Are any of the apologists for our Government willing to come out and give an answer to this bit of his statement?
"“Why do people need to wait until early January before starting to book a booster after four months? The Book My Vaccine website should be updated immediately to allow people to book after four months.".
I realise that Chippie and probably the rest of the Cabinet have had their booster shots but why does everyone else have to wait? Is it really necessary for the Health Department to be like the Cabinet Ministers and take off for the next month or so?
Meanwhile of course we can be fairly sure that the Omicron variant will be out in the environment and there are going to be a lot of people who will get it who probably wouldn't if they had been able to get their booster shots.
Come on you plonkers in the Beehive. Pull finger and get on with the booster shots. Don't behave the way you did last year where we were among the last of the developed countries to actually get a serious vaccination program under way.
This is how the vaccination program went. Do we want the booster program to be just as bad?
In terms of meeting the criteria for the Investor visas, residential property investment has to be new developments, not just buying existing property and renting it out, nor can it include renting or selling to friends and family.
"…residential property investment has to be new developments, not just buying existing property and renting it out, nor can it include renting or selling to friends and family."
You mean the same criteria that allows purchase of existing homes as long as the house is removed and the site developed?
Any overseas investment by people looking for a profit means NZers looking for a residence pay more. Loopholes so wide they can stampede through – and they do.
Yes it is , absolutely obscene. The answer Kiwis, is do not sell to a non New Zealander nor to a "New Zealander" not born in New Zealand. Hold our land because it seems to me now that we have a nicely developed country the rich of the world are saying thanks we will take it off you peasants now.
Janet, you comment is absolutely offensive. I have been living in NZ for most of my life. I am not able to just up my tent and move to Europe if that is what you imply. That's the approach Australia takes with the NZ born/citizen ship holding law breakers, isn't it?
I have worked in NZ for now 35 years, not drawn any benefit and clocked up to 70 hours a week to get a roof over my head. I know many people who are like me do the same. Work hard, get educated, have their kids well raised. I also know of NZlaenders who think that everybody around them owes them a living and are on a benefit for all their life.
Perhaps you also need to know that the land your house stands on does not belong to any occupant, ultimately the Crown is he owner of all property in NZ.
1 At the present day no person or group of persons in New Zealand, Maori or Pakeha, can fully own the land on which they have their home or farm or factory, or on which their church or marae stands. All land ultimately belongs to the State as personified by the Crown. To find the reason for this, one must go back to the feudal England of 900 years ago.
We're not talking about people who have lived and worked here all their lives. We're talking about the parasitic rich listers who are being admitted to NZ as part of the scams they are doing in their own countries. And we're letting them in so they can buy land and property here and screw Kiwis. It is obscene.
You do realise that if your rule had been in place the Labour Prime Ministers Michael Joseph Savage, Peter Fraser and Walter Nash would never have been allowed to buy a house here?
“Don’t! Don’t! Don’t! Don’t! Don’t!” Trump told the crowd, waving off their reaction with his hand.
Only five consecutive don'ts was probably insufficient. Advertising theory has been based on triple-repetition for a century due to the thickness of consumers, but Trump crowds are likely to be at least twice as thick as the average consumer.
However, hand-waving was probably worth two or three repetitions. The Queen does it routinely so we can assume it is an effective tactic with crowds.
It seems we will need to start thinking of the Trump movement as a genuine peoples movement. It seems to have an independent agenda from its leader now.
Listening to Trump talking on the mic it's the usual typical Trump "word salad" sophistry.
He doesn’t need to worry about any supporters who boo what he says. They’ll still go home and recall something in whatever he says (probably totally contradictory) that justifies their continued belief in him as the saviour of America.
All they need to know is hes not the establishment (no matter that he is worse)….the establishment have screwed them so anyone (and I mean anyone) who rails against them is going to get their support.
One would think Rittenhouse would go home and keep a low profile,
You would think so, but the damage had already been done. No attempt at 'living a quiet life' was going to work, he was going to be hounded the rest of his life regardless.
So in the spirit of 'the best defense is a good offense' he's probably been advised to go as big as possible.
Just amps up the temperature encouraging more would-be vigilantes to get their AR15s and shoot at their fellow citizens. Which in turn will probably result in their political opponents arming up as well.
Gun nuts have been given too much encouragement under Trump.
How about, and this is just a suggestion, that you don't threaten to kill someone thats carrying a rifle, that you don't physically assault someone carrying a rifle, that you don't chase someone carrying a rifle, that you don't try to grab someones rifle, that you don't chase someone carrying a rifle, that you don't point a pistol at someone carrying a rifle and that when someone points a rifle at you trying to make you stop chasing them that you…stop chasing them
Again Kyle Rittenhouse broke no laws however the people he shot defending himself certainly did.
…Kyle Rittenhouse broke no laws however the people he shot defending himself certainly did.
The problem with Kyle Rittenhouse is the problem with America. He’s a gun nut. He came from out of state to act as a vigilante.
He was lucky the judge dismissed the charge that as he was as a minor he was not permitted to carry that AR15; the law had an exemption that was apparently intended to permit 17 year olds to carry long barrelled weapons for hunting, but it was not specifically so worded, so the judge dismissed that charge.
The dude didn’t need to be there. As I’ve said, if he now goes around acting like a celebrity (orvlets himself get used by people like the NRA) it’s likely to encourage others to do the same thing when protests or riots happen. There’s plenty of evidence Democrat voters are arming up as well these days.
One day there’ll likely be a confrontation of armed vigilantes from both sides that gets out of hand. There’s just too many guns in the community in the US. Kids doing school shootings have no trouble getting their later-bloodied hands on them.
It’s too late to stop it. US citizens just have to learn to live with mass shootings, schhol shootings, & neighbourhood arguments between ordinary citizens ending up with people shot.
You think you do but your opinions on this have been shaped by the media.
'The problem with Kyle Rittenhouse is the problem with America.'
– He was defending himself. If you do not or don't want to understand this then all it shows is you didn't follow the trial (I did)
'He’s a gun nut.'
– Based on what? What makes him a gun nut? That he legally owns a firearm? Wheres the proof hes a gun nut?
'He came from out of state to act as a vigilante.'
– Fuck off with this bullshit. Tell me what is so bad about coming 'out of state', no seriously explain to me why this is something that needs to be mentioned
Are americans not allowed to travel? Is he not allowed to travel to the city where he works because its out of state?
So come on tell me why this is something that needs to mentioned.
He went there to help clean up and defend the area, there are pictures of him literally cleaning graffiti off the walls
He was running away from and only shot when someone was close enough to grab his rifle, to hit him with a skateboard, when someone kicked him in the head and when someone pointed an, illegal, pistol at him
So fuck off with that vigilante shit
'He was lucky the judge dismissed the charge that as he was as a minor he was not permitted to carry that AR15; the law had an exemption that was apparently intended to permit 17 year olds to carry long barrelled weapons for hunting, but it was not specifically so worded, so the judge dismissed that charge.'
– Its not fucking luck when its the law. The law was changed because youths were going around with sawn off shotguns.
'The dude didn’t need to be there.'
– You know who else didn't need to be there, the rioters destroying property and assaulting people however whether or not he he shouldn't have been there he was allowed to be there.
'As I’ve said, if he now goes around acting like a celebrity (orvlets himself get used by people like the NRA) it’s likely to encourage others to do the same thing when protests or riots happen.'
– Hes going to need a lot of money because the twitter mob will do everything they can to make sure his life as difficult as possible
'There’s plenty of evidence Democrat voters are arming up as well these days.'
– Then how about the rioters don't riot, how about they protest legally and peacefully.
Or is ok to riot if you're on the left
'One day there’ll likely be a confrontation of armed vigilantes from both sides that gets out of hand.'
– Kyle isn't a vigilante but then maybe the democratic could fund the police instead of defunding them, sort out the bail laws instead of releasing the crims
'There’s just too many guns in the community in the US. Kids doing school shootings have no trouble getting their later-bloodied hands on them.'
– Maybe there is maybe there isn't but that doesn't mean Kyle should be found guilty of something he didn't do
'It’s too late to stop it. US citizens just have to learn to live with mass shootings, schhol shootings, & neighbourhood arguments between ordinary citizens ending up with people shot.'
