Curry leaves: 10-12; Ginger (grated):1 inch piece; Salt;
Water (more if required): 8 cups
Method
Lightly toast the moong dal in a dry pan for a few minutes, stirring continuously till it gets slightly deepened in color.
Put rice, moong dal, turmeric powder and water with a pinch of salt in a pressure cooker and cook for six whistles (15 to 20 minutes).
If you don’t have a pressure cooker then you can cook them in a large pot on the stovetop on medium flame for about 45 minutes till the dal is well cooked and soft, in which case it needs to be monitored and stirred occasionally.
For the seasoning, heat a small, heavy bottomed pan. Add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and stir until they crackle.
Then add asafoetida powder, crushed black pepper, curry leaves and grated ginger and toast them for a few seconds.
Add salt and the seasoning to the cooked rice/dal and mix well. Add more water if required and allow simmering for a few minutes. Serve hot with vegan curd and some optional electric puha on the side if so inclined.
john key was in the media a few days ago saying “don’t blame customs, they do a good job”, yet no one was blaming customs, the blame lies at the feet of john key & nathan guy.
“We’ve had four finds in our traps over three years. In the previous 14 years when we had the 100 percent screening in place, we didn’t find any.”
“Sure that’s going to cost some money, but we also have to look at every time we’re responding here is between $1 million to $1.5 million for the response that we’re putting in place.”
We have our fifth annual visit from Biosecurity happening next week. A team of about six scientists from around NZ, come up to check the surrounding neighbourhood for an Australian termite.
An outbreak happened at a neighbouring property, when the kitchen wall collapsed due to infestation. Source of the termite was determined to be the imported Australian landscaping sleepers.
The cost must be phenomenal. They are usually on our small property for 1.5-2 hours and the infestation occurred about 500m down the road.
The Greeks would be advised to steer well clear of one of your colleague’s Gosman. The loan shark down under called Wewege. This guy would sharpen his teeth on his own Grand Mother.
Gooseyerman.
Once again you only read 1/2 the story
The Greek ‘s wanted 6 month extension the Germans no extension.
The Greeks got a four month extension.
If that is Germany not backing down what is.
Germany is talking tough but giving in is the reality.
Once again undone by your own links.
You must know no one reads your links.
Otherwise you wouldn’t bother posting them.
Because it proves your an idiot who can’t read beyond the headlines.
Now you have 2 apologies owing on your verbal contract.
All asset sales stopped in Greece.
Germany backs down moves from hardline of no extension to 4 month extension.
Come on man of personal responsibility.
Be a man not a goose honour the promise you made!
Please explain again where Germany (and the European Commission) backed down? Quite hard to take you seriously when you admit to not reading links that prove the point you are wilfully not understanding. Are you going to say “no-one reads my links” too, therefore the things you imagine in your head are the truth rather than, you know, actual quotes from German and Greek politicians and inconvenient things like that?
As I’ve said before, when you are a bankrupt beggar (that’s Greece in case you are wondering) relying on handouts from your rich neighbour ( that’s Germany), and you’re bargaining tactics are “give me some money or I’ll burn down your garage” (thats an exit from the Euro), well guess what. When you admit that’s only a threat and you’ll never do it, then guess what. You have no negotiating power.
Does that explanation make it easy for you to understand?
You are only showing one guardian article not Gosmans link.
This extension allows more time for Greece to renegotiate.
The cost repayments required is higher than the bailout money.
So Greece would be better off doing what Iceland an Argentina did walking away and setting up their own currency.
You forget that Tsaparis’s coalition partner is the equivilent of our ACT party.
Tsaparis on his first day in office went up to a war cemetry in Athens.
And had said since that Germany is treating us badly again.
The exchequer of the Bank of England said the same thing saying keeping the Greek economy in permanent recession is Damaging the EU while not achieving the aims of rebuilding the Greek economy.
The Spanish elections will be very soon a left leaning govt their will put more pressure on the EU.
Then UK and Scottish elections all going left.
Thats why Germany is jawboning because if it gives to much to Greece it will have to elsewhere.
Meanwhile hypocritical Germany is behind this massive nz $1.8 trillion quatitive easing money print.
1 Rule for the rich countries keynsian socialism.
Another Rule for the poor downtrodden country Tory Austerity!
They never started being the good guy, Gossie. There was never anything altruistic about Germany’s position. All the ‘aid’ to Greece was just more debt. And the debt is racked up by the rich and paid for by the poor.
I’m not claiming Germany is without blemish but “just more debt” to a large degree is what has kept Greece’s government functioning over the last 5 years. Also bear in mind the following facts:
– Greece has already over 100 billion EUR of debt written down (2011) where private sector banks took almost all of the hit
– current Greek debt is held 76% by Germany, the IMF, ECB and other European countries
– only 2.4 billion euros is owned by non-greek commercial banks (greek banks own 11 billion of Greece sovereign debt.
So the idea that further loans from Germany/EU/ECB is enriching the private sector is plain wrong. Now you are probably right when you allude to the corrupton endemic in Greece which means a small politically connected group has made out like bandits while the rest of Greece is in a state of distress. But that isn’t the Germans fault – its the previous Greek governments, and will be Syriza’s curse too if they can’t start collecting taxes, cut subsidies to the wealthy, stop doing sweetheart deals with cronies etc.
So the idea that further loans from Germany/EU/ECB is enriching the private sector is plain wrong.
I read that the German state development bank is one of the biggest holders of Greek debt outside the Central Banks. Is that public or private?
Anyhows I understand that the vast majority – up to 90% – of “bailout” funds provided to Greece over the last few years went straight to international creditors in the form of debt repayments, not to the Greek people or into the Greek economy. Does that sound about right to you?
I don’t know the exact numbers off the top of my head, but in a sense its a bit of a moot point. Without the bailout funds Greece would not be able to pay interest on its debt, would default and enter bankruptcy, hius the bailout, becasue bankruptcy within the EURO has no sensible ending I can construct.
Lets say Greece pays 3% on the debt – thats 10 billion annually in interest.
And tricledown, the “wealthy north european banks have paid for their reckless lending – they have written off over 110 billion euros already. Contrary to popular opinion, most greek debt is now owned by other governments, their agencies or supranational organisations. when bailout funds it goes to one of two places – the Greek national budget for governmental spending on services (and corruption based subsidies) or as interest payments back to the people giving the bailout money.
Was there a process in 2012(-ish) where many private banking holders of Greek debt moved them off their own balance sheets and on to the balance sheet of the sovereigns and various European institutions?
I came across a reference to it this morning but don’t know anything else about it.
Yep – but my recollection is they sold the debt to the bailout fund for cnets in the dollar – i.e., the banks wrote down the difference between purchase price and sale price. Not all of it was sold to the bailout fund – a lot was sold to private investors too.
Just saw a reference that of the second bailout package 25% went straight to creditors, 75% to the Greek Govt.
Its a Corrupt Goldman Sachs and their corrupt ratings Agency mates who conned the wealthy Northern European Banks into lending to a country that could not afford these loans.So now Goldman Sachs is now asset stripping Greece at firesale prices.
Reducing Greek govt income further making it harder to pay back corrupt loans.
The Greek lotteries commission worth €25 billion was sold of by the same corrupt politicians who racked up the debt.for a pawltry €2 billion.
Greece is being Screwed over.
Yes, Sanctuary. “Let your teabags steep for three minutes to allow all the anti-oxidants to escape from the tea bag.” I’ve just followed Mr Dilmah’s advice. Cheers!
Yeah they played him not sure they paid him though. It’s all about the black gold to father & son Dilmah tea peddler’s. It works looking forward to my cup of dilmah tea and some vogel toast with a spread of raspberry jam & peanut butter.
Skinny
I did hear them say that their Dilmah workforce in Sri Lanka was unionised whatever that means there.
And while you are here, did you say when you were an organiser you sometimes had a stopwork for no particular reason, just to show the employers that you could? If so do you feel that you may have been a facilitating cog in the demolishing wheel that has attacked unions?
Grey a little confusion there, I have never said I was a paid organiser. I have and still do hold a leadership role within a Union however. It is important that rank and file members stand up to the bosses which I’ve been willing to do on behalf of the membership. Pulling stop work meetings i.e. downing tools is important in the power struggle between the bosses and the workers.
Possibly I was a little loose with saying “just to let the bosses know you still have the workers ear.” Without going into too much detail, in a safety critical industry where good men die because of system failures you need to be vigilant against further negligent behaviors. Too bean counters workers are just numbers on a spreadsheet as are lives lost. So it pays not to piss about if your members flag safety concerns and for whatever reason the bosses dilly dally. Having delt with a grieving widow with young kids it hardens your approach. So cutting to the chase using the blunt instrument of stopping work is my preferred choice to the procrastinating the management often put up. In a fair world there would not be the need of flexing ones muscle, however you get a quick result and the workers feel empowered when the bosses ego’s get deflated bringing them back down to earth.
@ Skinny
Thanks for reply and background. I felt a bit queasy as I feel that a casual use of power may have been used by some of the unions in the past and led to negative attitudes from both employees and employers that ultimately rebounded on both, but particularly the workers.
I get your point about safety concerns. It seemed to me that not insisting on maintaining good safety practices and gear in Pike River Mine led to that tragedy, and the deaths. The financial loss and shutting down of the company might have happened earlier, as unwelcome reality emerged if the miners hadn’t battled on making do, and even apparently circumventing systems in an effort to meet production requirements. Their determination to put the company and the task first was their downfall, and still the project failed, so all for nothing.
edited
I love Dilmah too, but was really pissed when I called them about a bad batch of green tea I had bought. Like everyone, I assumed from their ads that all their tea was grown in Sri Lanka on their own estates .. but no, it’s not. Their green tea is imported from China which they do not disclose any where in any way .. the only tiny line on the box says “May include imported ingredients”.
Have never bought it again. Actually, I wanted to lay a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority about their open deception, but ran out of energy with everything else that goes on !
But it isn’t all grown on their Sri Lanka estates. Very far from it. But the ads still tell the lies.
louche – what a bloody good word @ PU – all following on from those romantic recollections of Fiji.
However we should not pillory dear Wallace too much – at least he makes an effort and comes up with some bloody good stuff often. We should probably have just packed him and Damien C off to Fiji for a few months to live on Suva Streets with the down and outs.
It would be good to see a thread on this written by a Christchurch based writer.
We know they’re staging the World Cup, but everything as rosy as we are told by the MSM?
4 years on…have the insurance companies paid up yet?
Do people in East Christchurch have homes to live in?
Love to hear from someone who lives in Christchurch about how life is now.
I spoke to someone who was there over xmas, he came away depressed as it reminded him of treatment he thought he’d left behind when he moved to nz.
provoked a fascinating chat about education, health, scf, water quality, skycity etc as like many sheeple he had fallen for the DP/KDC msm lines at the GE.
I agree that it would be good to see a thread by a Christchurch based writer. Hoping …
In the meantime, although this is written by another earthquake refugee. I almost cried when I read this extremely poignant Press article by a former Press reporter who wrote some exceptional articles at the time and following the earthquake.
(h/t Jess McAllen’s twitter feed for the link)
In my considered opinion, the Draft Wellington Reorganisation Proposal has become a rotting, fetid, slimy corpse – that Greater Wellington Regional Council Chair Fran Wilde politically has been left hug all on her lonesome.
How come Porirua Mayor Nick Leggett has ‘legged it’ and is no longer part of the ‘FOR’ Team, in the upcoming Wellington PUBLIC DEBATE on the ‘Supercity’, to be held Monday 23 February 2015, 7.30pm at Saced Heart College Lower Hutt?
Seen this?
Article here from ‘right-wing’ Auckland Councillor Cameron Brewer (11 October 2014), which makes points very similar to those I have been making (for years)
on the ‘out-of-control’ Auckland Council CCOs:
Last year the Local Government Commission released its draft proposal to merge Hawkes Bay’s five councils into a single regional authority.
This proposal followed some legislative amendments made in 2012 which eased the process for council reformation. It has caused an outcry from some smaller councils, worried that changes could be forced upon them.
Auckland’s experience of amalgamation has been a mixed bag. It came with its own specific legislation so is somewhat different but nonetheless there are things to watch out for and lessons to learn.
Four years on and ratepayers are still waiting for Mayor Len Brown to deliver the cost reductions and increased efficiencies promised in the lead up to 2010.
Critics consistently point to skyrocketing debt and that elected representatives now struggle to influence both big and small decisions.
Auckland’s seven Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) which look after key assets and infrastructure are now so powerful they have become a force unto themselves – sometimes competing with council rather than working for it.
Auckland will be run by business for business
Tuesday, 6 July 2010, 5:22 pm
Press Release: Penny Bright
“There is simply no way that this Auckland ‘Supercity’ corporate framework, where 75% of Auckland regional rates are to be paid to 7 unelected Council-Controlled Organisations (CCOs), can be made to serve the public majority or the public interest,” says Auckland Mayoral candidate, Penny Bright.
“These unelected CCOs are the corporate mechanism by which the Auckland region will be run like a business, by business – for business,” she continued.
“Those who support CCOs support the corporate takeover of the Auckland region, which was forced upon the public without our consent.
DEMOCRACY AND THE CCO MODEL: THE FACTS:
The public majority of the Auckland region have still never had our lawful right to a binding poll on whether or not we wanted our existing Councils abolished and replaced with the one ‘Auckland Council’, with unelected CCOs proposed to to run 75% of council functions.
(See the Local Government Act 2002 s 24 Reorganisation Proposal’ Schedule 3, s49 ‘Polls must be held”.)
