade thru moras' shows..
but of course I know..
a shard of memory..a vivid one..
shame we can't allow links into our brains..
then I would be able to give you a memory-link..
or else I just made it all up…
tho' a simple covid malaria question to google..will reveal more..and contrary opinions..
Can you remember the name(s) of the guest(s)?
And there we have it, the paint point, with only a vague recollection of Mora’s show, one of them, as starting point 🙁
I’m not going to start a wild goose chase on Google based on that! The onus is on you!
Heh. Funnily enough, this Medium article turned up in my FB feed today: A Game Designer’s Analysis Of QAnon.
Basically arguing that QAnon has a number of structural tweaks that make it look more like a free-form game (not just computer – escape rooms, LARP, all that stuff. "Games" in the widest sense) than someone leaking hidden knowledge.
Part of the giveaway is "do your own research". The players (played) are primed for a particular finding, then encouraged to look for evidence to support the claim. They find it, so the idea becomes theirs (rather than them having to be persuaded by someone else), they get a wee clickbait rush as a reward for their achievement, and they get a sense of community.
Interesting article from a completely unexpected perspective.
A great read on Christmas Day.
Public Health England have released another briefing. (pdf download. h/t twitter Mads Albertsen).
It continues to support via sampling that the variant is more transmissable, but also goes into a little bit of biological detail as to how a specific mutation might increase transmissability.
But we're still talking <double transmissability, not like an order of magnitude or anything. So everyone suddenly going "isolate UK!" and bojo going "lockdown" is a bit of a joke. If we should do it now, we should have done it months ago.
Ta
Nobody likes surprises, least of all politicians who are already under considerable pressure.
I found this recent update by CDC in the US illuminating too:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/scientific-brief-emerging-variant.html
So did anyone notice? Yesterday was the longest day of the longest year of our lives.
No. I was anxiously waiting for nightfall and hoping for a break in the clouds so I could get a glimpse of the Great Conjunction.
Same here, and it was like a gathering in Glencoe during Summer Solstice without the horrible midges – the bitches. No sight of the celestial event though 🙁
Glencoe is a fey place, On my mother's side I am a Glencoe McDonald. It was a memorable place to visit. I went there on a Rabbi's tour bus. The driver/guide asked the twelve passengers why they were going to Glencoe. I was last to answer and said I was going there because on my mother's side I am a McDonald of Glencoe
There was a long pause. I thought, "Oh, no, he's a Campbell."
Then he replied,"I, too, am a McDonald of Glencoe on my mother's side." He really looked after us after that!
He showed me when we reached Glencoe the three islands in the loch, one of which was the ancestral burial ground close to the water, another the island where clans met to sort grievances, the third where clans met to sign their agreements.
Missed the midges, though………….
Yup, a very special place. My most memorable trip was camping there in a little tent. The midges managed to get through the fly screen and into my tent. I used so much mozzie repellent (lotion) that my plastic cutlery started to dissolve in my hands; it must have been some cheap crap with some nasty chemical solvent – it certainly smelled like a clandestine chemical lab. The only place safe from the midges was literally in the smouldering and smoking campfire – I probably inhaled enough carcinogens to give me lung cancer combined with the chemical poisoning by the repellent. It was also the place and start of a lifelong friendship with a fellow traveller. Bloody good memories of that place 🙂
Alas twas not to be with all that cloud cover.
Those sky train/satellites are wierd when the sun catches them tracking in a line across the night sky .
Planned another 10,000 or so over the next few years with the inevitable congestion issues in the orbital space.
But?
That’s hard to make work when two other comments are interposed between the two comments needing to be conjoined to make sense or fun.
Abject failure. I went to bed with a profound sense of bitter disappointment.
Maybe better luck tonight.
They're out there tonight. Some folks in the streets looking at Xmas lighted houses and Mr and Mrs Mac1 out looking for conjunctions.
Light, distance, the solar system, the galaxy, time and place, universal wonder.
That explains why I woke up this morning feeling older than usual