– Again Kyle is innocent, sending him to prison wouldn't change anything but maybe the media and the Democratic party stopping stoking the flames might help
So stop putting this on the shoulders of an 18 year old that defended himself from violent, rapists and domestic abusers
There’s a lot in what you wrote above that I accept is perfectly true.
The rioters were out of control, but solo armed citizens coming to that sort of situation runs the risk of matters getting even more out of hand than they already were. And that’s exactly what happened.
I know the kid was attacked, was scared, & was legitimately defending himself from the point where he was threatened & then attacked.
I’m never going to defend rioters. The ratbags were looting, burning, & trashing their own bloody neighbourhood. The fact the police didn’t want to act to control it was no doubt institutional paralysis brought on by their Mayor’s & Commander’s fear of provoking even worse violence.
The Defund The Police campaign was utterly stupid – woke nonsense. You can’t just take police off the streets & imagine all will be somehow be peaceful & peachy.
A vigilante is a member of a self-appointed group of citizens who undertake law enforcement in their community without legal authority, typically because the legal agencies are thought to be inadequate. You can argue his joining a group of armed citizens “protecting businesses” is not vigilantism, but to my mind it is.
I don’t think he should have been convicted at his trial (even the firearms charge that was dismissed was only a misdemeanor). It was clearly self defence & even Biden said the verdict should be respected.
My main criticism is that he should not become a poster boy for more young people of either the left or right to do the same thing.
As to his life now going to be wretched & he being subject to attacks on Twitter, threats etc. If he wanted to avoid that, he shouldn’t have gone there. His actions have had these consequences. Neither you nor I can change that.
We all know that you want the USA to go back to the days where blacks were lynched and beaten by racist cops who were in turn protected by their mates on the bench.
You clearly see that people with criminal convictions and civil rights protesters are outside the law and deserve to be gun down by racist, homophobic right wing thugs like KR.
KR is a really nasty piece of work, racist, homophobic, misogynistic and will probably grow up to be a wife beating skinhead.
His mother, she is probably a total Karen who has nothing but hatred for those 'fags' and 'niggers'.
The USA is so close to having civil rights rolled back, it's just not funny.
All of the civil rights protestors that KR gunned down in cold blood had served their time. Not everyone things that people should pay for their crimes for the rest of their lives.
Kyles mother is fair game. She is the one who spent 17 years filling his head full of racist, homophobic poison, going on and on about how those 'niggers' have 'too much rights' and they need to be taught a lesson, just like her 'peepaw' did back on the plantation in 1855.
Why dont you just admit, Puck, that you want the USA to return to the days of the KKK and lynching, and segregation and where cops could just kill people and get away with it.
You are on record, as saying that Chauvin did nothing wrong and that George Floyd was a dirty ‘nigger’ who deserveed to die.
Dame Anne Salmond targets "neo-liberal ideology, the Fourth Labour Government" and the judiciary:
the Court of Appeal effectively rewrote Te Tiriti. Setting aside the original text, the judges ruled that Te Tiriti established a ‘partnership between two races’ based on ‘fiduciary’ principles, not unlike a business partnership.
The logic of Three Waters governance seems to arise from this neo-liberal rewriting of Te Tiriti, rather than the original agreement itself. In Te Tiriti, there is no mention of ‘races,’ or ‘partnership,’ or ‘fiduciary principles.’ It speaks of taonga, not ‘assets.’
The text of Te Tiriti describes a network of relationships among Queen Victoria, the Governor, the rangatira, the hapū and ordinary people based on chiefly gift exchange, and a promise of absolute equality between settlers and maori (which meant ‘ordinary,’ at that time) and their tikanga.
Her Cerberus is indeed a worthy target. It has produced abundant woolly thinking in recent decades. Her example:
one would think that ancestral relationships with particular springs, aquifers, wetlands, streams, rivers and lakes would be at the heart of the matter. Instead, the reforms focus on ‘three waters’ infrastructure – reservoirs, bores, sewage ponds, pipe networks and the like.
Neoliberalism is 19th century thinking, as is neo-colonialism, so no surprise Mahuta's advisors framed the initiative accordingly. How much longer do they believe the 19th century strangle-hold can be perpetuated? How long is a piece of string? Blind faith can make it seem to stretch forever…
I'm not quite sure what YOUR point is, Dennis, but Dame Anne absolutely nails the issue here, imo:
Tino rangatiratanga, then, is about listening to people, and weaving them together. In its restructuring of New Zealand society, the Fourth Labour Government failed to follow these principles.
Instead of delivering greater freedom and prosperity for ordinary people, as promised, their ‘free market’ reforms led to the entrenchment of elites, and radical inequalities in employment, housing, health, justice and education with which we are still struggling.
Nor did the neo-liberal rewriting of Te Tiriti by the courts deliver equality or prosperity for ordinary Māori – far from it. They suffered most of all from the ‘reforms.’
The 1980s rewriting of Te Tiriti is overdue for critical examination; and this time it should involve all parties to the original agreement, including ordinary citizens, both Māori and non-Māori.
Open debate is the key to good governance, on the marae as in a healthy democracy.
1. The dame proved that, despite seeming a typical liberal mainstreamer, she's capable of discerning how to progress beyond that, then did so.
2. The three-headed dog is a worthy target due to the judiciary institutionalising the ideological drivel of the 1980s, thereby confusing policy-makers.
3. 19th century thinking that got revived to infect mainstreamers still prevails in the public service via blind faith (despite an ever-escalating infusion of Green thought & values).
Dame Anne Salmond was great when writing on early-contact Maori.
Apart from that she is a sickeningly wet Originalist that would get on well with Scalia and Barrett.
Her head is stuck in a country that existed prior to 1840 full of untrammelled rills, Hobbiton-esque endless forest, absent of cities and intensive water management, an imagined fairyspell in which water management consisted of joyously gazing at nothing but bubbling rock-perfect founts.
The Treaty doesn't mention wealth distribution, state entities, or local government management of water entities like dams or irrigation.
The Treaty doesn't mention elites British or Maori, or elitism, or even class.
It’s simply never going to do the job of a UN HR declaration or single written constitution.
Dame Anne doesn't have the faintest idea from the evidence of that post about how Maori engage with the Crown over water governance.
In not one single sentence of her post can we recognise the country we are in or ever could be.
Thank God they don't let such fools anywhere near an actual decision.
Dame Mary Anne Salmond ONZ DBE FRSNZ is a New Zealand anthropologist, environmentalist and writer. She was New Zealander of the Year in 2013. In 2020, she was appointed to the Order of New Zealand, the highest honour in New Zealand's royal honours system.
In 2001, Salmond became Distinguished Professor of Māori Studies and Anthropology at the University of Auckland. From 2002 to 2007, Salmond served on the boards of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, the Museum of New Zealand, and she was chair of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. She was Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Equal Opportunity) at the University of Auckland from 1997 to 2006.
One sorta gets the impression, somehow, that she ain't just a mere academic. There's plenty more in the honours & awards section that serves as suitable evidence of eminence & mana but who needs more?
Great on the Treaty and early-contact history, and no experience in corporate governance, water allocation, RMA, or anything of use other than sickly nostalgia.
Au contraire – she like most New Zealanders has had intimate and extensive experience of the unremitting failure of neoliberalism to deliver any public goods whatsoever. It's a fine mechanism for covering civil servants' vulnerable extremities while crooks rifle a country's public assets – but as a plausible attempt at governance it is risible.
Congratulations to the Kelloggs workers for their achievement, and our daily reminder that strikes work!
Workers at Kellogg Co's U.S. breakfast cereal plants voted in favor of a new contract that offers better terms for transitional employees and across-the-board wage increases, ending a weeks-long strike, the company said on Tuesday.
Europe adopts traffic light system for climate-change policy:
An EU official said gas and nuclear were likely to have “amber” status, meaning they would not be in the “green” category with wind and solar power, but would feature in the taxonomy. A senior EU diplomat said they expected to see nuclear in the text because “Von der Leyen seems to have promised it to Macron and the other nuclear states”.