The public majority of the Auckland region have never had any vote or final ‘say’ on whether or not we want Auckland infrastructure /assets under the corporate CCO model.
The public majority of the Auckland region have no say in the ‘selection’ of the unelected Chairs/Deputy Chairs and Directors of the CCOs.
The public majority of the Auckland region have no say in the formulation of the ‘Statements of Intent’ which govern the relationship between the proposed Auckland Council and the CCOs.
This is on top of the rather pivotal fact that there has never been a ‘cost-benefit’ analysis of the CCO model, which confirms the ‘cost-effectiveness’ of this model for the public majority, carried out by:
The Royal Commission on Auckland Regional Governance.
The Office of the Auditor-General. (OAG)
The Department of Internal Affairs. (DIA)
The Auckland Transition Agency. (ATA)
Any of the 8 Councils in the Auckland region.
The NZ Treasury.
The corporate agenda is first CCOs then PPPs.
Remember the ‘commercialise, corporatise -privatise’ retrogression under ‘Rogernomics Mark 1’?
How billion$ of public assets held at central government level were transformed into private sector companies?
CCO (Council Controlled Organisation) is the local government equivalent of SOE (State Owned Enterprise).
But this time – the assets aren’t being set up for SALE (lock stock and barrel), but for long-term LEASE under PPPs (Public Private Partnerships).
Key questions the public should ask are:
Where is the income stream going?
Who is benefitting?
Since the last Council amalgamations in the late 1980s, since all the contracting-out of Council services and introduction of CCOs – have rates for the public majority – gone up or down?
That is why I am standing for Mayor of the Auckland Council – to help lead a Rate$ Revolt – to stop this corporate takeover of the Auckland region.
The majority of citizens and ratepayers (as electors under the Local Electoral Act 2001) must have the final say on the proposed abolition of Auckland, Manukau, North Shore and Waitakere City Councils, and Papakura, Rodney and Franklin District Councils, with their proposed ‘reorganisation’ into one ‘Auckland Council’, thus the NZ House of Parliament must repeal the Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau) Reorganisation Act 2009 forthwith.
When the growing numbers of Aucklanders who object to becoming a giant ‘ca$h cow’ – ‘all pay – no say’, start taking non-violent direct financial action to uphold the fundamental principles:
‘The will of the people is the basis of the authority of government’
and “No taxation without representation!’
by disputing and witholding rates payments – then this New Zealand will see some really effective, unprecedented and historic ‘People Power’.
‘WHEN INJUSTICE BECOMES LAW – RESISTANCE BECOMES DUTY!’”
Who REALLY runs the Auckland Region are the hugely powerful private sector lobby group – the Committee for Auckland.
Check for yourself their membership, and how the Auckland Council CCOs are directly interwoven with the Committee for Auckland, whose member companies contract to Auckland Council and Auckland Council CCOs.
Ateed said Grant Jenkins, who resigned last year and moved his family back to England, is on a 12-month pilot contract with an aim to try to attract investment and jobs to Auckland.
This gap between the organisational/operational matters and the person fronting the organisation, the Mayor, and the others representing the people directly, the Councillors, seems a regular occurrence in Councils. Not to mention central govt.
In contemporary America, the differences between Republicans and Democrats are obliterated by both parties’ identical enslavement to war-mongering corporate masters whose power is derived from the blood of exploited workers. […] the political world that worships the free market turns the 99 percent into slave laborers and plunges the world into climate-change-based chaos
The blindsiding of len brown continues with 2 issues in a week and no surprise to see brewster sticking it in.
banksy jnr will be eyeing up the big chair using his new DP aligned PR practice, funding from the usual suspects and the CCO’s loaded with hide/key installed helpers.
Greywarshark…the bridge in the photograph has been added (photo-shopped?) into the photograph. There used to be a “bridge” (aerial walkway) across Colombo St at the Cashel St corner.
Just a thought to some feisty Chch resident with a project to be funded. Ask the Council if something simple as an advert for Bluebridge the shippers could be painted on the actual blue bridge and get Bluebridge to front with money for the work and for the project. It would be feel-good asdvertising for them, permanently in people’s faces. Something simple like Sail with Bluebridge or Bluebridge for You, would be all that was allowed so not to distract drivers. And it could be kept fresh by donating to further projects as old ones complete.
A Māori trans woman gets her arm broken by police/security at the Pride Parade while protesting against police taking part in the parade, and the usual institutional prejudiced actions follow from, the police, the hospital, the MSM and the Pride organisers. Very sad, appalling, and a classic case study in power relations and how far we still have to go in being human.
What it’s about is three people who went to protest the police presence. One of the three, Emmy, is a Maori trans woman (and a friend of mine, full disclosure. I also know at least one of the other protesters and they are both super solid people). Security and police targeted her when the three jumped a barrier. They broke her arm. A bystander was filming this and was subsequently arrested; when they asked why they were told he was “being a twat”. Then they arrested Emmy too. It took forty five minutes of her screaming in pain from her broken arm before they decided to get her medical attention. As of quarter to nine she’s just arrived at Auckland Hospital with one of her fellow protesters, she’s been given gas but is still in pain.
This is such a fucking joke. Police are allowed to march in Pride like the criminal justice system isn’t fucking toxic to queers of colour every single day. Three people protest – three, this was not exactly a big scary riot – and they go after the Maori trans woman.
Turns out emmy has a fracture that will require surgery. This is transmisogynistic, racist violence and at a PRIDE PARADE.
So yep thats was auckland pride in 2015. A maori trans woman got brutalized by security for protesting against the inclusion of police and correctional officers.
Welcome to neoliberal gay hell. The white cis gay men have won, they have their pretty parade. What the fuck do trans woman of colour have?? broken bones
that cop or these cops should be given their marching orders into the next winz office to file for unemployment.
the ministry of police should pay for the surgery, recoup time and any other cost the trans women has in regards to her broken arm. If the ministry has an issue with this and would like to roll the costs over to acc, they can always garnish the wages of the police officers involved in the assault.
also a formal complaint for assault should be lodged.
simply as that.
file complaint for assault
file complaint with the IPCA (i hope I have that one right)
request that the offender be put on un-paid leave as clearly they are a hazard to the comunity
request that the offender be forced to attend a anger manangement course
request that the offender aid the transwomen in all daily activities that she can not complete due to having surgery i.e. clean house, make bed, buy and cook food, etc etc etc.
Terrible so horrible – kia kaha and arohanui Emmy and all who support her
The thing is, though? The police aren’t even actually the real villains here. The police kept Emmy from an ambulance, but they didn’t break her arm. Emmy’s arm was broken by Pride security. Pride security broke her arm because they didn’t want her to protest, because they didn’t want anybody to protest. Because Pride is nice day, for celebrations, and absolutely no sad or bad things ever, and that’s the rule now, that’s the thing we’re all supposed to say about queerness now. We don’t admit that the movement centres cis people, and white people, and people who aren’t opposed to the way the state runs. We’re legit, we’re mainstream. The state doesn’t throw us in jail anymore, it marches with us.
Auckland Council’s economic development arm has created a special contract in London for one of its senior executives, Grant Jenkins, who has moved his family to England.
His English-born wife, Kate, was homesick and had been longing to return home for several years, according to a former council staffer.
The Jenkins have set up home with their two children outside London in the village of Bourne End in Buckinghamshire.
As well as paying about $196,000 for a 12-month contract, ratepayers are picking up Mr Jenkins’ work expenses and office costs at New Zealand Tourism’s headquarters in New Zealand House near Trafalgar Square.
Ratepayers have paid an administration fee of about $15,000 for his contract and contributed $19,841 to the family’s relocation costs.
This morning on radionz a woman who is fat, takes part in athletic events and also blogs talked about hate responses and, I suppose, ‘difference’ hate blogs. She said that people on fat hate blogs arre invited to say rude and vicious things to other bloggers talking about their lives. And so all these phychos will deluge someone so passing on the product of their diseased minds with attacking comments even putting death threats.
I am not going to make any comments any more about fat, neither mine or anyone else’s and perhaps even in food! I didn’t realise that it was being used as a Nasty-type propaganda device to funnel the negatives in people and dump them on some chosen victim. This is not something I want to endorse in any way.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20168196
Ragen Chastain – Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness ( 17′ 10″ )
09:40 Self-described size diversity activist, Los Angeles based Ragen Chastain is a writer, blogger and professional choreographer and is in training to be an ironman athlete. She’s also had to face fat shamers – people who have a negative view of larger people.
Heart disease is the number one cause of death, so why don’t we clamp down hard on fast food like we do with cigarettes?
Because, although there’s very strong evidence that smoking causes heart disease, there’s no evidence that diet has anything to do with it. There are some people who firmly believe that dietary fat causes heart disease, but a belief is all it is.
That’s another one that puts a rip in my nightie – what’s the WHO doing calling obesity a cause of death? What’s the mechanism by which someone dies “as a result of being overweight or obese?” It’s like saying someone who starved to death died “as a result of being underweight.”
Sorry, I’m not trying to get at you – I just get annoyed at the ongoing festival of correlation = causation errors that is the field of diet-based epidemiology. There’s definitely a problem of too many fatties, and whatever is making them fat is increasing their mortality, but the “what’s making them fat?” part is heavily-disputed territory. Most likely, no progress will be made on the issue until the current generation of epidemiologists and dieticians is retired or dead.
i had a skinny Calvinist grandma who ate healthily and her veges and was very intelligent and educated ….and a fat indulgent granny who wasn’t educated but was still intelligent …but liked cakes not veges…she was very very fat….
…guess who lived the longest ?…fat cake eating granny lived to 94 and skinny careful eating granny lived to about 78
Ragen Chastain is a fantastic blogger, and I highly recommend her site to anyone still wanting to make ~hilarious~ fat jokes or sweeping statements about how ~obesity is an epidemic~. https://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/
Good on her for having a healthy self image but obesity is a huge indicator of all sorts of health risks. Hell, I am carrying too much pork but there’s no sense in pretending it’s all good. Or is TS becoming a science denial conspiracy outlet?
You should actually try reading her blog, ropata. It’s a bit smarmy to sneer “good on her” – when the fact is she *is* a completely healthy, athletic woman who’s in training for an ironman.
Height, sex and ethnicity are all risk factors for a “huge number” of “health risks”. Why not go bother someone about the tallness epidemic? Or, a radical notion, why not focus on actual health issues instead of pre-judging people’s medical histories based on their appearance?
It’s shocking, isn’t it, how people who are consistently, repeatedly told they’re evil, unhealthy, immoral, failed, lazy, weak-willed drains on society might have self-esteem issues. 🙄
Well, I guess it’s possible that fat people would actually be chuffed about having to cart tens of kilos of whatever-the-human-equivalent-of-lard-is around with them everywhere they go, if only the hell that is other people didn’t exist – but I doubt it. Every fat person who’s expressed a view on it to me would rather not be carrying that superfluous extra baggage, and I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be carrying it myself. Personally, I blame officially-mandated “experts” giving us dietary advice, not the individuals carrying the extra weight, but no doubt that’s cold comfort to the individuals.
Having run the odd marathon in my time, and mixed with ironman types, I can tell you that she will either
a) train properly and become very lean or
b) kid herself and fail to complete the event.
Completing an ironman is a life changing experience, physically and mentally. You do not see people completing the event in her present condition (going by the photo on her blog).
“..crap-food sold by greedy/couldn’t-give-a-fuck food corporations..”
No ones holding a gun to there head to go and buy shit food .
Eating crap food is a choice in this country.
People need to learn about personal responsibility.
Thats odd. I recently had cause to stop at PaknSave Mangere after a drop off at the airport and did a shop there.
On my list were a whole bunch of fruit and vege, a leg of lamb, minced beef, rice, tea bags, low fat milk, cans of chick peas, pasta, canned tomatos, some crazy frozen Qorn stuff for my vegetarian daughter, and some sparkling water.
Here’s the thing, though: big data doesn’t translate to a guarantee for specific individuals.
If she has good cardio fitness and blood pressure etc while being large, she could well outlive us all.
Me, anyway – I find that if I get over a certain weight my BP becomes harder to control and all that jazz. But then I have a lot of visceral fat, which seems to have a greater association with health problems than subcutaneous. But even then I could live until 90 or drop dead tomorrow. Funnily enough my cholesterol is ok-ish (certainly not what one would naively assume based solely on BMI).
Body fat by itself is one indicator. Not a guarantor. And we’re still learning about the exact mechanisms by which it impacts on health (or doesn’t).
lol actually old folks have all sorts of body shapes. Visit a retirement home sometime.
I’m surprised you don’t have any vegan friends or relatives to go visit.
@phillip …the fatso oldies are at home enjoying life into their 90s as was the case of my fat granny….she died at 94 but only had a few weeks in a rest home
…the skinny grandma who died at 78 was in ailing health and in care for a few years…i loved her dearly…i think she had artificial sweetners and Parkinsons
National Radio RNZ is living up to its name. Increasingly it is becoming commercially and business oriented as well as trivial eg Jim Moras lightweight giggle on The Panel. Dilma tea! Next week Griffins gingernuts, or Cadbury Dark chocolate? How RNZ has sunk recently.
Q1: See how in that demolition, the whole building moves. That doesn’t compare at all the twin towers where it is clearly a progressive collapse, the bottom floors don’t collapse until they are crushed one by one as the building collapses. I’ve never been told why, if the twin towers were a controlled demo, they don;t actually look like other controlled demos. So what gives?