Greens will be thrilled at the prospect of another battle in the never-ending war between purists & pragmatists.
The EU taxonomy became law in July 2020, but legislators left important details to be resolved through so-called delegated acts – secondary legislation meant for technical issues that is not subject to the same degree of ministerial and parliamentary oversight.
Since then, the project has been overshadowed by a fierce political row that culminated when EU leaders meeting in Brussels last week were forced to abandon plans for a joint statement on energy policy. France wants a stamp of approval for nuclear, while Poland and eastern European states insist gas is labelled a “sustainable” investment.
Germany’s new Social Democrat chancellor is under pressure from his Green coalition partners not to give in to pressure to include nuclear or gas in the system. Scholz downplayed the taxonomy last week as “a tiny issue on a much broader topic”.
Thanks for picking this up Dennis. I was aware of the 'taxonomy' debate and how the Greens were doing their best to lump 'gas and nuclear' together as if they were somehow equivalent from a CO2 perspective.
The reality is that transitioning from coal to natural gas has still been the single most effective reduction in CO2 emissions achieved so far, but no-one pretends it's the ultimate solution. Useful in the short-term for many countries with few other options on the table right now.
The decades long irrational Green obduracy on nuclear however is in my view the single largest reason why we have a climate crisis at all. Their refusal to contemplate the one technology we do have that could reliably solve the problem, speaks to an underlying motive that has nothing to do with 'caring about the climate' whatsoever.
As you say – the purists vs pragmatist battle is a strategy intended to ensure nothing gets done.
Regarding the (in your opinion) "decades long irrational Green obduracy on nuclear", you must be pleased that the 'Green movement' isn't calling the shots in China's nuclear energy programme.
Ah, the conundrum that is democracy – I'm all for it (democracy that is). But we must face facts – the nuclear energy industry hasn't done a good enough job of promoting its products, much like a few other businesses that have fallen out of favour over the years. When it comes to 'free market' capitalism, you have to take the 'bad' trends (however lamentable) with the good, and the market has spoken.
This constant setting up of 'renewables vs nuclear' as a false dichotomy is mostly a one way street. The nuclear renaissance underway at the present rarely has anything much to say about solar/wind/battery renewables at all. If anything we regard them a bit like gas – a useful transitional technology and we're generally happy to see them take it as far as they can go.
On the other had hit pieces on nuclear like the one you referenced above from the purist renewable crowd are a legion. They're everywhere and ultimately they're funded by vested interests, who also never want you to know about the fundamental limits of renewables and the deep social implications that arise from this.
Because in the long-term a 'purist renewables only' human economy is a world permanently underpowered, poor, prone to resource conflict and essentially stagnant. Vernor Vinge's The Peace War anticipated something like this:
In an effort to retain their monopoly on the Bobbler, the Peace Authority makes technological progress illegal and returns the planet to a level similar to the 19th century.
Substitute 'climate change' for 'bobbler' and you have pretty much the same story necessarily playing out, a global tyranny stifling human progress – forever.
On the other had hit pieces on nuclear like the one you referenced above from the purist renewable crowd are a legion. They're everywhere and ultimately they're funded by vested interests, who also never want you to know about the fundamental limits of renewables and the deep social implications that arise from this.
The words you've overlooked are: if current market, technology and resource trends continue.
My obvious response is – these current trends should not continue. (And probably will not.)
Incidentally it looks like the US has finally gotten it's act together – both the NRC and the DOE now have senior leaders who both understand and support the molten-salt technology and are big supporters. That's a belated but massive turnaround.
The words you've overlooked are: if current market, technology and resource trends continue.
Nope, didn't overlook those words, and presumably neither did the author of that Scientific American "hit piece".
Whereas you seem to have conveniently overlooked my question – what "hit piece"? Maybe your initial ‘evaluation’ was a simple reflex? Which would be fine – reflexes are natural and often a sign of good health.
On the other had hit pieces on nuclear like the one you referenced above from the purist renewable crowd are a legion.
I've read literally dozens of these pieces – of varying sophistication. Most are getting smart enough to avoid obvious factual errors that can be easily debunked – so increasingly the lines taken are a mix of economic and availability doubts like this article attempted.
Unusually this one managed to note that the Gen 4 SMR's promise to be a lot cheaper to build, but then smudged over this by arguing that renewables would dominate before any new reactor designs would come online, therefore they won't be necessary – at any price.
My answer is that this overlooks the limitations of SWB renewables and there is no reason why we should not have both – as they technically complement each other very well.
I've read literally dozens of these pieces – of varying sophistication.
So, just to be clear, in your opinion Hsu's Scientific American article is a "hit piece on nuclear"? In which case it seems unlikely that any 'piece' will ever reach the level of sophistication needed to 'fool' you.
Imho, Hsu's article isn't a 'hit piece' – this is a 'hit piece'!
Why Nuclear Power Is Bad for Your Wallet and the Climate
[17 December 2021]
So the next time you hear some official, eager to appease every constituency, say we support “all of the above—we’re not picking and backing winners,” remember the retort by the dean of U.S. utility regulators, Peter Bradford: “No, we’re not picking and backing winners. They don’t need it. We’re picking and backing losers.”
You say, "The decades long irrational Green obduracy on nuclear however is in my view the single largest reason why we have a climate crisis at all." why you label "obduracy on nuclear" Green (with an upper-case "G")?
Why not call it "citizen" obduracy, or "annoying to me" obduracy?
Yes there has been a very successful misinformation campaign that means most people are unaware that nuclear power is one of the safest, cleanest and most reliable energy sources we have. (Indeed some polls have shown that an astounding fraction of people still imagine nuclear has a massive CO2 footprint, despite it being one of the lowest.)
However the effective political opposition is absolutely located in Green Parties all across the developed world – much to the dismay of even some of their most staunch supporters. At least that's what I understand at present – if there has been a shift in Green policies recent years I'm unaware of – I'm happy to be updated.
Ashutosh Jogalekar is a chemist interested in the history, philosophy and sociology of science:
Many of my friends are science-loving liberals. Many of them are also environmentalists. But most of them are against nuclear energy… So here's a purely personal, short list of reasons which in my opinion drive a lot of liberal objections to nuclear power.
1. Ignorance: This simple reason remains remarkably pervasive. I am not trying to sound preachy or elitist here but reading two or three books would greatly benefit people who have a gut reaction against nuclear energy.
There's several objective books that presents a balanced view of the topic. As a starting point I would recommend Richard Rhodes's article in Foreign Affairs and his book Nuclear Renewal which talks about the extensive and safe deployment of nuclear energy by countries like France. Samuel Glasstone's timeless classic Sourcebook on Atomic Energy is still excellent on basics, so is Bernard Cohen's book. Gwyneth Cravens's very informative Power to Save the World is particularly noteworthy since Cravens was vociferously against nuclear power before she educated herself and found herself in favor of it; it's a remarkable example of how someone can change their mind in the face of evidence.
Another informal, breezy and excellent treatment is Scott Heaberlin's A Case for Nuclear-Generated Electricity: (Or Why I Think Nuclear Power Is Cool and Why It Is Important That You Think So Too).
Problem is, folks never read a book unless they want to. I learnt that after giving up on telling friends & family about brilliant books to no avail!
2. Bad psychological connections: There are two bad connections in the minds of many liberals, both of which are rather unjustified and contribute to their dislike of nuclear power. One is the connection between nuclear power and nuclear weapons.
Knowing the basics about how different weapons are from reactors can contribute to mitigating this misunderstanding; for instance it's been known for years that contrary to popular belief, reactors can't blow up like a bomb.
Another flawed connection is between environmentalism and the boycott of nuclear power. Unfortunately die-hard environmentalists are mainly responsible for reinforcing this connection. Their decades-long opposition to nuclear energy started with some reasonable premises, but then mainly descended into irrational, uninformed and exaggerated polemic.
Well, #2 conflates fear with distrust of scientists, so his framing is poor. His #3 is nuclear waste, which he fronts with a combination of evasion, minimisation & wishful thinking. 4. Damn them Republicans is guilt by association; then 5. Fear of the unknown. It's as if he's complaining about human nature. A reasonable effort at diagnosis but not good enough.