Q2: Why, in the AE’s vid, are the demolition charge sounds barely audible. All the controlled demo vids I’ve seen have those tell tale sounds. Not present in the AE911 vid there, or for the collapses on 9/11. Weird huh?
1) WTC7 presents observable dynamics far more like a typical controlled demolition.
2) There have been many eye witness reports of explosions inside the twin towers before the collapse. Also, it has been postulated that the use of a more incendiary style nanothermite halped minimise the need for standard explosive charges.
1) so what? What about the twin towers?
2)why aren’t the explosions heard up in any of the videos? And surely, the collapse would have been straight after the explosions?
I understand that you accept the official narrative of the collapse of the twin towers. I understand that you don’t believe that controlled dems can make a target building “dance” in different directions and from different levels as per the requirements of a given project.
What’s with these people who accept the official story.
They appear so aggressive.
Yesterday I received verbal abuse from ‘nadis’ for simply pointing out that the Dubai tower had not collapsed after a massive fire.
The event reminded me that no steel structured buildings have ever collapsed from fire…except on 9/1.
What are they scared of?
1) Find a steel frame building at least 40 stories high
2) Which takes up a whole city block
3) And is a “Tube in a tube” design
4) Which came off its core columns at the bottom floors (Earthquake, fire, whatever – WTC 7)
5) Which was struck by another building or airliner and had structural damage as a result.
6) And weakened by fire for over 6 hours
7) And had trusses that were bolted on with two 5/8″ bolts.
And which, after all seven tests are met, the building does not fall down. Anyone dissecting this into 7 separate events is lying to you.
Anything less than meeting these seven tests is dishonest because it’s not comparing apples with apples. Showing a much lighter 4, 5 or even 15 story building which doesn’t even take up a city block, and has an old style steel web design leaves out the massive weight the 47 story WTC 7 had bearing down on its south face columns. Yes, this is “moving the bar”, back to where it should have started.
Explain what, Paul? A large lump of a larger building hits a smaller one and the smaller one falls down.
btw the Dubai Tower fire wasn’t “massive” and it didn’t involve thousands of litres of jet fuel delivered at high speed. Only two buildings have ever experienced that. They both collapsed shortly after. Weird, huh?
We agree on most things.
We disagree on 9/11.
I’m not prepared to burn much energy on trying to make the argument as it would appear both of us hold fairly entrenched viewpoints.
The words ‘conspiracy theorist’ are used to shut down debate.
By the way, people who follow the official line are also conspiracy theorists. Their conspiracy involves Osama Bin Laden hatching a conspiracy from a cave in Afghanistan.
Many people who don’t follow the official line are actually not conspiracy theorists. They admit they don’t know what happened and simply have seen sufficient evidence to not accept the official conspiracy theory.
Have to disagree with you on calling those who have a handle on reality conspiracy theorists. There was a conspiracy. It worked pretty bloody well. My current theory on 9/11 truth denial is that, at heart, it’s racist. The American right simply can’t believe that a bunch of towel headed A-rabs put one over on the good ol’ USA.
well, if there are words you don’t like in the link (reality can be uncomfortable sometimes), use wikipedia. Or does that entry call you uncomfortable things, too?
So we’re back to the basics. Two planes, three skyscrapers, two completely different architectures, differing assymetrical damage to each one, complete and symmetrical collapse for every one, all in one day, never happened before due to fire, never happened since due to fire.
The official conspiracy theory says – everything significant about the building failures above has been satisfactorily explained via theory and computer modelling.
I say – you can only agree with that if you close your eyes to the video evidence, physical evidence and eyewitness testimony from that day.
Highly assymetrical damage from the planes, falling debris and office fires somehow resulting in highly symmetrical and simultaneous collapse of each part of the skyscrapers.
Paul – it’s a mix of fear and intellectual arrogance.
No, CV, it’s a combination of rationality and evidence. Your right wing mentors have neither. It’s a shame to see someone with such a good heart go down this path.
TRP – cheers for your condescension and concern. Oh and the insincerity too.
McFlock – of course the building collapses were highly symmetrical. Anyone can see that for themselves from any of the angles of the skyscraper collapses captured on video. Usually, a highly trained team of dems experts would be used over weeks to plan and collapse a building in that fashion.
Notice how symmetrical the collapse of the central section of WTC7 was. Yes, there is a slight variation in timing but the overall effect is highly symmetrical, within the time frame of tenths of a second.
The “kink” formed is a classic tell of a controlled demolition. It occurs when an entire set of internal columns has been destroyed precipitating the collapse of the central part of the building ahead of other parts of the building.
This is done to allow the outer sections of the building to tend to fall inwards, minimising damage to nearby buildings and preventing a situation where the building might collapse to one side.
So if it’s symmetrical it must be a controlled demolition, but if there’s a kink it must be a controlled demolition, too. The fact that it’s kinked and symmetrical just doubly proves it was a controlled demolition… 🙄
It’s the very definition of doublethink to believe that something was symmetrical and kinked at the same time.
Have you ever lived in the real world McFlock? You know, the one where material processes take time to unfold in order to demonstrate their symmetry?
I bet that to you, a painting of a circle wouldn’t be symmetrical because the artist started with a brush stroke at one end of the canvas. Look! At how that paint is going on! It’s not symmetrical!!!
None of the collapses started symmetrically. None of the rubble piles were symmetrical. None of the bits in between were symmetrical. You haven’t drawn a perfect circle, you’ve left a puddle of piss on the floor and claimed that it’s a perfect circle. And that the fact it’s uneven supports your claim.
Seriously, you don’t have any idea what are”symmetrical” means, do you?
Just read through the docs – there are even pictures of heat expanded buckled steel beams from the WTC. Apply your critical thinking capabilities, think about the preponderence of real, hard evidence for the “official conspiracy theory” as you describe it, then think about how much evidence actually exists for your theory, and assess which is more likely.
Also note that the the NIST study was authored by an MIT educated Civil Engineering PhD who runs the Building and Fire research division at NISTand assisted by:
“The investigation, led by Dr S. Shyam Sunder, drew upon in-house technical expertise as well as the knowledge of several outside private institutions, including the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (SEI/ASCE); the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE); the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA); the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC); the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH); and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY)”
The WTC7 report runs to more than a 1000 pages. Are all these professionals part of a wider conspiracy?
Read those links and then discuss from an evidence based perspective rather than your gut feeling shaped by watching youtube videos.
Lastly, count up how many people would be required as part of the original conspiracy, how many more would be required to cover up the conspiracy ex post, and that a conspiracy requires all of them to be corrupt and keep a secret, and what are the chances of that happening?
I am merely stating I don’t believe the official story.
It does not explain what happened on 9/11.
It is you who believe in a conspiracy theory…that of Osama Bin Laden and 19 co conspirators.
I do not believe that conspiracy theory.
And until a full and proper inquiry occurs, no amount of verbal abuse by yourself will persuade me otherwise.
You accused me of quoting a list of irrelevancies.
Mechanism of damage and stuctural design were on that list.
Now you claim that your point is that I think they are irrelevant.
Nice pivot, and to return to your original claim:
What items on that list were irrelevant?
If you really had no problems, you would not have made shit up and pivoted before claiming to like not look bovvered in your best Catherine taite impression.
So what do you think about the NIST pancake theory of floor collapse that OAB etc. accept. Does it really address all of your questions on the collapse of the twin towers? I personally think it is rubbish.
Well a skyscraper is a large physical structure. One can see in any video of confirmed controlled demolitions that some asymmetry during the process of collapse occurs. This is due to the sequential timing used for the cutting charges and the staged process required for collapsing a building.
However, the collapse is relatively very symmetrical compared to a “natural” and uncontrolled building failure – which you would expect since that is the purpose of a controlled demolition.
Now let me ask you a question: are you aware that you can measure relative amounts of symmetry and that the question is not that of perfect symmetry versus no symmetry?
Given pretty much every floor in WTC7 was ablaze by the time it collapsed (eye witess NYFD accounts), how was a controlled demolition done? Bear in mid controlled demo;itions require miles of wires and det cord, plus strategically removed columns and key suppports to make the demolition work….. where was all that and who did it?
Not just how was it done Nadis; the fact is that the planning and execution of such an operation on WTC7 may have taken a dozen people. On the twin towers, far more.
Yet no one has squeeled?
That to me is what makes the controlled dems theory particularly hard to believe.
The thing is that CR’s magnanimous doubt that WTC1&2 were controlled demolitions, and Paul’s simple professed doubt as to the “official explanations” (while refusing to commit to alternative theories) are simply variations on the cowardly anti-vax talking point “but I’m not anti vaccines, I just don’t think all of them are perfectly safe yadda yadda”.
It’s having one’s cake and eating it too, as an attempt to make people relitigate every single point in an infinite loop while simultaneously trying to appear responsive to reasonable debate.
The fact is that doubting the “official version” is in itself a conspiracy theory, just as believing the “official version” or suggesting one’s own version are conspiracy theories. Doubting the official version means that the majority of people involved in every official investigation consistently made such serious errors in analysis that the real story is fundamentally different from the “official version”, while at the same time these glaring errors were easily identifiable by anyone with an internet connection, even if the viewer did not know what big words like “symmetrical” actually mean.
In order for such glaring errors to be consistent across so many investigators, the odds against it happening by chance are infinitesimal.
And I suggest that the number of people who would have to be actively involved in coordinating such an effort, again without squealing, would be significantly larger than 20 hijackers, a few support staff and planners, and a bunch of after-the-fact charlatans and nutbars who get money, fame or just a hobby from the deaths of a few thousand people.
And I suggest that the number of people who would have to be actively involved in coordinating such an effort, again without squealing, would be significantly larger than 20 hijackers,
Quite a few of the 19 hijackers identified were shown to be alive after 9/11. Up to 7 of them I believe. But that’s detail you’re not interested in, and why ask uncomfortable questions?
In order for such glaring errors to be consistent across so many investigators, the odds against it happening by chance are infinitesimal
You simply design and curtail the scope and reach of the investigation, limit the budget available, organisationally limit the roles of individual investigators, edit out the interim reports submitted, file stuff which doesn’t fit as minor footnotes in appendices, etc. You know how it’s done.
Yes, it would be easy to limit the scope of a report into why the buildings collapsed to strictly why the buildings collapsed. And the answer would be restricted to ‘big fucking jet, big fucking fire’.
As to your claim about 7 of the actual hijackers being alive, that would indeed be a game-changer. If it were true. If it were true.
Coronial tryharder.
Today it looks like you have your head up Uranus.
For man of science,Your overlooking the laws of Physics,gravity and chemistry thermodynamics as well!
For a CON spiracy theory!
Their were thousands of different Cameras all focused and filming 9/11.
You have completely lost any respect I’ve had for you.
Claims like these are in the Gosman territory.
Believe the officially sanctioned narrative, I don’t care. You may think all the questions around the collapse of the WTC buildings has been answered but I do not.
BTW I don’t require nor want your respect, and I would be useless at asking required questions if that was my concern.
Private individuals cameras.
Each of the twin towers weighed 1/2 a million tons empty with fixtures and fitting added thats a good deal more.
The weight above the planes impact area at least a 100,000 tons as water has to be stored up the top in case of fire.
Given that steel distortes at relatively low temperatures once you have mass ×momentum +gravity it would take very little momentum to get collapse going when it does occur it gains exponentially every ten metres double the energy.
A 300metre building collapsing has to dissapate that energy some where.
Its a complicated equation given the differential between the height of the top floor which falls 300 metres and the bottom floor only 10 metres but i would take a median figure of around 180 metres to estimate the energy dissipated.
So that would be 300,000 tons to the power of 18.
more than enough to destroy any nearby buildings.
Physics.
Rough estimate but I thought you had a degree in science CV.
Conspiracy Villain.
That’s impressive maths. It’s equally impressive with all that gravitational potential energy stored in the mass of skyscrapers around the world that no other steel framed tower has ever fallen totally collapsed due to the mechanism of fire weakened steel allowing vertical acceleration of building mass before 9/11, three did on the day, and none have since.
So that would be 300,000 tons to the power of 18.
more than enough to destroy any nearby buildings.
Physics.
Deformation and work. You forgot about the deformation of a total of 250,000 tons of steel and pulverisation of many hectares worth of concrete with rebar to a fine microscopic scale dust.
Your explanation also fails to explain why many areas of the the twin tower rubble reached over 1000 deg C and stayed that way for weeks during the clean up operation.
Rough estimate but I thought you had a degree in science CV.
I’ve got a degree in problem solving. And you ain’t solved any of the significant problems.
I am surprised to read this September 2001 argument cropping up again and with such heat. (A bad sign that it happened so soon after the celebration for a new millenium that was going to be so good! What a silly idea.) So much discussion has gone on since 9/2001 and interesting technical information arisen but it won’t be settled definitely on TS. Meanwhile back in the boondocks….
Did you hear Professor Guy Standing on the Precariat on Wallace Chapman yesterday? He started talking about it in the 1980s!
Guy Standing – The Precariat Charter ( 32′ 41″ )
10:20 Professor Standing argues that 800 years after the Magna Carta the time has come for a new charter representing the interests of those facing job insecurity and disenfranchisement internationally. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20168199
The NZ Ministry of Health has previously considered the chiropractic use of the title “Dr” and has allowed it on condition that we are clear in its usage that we are not medical practitioners.
CV isn’t an Engineer or a scientist.
Of course I am. More so than you are anyway, I suspect.
Coronial SniperIt shows 300,000 tons to the power of 18 is a enough energy to fry your looney conspiracy theory.