His #3 is nuclear waste, which he fronts with a combination of evasion, minimisation & wishful thinking.
Not quite sure what you mean by this. The reality is that the 'waste' from the existing fleet of PWR reactors is actually an exceptionally valuable fuel. A number of Gen 4 designs explicitly target this fuel source:
If we reprocessed the waste from nuclear reactors on a large scale, much of it would become much more benign and could be handled much more safely in low volumes.
This is precisely what is planned and is absolutely achievable. The main barrier to progressing this using conventional reprocessing was always the reasonable fear of isolating weapons grade materials and the resulting proliferation. If however the fuel is re-used in the correct type of reactor, this simply does not happen, the plutonium is 'burned up' and transformed into fission products that have no weapons use whatsoever – and have relatively shorter half-lives that make storage a lot more feasible.
In reality the 'waste' problem from nuclear is both contained and at very low volumes compared to every other energy generation method we know of. Even solar and wind have their own serious 'end of life' waste problems that are rarely discussed.
A famous historical foreign policy response. Didn't work for the Spartan rulers tho. Philip II of Macedon (Alexander the Great's dad) called their bluff & conquered them.
The tech you mentioned has been eagerly awaited by me for most of my adult life! Are they really close to achieving the goal? I'm sceptical. Have always like the theory, said so when we last discussed it, but still no evidence they have broken the tech barrier. Same for fusion tech.
but still no evidence they have broken the tech barrier.
Depends on what you mean by 'barrier'. For all the Gen 4 designs we know the nuclear physics works. This includes the entire gamut of types, not just the MSR's I've taken a keen interest in. This is not in question.
The next level of challenge is optimising the design to achieve the desired sweet spot between cost, operability, maintainability, passive safety and life cycle. And all the designers active in this field at the moment have a different target in mind. Included in this work is a whole range of tasks necessary to fully qualify the materials and nucleonics in exquisite detail. I follow this work closely and exciting progress is being made all the time. For instance – don't watch this – only a total geek could love it.
The next major hurdle has been regulatory; all the major regulators have until quite recently written everything around the safety profile of the existing PWR fleet, which is not fit for purpose with these new generation designs. Until there was the prospect of any new design ever being approved, private equity funding was always going to be limited. Fortunately this aspect is rapidly changing, with fresh new people taking a much more proactive position toward Gen 4. The Canadian regulator is well ahead of the pack, and the Indonesians are forging ahead to build their capacity as well.
The final category of challenge is establishing the necessary equipment and materials supply chains that will enable these new designs to go from pilot plants to the mass scale manufacturing necessary to make a real world difference. In technical principle this is the easiest, but in practice it's also the most frustratingly slow aspect to resolve.
But in summary – there is no fundamental technical 'barrier' that's preventing progress.
Yeah but that's just the physics & engineering view. I went & scanned the Gen 4 wiki & developers are all over the place.
To me, the tech barrier most relevant to public/political acceptability features two design criteria: fail-safe & waste consumption. Couldn't see evidence that the industry has figured this out yet!
Plus there's the bit about fast reactors not coming on-stream until 2040. I get that you're keen on progress being made but I can't see any basis for sharing the enthusiasm. Seems to me that allowing geeks to make all the running isn't all that smart. Geeks don't do marketing, nor do they do govt liaison. Any market viability will depend on regulatory satisfaction in both design & working model.
To me, the tech barrier most relevant to public/political acceptability features two design criteria: fail-safe & waste consumption. Couldn't see evidence that the industry has figured this out yet!
Passive 'walk away' safety is baked into many of the Gen 4 designs, especially the MSR's. I'm not sure how to answer this question because I don't understand the criteria you are using, but the idea that they 'haven't figured it out' simply doesn't align with anything I'm seeing.
Plus there's the bit about fast reactors not coming on-stream until 2040.
The thinking at present is that these fast waste burners are not a high priority, there is no need to rush them into operation. It's more logical to get simpler designs running now to deal with the CO2 issue now, and deal with the waste streams later.
the Gen 4 wiki & developers are all over the place.
Yes there are a variety of Gen 4 approaches being taken, and this is because each group has a particular niche or market they are aiming for. In the long run it's expected there will evolve a range of designs all complementing each other in specific roles.
And this story really hit's it out of the park as far as I'm concerned:
In late 2019, Lights was interviewed by the BBC’s Andrew Neil, renowned for his relentless and forensic interview technique which disallows avoidance, spin and diversion.
After confronting Lights with the lack of scientific evidence for the ER movement’s apocalyptic claims of climate change killing billions in 20 years, Neil asked what would be required to achieve its demand for zero net emissions by 2025. Did she agree it would require confiscation of petrol cars, state rationing of meat and limiting families to one flight every five years?
Lights responded she wasn’t there to give solutions. Does aviation need to come to an end? A visibly uncomfortable Lights said, “Possibly”. All gas heating and cooking to go in six years? After an awkward pause, Lights simply said if that humans could put a man on the moon, we could tackle this.
That may have been the end of it. But it turns out Lights isn’t like other activists. She’s wasn’t out to draw attention to herself by gluing herself to a bus. She actually wants real change. And when confronted with the logical consequences of her movement’s demands, she realised it wouldn’t achieve any change at all because it had no workable solutions.
This is intellectual honesty – it's the best we can hope for from anyone. We are all different, and I'm not here to make everyone think just like me. But we can all ruthlessly challenge our assumptions.
"And when confronted with the logical consequences of her movement’s demands, she realised it wouldn’t achieve any change at all because it had no workable solutions."
She knew of no workable solutions.
"But it turns out Lights isn’t like other activists."
So, not an activist then?
"She’s wasn’t out to draw attention to herself by gluing herself to a bus. She actually wants real change."
Activists don't want real change?
Sweeping, poorly thought-through statements in this article, RedLogix.
"Workable" in my book means something that can be achieved in the world we live in, with the people we live with, in the timeframe we have available.
As much as I admire the work you do Robert, it's not a whole solution. As with my argument on COVID, we need all the tools in the kit to get out of this mess.
Europe is in an energy crisis of their own making.Prices and energy reserves hitting record highs and lows respectively due to poor planning and limited baseline generation.
So that army of Eurocrats created in Brussels spent most of their time trying to control the Brits – instead of planning for power supply?
Goodness me, as my grandmother used to say. Did nobody realise there could be a supply problem? Or did they get dollar signs in their eyes, copying each other in a frantic effort to mine bitcoins, thereby pulling excessive power out of the system?
Forbes points to an "unfortunate confluence of factors":
Resurgent energy demand post-Covid, extreme weather events (unprecedented heatwaves and prolonged winters), supply chain disruptions, and poor regional and global stockpiling have all contributed to Europe’s current crisis.
Russia’s supremo Vladimir Putin may have a reason to pop a champagne bottle in view of the EU’s sanctions on the Kremlin. He says that Europe had created a self-inflicted wound. He may be right.
The Qatari Energy Minister, Saad Al-Kaabi stated, “we have huge demand from all our customers and unfortunately, we can’t cater for everyone.” Qatar prefers East Asian customers who pay a premium. The EU is no longer the top market.
China has doubled their LNG imports over the last year (another reason Europe finds itself with lower than normal supplies). More than 20 provinces have enacted rationing to deal with the worsening situation. “Get energy supplies at any price”, ordered the ruling Politburo, highlighting the giant economy’s dependence on imported coal and gas.
A while ago, CEO of Gazprom Alexei Miller, stated in my presence that his company is “half a business, and half a state policy arm.” Since then the shift is probably to 40-60 in favor of the state. European leaders were quick to claim that Russia is now weaponizing the gas markets to gain approval of the Nord Stream 2. Currently, Gazprom sends piped natural gas through Ukraine. A new pipeline would circumvent the embattled country.
The energy crisis unfolding in Europe has many drivers, but EU green policy hubris, and Russian hard-nosed energy poker are the key. The main lesson is: one cannot will energy transformation into reality without building ample, reliable and economically viable baseline generation capacity.