The type of construction is no longer used the New York fire dept asked the New York city officials to stop building this type of building.
Long lift shafts turned the building into a bessemer furnace.
Hello two planes full of avgas blows your fire theory out of the sky.
Bessemer furnace? What do you mean? There were 250,000 tons of steel in the construction and no way to heat more than a tiny fraction of it to maybe 400 to 500 deg C, in the official narrative at least.
50% or more of the av gas carried by the planes would have been expended in the first few seconds after impact via the huge initial fireballs. The rest would have been burnt off within the first 10 minutes.
For someone normally so critical of capitalist motives it amazes me you dont see what is obvious about the industry promoting conspiracy claims in general and 9/11 particularly.
They are in if for the money…… the ringleaders of the conspiracy promotion idustry make a living out of this by stoking the fears of uneducated americans- watch out! the govt is coming for your guns! FEMA is setting up concentration camps. I know thee secret activation codes that will get the military rounding up dissidents! Obama is communist muslim!
CV I’m a chartered Civil Engineer and an academic. I also have a doctorate. So unlike you I dont fraudulently use the title. As an engineer I can tell you almost everything you have said about the 911 building collapse is wrong. It reads like the ravings of a madman, delusional, unscientific and feeds on its own paranoia.
It wasn’t abuse. I thought your ramblings were a cry for help and I was trying to be helpful. See millions of other comments for the difference between WTC and Dubai.
On a more interesting note, here is the Syriza Greek government negotiation process with the Troika explained in simple detail:
European Commission officials have fiddled their expenses, sexually harassed colleagues and watched hundreds of hours of pornography in the office – yet kept their jobs.
Disciplinary records obtained by the Sunday Telegraph show how dozens of senior officials at the European Commission accused of serious misconduct have escaped with little more than a slap on the wrist.
They include officials who submitted false invoices and attempted to secure jobs for family members on contracts they managed.
Just another example of how corruption has become insidious
No part of our planet and no industry is immune to the organizational corporate fraud and corruption which is carried out by those who occupy the levers of power and control
..their libyan mistakes/miss-calls should have the effect of sewing their interventionist-lips shut for the forseeable future..(if they have any insight/self-awareness of their frailties/the outcomes..)..
..(and a special shout-out to all those lefties here in nz who drank/swallowed the cia-propaganda-kool-ade around gadaffi/libya..eh..?
..and then joined in the fretting-choruses of:,
,’something must be done to stop him..!’..’if not us..?..who..?’..)
..a very special ‘you-dumbarses!/w.t.f.-were-u-thinking-award’ to all of you..
..form a queue..on the left..(of course..!..)
and of course..fucken goff unthinkingly tutt-tutted along/sang in the chorus.. right on cue..
..couldn’t/shouldn’t you retire..?..phil..?
..haven’t you ‘done enough?’..surely..?..
..’more than enough’ some would say..eh..?..
..why don’t you just slap on that gold-plated pension..
..with all of that free local/international travel..
..why don’t you just piss-off and enjoy that..eh..?)
For years, politicians wanting to block legislation on climate change have bolstered their arguments by pointing to the work of a handful of scientists who claim that greenhouse gases pose little risk to humanity.
One of the names they invoke most often is Wei-Hock Soon, known as Willie, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who claims that variations in the sun’s energy can largely explain recent global warming. He has often appeared on conservative news programs, testified before Congress and in state capitals, and starred at conferences of people who deny the risks of global warming.
But newly released documents show the extent to which Dr. Soon’s work has been tied to funding he received from corporate interests.
He has accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers. At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work.
The documents show that Dr. Soon, in correspondence with his corporate funders, described many of his scientific papers as “deliverables” that he completed in exchange for their money. He used the same term to describe testimony he prepared for Congress.
The Takeaway spoke to Kiriakou from his home in Virginia and asked him why he was the only CIA employee to be imprisoned during Obama’s presidency.
“My case was not about leaking. It was about torture,” says Kiriakou. “The CIA never forgave me for going public with the torture program, and they investigated me over the course of four years and just waited until I made a mistake.”
Otaki – a vibrant contributor to a big Wellington council or a forgotten outpost?
Fran Wilde and K (Guru) Gurunathan will discuss at a public meeting in Otaki on Tuesday, February 24, what Otaki could look forward to in a proposed amalgamation of Kapiti Coast with eight other councils in the Wellington region.
Fran is chair of the Greater Wellington Regional Council and a strong advocate of the Wellington region’s councils merging to form a large council. Guru, a Kapiti Coast District councillor, is skeptical of the merger.
Will Otaki, as the town farthest north in a proposed merger, be able to retain any kind of local governance? Will it benefit by being part of a large council that has the clout to advocate on its behalf to central government, or attract facilities that would never be possible as part of Kapiti alone?
Ian Carson, who is chair of the Otaki Promotions Group, which has organised the meeting, says the issue is important for Otaki.
“We have fantastic natural assets, a vibrant shopping district and events that attract international participants and visitors, such as the Otaki Kite Festival and Maoriland Film Festival,” he says. “We want to ensure we build on our attributes and get the best outcomes for our community.
“The amalgamation debate is important, and with submissions to the Local Government Commission on the current proposal closing on March 2, this meeting might be the last chance for people to make up their mind.”
• The meeting is 6.30pm, Tuesday February 24, at Otaki Golf Club, Old Coach Rd, Otaki. All welcome.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Seems that the groundswell against the proposed Wellington ‘Supercity’ is growing.
I understand that another major political party will come out against the Draft Wellington Reorganisation Proposal late this week.
Full credit where it is due to NZ First, who came out against the Draft Wellington Reorganisation Proposal on 4 December 2014, the same day the Local Government Commission announced it.
Seems that support is slipsliding away on the Greater Wellington Regional Council, and those who oppose it may now be the majority?
Looking forward to what should be THE debate on the proposed Wellington Supercity – tomorrow night, Monday 23 January 2015, 7.30pm at the Sacred Heart College, Lower Hutt.
Fran Wilde, Chair of the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) – FOR
(plus two others – not politicians)
vs
Ray Wallace (Mayor of Lower Hutt) and Wayne Guppy (Mayor of Upper Hutt) AGAINST (plus one other – not a politician).
I predict Fran Wilde will be politically SKEWERED on the issues, because these two Hutt Valley Mayors, in my view, have been impressive in their ‘stand up and stand out’ leadership of their respective communities, and know their stuff.
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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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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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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 ...
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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 ...
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“..The 10 Most Hilarious Stoner Comedy Films of All Time..
..The stoner comedy celebrates everybody’s favorite herb-
– and the best are comedic gems..”
(cont..)
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/10-most-hilarious-stoner-comedy-films-all-time
Hi Phil,
I saw a recipe and thought of you!
Here it is.
Ingredients
MOONG dal: 1 cup [Heard of that stuff at all? It is half a moong bean!]
Rice: 1 cup ; Turmeric powder:1/4 teaspoon
Mustard seeds: 1/2 teaspoon ; Cumin seeds: 1/2 teaspoon
Asafoetida (hing): 1/4 teaspo; Whole black pepper (lightly crushed): 1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves: 10-12; Ginger (grated):1 inch piece; Salt;
Water (more if required): 8 cups
Method
Lightly toast the moong dal in a dry pan for a few minutes, stirring continuously till it gets slightly deepened in color.
Put rice, moong dal, turmeric powder and water with a pinch of salt in a pressure cooker and cook for six whistles (15 to 20 minutes).
If you don’t have a pressure cooker then you can cook them in a large pot on the stovetop on medium flame for about 45 minutes till the dal is well cooked and soft, in which case it needs to be monitored and stirred occasionally.
For the seasoning, heat a small, heavy bottomed pan. Add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and stir until they crackle.
Then add asafoetida powder, crushed black pepper, curry leaves and grated ginger and toast them for a few seconds.
Add salt and the seasoning to the cooked rice/dal and mix well. Add more water if required and allow simmering for a few minutes. Serve hot with vegan curd and some optional electric puha on the side if so inclined.
Here is a picture:
http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/01719/14BGMVEGAN_1719500e.jpg
chrs..
..i found this this morn..
..vegan-food-porn…
“..17 Vegan Instagram Accounts You Should Definitely Be Following..
..This collection of 5-star food photographers will get you in the mood to whip up something tasty – clean –
– and possibly green..”
(cont..)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/19/vegan-instagram-accounts-not-just-kale_n_6715422.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
Thanks for the link. Some of those dishes look very tempting while some look kind of so fatty!
yes..there is vegan-healthy..
..and vegan-unhealthy..
“..Curing the fear of death: How ‘tripping out’ could change everything..
..A chemical called ‘psilocybin’ –
– shows remarkable therapeutic promise.
Only problem?
It comes from magic mushrooms..”
(cont..)
http://www.salon.com/2015/02/21/curing_the_fear_of_death_how_tripping_out_could_change_everything/
Re fruit fly outbreak.
Didn’t the NATs cut down on screening as a cost cutting a couple of years ago?
yes..
Yes, you should pretty much assume on current customs resourcing levels that the border is porous to any potential invader smaller than a walrus.
and if those walruses came in thru fiordland..
..who would know..?
And didn’t the NATS cut the money they gave to the Bio security Dept
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/biosecurity-cuts-behind-fruit-fly-scare/
https://nz.news.yahoo.com/election/a/-/26346851/biosecurity-cuts-behind-fruit-fly-scare/
YES!
john key was in the media a few days ago saying “don’t blame customs, they do a good job”, yet no one was blaming customs, the blame lies at the feet of john key & nathan guy.
From the news talk link
So how much has been saved by not screening 100%
We have our fifth annual visit from Biosecurity happening next week. A team of about six scientists from around NZ, come up to check the surrounding neighbourhood for an Australian termite.
An outbreak happened at a neighbouring property, when the kitchen wall collapsed due to infestation. Source of the termite was determined to be the imported Australian landscaping sleepers.
The cost must be phenomenal. They are usually on our small property for 1.5-2 hours and the infestation occurred about 500m down the road.
Yes and other supporting areas, its not like its an impotant part of our economy or anything when we can be a financial services powerhouse.
Tell those kiwifruit farmers that.
Yes and other supporting areas, its not like its an impotant part of our economy or anything when we can be a financial services powerhouse.
Tell those kiwifruit farmers that.
Who here was claiming the recent election in Greece heralded a major change?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greek-bailout-greece-and-eurozone-creditors-reach-deal-10060734.html
Looks like you may have been correct. Seems Germany has decided to stop playing the good guy in Europe.
The Greeks would be advised to steer well clear of one of your colleague’s Gosman. The loan shark down under called Wewege. This guy would sharpen his teeth on his own Grand Mother.
Gooseyerman.
Once again you only read 1/2 the story
The Greek ‘s wanted 6 month extension the Germans no extension.
The Greeks got a four month extension.
If that is Germany not backing down what is.
Germany is talking tough but giving in is the reality.
Once again undone by your own links.
You must know no one reads your links.
Otherwise you wouldn’t bother posting them.
Because it proves your an idiot who can’t read beyond the headlines.
Now you have 2 apologies owing on your verbal contract.
All asset sales stopped in Greece.
Germany backs down moves from hardline of no extension to 4 month extension.
Come on man of personal responsibility.
Be a man not a goose honour the promise you made!
tricledown – you are completely and utterly wrong. So wrong.
Here you go, read these:
http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/greece-got-outmaneuvered
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102444539
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/21/syriza-greece-debt-deal-eu-alexis-tsipras
Please explain again where Germany (and the European Commission) backed down? Quite hard to take you seriously when you admit to not reading links that prove the point you are wilfully not understanding. Are you going to say “no-one reads my links” too, therefore the things you imagine in your head are the truth rather than, you know, actual quotes from German and Greek politicians and inconvenient things like that?
As I’ve said before, when you are a bankrupt beggar (that’s Greece in case you are wondering) relying on handouts from your rich neighbour ( that’s Germany), and you’re bargaining tactics are “give me some money or I’ll burn down your garage” (thats an exit from the Euro), well guess what. When you admit that’s only a threat and you’ll never do it, then guess what. You have no negotiating power.
Does that explanation make it easy for you to understand?
You are only showing one guardian article not Gosmans link.
This extension allows more time for Greece to renegotiate.
The cost repayments required is higher than the bailout money.
So Greece would be better off doing what Iceland an Argentina did walking away and setting up their own currency.
You forget that Tsaparis’s coalition partner is the equivilent of our ACT party.
Tsaparis on his first day in office went up to a war cemetry in Athens.
And had said since that Germany is treating us badly again.
The exchequer of the Bank of England said the same thing saying keeping the Greek economy in permanent recession is Damaging the EU while not achieving the aims of rebuilding the Greek economy.
The Spanish elections will be very soon a left leaning govt their will put more pressure on the EU.
Then UK and Scottish elections all going left.
Thats why Germany is jawboning because if it gives to much to Greece it will have to elsewhere.
Meanwhile hypocritical Germany is behind this massive nz $1.8 trillion quatitive easing money print.
1 Rule for the rich countries keynsian socialism.
Another Rule for the poor downtrodden country Tory Austerity!
If you control the printing presses and the levers of credit, who cares which political party is in government.
They never started being the good guy, Gossie. There was never anything altruistic about Germany’s position. All the ‘aid’ to Greece was just more debt. And the debt is racked up by the rich and paid for by the poor.
I’m not claiming Germany is without blemish but “just more debt” to a large degree is what has kept Greece’s government functioning over the last 5 years. Also bear in mind the following facts:
– Greece has already over 100 billion EUR of debt written down (2011) where private sector banks took almost all of the hit
– current Greek debt is held 76% by Germany, the IMF, ECB and other European countries
– only 2.4 billion euros is owned by non-greek commercial banks (greek banks own 11 billion of Greece sovereign debt.
So the idea that further loans from Germany/EU/ECB is enriching the private sector is plain wrong. Now you are probably right when you allude to the corrupton endemic in Greece which means a small politically connected group has made out like bandits while the rest of Greece is in a state of distress. But that isn’t the Germans fault – its the previous Greek governments, and will be Syriza’s curse too if they can’t start collecting taxes, cut subsidies to the wealthy, stop doing sweetheart deals with cronies etc.
I read that the German state development bank is one of the biggest holders of Greek debt outside the Central Banks. Is that public or private?
Anyhows I understand that the vast majority – up to 90% – of “bailout” funds provided to Greece over the last few years went straight to international creditors in the form of debt repayments, not to the Greek people or into the Greek economy. Does that sound about right to you?
I don’t know the exact numbers off the top of my head, but in a sense its a bit of a moot point. Without the bailout funds Greece would not be able to pay interest on its debt, would default and enter bankruptcy, hius the bailout, becasue bankruptcy within the EURO has no sensible ending I can construct.
Lets say Greece pays 3% on the debt – thats 10 billion annually in interest.
And tricledown, the “wealthy north european banks have paid for their reckless lending – they have written off over 110 billion euros already. Contrary to popular opinion, most greek debt is now owned by other governments, their agencies or supranational organisations. when bailout funds it goes to one of two places – the Greek national budget for governmental spending on services (and corruption based subsidies) or as interest payments back to the people giving the bailout money.
Was there a process in 2012(-ish) where many private banking holders of Greek debt moved them off their own balance sheets and on to the balance sheet of the sovereigns and various European institutions?
I came across a reference to it this morning but don’t know anything else about it.
Yep – but my recollection is they sold the debt to the bailout fund for cnets in the dollar – i.e., the banks wrote down the difference between purchase price and sale price. Not all of it was sold to the bailout fund – a lot was sold to private investors too.
Just saw a reference that of the second bailout package 25% went straight to creditors, 75% to the Greek Govt.
Its a Corrupt Goldman Sachs and their corrupt ratings Agency mates who conned the wealthy Northern European Banks into lending to a country that could not afford these loans.So now Goldman Sachs is now asset stripping Greece at firesale prices.
Reducing Greek govt income further making it harder to pay back corrupt loans.
The Greek lotteries commission worth €25 billion was sold of by the same corrupt politicians who racked up the debt.for a pawltry €2 billion.
Greece is being Screwed over.
Are my ears deceiving me, or is Wallace Chapman doing an advertorial for Dilmah tea on NatRad?
Yes, Sanctuary. “Let your teabags steep for three minutes to allow all the anti-oxidants to escape from the tea bag.” I’ve just followed Mr Dilmah’s advice. Cheers!
Yeah they played him not sure they paid him though. It’s all about the black gold to father & son Dilmah tea peddler’s. It works looking forward to my cup of dilmah tea and some vogel toast with a spread of raspberry jam & peanut butter.
Oh I do like a jolly good lazy Sunday morning.
Skinny
I did hear them say that their Dilmah workforce in Sri Lanka was unionised whatever that means there.
And while you are here, did you say when you were an organiser you sometimes had a stopwork for no particular reason, just to show the employers that you could? If so do you feel that you may have been a facilitating cog in the demolishing wheel that has attacked unions?
Grey a little confusion there, I have never said I was a paid organiser. I have and still do hold a leadership role within a Union however. It is important that rank and file members stand up to the bosses which I’ve been willing to do on behalf of the membership. Pulling stop work meetings i.e. downing tools is important in the power struggle between the bosses and the workers.
Possibly I was a little loose with saying “just to let the bosses know you still have the workers ear.” Without going into too much detail, in a safety critical industry where good men die because of system failures you need to be vigilant against further negligent behaviors. Too bean counters workers are just numbers on a spreadsheet as are lives lost. So it pays not to piss about if your members flag safety concerns and for whatever reason the bosses dilly dally. Having delt with a grieving widow with young kids it hardens your approach. So cutting to the chase using the blunt instrument of stopping work is my preferred choice to the procrastinating the management often put up. In a fair world there would not be the need of flexing ones muscle, however you get a quick result and the workers feel empowered when the bosses ego’s get deflated bringing them back down to earth.
@ Skinny
Thanks for reply and background. I felt a bit queasy as I feel that a casual use of power may have been used by some of the unions in the past and led to negative attitudes from both employees and employers that ultimately rebounded on both, but particularly the workers.
I get your point about safety concerns. It seemed to me that not insisting on maintaining good safety practices and gear in Pike River Mine led to that tragedy, and the deaths. The financial loss and shutting down of the company might have happened earlier, as unwelcome reality emerged if the miners hadn’t battled on making do, and even apparently circumventing systems in an effort to meet production requirements. Their determination to put the company and the task first was their downfall, and still the project failed, so all for nothing.
edited
I love Dilmah too, but was really pissed when I called them about a bad batch of green tea I had bought. Like everyone, I assumed from their ads that all their tea was grown in Sri Lanka on their own estates .. but no, it’s not. Their green tea is imported from China which they do not disclose any where in any way .. the only tiny line on the box says “May include imported ingredients”.
Have never bought it again. Actually, I wanted to lay a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority about their open deception, but ran out of energy with everything else that goes on !
But it isn’t all grown on their Sri Lanka estates. Very far from it. But the ads still tell the lies.
the food-miles story from last week that grabbed my attention.
..is that berries are grown in sth america..are frozen/shipped to china..
..where they are packaged..and then shipped to australia..
..that makes sense..eh..?
next week chapman is doing ‘cardies’..
..it’s all part of his stage-play..
..that gritty/gripping saga of growing up louche in dunedin..
..’a cuppa and a cardie was all i needed’…
louche – what a bloody good word @ PU – all following on from those romantic recollections of Fiji.
However we should not pillory dear Wallace too much – at least he makes an effort and comes up with some bloody good stuff often. We should probably have just packed him and Damien C off to Fiji for a few months to live on Suva Streets with the down and outs.
f.y.i..
..kenya bold by bell is the best commercial tea on the market..
..it is grunty..where so many others are wishy-washy..(i’m looking @ u..chanui..!..)
+1 cannot go back.
new national party slogan:..
‘the national party:
..’we privatise profit – and socialise loss.’.
That’s not new.
very little is..
..under the sun..
..tory ratbag politicians..
..sellout labour politicians..
..both have become well-worn cliches..
Another day, another Tony Abbot weirdo moment:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-21/tony-abbott-rejects-fanciful-report-sending-ground-troops-iraq/6173308
Yes and he smeared Oz manufacturers and food distributors as poisoning the consumers last week.
Malcolms struggling to hide the smirk.
This is pretty funny!
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/coin-for-abbott-indonesians-angry-backlash-at-pms-bali-nine-diplomacy-20150221-13l5n2.html
How long can that Muppet Abbot last? He just gets odder with each moment he opens his mouth.
Four years since the Christchurch earthquake.
All the stories the Herald mentions are of earthquake refugees.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11405801
It would be good to see a thread on this written by a Christchurch based writer.
We know they’re staging the World Cup, but everything as rosy as we are told by the MSM?
4 years on…have the insurance companies paid up yet?
Do people in East Christchurch have homes to live in?
Love to hear from someone who lives in Christchurch about how life is now.
I spoke to someone who was there over xmas, he came away depressed as it reminded him of treatment he thought he’d left behind when he moved to nz.
provoked a fascinating chat about education, health, scf, water quality, skycity etc as like many sheeple he had fallen for the DP/KDC msm lines at the GE.
Can you expand on this?
What kind of treatment?
The doco When a City Falls is on Maori TV tonight at 8.30. Well worth a look.
I agree that it would be good to see a thread by a Christchurch based writer. Hoping …
In the meantime, although this is written by another earthquake refugee. I almost cried when I read this extremely poignant Press article by a former Press reporter who wrote some exceptional articles at the time and following the earthquake.
(h/t Jess McAllen’s twitter feed for the link)
http://t.co/xG1LFlznqH
They all seem to be middle class types, who have the finances to be able to ride out a major disaster like that earthquake.
In my considered opinion, the Draft Wellington Reorganisation Proposal has become a rotting, fetid, slimy corpse – that Greater Wellington Regional Council Chair Fran Wilde politically has been left hug all on her lonesome.
How come Porirua Mayor Nick Leggett has ‘legged it’ and is no longer part of the ‘FOR’ Team, in the upcoming Wellington PUBLIC DEBATE on the ‘Supercity’, to be held Monday 23 February 2015, 7.30pm at Saced Heart College Lower Hutt?
Seen this?
Article here from ‘right-wing’ Auckland Councillor Cameron Brewer (11 October 2014), which makes points very similar to those I have been making (for years)
on the ‘out-of-control’ Auckland Council CCOs:
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503459&objectid=11341037
Cameron Brewer: Keep local in local government
Saturday, 11 October 2014
Last year the Local Government Commission released its draft proposal to merge Hawkes Bay’s five councils into a single regional authority.
This proposal followed some legislative amendments made in 2012 which eased the process for council reformation. It has caused an outcry from some smaller councils, worried that changes could be forced upon them.
Auckland’s experience of amalgamation has been a mixed bag. It came with its own specific legislation so is somewhat different but nonetheless there are things to watch out for and lessons to learn.
Four years on and ratepayers are still waiting for Mayor Len Brown to deliver the cost reductions and increased efficiencies promised in the lead up to 2010.
Critics consistently point to skyrocketing debt and that elected representatives now struggle to influence both big and small decisions.
Auckland’s seven Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) which look after key assets and infrastructure are now so powerful they have become a force unto themselves – sometimes competing with council rather than working for it.
…..
_____________________________________________________________________________________
AS A 2010 AUCKLAND MAYORAL CANDIDATE – I WARNED THAT CCO’S WOULD BE THE MECHANISM FOR THE (CORRUPT) CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF THE AUCKLAND REGION:
EVIDENCE:
Here is a rather prophetic Press Release that I sent out, as a 2010 Auckland Mayoral candidate on 6 July 2010, and was published by Scoop:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1007/S00068.htm
Auckland will be run by business for business
Tuesday, 6 July 2010, 5:22 pm
Press Release: Penny Bright
“There is simply no way that this Auckland ‘Supercity’ corporate framework, where 75% of Auckland regional rates are to be paid to 7 unelected Council-Controlled Organisations (CCOs), can be made to serve the public majority or the public interest,” says Auckland Mayoral candidate, Penny Bright.
“These unelected CCOs are the corporate mechanism by which the Auckland region will be run like a business, by business – for business,” she continued.
“Those who support CCOs support the corporate takeover of the Auckland region, which was forced upon the public without our consent.
DEMOCRACY AND THE CCO MODEL: THE FACTS:
The public majority of the Auckland region have still never had our lawful right to a binding poll on whether or not we wanted our existing Councils abolished and replaced with the one ‘Auckland Council’, with unelected CCOs proposed to to run 75% of council functions.
(See the Local Government Act 2002 s 24 Reorganisation Proposal’ Schedule 3, s49 ‘Polls must be held”.)
The public majority of the Auckland region have never had any vote or final ‘say’ on whether or not we want Auckland infrastructure /assets under the corporate CCO model.
The public majority of the Auckland region have no say in the ‘selection’ of the unelected Chairs/Deputy Chairs and Directors of the CCOs.
The public majority of the Auckland region have no say in the formulation of the ‘Statements of Intent’ which govern the relationship between the proposed Auckland Council and the CCOs.
This is on top of the rather pivotal fact that there has never been a ‘cost-benefit’ analysis of the CCO model, which confirms the ‘cost-effectiveness’ of this model for the public majority, carried out by:
The Royal Commission on Auckland Regional Governance.
The Office of the Auditor-General. (OAG)
The Department of Internal Affairs. (DIA)
The Auckland Transition Agency. (ATA)
Any of the 8 Councils in the Auckland region.
The NZ Treasury.
The corporate agenda is first CCOs then PPPs.
Remember the ‘commercialise, corporatise -privatise’ retrogression under ‘Rogernomics Mark 1’?
How billion$ of public assets held at central government level were transformed into private sector companies?
CCO (Council Controlled Organisation) is the local government equivalent of SOE (State Owned Enterprise).
But this time – the assets aren’t being set up for SALE (lock stock and barrel), but for long-term LEASE under PPPs (Public Private Partnerships).
Key questions the public should ask are:
Where is the income stream going?
Who is benefitting?
Since the last Council amalgamations in the late 1980s, since all the contracting-out of Council services and introduction of CCOs – have rates for the public majority – gone up or down?
That is why I am standing for Mayor of the Auckland Council – to help lead a Rate$ Revolt – to stop this corporate takeover of the Auckland region.
The majority of citizens and ratepayers (as electors under the Local Electoral Act 2001) must have the final say on the proposed abolition of Auckland, Manukau, North Shore and Waitakere City Councils, and Papakura, Rodney and Franklin District Councils, with their proposed ‘reorganisation’ into one ‘Auckland Council’, thus the NZ House of Parliament must repeal the Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau) Reorganisation Act 2009 forthwith.
When the growing numbers of Aucklanders who object to becoming a giant ‘ca$h cow’ – ‘all pay – no say’, start taking non-violent direct financial action to uphold the fundamental principles:
‘The will of the people is the basis of the authority of government’
and “No taxation without representation!’
by disputing and witholding rates payments – then this New Zealand will see some really effective, unprecedented and historic ‘People Power’.