Anker – I cannot find anything on RNZ or Stuff or the Dom Post that they were meant to be self-isolating when they were out and about. Were they said to be a close contact in an earlier story?
The Hutt Valley resident was self-isolating and people working at the locations of interest said they were told contact with the case was casual, and the risk of further infection was low.
Just read Cam Slater’s autobiographical piece on his dirty little blog. Starts off interesting then descends into irrational hatred and demonisation of the PM. Methinks the primary architect of Dirty Politics needs to take a look in the mirror. What a scumbag
He’s lining up with Damien De Ment and the other hateful rabble inspired by Steve Bannon who believe all sorts of gross things about Democrats. This is dangerous delusional thinking and I hope the security services are aware of it.
I am no great fan of Democrats, but neither do I feel the need to engage in Q-Anon conpiracy bullshit and claim that they are baby eating paedophile lizards in league with Satan. That kind of batshit insanity is what drove the Jan 6 coup attempt in the USA, and it is a stain upon the church and a festering virus that breeds in dark corners of social media. These people dog whistle, and sometimes outright endorse, despicable acts of violence; with serves their (not very secret) aims of anarchy and fascism.
Slater has always been like that. When that lady died after she got her power cut off, he took an alarming level of pleasure in it. Almost sexual in nature.
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
Well this is going to stuff up a few people's plans on hoping to return home to NZ.
Covid 19 Omicron: At least 27,000 flyers in limbo after Omicron border delay – NZ Herald
A move supported by the opposition, with National's Chris Bishop putting out a statement saying it was necessary.
Truly???
That's a massive change of tone from the nats!!!
Bishop said it quietly, and National are very lucky that the press gallery and political news is on holiday already, or he'd be squirming.
Henry Cooke at Stuff noticed, at least:
https://twitter.com/henrycooke/status/1473120874622423040
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2112/S00171/national-welcomes-booster-changes.htm
Maybe we could give credit to the new leadership.
He has spoken of being more constructive and this is an example…
Are any of the apologists for our Government willing to come out and give an answer to this bit of his statement?
"“Why do people need to wait until early January before starting to book a booster after four months? The Book My Vaccine website should be updated immediately to allow people to book after four months.".
I realise that Chippie and probably the rest of the Cabinet have had their booster shots but why does everyone else have to wait? Is it really necessary for the Health Department to be like the Cabinet Ministers and take off for the next month or so?
Meanwhile of course we can be fairly sure that the Omicron variant will be out in the environment and there are going to be a lot of people who will get it who probably wouldn't if they had been able to get their booster shots.
Come on you plonkers in the Beehive. Pull finger and get on with the booster shots. Don't behave the way you did last year where we were among the last of the developed countries to actually get a serious vaccination program under way.
This is how the vaccination program went. Do we want the booster program to be just as bad?
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-people-fully-vaccinated-covid?country=AUS~BRA~MYS~NPL~NLD~NZL~CHN~CUB~DNK~NOR~RUS~FRA~DEU~SGP~SWE~TWN~IRL~GBR~USA
Foreign investors lining up to' invest' in NZ….property?
New Zealand re-opens door to wealthy foreign investors promising to drop millions | Stuff.co.nz
The ponzi must continue ….at any and all cost.
How to disadyantage New Zealanders.
In terms of meeting the criteria for the Investor visas, residential property investment has to be new developments, not just buying existing property and renting it out, nor can it include renting or selling to friends and family.
"…residential property investment has to be new developments, not just buying existing property and renting it out, nor can it include renting or selling to friends and family."
You mean the same criteria that allows purchase of existing homes as long as the house is removed and the site developed?
Any overseas investment by people looking for a profit means NZers looking for a residence pay more. Loopholes so wide they can stampede through – and they do.
Isn't that still new housing? How is that loophole?
It doesn't remove overseas investors from the market at all for existing houses on sites, leaving them in competition with NZers looking for a home.
Once again, any overseas investment by people looking for a profit means NZers looking for a residence pay more.
This is absolutely obscene.
Yes it is , absolutely obscene. The answer Kiwis, is do not sell to a non New Zealander nor to a "New Zealander" not born in New Zealand. Hold our land because it seems to me now that we have a nicely developed country the rich of the world are saying thanks we will take it off you peasants now.
Janet, you comment is absolutely offensive. I have been living in NZ for most of my life. I am not able to just up my tent and move to Europe if that is what you imply. That's the approach Australia takes with the NZ born/citizen ship holding law breakers, isn't it?
I have worked in NZ for now 35 years, not drawn any benefit and clocked up to 70 hours a week to get a roof over my head. I know many people who are like me do the same. Work hard, get educated, have their kids well raised. I also know of NZlaenders who think that everybody around them owes them a living and are on a benefit for all their life.
Perhaps you also need to know that the land your house stands on does not belong to any occupant, ultimately the Crown is he owner of all property in NZ.
1 At the present day no person or group of persons in New Zealand, Maori or Pakeha, can fully own the land on which they have their home or farm or factory, or on which their church or marae stands. All land ultimately belongs to the State as personified by the Crown. To find the reason for this, one must go back to the feudal England of 900 years ago.
https://www.lawcom.govt.nz/sites/default/files/projectAvailableFormats/NZLC%20PP20.pdf
We're not talking about people who have lived and worked here all their lives. We're talking about the parasitic rich listers who are being admitted to NZ as part of the scams they are doing in their own countries. And we're letting them in so they can buy land and property here and screw Kiwis. It is obscene.
Well, I am not born in NZ so Janet's comment does mean the likes of me.
You do realise that if your rule had been in place the Labour Prime Ministers Michael Joseph Savage, Peter Fraser and Walter Nash would never have been allowed to buy a house here?
No chance Janet.
Money talks.
Trump crowd boos Trump for getting boosted: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/20/trump-covid-19-booster-shot-crowd-boos
Only five consecutive don'ts was probably insufficient. Advertising theory has been based on triple-repetition for a century due to the thickness of consumers, but Trump crowds are likely to be at least twice as thick as the average consumer.
However, hand-waving was probably worth two or three repetitions. The Queen does it routinely so we can assume it is an effective tactic with crowds.
It seems we will need to start thinking of the Trump movement as a genuine peoples movement. It seems to have an independent agenda from its leader now.
https://i.imgur.com/qU8oVM5.gif
Listening to Trump talking on the mic it's the usual typical Trump "word salad" sophistry.
He doesn’t need to worry about any supporters who boo what he says. They’ll still go home and recall something in whatever he says (probably totally contradictory) that justifies their continued belief in him as the saviour of America.
All they need to know is hes not the establishment (no matter that he is worse)….the establishment have screwed them so anyone (and I mean anyone) who rails against them is going to get their support.
Are they wrong?
Trump's support base is the grassroots proletarian revolutionary movement that the left can only dream of mobilizing.
The best people.
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1473039073535213570
https://twitter.com/az_rww/status/1473084860004593666
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1473084860004593666.html
One would think Rittenhouse would go home and keep a low profile, thanking his lucky stars that he's free and not doing time in the Big House.
But, not in America. Notoriety is as good for getting you adulation there as being a genuine hero.
One would think Rittenhouse would go home and keep a low profile,
You would think so, but the damage had already been done. No attempt at 'living a quiet life' was going to work, he was going to be hounded the rest of his life regardless.
So in the spirit of 'the best defense is a good offense' he's probably been advised to go as big as possible.
Just amps up the temperature encouraging more would-be vigilantes to get their AR15s and shoot at their fellow citizens. Which in turn will probably result in their political opponents arming up as well.
Gun nuts have been given too much encouragement under Trump.
How about, and this is just a suggestion, that you don't threaten to kill someone thats carrying a rifle, that you don't physically assault someone carrying a rifle, that you don't chase someone carrying a rifle, that you don't try to grab someones rifle, that you don't chase someone carrying a rifle, that you don't point a pistol at someone carrying a rifle and that when someone points a rifle at you trying to make you stop chasing them that you…stop chasing them
Again Kyle Rittenhouse broke no laws however the people he shot defending himself certainly did.
Maybe he could run for…Congress.
Might be the best way to protect himself
…Kyle Rittenhouse broke no laws however the people he shot defending himself certainly did.