‘WHEN INJUSTICE BECOMES LAW – RESISTANCE BECOMES DUTY!’”
________________________________________________________________________________
MORE EVIDENCE!
Who REALLY runs the Auckland Region are the hugely powerful private sector lobby group – the Committee for Auckland.
Check for yourself their membership, and how the Auckland Council CCOs are directly interwoven with the Committee for Auckland, whose member companies contract to Auckland Council and Auckland Council CCOs.
http://www.committeeforauckland.co.nz/membership/members
EVIDENCE THAT MEMBER COMPANIES OF THE COMMITTEE FOR AUCKLAND CONTRACT TO AUCKLAND COUNCIL AND AUCKLAND COUNCIL CONTROLLED ORGANISATIONS (CCOs):
https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?ui=2&ik=18afffb768&view=att&th=1444c69bdb8897a7&attid=0.2&disp=inline&realattid=f_hrv79y4n1&safe=1&zw&saduie=AG9B_P-I5Cd-lIWIP7LzmJSi9erv&sadet=1424551884953&sads=Q_lQWmY4tl57rVnURgQ7zo0vOhA
______________________________________________________________________________________
(Apologies for the length of this post – but am rather busy and decided to put all the relevant info in one post).
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
+100 Penny …democracy under attack…you ask the core questions
“How billion$ of public assets held at central government level were transformed into private sector companies?”
….this is what it is all about!
Seems appropriate to put this news item from Radionz on Len Brown under Penny B’s.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/266712/auckland-mayor-defends-contract
…Mayor Len Brown was unaware of Mr Jenkins’ new job, but Ateed’s chief executive, Brett O’Reilly said it was unusual to go into operational detail with the mayor….
Ateed said Grant Jenkins, who resigned last year and moved his family back to England, is on a 12-month pilot contract with an aim to try to attract investment and jobs to Auckland.
This gap between the organisational/operational matters and the person fronting the organisation, the Mayor, and the others representing the people directly, the Councillors, seems a regular occurrence in Councils. Not to mention central govt.
Looking back on it, we kinda should have stuck with the old counties and boroughs.
Kshama Sawant, Seattle City Councillor and outspoken socialist (it’s a dirty word in America), writes a brilliant “agony aunt” column
https://twitter.com/stuarthorrex/status/569119971197857792
The blindsiding of len brown continues with 2 issues in a week and no surprise to see brewster sticking it in.
banksy jnr will be eyeing up the big chair using his new DP aligned PR practice, funding from the usual suspects and the CCO’s loaded with hide/key installed helpers.
Cantabs doing a “Run to Remember” today. Go visit James Dann’s blog for the untold side of the rebuild story.
Can a Cantab tell me what road that blue bridge is in – as featured in James Dann’s blog?
Greywarshark…the bridge in the photograph has been added (photo-shopped?) into the photograph. There used to be a “bridge” (aerial walkway) across Colombo St at the Cashel St corner.
It’s real, not photoshopped.
Looks like that part of Colombo St has been restored.
2007: https://goo.gl/maps/h7K2u
2014: https://goo.gl/maps/X7XT0
Just a thought to some feisty Chch resident with a project to be funded. Ask the Council if something simple as an advert for Bluebridge the shippers could be painted on the actual blue bridge and get Bluebridge to front with money for the work and for the project. It would be feel-good asdvertising for them, permanently in people’s faces. Something simple like Sail with Bluebridge or Bluebridge for You, would be all that was allowed so not to distract drivers. And it could be kept fresh by donating to further projects as old ones complete.
A Māori trans woman gets her arm broken by police/security at the Pride Parade while protesting against police taking part in the parade, and the usual institutional prejudiced actions follow from, the police, the hospital, the MSM and the Pride organisers. Very sad, appalling, and a classic case study in power relations and how far we still have to go in being human.
http://www.thelittlepakeha.net/2015/02/21/police-show-their-pride-side/
http://communistjewishgirl.tumblr.com/post/111651300078/auckland-pride-2015
http://thehandmirror.blogspot.co.nz/2015/02/its-raining-racism-and-transphobia-on.html
that cop or these cops should be given their marching orders into the next winz office to file for unemployment.
the ministry of police should pay for the surgery, recoup time and any other cost the trans women has in regards to her broken arm. If the ministry has an issue with this and would like to roll the costs over to acc, they can always garnish the wages of the police officers involved in the assault.
also a formal complaint for assault should be lodged.
simply as that.
file complaint for assault
file complaint with the IPCA (i hope I have that one right)
request that the offender be put on un-paid leave as clearly they are a hazard to the comunity
request that the offender be forced to attend a anger manangement course
request that the offender aid the transwomen in all daily activities that she can not complete due to having surgery i.e. clean house, make bed, buy and cook food, etc etc etc.
This does not surprise me.
The pride parade is suppose to help the queer community showcase themselves as good little consumers – and enablers of good capitalist spin off’s.
How dare anyone question that?
How dare anyone – and especially a Māori trans woman – dare question authority and the orthodoxy?
Terrible so horrible – kia kaha and arohanui Emmy and all who support her
http://blog.squareplanetcomics.com/shame-on-auckland-pride-parade/
yacht racing, cool; cancer, bit of a downer – paul little, brilliant piece.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11405789
It’s hard for the elites these days.
This morning on radionz a woman who is fat, takes part in athletic events and also blogs talked about hate responses and, I suppose, ‘difference’ hate blogs. She said that people on fat hate blogs arre invited to say rude and vicious things to other bloggers talking about their lives. And so all these phychos will deluge someone so passing on the product of their diseased minds with attacking comments even putting death threats.
I am not going to make any comments any more about fat, neither mine or anyone else’s and perhaps even in food! I didn’t realise that it was being used as a Nasty-type propaganda device to funnel the negatives in people and dump them on some chosen victim. This is not something I want to endorse in any way.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20168196
Ragen Chastain – Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness ( 17′ 10″ )
09:40 Self-described size diversity activist, Los Angeles based Ragen Chastain is a writer, blogger and professional choreographer and is in training to be an ironman athlete. She’s also had to face fat shamers – people who have a negative view of larger people.
Obesity is a side effect of inequality and developing into a public health disaster. NZ has the third highest rate of obesity in the world. Public health officials are calling for increased regulation of the food and beverage industry. Heart disease is the number one cause of death, so why don’t we clamp down hard on fast food like we do with cigarettes?
In a society where up to 29% of people are obese, people making rude comments are likely to be squashed…
Heart disease is the number one cause of death, so why don’t we clamp down hard on fast food like we do with cigarettes?
Because, although there’s very strong evidence that smoking causes heart disease, there’s no evidence that diet has anything to do with it. There are some people who firmly believe that dietary fat causes heart disease, but a belief is all it is.
Your point about heart disease is conceded, but here’s the WHO:
Obesity will overtake smoking as a leading cause of death very soon…
That’s another one that puts a rip in my nightie – what’s the WHO doing calling obesity a cause of death? What’s the mechanism by which someone dies “as a result of being overweight or obese?” It’s like saying someone who starved to death died “as a result of being underweight.”
Sorry, I’m not trying to get at you – I just get annoyed at the ongoing festival of correlation = causation errors that is the field of diet-based epidemiology. There’s definitely a problem of too many fatties, and whatever is making them fat is increasing their mortality, but the “what’s making them fat?” part is heavily-disputed territory. Most likely, no progress will be made on the issue until the current generation of epidemiologists and dieticians is retired or dead.
would you like a bacon-buttie with that..?..
..fries..?
yum.
Without the side-order of delusional sanctimony, though.
but the self-harm is there..
..along with a side-order of pig-ignorance..
lol
You won’t eat them, but you will use them as belittling insults.
have you joined the word-police..?
..did you get a nice sew-on badge..?..
..that w & p logo..with the lightening-bolt thru it..?
nah, just pointing out that you think they’re sentient enough to not eat, but not sentient enough to not insult.
i had a skinny Calvinist grandma who ate healthily and her veges and was very intelligent and educated ….and a fat indulgent granny who wasn’t educated but was still intelligent …but liked cakes not veges…she was very very fat….
…guess who lived the longest ?…fat cake eating granny lived to 94 and skinny careful eating granny lived to about 78
….both ate meat
Ragen Chastain is a fantastic blogger, and I highly recommend her site to anyone still wanting to make ~hilarious~ fat jokes or sweeping statements about how ~obesity is an epidemic~.
https://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/
Good on her for having a healthy self image but obesity is a huge indicator of all sorts of health risks. Hell, I am carrying too much pork but there’s no sense in pretending it’s all good. Or is TS becoming a science denial conspiracy outlet?
You should actually try reading her blog, ropata. It’s a bit smarmy to sneer “good on her” – when the fact is she *is* a completely healthy, athletic woman who’s in training for an ironman.
Height, sex and ethnicity are all risk factors for a “huge number” of “health risks”. Why not go bother someone about the tallness epidemic? Or, a radical notion, why not focus on actual health issues instead of pre-judging people’s medical histories based on their appearance?
“.. the fact is she *is* a completely healthy, athletic woman who’s in training for an ironman…”
u r hardly trying to sell that as the norm for the obese..r u..?..
..if that were the case..no worries..!..
..but it ain’t..
“..Height, sex and ethnicity are all risk factors for a “huge number” of “health risks”..”
..yes..they are factors..that in many cases bad diet exacerbates..
..but i know vegans of all ages/sizes/ethnicities..
..and it it not about any ‘ideal’ body-shape..
..it is about the health of those people within..
“..Or, a radical notion, why not focus on actual health issues instead of pre-judging people’s medical histories based on their appearance?..”
the fact is that most of those ‘heath-issues’ can be treated by adopting a healthy diet/moderate-exercise..
..trying to address this problem without addressing diet..wd be totally self-delusional..
..but i know vegans of all ages/sizes/ethnicities..
..and it it not about any ‘ideal’ body-shape..
..it is about the health of those people within..
It certainly is. Still, if you enjoy being under-nourished and having dry skin and lank hair, by all means…
heh..!
..you must know some seriously unhealthy vegans..
..none of the many i know are like that..
,,just the opposite..most of them..
and my hair is like homers’ in that episode where he got hair..
Meh. If she’s happy being fat, great. Most fat people aren’t.
It’s shocking, isn’t it, how people who are consistently, repeatedly told they’re evil, unhealthy, immoral, failed, lazy, weak-willed drains on society might have self-esteem issues. 🙄
they are your words..
..i haven’t seen anyone saying/intimating anything anywhere like that..
..and if people are in that state..that is what is making them feel bad..
..not what they think people are saying about them..
Well, I guess it’s possible that fat people would actually be chuffed about having to cart tens of kilos of whatever-the-human-equivalent-of-lard-is around with them everywhere they go, if only the hell that is other people didn’t exist – but I doubt it. Every fat person who’s expressed a view on it to me would rather not be carrying that superfluous extra baggage, and I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be carrying it myself. Personally, I blame officially-mandated “experts” giving us dietary advice, not the individuals carrying the extra weight, but no doubt that’s cold comfort to the individuals.
I hate the idea of “fat-shaming” too, obesity affects people from all walks of life, but it seems weird to deny it’s a problem.
I don’t think that is true.
Having run the odd marathon in my time, and mixed with ironman types, I can tell you that she will either
a) train properly and become very lean or
b) kid herself and fail to complete the event.
Completing an ironman is a life changing experience, physically and mentally. You do not see people completing the event in her present condition (going by the photo on her blog).
@ s.r..
oh..!..ok..obesity isn’t an ‘epidemic’ of sorts..?
..are u kidding..?
..and it doesn’t have to be that way..
..if you go to the nzonscreen archives and look at news footage from just the fifties..
..and marvel at how healthy everyone looks..
..crap-food sold by greedy/couldn’t-give-a-fuck food corporations..
..aided and abetted by useless politicians..
..and a craven advertising industry..
..and poverty..(+ of course the unhealthiest food/drink is always the cheapest..)
.have got us to where we are now..
..so..if you wouldn’t call it an ‘epidemic’..?
..what would you call it..?
..a passing-phase..?
“..crap-food sold by greedy/couldn’t-give-a-fuck food corporations..”
No ones holding a gun to there head to go and buy shit food .
Eating crap food is a choice in this country.
People need to learn about personal responsibility.
an interesting exercise is to do a walk-thru in a supermarket in a wealthy area..
..and then go and walk thru a supermarket in a poor area..
(try that supermarket in otara..whoar..!..)
..the differences are both stark and disturbing..
..but even in the supermarkets in upmarket areas..
..most of the stuff on sale is processed/sugar/salt/fat-laden unhealthy-crap..
..(it just has more expensive packaging/pricing..)
..but if looking for healthy-options..the upmarket supermarkets have what the poor ones don’t go near..
..and the only solution to this merry-go-around of madness..
..is to regulate those unscrupulous bastards in the ‘food’-peddling into some sort of order..
..one thing is for sure..
..those afor-mentioned ‘bastards’ will not clean up their act..of their own accord..
..the big ones might have to be threated with being nationalised/massive-penalties….if they don’t do it..
..nationalise/slam one or two..
..and watch the others fall into line..
..(this is known as the putin-tactic..brutal on the examples..
..but effective..
Thats odd. I recently had cause to stop at PaknSave Mangere after a drop off at the airport and did a shop there.
On my list were a whole bunch of fruit and vege, a leg of lamb, minced beef, rice, tea bags, low fat milk, cans of chick peas, pasta, canned tomatos, some crazy frozen Qorn stuff for my vegetarian daughter, and some sparkling water.
I didn’t seem to have trouble finding any of it.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=obesity+epidemic+myth
The real “fat shaming” is ignoring the obesity epidemic.
Wishful thinking doesn’t magically make obesity a healthy way to live.
PS: I’m off to Burgerfuel 😀
Here’s the thing, though: big data doesn’t translate to a guarantee for specific individuals.
If she has good cardio fitness and blood pressure etc while being large, she could well outlive us all.
Me, anyway – I find that if I get over a certain weight my BP becomes harder to control and all that jazz. But then I have a lot of visceral fat, which seems to have a greater association with health problems than subcutaneous. But even then I could live until 90 or drop dead tomorrow. Funnily enough my cholesterol is ok-ish (certainly not what one would naively assume based solely on BMI).
Body fat by itself is one indicator. Not a guarantor. And we’re still learning about the exact mechanisms by which it impacts on health (or doesn’t).
not many obese old people..are there..?
lol actually old folks have all sorts of body shapes. Visit a retirement home sometime.
I’m surprised you don’t have any vegan friends or relatives to go visit.
@phillip …the fatso oldies are at home enjoying life into their 90s as was the case of my fat granny….she died at 94 but only had a few weeks in a rest home
…the skinny grandma who died at 78 was in ailing health and in care for a few years…i loved her dearly…i think she had artificial sweetners and Parkinsons
National Radio RNZ is living up to its name. Increasingly it is becoming commercially and business oriented as well as trivial eg Jim Moras lightweight giggle on The Panel. Dilma tea! Next week Griffins gingernuts, or Cadbury Dark chocolate? How RNZ has sunk recently.
i understand act have booked some airtime for their play/opus..
..’the story of act..’..
..it will be presented as part of radio new zealands’ series of..
.. ‘five-minute-plays’..
..other titles in the series are:..
..’the wit and wisdom of john key’..
..’how andrew little ‘found’ charisma’..(or did charisma find andrew little..?..)
..’colour us chartreuse!’ – the story of the green party you’re having – when you aren’t really having a green party..
Here’s a couple of videos fro 9/11 truthers to watch, coz I have couple of questions about them.
they are only seconds long, it’s not some thesis being presented, just data points.
First, from AE911’s site of a controlled demolition, to show what they look like:
http://www2.ae911truth.org/ppt_web/2hour/slideshow.php?i=29&lores=1
Second is another clip of the same demolition, albiet from a different angle etc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G75AfaqoqsE
Q1: See how in that demolition, the whole building moves. That doesn’t compare at all the twin towers where it is clearly a progressive collapse, the bottom floors don’t collapse until they are crushed one by one as the building collapses. I’ve never been told why, if the twin towers were a controlled demo, they don;t actually look like other controlled demos. So what gives?
Q2: Why, in the AE’s vid, are the demolition charge sounds barely audible. All the controlled demo vids I’ve seen have those tell tale sounds. Not present in the AE911 vid there, or for the collapses on 9/11. Weird huh?
1) WTC7 presents observable dynamics far more like a typical controlled demolition.
2) There have been many eye witness reports of explosions inside the twin towers before the collapse. Also, it has been postulated that the use of a more incendiary style nanothermite halped minimise the need for standard explosive charges.
1) so what? What about the twin towers?
2)why aren’t the explosions heard up in any of the videos? And surely, the collapse would have been straight after the explosions?
I understand that you accept the official narrative of the collapse of the twin towers. I understand that you don’t believe that controlled dems can make a target building “dance” in different directions and from different levels as per the requirements of a given project.
No probs.
Wait, are you saying that the fact it looks like no other controlled demo is evidence for it being a controlled demo?
What’s with these people who accept the official story.
They appear so aggressive.
Yesterday I received verbal abuse from ‘nadis’ for simply pointing out that the Dubai tower had not collapsed after a massive fire.
The event reminded me that no steel structured buildings have ever collapsed from fire…except on 9/1.
What are they scared of?
oh, look what I found. In short:
Explain WTC7.
Please.
Explain what, Paul? A large lump of a larger building hits a smaller one and the smaller one falls down.
btw the Dubai Tower fire wasn’t “massive” and it didn’t involve thousands of litres of jet fuel delivered at high speed. Only two buildings have ever experienced that. They both collapsed shortly after. Weird, huh?
We agree on most things.
We disagree on 9/11.
I’m not prepared to burn much energy on trying to make the argument as it would appear both of us hold fairly entrenched viewpoints.
Fair enough, Paul. The whole 9/11 denial thang is a complete waste of time of effort.
read the link
Then wikipedia the wtc7 wikipedia entry.
The words ‘conspiracy theorist’ are used to shut down debate.
By the way, people who follow the official line are also conspiracy theorists. Their conspiracy involves Osama Bin Laden hatching a conspiracy from a cave in Afghanistan.
Many people who don’t follow the official line are actually not conspiracy theorists. They admit they don’t know what happened and simply have seen sufficient evidence to not accept the official conspiracy theory.
Have to disagree with you on calling those who have a handle on reality conspiracy theorists. There was a conspiracy. It worked pretty bloody well. My current theory on 9/11 truth denial is that, at heart, it’s racist. The American right simply can’t believe that a bunch of towel headed A-rabs put one over on the good ol’ USA.
well, if there are words you don’t like in the link (reality can be uncomfortable sometimes), use wikipedia. Or does that entry call you uncomfortable things, too?
So we’re back to the basics. Two planes, three skyscrapers, two completely different architectures, differing assymetrical damage to each one, complete and symmetrical collapse for every one, all in one day, never happened before due to fire, never happened since due to fire.
The official conspiracy theory says – everything significant about the building failures above has been satisfactorily explained via theory and computer modelling.
I say – you can only agree with that if you close your eyes to the video evidence, physical evidence and eyewitness testimony from that day.
You don’t actually know what “symmetrical” means, do you.
If you question 9/11 you get attacked cr
if you abuse the english language you get attacked, more like
Highly assymetrical damage from the planes, falling debris and office fires somehow resulting in highly symmetrical and simultaneous collapse of each part of the skyscrapers.
Paul – it’s a mix of fear and intellectual arrogance.
not “symmetrical”. For a start.
🙄
No, CV, it’s a combination of rationality and evidence. Your right wing mentors have neither. It’s a shame to see someone with such a good heart go down this path.
TRP – cheers for your condescension and concern. Oh and the insincerity too.
McFlock – of course the building collapses were highly symmetrical. Anyone can see that for themselves from any of the angles of the skyscraper collapses captured on video. Usually, a highly trained team of dems experts would be used over weeks to plan and collapse a building in that fashion.
WTC7 collapse not symmetrical
Sorry you see it that way, CV. Should I have just said get well soon?
I’m glad you pointed out that video McFlock.
Notice how symmetrical the collapse of the central section of WTC7 was. Yes, there is a slight variation in timing but the overall effect is highly symmetrical, within the time frame of tenths of a second.
The “kink” formed is a classic tell of a controlled demolition. It occurs when an entire set of internal columns has been destroyed precipitating the collapse of the central part of the building ahead of other parts of the building.
This is done to allow the outer sections of the building to tend to fall inwards, minimising damage to nearby buildings and preventing a situation where the building might collapse to one side.
So if it’s symmetrical it must be a controlled demolition, but if there’s a kink it must be a controlled demolition, too. The fact that it’s kinked and symmetrical just doubly proves it was a controlled demolition… 🙄
It’s the very definition of doublethink to believe that something was symmetrical and kinked at the same time.
Have you ever lived in the real world McFlock? You know, the one where material processes take time to unfold in order to demonstrate their symmetry?
I bet that to you, a painting of a circle wouldn’t be symmetrical because the artist started with a brush stroke at one end of the canvas. Look! At how that paint is going on! It’s not symmetrical!!!
None of the collapses started symmetrically. None of the rubble piles were symmetrical. None of the bits in between were symmetrical. You haven’t drawn a perfect circle, you’ve left a puddle of piss on the floor and claimed that it’s a perfect circle. And that the fact it’s uneven supports your claim.
Seriously, you don’t have any idea what are”symmetrical” means, do you?
Ok Paul, one last try. Read this summary:
http://www.nist.gov/el/disasterstudies/wtc/faqs_wtc7.cfm
If not convinced, read the full reports linked within.
Then read the numerous eye witness reports about WTC7 here. If you really are the critical thinker you claim to be, read this series of documents:
https://sites.google.com/site/wtc7lies/eyewitnessaccountsofwtc7fires
Just read through the docs – there are even pictures of heat expanded buckled steel beams from the WTC. Apply your critical thinking capabilities, think about the preponderence of real, hard evidence for the “official conspiracy theory” as you describe it, then think about how much evidence actually exists for your theory, and assess which is more likely.
Also note that the the NIST study was authored by an MIT educated Civil Engineering PhD who runs the Building and Fire research division at NISTand assisted by:
“The investigation, led by Dr S. Shyam Sunder, drew upon in-house technical expertise as well as the knowledge of several outside private institutions, including the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (SEI/ASCE); the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE); the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA); the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC); the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH); and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY)”
The WTC7 report runs to more than a 1000 pages. Are all these professionals part of a wider conspiracy?
Read those links and then discuss from an evidence based perspective rather than your gut feeling shaped by watching youtube videos.
Lastly, count up how many people would be required as part of the original conspiracy, how many more would be required to cover up the conspiracy ex post, and that a conspiracy requires all of them to be corrupt and keep a secret, and what are the chances of that happening?
I am merely stating I don’t believe the official story.
It does not explain what happened on 9/11.
It is you who believe in a conspiracy theory…that of Osama Bin Laden and 19 co conspirators.
I do not believe that conspiracy theory.
And until a full and proper inquiry occurs, no amount of verbal abuse by yourself will persuade me otherwise.
so……. you didnt read the links then………..
You forgot to include Jupiter and Neptune being in alignment in your list of irrelevancies.
lol seriously, you think that the mechanism of damage or the structural design are “irrelevancies”?
You apparently do – that’s my point.
You accused me of quoting a list of irrelevancies.
Mechanism of damage and stuctural design were on that list.
Now you claim that your point is that I think they are irrelevant.
Nice pivot, and to return to your original claim:
What items on that list were irrelevant?
Oh its all irrelevant, as you’ve already made up your mind that there are no major questions left to be answered.
pretty fucking weak, dude.
You can’t point to anything in the list that was irrelevant and pretend you didn’t just pivot like nureyev. And you say I’m the unreasonable one.
Like I said, you think all significant questions surrounding the WTC building collapses have been satisfactorily answered; I in contrast do not.
I have no problem with this.
If you really had no problems, you would not have made shit up and pivoted before claiming to like not look bovvered in your best Catherine taite impression.
So what do you think about the NIST pancake theory of floor collapse that OAB etc. accept. Does it really address all of your questions on the collapse of the twin towers? I personally think it is rubbish.
“Accept” – is that what we do? Nah, this is just you inserting snide projections into every single comment you make because you’re talking shite.
OAB – so you don’t accept the official pancake floor collapse theory as being adequate? Pretty sure you were keen on it yesterday.
How about you stop putting words in my mouth?
McFlock is in the process of demonstrating that you don’t know what the word symmetrical means. I doubt you understand the engineering reports.
So you do have some unanswered questions around the collapse of the twin towers? What are they? Perhaps I can help.
On the other hand if you do think that the official narrative about the WTC collapses on the day is correct, just say so.
I have a question: do you know what symmetrical means?
Well a skyscraper is a large physical structure. One can see in any video of confirmed controlled demolitions that some asymmetry during the process of collapse occurs. This is due to the sequential timing used for the cutting charges and the staged process required for collapsing a building.
However, the collapse is relatively very symmetrical compared to a “natural” and uncontrolled building failure – which you would expect since that is the purpose of a controlled demolition.
Now let me ask you a question: are you aware that you can measure relative amounts of symmetry and that the question is not that of perfect symmetry versus no symmetry?
Given pretty much every floor in WTC7 was ablaze by the time it collapsed (eye witess NYFD accounts), how was a controlled demolition done? Bear in mid controlled demo;itions require miles of wires and det cord, plus strategically removed columns and key suppports to make the demolition work….. where was all that and who did it?
Nope. You promised to answer questions. If you have questions of your own, Google them.
My next question is, which engineering software are you using?
Not just how was it done Nadis; the fact is that the planning and execution of such an operation on WTC7 may have taken a dozen people. On the twin towers, far more.
Yet no one has squeeled?
That to me is what makes the controlled dems theory particularly hard to believe.
That to me is what makes the controlled dems theory particularly hard to believe.
Wow – this is a massive back down for you – you now don’t accept the controlled demolition theory? Big progress, well done!!
The thing is that CR’s magnanimous doubt that WTC1&2 were controlled demolitions, and Paul’s simple professed doubt as to the “official explanations” (while refusing to commit to alternative theories) are simply variations on the cowardly anti-vax talking point “but I’m not anti vaccines, I just don’t think all of them are perfectly safe yadda yadda”.
It’s having one’s cake and eating it too, as an attempt to make people relitigate every single point in an infinite loop while simultaneously trying to appear responsive to reasonable debate.
The fact is that doubting the “official version” is in itself a conspiracy theory, just as believing the “official version” or suggesting one’s own version are conspiracy theories. Doubting the official version means that the majority of people involved in every official investigation consistently made such serious errors in analysis that the real story is fundamentally different from the “official version”, while at the same time these glaring errors were easily identifiable by anyone with an internet connection, even if the viewer did not know what big words like “symmetrical” actually mean.