The problem with Kyle Rittenhouse is the problem with America. He’s a gun nut. He came from out of state to act as a vigilante.
He was lucky the judge dismissed the charge that as he was as a minor he was not permitted to carry that AR15; the law had an exemption that was apparently intended to permit 17 year olds to carry long barrelled weapons for hunting, but it was not specifically so worded, so the judge dismissed that charge.
The dude didn’t need to be there. As I’ve said, if he now goes around acting like a celebrity (orvlets himself get used by people like the NRA) it’s likely to encourage others to do the same thing when protests or riots happen. There’s plenty of evidence Democrat voters are arming up as well these days.
One day there’ll likely be a confrontation of armed vigilantes from both sides that gets out of hand. There’s just too many guns in the community in the US. Kids doing school shootings have no trouble getting their later-bloodied hands on them.
It’s too late to stop it. US citizens just have to learn to live with mass shootings, schhol shootings, & neighbourhood arguments between ordinary citizens ending up with people shot.
Gezza you don't know what you're talking about.
You think you do but your opinions on this have been shaped by the media.
'The problem with Kyle Rittenhouse is the problem with America.'
– He was defending himself. If you do not or don't want to understand this then all it shows is you didn't follow the trial (I did)
'He’s a gun nut.'
– Based on what? What makes him a gun nut? That he legally owns a firearm? Wheres the proof hes a gun nut?
'He came from out of state to act as a vigilante.'
– Fuck off with this bullshit. Tell me what is so bad about coming 'out of state', no seriously explain to me why this is something that needs to be mentioned
Are americans not allowed to travel? Is he not allowed to travel to the city where he works because its out of state?
So come on tell me why this is something that needs to mentioned.
He went there to help clean up and defend the area, there are pictures of him literally cleaning graffiti off the walls
He was running away from and only shot when someone was close enough to grab his rifle, to hit him with a skateboard, when someone kicked him in the head and when someone pointed an, illegal, pistol at him
So fuck off with that vigilante shit
'He was lucky the judge dismissed the charge that as he was as a minor he was not permitted to carry that AR15; the law had an exemption that was apparently intended to permit 17 year olds to carry long barrelled weapons for hunting, but it was not specifically so worded, so the judge dismissed that charge.'
– Its not fucking luck when its the law. The law was changed because youths were going around with sawn off shotguns.
'The dude didn’t need to be there.'
– You know who else didn't need to be there, the rioters destroying property and assaulting people however whether or not he he shouldn't have been there he was allowed to be there.
'As I’ve said, if he now goes around acting like a celebrity (orvlets himself get used by people like the NRA) it’s likely to encourage others to do the same thing when protests or riots happen.'
– Hes going to need a lot of money because the twitter mob will do everything they can to make sure his life as difficult as possible
'There’s plenty of evidence Democrat voters are arming up as well these days.'
– Then how about the rioters don't riot, how about they protest legally and peacefully.
Or is ok to riot if you're on the left
'One day there’ll likely be a confrontation of armed vigilantes from both sides that gets out of hand.'
– Kyle isn't a vigilante but then maybe the democratic could fund the police instead of defunding them, sort out the bail laws instead of releasing the crims
'There’s just too many guns in the community in the US. Kids doing school shootings have no trouble getting their later-bloodied hands on them.'
– Maybe there is maybe there isn't but that doesn't mean Kyle should be found guilty of something he didn't do
'It’s too late to stop it. US citizens just have to learn to live with mass shootings, schhol shootings, & neighbourhood arguments between ordinary citizens ending up with people shot.'
– Again Kyle is innocent, sending him to prison wouldn't change anything but maybe the media and the Democratic party stopping stoking the flames might help
So stop putting this on the shoulders of an 18 year old that defended himself from violent, rapists and domestic abusers
There’s a lot in what you wrote above that I accept is perfectly true.
The rioters were out of control, but solo armed citizens coming to that sort of situation runs the risk of matters getting even more out of hand than they already were. And that’s exactly what happened.
I know the kid was attacked, was scared, & was legitimately defending himself from the point where he was threatened & then attacked.
I’m never going to defend rioters. The ratbags were looting, burning, & trashing their own bloody neighbourhood. The fact the police didn’t want to act to control it was no doubt institutional paralysis brought on by their Mayor’s & Commander’s fear of provoking even worse violence.
The Defund The Police campaign was utterly stupid – woke nonsense. You can’t just take police off the streets & imagine all will be somehow be peaceful & peachy.
A vigilante is a member of a self-appointed group of citizens who undertake law enforcement in their community without legal authority, typically because the legal agencies are thought to be inadequate. You can argue his joining a group of armed citizens “protecting businesses” is not vigilantism, but to my mind it is.
I don’t think he should have been convicted at his trial (even the firearms charge that was dismissed was only a misdemeanor). It was clearly self defence & even Biden said the verdict should be respected.
My main criticism is that he should not become a poster boy for more young people of either the left or right to do the same thing.
As to his life now going to be wretched & he being subject to attacks on Twitter, threats etc. If he wanted to avoid that, he shouldn’t have gone there. His actions have had these consequences. Neither you nor I can change that.
We all know that you want the USA to go back to the days where blacks were lynched and beaten by racist cops who were in turn protected by their mates on the bench.
You clearly see that people with criminal convictions and civil rights protesters are outside the law and deserve to be gun down by racist, homophobic right wing thugs like KR.
KR is a really nasty piece of work, racist, homophobic, misogynistic and will probably grow up to be a wife beating skinhead.
His mother, she is probably a total Karen who has nothing but hatred for those 'fags' and 'niggers'.
The USA is so close to having civil rights rolled back, it's just not funny.
'KR is a really nasty piece of work, racist, homophobic, misogynistic and will probably grow up to be a wife beating skinhead.'
– Link or evidence please Millsy
'His mother, she is probably a total Karen who has nothing but hatred for those 'fags' and 'niggers'.'
– Thats a definite link or evidence Millsy. You just crossed the line going after his mother.
Isn't it also interesting that one of the guys he shot defending himself is actually on camera yelling out the n word
Isn't it also interesting that two of the guys shot were actual domestic abusers
All of the civil rights protestors that KR gunned down in cold blood had served their time. Not everyone things that people should pay for their crimes for the rest of their lives.
Kyles mother is fair game. She is the one who spent 17 years filling his head full of racist, homophobic poison, going on and on about how those 'niggers' have 'too much rights' and they need to be taught a lesson, just like her 'peepaw' did back on the plantation in 1855.
Why dont you just admit, Puck, that you want the USA to return to the days of the KKK and lynching, and segregation and where cops could just kill people and get away with it.
You are on record, as saying that Chauvin did nothing wrong and that George Floyd was a dirty ‘nigger’ who deserveed to die.
Link, proof or evidence Millsy
All in your history.
Link to my history, copy and paste my history or provide evidence Millsy or be prepared to have a nice, little time out to think things over.
Clean up on aisle 3 !
Do I point out here that according to:
Drone footage Kyle was innocent
Independent camera footage Kyle was innocent
The prosecutions own witnesses Kyle was innocent
The trial where he was declared not guilty
What part of this do you disagree with?
'One would think Rittenhouse would go home and keep a low profile'
And do what exactly, he has a target on his back and the twitter mob will not stop trying to ruin his life:
https://www.newsweek.com/kyle-rittenhouse-ban-arizona-state-university-1654323
You think thats the only thing he'll have to face?
He goes for a job and the twitter mob will call for that business to fire him or be blacklisted
You think he'll get a government job with this current administration
I'll remind you that Kyle Rittenhouse broke no laws, was threatened, was assaulted, had an illegal firearm pointed at him and was found not guilty
Lay low, sure if only it was that easy for him
Not just adulation but normally a fairly solid income stream
Dame Anne Salmond targets "neo-liberal ideology, the Fourth Labour Government" and the judiciary:
Her Cerberus is indeed a worthy target. It has produced abundant woolly thinking in recent decades. Her example:
Neoliberalism is 19th century thinking, as is neo-colonialism, so no surprise Mahuta's advisors framed the initiative accordingly. How much longer do they believe the 19th century strangle-hold can be perpetuated? How long is a piece of string? Blind faith can make it seem to stretch forever…
I'm not quite sure what YOUR point is, Dennis, but Dame Anne absolutely nails the issue here, imo:
I'm not quite sure what YOUR point is
There were several:
1. The dame proved that, despite seeming a typical liberal mainstreamer, she's capable of discerning how to progress beyond that, then did so.