In order for such glaring errors to be consistent across so many investigators, the odds against it happening by chance are infinitesimal.
And I suggest that the number of people who would have to be actively involved in coordinating such an effort, again without squealing, would be significantly larger than 20 hijackers, a few support staff and planners, and a bunch of after-the-fact charlatans and nutbars who get money, fame or just a hobby from the deaths of a few thousand people.
Occam sez AQ wot dun it.
Quite a few of the 19 hijackers identified were shown to be alive after 9/11. Up to 7 of them I believe. But that’s detail you’re not interested in, and why ask uncomfortable questions?
You simply design and curtail the scope and reach of the investigation, limit the budget available, organisationally limit the roles of individual investigators, edit out the interim reports submitted, file stuff which doesn’t fit as minor footnotes in appendices, etc. You know how it’s done.
Yes, it would be easy to limit the scope of a report into why the buildings collapsed to strictly why the buildings collapsed. And the answer would be restricted to ‘big fucking jet, big fucking fire’.
As to your claim about 7 of the actual hijackers being alive, that would indeed be a game-changer. If it were true.
If it were true.
Coronial tryharder.
Today it looks like you have your head up Uranus.
For man of science,Your overlooking the laws of Physics,gravity and chemistry thermodynamics as well!
For a CON spiracy theory!
Their were thousands of different Cameras all focused and filming 9/11.
You have completely lost any respect I’ve had for you.
Claims like these are in the Gosman territory.
Believe the officially sanctioned narrative, I don’t care. You may think all the questions around the collapse of the WTC buildings has been answered but I do not.
BTW I don’t require nor want your respect, and I would be useless at asking required questions if that was my concern.
Private individuals cameras.
Each of the twin towers weighed 1/2 a million tons empty with fixtures and fitting added thats a good deal more.
The weight above the planes impact area at least a 100,000 tons as water has to be stored up the top in case of fire.
Given that steel distortes at relatively low temperatures once you have mass ×momentum +gravity it would take very little momentum to get collapse going when it does occur it gains exponentially every ten metres double the energy.
A 300metre building collapsing has to dissapate that energy some where.
Its a complicated equation given the differential between the height of the top floor which falls 300 metres and the bottom floor only 10 metres but i would take a median figure of around 180 metres to estimate the energy dissipated.
So that would be 300,000 tons to the power of 18.
more than enough to destroy any nearby buildings.
Physics.
Rough estimate but I thought you had a degree in science CV.
Conspiracy Villain.
That’s impressive maths. It’s equally impressive with all that gravitational potential energy stored in the mass of skyscrapers around the world that no other steel framed tower has ever fallen totally collapsed due to the mechanism of fire weakened steel allowing vertical acceleration of building mass before 9/11, three did on the day, and none have since.
Deformation and work. You forgot about the deformation of a total of 250,000 tons of steel and pulverisation of many hectares worth of concrete with rebar to a fine microscopic scale dust.
Your explanation also fails to explain why many areas of the the twin tower rubble reached over 1000 deg C and stayed that way for weeks during the clean up operation.
I’ve got a degree in problem solving. And you ain’t solved any of the significant problems.
This guy, Professor Steve Jones, has however.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cfjYUHF8UE
I am surprised to read this September 2001 argument cropping up again and with such heat. (A bad sign that it happened so soon after the celebration for a new millenium that was going to be so good! What a silly idea.) So much discussion has gone on since 9/2001 and interesting technical information arisen but it won’t be settled definitely on TS. Meanwhile back in the boondocks….
Did you hear Professor Guy Standing on the Precariat on Wallace Chapman yesterday? He started talking about it in the 1980s!
Guy Standing – The Precariat Charter ( 32′ 41″ )
10:20 Professor Standing argues that 800 years after the Magna Carta the time has come for a new charter representing the interests of those facing job insecurity and disenfranchisement internationally.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20168199
CV isn’t an Engineer or a scientist. He’s s chiropractor who still claims to be a “doctor” (illegally). He’s as far from science as it gets.
The NZ Ministry of Health has previously considered the chiropractic use of the title “Dr” and has allowed it on condition that we are clear in its usage that we are not medical practitioners.
Of course I am. More so than you are anyway, I suspect.
Coronial SniperIt shows 300,000 tons to the power of 18 is a enough energy to fry your looney conspiracy theory.
The type of construction is no longer used the New York fire dept asked the New York city officials to stop building this type of building.
Long lift shafts turned the building into a bessemer furnace.
Hello two planes full of avgas blows your fire theory out of the sky.
“a degree in problem solving” – that would be what exactly? Philosophy, opereations research? Do tell……..
Bessemer furnace? What do you mean? There were 250,000 tons of steel in the construction and no way to heat more than a tiny fraction of it to maybe 400 to 500 deg C, in the official narrative at least.
50% or more of the av gas carried by the planes would have been expended in the first few seconds after impact via the huge initial fireballs. The rest would have been burnt off within the first 10 minutes.
Can you provide scientific evidence of your burn times or are they your “gut feel”?
many areas of the the twin tower rubble reached over 1000 deg C and stayed that way for weeks during the clean up operation
You know that claim is fake right? Alex Jones just made that up and used doctored photos to “back up” his claims. See here:
https://sites.google.com/site/wtc7lies/canofficefirescauselargesteelcolumnsandb
And as for Steven Jones: https://sites.google.com/site/wtc7lies/stevene.jones%27thermitethermateclaims
For someone normally so critical of capitalist motives it amazes me you dont see what is obvious about the industry promoting conspiracy claims in general and 9/11 particularly.
They are in if for the money…… the ringleaders of the conspiracy promotion idustry make a living out of this by stoking the fears of uneducated americans- watch out! the govt is coming for your guns! FEMA is setting up concentration camps. I know thee secret activation codes that will get the military rounding up dissidents! Obama is communist muslim!
That first article’s opening paragraph says that infra red surface readings after collapse reached 1375 deg F.
Temperatures underneath the exposed surface might have been 100 or 200 deg F hotter than that you know.
Do you accept that.
CV I’m a chartered Civil Engineer and an academic. I also have a doctorate. So unlike you I dont fraudulently use the title. As an engineer I can tell you almost everything you have said about the 911 building collapse is wrong. It reads like the ravings of a madman, delusional, unscientific and feeds on its own paranoia.
That first article’s opening paragraph says that infra red surface readings after collapse reached 1375 deg F.
Temperatures underneath the exposed surface might have been 100 or 200 deg F hotter than that you know.
Do you accept that.
Of course I do, it’s sourced from numerous independent obeservers and observations.
What I dont accept is your commment:
reached over 1000 deg C and stayed that way for weeks during the clean up operation.
of which there is no evidence, apart from doctored photos provided by the fraudulent Alex Jones.
It wasn’t abuse. I thought your ramblings were a cry for help and I was trying to be helpful. See millions of other comments for the difference between WTC and Dubai.
On a more interesting note, here is the Syriza Greek government negotiation process with the Troika explained in simple detail:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4
+100 CW
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/11427479/Sex-pest-cases-fraud-or-porn-but-Eurocrats-keep-their-jobs.html
European Commission officials have fiddled their expenses, sexually harassed colleagues and watched hundreds of hours of pornography in the office – yet kept their jobs.
Disciplinary records obtained by the Sunday Telegraph show how dozens of senior officials at the European Commission accused of serious misconduct have escaped with little more than a slap on the wrist.
They include officials who submitted false invoices and attempted to secure jobs for family members on contracts they managed.
in other words corruption rife in European Commission…prognosis bad for Europe
Just another example of how corruption has become insidious
No part of our planet and no industry is immune to the organizational corporate fraud and corruption which is carried out by those who occupy the levers of power and control
Our current global civilisation is slowly disintegrating into a kleptocracy.
‘Unforgetting Libya’
http://rt.com/shows/crosstalk/233867-libya-failed-state-terrorism/
“Islamic State filling the gap of Libya’s predictable dissolution”
“Collapse of intellectual culture in the West”
“American intervention created ISIS”
“Interventionists in the West should shut up”
“Interventionists in the West should shut up”
..especially leftwing interventionists..
..their libyan mistakes/miss-calls should have the effect of sewing their interventionist-lips shut for the forseeable future..(if they have any insight/self-awareness of their frailties/the outcomes..)..
..(and a special shout-out to all those lefties here in nz who drank/swallowed the cia-propaganda-kool-ade around gadaffi/libya..eh..?
..and then joined in the fretting-choruses of:,
,’something must be done to stop him..!’..’if not us..?..who..?’..)
..a very special ‘you-dumbarses!/w.t.f.-were-u-thinking-award’ to all of you..
..form a queue..on the left..(of course..!..)
and of course..fucken goff unthinkingly tutt-tutted along/sang in the chorus.. right on cue..
..couldn’t/shouldn’t you retire..?..phil..?
..haven’t you ‘done enough?’..surely..?..
..’more than enough’ some would say..eh..?..
..why don’t you just slap on that gold-plated pension..
..with all of that free local/international travel..
..why don’t you just piss-off and enjoy that..eh..?)
goff is like a walking timeline of everything that went wrong with labour..
Surprise surprise.
/
For years, politicians wanting to block legislation on climate change have bolstered their arguments by pointing to the work of a handful of scientists who claim that greenhouse gases pose little risk to humanity.
One of the names they invoke most often is Wei-Hock Soon, known as Willie, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who claims that variations in the sun’s energy can largely explain recent global warming. He has often appeared on conservative news programs, testified before Congress and in state capitals, and starred at conferences of people who deny the risks of global warming.
But newly released documents show the extent to which Dr. Soon’s work has been tied to funding he received from corporate interests.
He has accepted more than $1.2 million in money from the fossil-fuel industry over the last decade while failing to disclose that conflict of interest in most of his scientific papers. At least 11 papers he has published since 2008 omitted such a disclosure, and in at least eight of those cases, he appears to have violated ethical guidelines of the journals that published his work.
The documents show that Dr. Soon, in correspondence with his corporate funders, described many of his scientific papers as “deliverables” that he completed in exchange for their money. He used the same term to describe testimony he prepared for Congress.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/us/ties-to-corporate-cash-for-climate-change-researcher-Wei-Hock-Soon.html
John Kiriakou speaks out. (audio)
The Takeaway spoke to Kiriakou from his home in Virginia and asked him why he was the only CIA employee to be imprisoned during Obama’s presidency.
“My case was not about leaking. It was about torture,” says Kiriakou. “The CIA never forgave me for going public with the torture program, and they investigated me over the course of four years and just waited until I made a mistake.”
http://www.thetakeaway.org/story/ex-cia-officer-john-kiriakou-released-jail/
FYI folks – another upcoming debate on the proposed Wellington ‘Supercity’:
Amalgamation – what’s in it for Otaki?
Public Meeting 6.30pm, Tuesday February 24, at Otaki Golf Club, Old Coach Rd, Otaki. All welcome.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1502/S00279/amalgamation-whats-in-it-for-otaki.htm
Friday, 13 February 2015, 11:40 am
Press Release: Otaki Promotions Group
Amalgamation – what’s in it for Otaki?
Otaki – a vibrant contributor to a big Wellington council or a forgotten outpost?
Fran Wilde and K (Guru) Gurunathan will discuss at a public meeting in Otaki on Tuesday, February 24, what Otaki could look forward to in a proposed amalgamation of Kapiti Coast with eight other councils in the Wellington region.
Fran is chair of the Greater Wellington Regional Council and a strong advocate of the Wellington region’s councils merging to form a large council. Guru, a Kapiti Coast District councillor, is skeptical of the merger.
Will Otaki, as the town farthest north in a proposed merger, be able to retain any kind of local governance? Will it benefit by being part of a large council that has the clout to advocate on its behalf to central government, or attract facilities that would never be possible as part of Kapiti alone?
Ian Carson, who is chair of the Otaki Promotions Group, which has organised the meeting, says the issue is important for Otaki.
“We have fantastic natural assets, a vibrant shopping district and events that attract international participants and visitors, such as the Otaki Kite Festival and Maoriland Film Festival,” he says. “We want to ensure we build on our attributes and get the best outcomes for our community.
“The amalgamation debate is important, and with submissions to the Local Government Commission on the current proposal closing on March 2, this meeting might be the last chance for people to make up their mind.”
• The meeting is 6.30pm, Tuesday February 24, at Otaki Golf Club, Old Coach Rd, Otaki. All welcome.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Seems that the groundswell against the proposed Wellington ‘Supercity’ is growing.
I understand that another major political party will come out against the Draft Wellington Reorganisation Proposal late this week.
Full credit where it is due to NZ First, who came out against the Draft Wellington Reorganisation Proposal on 4 December 2014, the same day the Local Government Commission announced it.
Seems that support is slipsliding away on the Greater Wellington Regional Council, and those who oppose it may now be the majority?
Looking forward to what should be THE debate on the proposed Wellington Supercity – tomorrow night, Monday 23 January 2015, 7.30pm at the Sacred Heart College, Lower Hutt.
Fran Wilde, Chair of the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) – FOR
(plus two others – not politicians)
vs
Ray Wallace (Mayor of Lower Hutt) and Wayne Guppy (Mayor of Upper Hutt) AGAINST (plus one other – not a politician).
I predict Fran Wilde will be politically SKEWERED on the issues, because these two Hutt Valley Mayors, in my view, have been impressive in their ‘stand up and stand out’ leadership of their respective communities, and know their stuff.
This is going to be QUITE a week in politics ……..
Penny Bright