2. The three-headed dog is a worthy target due to the judiciary institutionalising the ideological drivel of the 1980s, thereby confusing policy-makers.
3. 19th century thinking that got revived to infect mainstreamers still prevails in the public service via blind faith (despite an ever-escalating infusion of Green thought & values).
Dame Anne Salmond was great when writing on early-contact Maori.
Apart from that she is a sickeningly wet Originalist that would get on well with Scalia and Barrett.
Her head is stuck in a country that existed prior to 1840 full of untrammelled rills, Hobbiton-esque endless forest, absent of cities and intensive water management, an imagined fairyspell in which water management consisted of joyously gazing at nothing but bubbling rock-perfect founts.
The Treaty doesn't mention wealth distribution, state entities, or local government management of water entities like dams or irrigation.
The Treaty doesn't mention elites British or Maori, or elitism, or even class.
It’s simply never going to do the job of a UN HR declaration or single written constitution.
Dame Anne doesn't have the faintest idea from the evidence of that post about how Maori engage with the Crown over water governance.
In not one single sentence of her post can we recognise the country we are in or ever could be.
Thank God they don't let such fools anywhere near an actual decision.
Hobbiton had no forests.
Heh. 🙄 Guess I oughta quote her wiki, eh?
One sorta gets the impression, somehow, that she ain't just a mere academic. There's plenty more in the honours & awards section that serves as suitable evidence of eminence & mana but who needs more?
She should stay in her lane.
Great on the Treaty and early-contact history, and no experience in corporate governance, water allocation, RMA, or anything of use other than sickly nostalgia.
Au contraire – she like most New Zealanders has had intimate and extensive experience of the unremitting failure of neoliberalism to deliver any public goods whatsoever. It's a fine mechanism for covering civil servants' vulnerable extremities while crooks rifle a country's public assets – but as a plausible attempt at governance it is risible.
Corporate governance? Feh.
https://i.imgur.com/3Z7Jcj1.gif
I love her big blue eyes…
Congratulations to the Kelloggs workers for their achievement, and our daily reminder that strikes work!
https://www.reuters.com/business/kellogg-strike-end-workers-vote-favor-new-contract-2021-12-21/
Yep. Well done them. A good result.
Europe adopts traffic light system for climate-change policy:
Greens will be thrilled at the prospect of another battle in the never-ending war between purists & pragmatists.
Oh yeah? Pull the other leg, it's got bells on.
Thanks for picking this up Dennis. I was aware of the 'taxonomy' debate and how the Greens were doing their best to lump 'gas and nuclear' together as if they were somehow equivalent from a CO2 perspective.
The reality is that transitioning from coal to natural gas has still been the single most effective reduction in CO2 emissions achieved so far, but no-one pretends it's the ultimate solution. Useful in the short-term for many countries with few other options on the table right now.
The decades long irrational Green obduracy on nuclear however is in my view the single largest reason why we have a climate crisis at all. Their refusal to contemplate the one technology we do have that could reliably solve the problem, speaks to an underlying motive that has nothing to do with 'caring about the climate' whatsoever.
As you say – the purists vs pragmatist battle is a strategy intended to ensure nothing gets done.
Regarding the (in your opinion) "decades long irrational Green obduracy on nuclear", you must be pleased that the 'Green movement' isn't calling the shots in China's nuclear energy programme.
Ah, the conundrum that is democracy – I'm all for it (democracy that is). But we must face facts – the nuclear energy industry hasn't done a good enough job of promoting its products, much like a few other businesses that have fallen out of favour over the years. When it comes to 'free market' capitalism, you have to take the 'bad' trends (however lamentable) with the good, and the market has spoken.
This constant setting up of 'renewables vs nuclear' as a false dichotomy is mostly a one way street. The nuclear renaissance underway at the present rarely has anything much to say about solar/wind/battery renewables at all. If anything we regard them a bit like gas – a useful transitional technology and we're generally happy to see them take it as far as they can go.
On the other had hit pieces on nuclear like the one you referenced above from the purist renewable crowd are a legion. They're everywhere and ultimately they're funded by vested interests, who also never want you to know about the fundamental limits of renewables and the deep social implications that arise from this.
Because in the long-term a 'purist renewables only' human economy is a world permanently underpowered, poor, prone to resource conflict and essentially stagnant. Vernor Vinge's The Peace War anticipated something like this:
Substitute 'climate change' for 'bobbler' and you have pretty much the same story necessarily playing out, a global tyranny stifling human progress – forever.
RL, is it the (linked) Scientific American article by Jeremy Hsu, or is it the (embedded link to the) IEAA's Energy, Electricity and Nuclear Power Estimates for the Period up to 2050 (Reference Data Series No. 1, 2020 Edition), that's the "hit piece" “funded by vested interests” – or perhaps both? Breathtaking.
The words you've overlooked are: if current market, technology and resource trends continue.
My obvious response is – these current trends should not continue. (And probably will not.)
Incidentally it looks like the US has finally gotten it's act together – both the NRC and the DOE now have senior leaders who both understand and support the molten-salt technology and are big supporters. That's a belated but massive turnaround.
Nope, didn't overlook those words, and presumably neither did the author of that Scientific American "hit piece".
Whereas you seem to have conveniently overlooked my question – what "hit piece"? Maybe your initial ‘evaluation’ was a simple reflex? Which would be fine – reflexes are natural and often a sign of good health.
I've read literally dozens of these pieces – of varying sophistication. Most are getting smart enough to avoid obvious factual errors that can be easily debunked – so increasingly the lines taken are a mix of economic and availability doubts like this article attempted.
Unusually this one managed to note that the Gen 4 SMR's promise to be a lot cheaper to build, but then smudged over this by arguing that renewables would dominate before any new reactor designs would come online, therefore they won't be necessary – at any price.
My answer is that this overlooks the limitations of SWB renewables and there is no reason why we should not have both – as they technically complement each other very well.
So, just to be clear, in your opinion Hsu's Scientific American article is a "hit piece on nuclear"? In which case it seems unlikely that any 'piece' will ever reach the level of sophistication needed to 'fool' you.
Imho, Hsu's article isn't a 'hit piece' – this is a 'hit piece'!
You say, "The decades long irrational Green obduracy on nuclear however is in my view the single largest reason why we have a climate crisis at all." why you label "obduracy on nuclear" Green (with an upper-case "G")?
Why not call it "citizen" obduracy, or "annoying to me" obduracy?
Yes there has been a very successful misinformation campaign that means most people are unaware that nuclear power is one of the safest, cleanest and most reliable energy sources we have. (Indeed some polls have shown that an astounding fraction of people still imagine nuclear has a massive CO2 footprint, despite it being one of the lowest.)
However the effective political opposition is absolutely located in Green Parties all across the developed world – much to the dismay of even some of their most staunch supporters. At least that's what I understand at present – if there has been a shift in Green policies recent years I'm unaware of – I'm happy to be updated.
Psychological framing goes deeper.
Problem is, folks never read a book unless they want to. I learnt that after giving up on telling friends & family about brilliant books to no avail!
Well, #2 conflates fear with distrust of scientists, so his framing is poor. His #3 is nuclear waste, which he fronts with a combination of evasion, minimisation & wishful thinking. 4. Damn them Republicans is guilt by association; then 5. Fear of the unknown. It's as if he's complaining about human nature. A reasonable effort at diagnosis but not good enough.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious-wavefunction/top-5-reasons-why-intelligent-liberals-dont-like-nuclear-energy/#
His #3 is nuclear waste, which he fronts with a combination of evasion, minimisation & wishful thinking.
Not quite sure what you mean by this. The reality is that the 'waste' from the existing fleet of PWR reactors is actually an exceptionally valuable fuel. A number of Gen 4 designs explicitly target this fuel source:
This is precisely what is planned and is absolutely achievable. The main barrier to progressing this using conventional reprocessing was always the reasonable fear of isolating weapons grade materials and the resulting proliferation. If however the fuel is re-used in the correct type of reactor, this simply does not happen, the plutonium is 'burned up' and transformed into fission products that have no weapons use whatsoever – and have relatively shorter half-lives that make storage a lot more feasible.
In reality the 'waste' problem from nuclear is both contained and at very low volumes compared to every other energy generation method we know of. Even solar and wind have their own serious 'end of life' waste problems that are rarely discussed.
An interesting link all the same – thanks.
If
A famous historical foreign policy response. Didn't work for the Spartan rulers tho. Philip II of Macedon (Alexander the Great's dad) called their bluff & conquered them.
The tech you mentioned has been eagerly awaited by me for most of my adult life! Are they really close to achieving the goal? I'm sceptical. Have always like the theory, said so when we last discussed it, but still no evidence they have broken the tech barrier. Same for fusion tech.
but still no evidence they have broken the tech barrier.
Depends on what you mean by 'barrier'. For all the Gen 4 designs we know the nuclear physics works. This includes the entire gamut of types, not just the MSR's I've taken a keen interest in. This is not in question.
The next level of challenge is optimising the design to achieve the desired sweet spot between cost, operability, maintainability, passive safety and life cycle. And all the designers active in this field at the moment have a different target in mind. Included in this work is a whole range of tasks necessary to fully qualify the materials and nucleonics in exquisite detail. I follow this work closely and exciting progress is being made all the time. For instance – don't watch this – only a total geek could love it.
The next major hurdle has been regulatory; all the major regulators have until quite recently written everything around the safety profile of the existing PWR fleet, which is not fit for purpose with these new generation designs. Until there was the prospect of any new design ever being approved, private equity funding was always going to be limited. Fortunately this aspect is rapidly changing, with fresh new people taking a much more proactive position toward Gen 4. The Canadian regulator is well ahead of the pack, and the Indonesians are forging ahead to build their capacity as well.
The final category of challenge is establishing the necessary equipment and materials supply chains that will enable these new designs to go from pilot plants to the mass scale manufacturing necessary to make a real world difference. In technical principle this is the easiest, but in practice it's also the most frustratingly slow aspect to resolve.
But in summary – there is no fundamental technical 'barrier' that's preventing progress.
Yeah but that's just the physics & engineering view. I went & scanned the Gen 4 wiki & developers are all over the place.
To me, the tech barrier most relevant to public/political acceptability features two design criteria: fail-safe & waste consumption. Couldn't see evidence that the industry has figured this out yet!
Plus there's the bit about fast reactors not coming on-stream until 2040. I get that you're keen on progress being made but I can't see any basis for sharing the enthusiasm. Seems to me that allowing geeks to make all the running isn't all that smart. Geeks don't do marketing, nor do they do govt liaison. Any market viability will depend on regulatory satisfaction in both design & working model.
To me, the tech barrier most relevant to public/political acceptability features two design criteria: fail-safe & waste consumption. Couldn't see evidence that the industry has figured this out yet!
Passive 'walk away' safety is baked into many of the Gen 4 designs, especially the MSR's. I'm not sure how to answer this question because I don't understand the criteria you are using, but the idea that they 'haven't figured it out' simply doesn't align with anything I'm seeing.
Plus there's the bit about fast reactors not coming on-stream until 2040.
The thinking at present is that these fast waste burners are not a high priority, there is no need to rush them into operation. It's more logical to get simpler designs running now to deal with the CO2 issue now, and deal with the waste streams later.
the Gen 4 wiki & developers are all over the place.
Yes there are a variety of Gen 4 approaches being taken, and this is because each group has a particular niche or market they are aiming for. In the long run it's expected there will evolve a range of designs all complementing each other in specific roles.
And this story really hit's it out of the park as far as I'm concerned:
This is intellectual honesty – it's the best we can hope for from anyone. We are all different, and I'm not here to make everyone think just like me. But we can all ruthlessly challenge our assumptions.
"And when confronted with the logical consequences of her movement’s demands, she realised it wouldn’t achieve any change at all because it had no workable solutions."
She knew of no workable solutions.
"But it turns out Lights isn’t like other activists."
So, not an activist then?
"She’s wasn’t out to draw attention to herself by gluing herself to a bus. She actually wants real change."
Activists don't want real change?
Sweeping, poorly thought-through statements in this article, RedLogix.
"Workable" in my book means something that can be achieved in the world we live in, with the people we live with, in the timeframe we have available.
As much as I admire the work you do Robert, it's not a whole solution. As with my argument on COVID, we need all the tools in the kit to get out of this mess.
Some tools should be locked forever, in the kit, RedLogix.
Just because we can, doesn't mean we should.
Intellectual honesty?……was life unbearable in 1965?
Energy consumption per capita has almost doubled since then (not to mention the total population has also doubled)
Europe is in an energy crisis of their own making.Prices and energy reserves hitting record highs and lows respectively due to poor planning and limited baseline generation.
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1473317529229697029?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1473317529229697029%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FJavierBlas2Fstatus2F1473317529229697029widget%3DTweet
poor planning
So that army of Eurocrats created in Brussels spent most of their time trying to control the Brits – instead of planning for power supply?
Goodness me, as my grandmother used to say. Did nobody realise there could be a supply problem? Or did they get dollar signs in their eyes, copying each other in a frantic effort to mine bitcoins, thereby pulling excessive power out of the system?
Forbes points to an "unfortunate confluence of factors":
Anker – I cannot find anything on RNZ or Stuff or the Dom Post that they were meant to be self-isolating when they were out and about. Were they said to be a close contact in an earlier story?
Here.
The Hutt Valley resident was self-isolating and people working at the locations of interest said they were told contact with the case was casual, and the risk of further infection was low.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/127357981/covid19-positive-case-confirmed-in-the-hutt-valley-five-locations-of-interest
Thanks joe90. It doesn't look like they necessarily did anything wrong from that story.
Arsehole disregarded the isolating bit of self-isolating to go galavanting around the town.
Simon power as the new tvnz CEO. So we go from a travel agent to a lawyer banker….were there no painters and Dockers available ?
With RNZ on the horizon they needed an M&A specialist.
Just read Cam Slater’s autobiographical piece on his dirty little blog. Starts off interesting then descends into irrational hatred and demonisation of the PM. Methinks the primary architect of Dirty Politics needs to take a look in the mirror. What a scumbag
He’s lining up with Damien De Ment and the other hateful rabble inspired by Steve Bannon who believe all sorts of gross things about Democrats. This is dangerous delusional thinking and I hope the security services are aware of it.
Yuck, I feel gross now
Republicans an Democrats are just two halves of the same backside arnt they Roblogic ?
Whats to like about Democrats ??
You've missed the point by a mile, there.
I am no great fan of Democrats, but neither do I feel the need to engage in Q-Anon conpiracy bullshit and claim that they are baby eating paedophile lizards in league with Satan. That kind of batshit insanity is what drove the Jan 6 coup attempt in the USA, and it is a stain upon the church and a festering virus that breeds in dark corners of social media. These people dog whistle, and sometimes outright endorse, despicable acts of violence; with serves their (not very secret) aims of anarchy and fascism.
It is pure hatred. Not policy, not debate, not "holding to account". Just a sad man spewing poison.
I'm certainly not going to link to Slater's obnoxious blog but here's a tweet (not supporting him) that gives a flavour of his toxic tirade …
https://twitter.com/egorub/status/1471692677703880711
He is quite irrelevant these days.
He has managed to become everything he supposedly despises…
'ratbag ..who doesn't pay his debts'
'should hand in his mancard'=pathetic,girls blouse attempt at FFL.
Always begging for money=bludger.
Good link, ta. Agree it's bitter and dark stuff. Every sane person who has met Jacinda says she is great.
Cool hashtag trending today: #ChurArdern
Slater has always been like that. When that lady died after she got her power cut off, he took an alarming level of pleasure in it. Almost sexual in nature.