This is bullshit. This guy is just spending more time on the beach than others.
This “eviction” is so that the wealthy people can enjoy uninterrupted views as well as reinforcing the capital model of paying exorbitant rental…to the wealthy! We’ve just come full circle.
An eccentric living in a hand-made driftwood and tarpaulin home on the foreshore near Oakura has been given his marching orders.
But Eric Brewer, 62, says he is unfazed at the threat to remove him from his seaside home with the million-dollar views at Tapuae.
“I’m out of here,” the sickness beneficiary told the Taranaki Daily News team whom he warmly welcomed into his beach bach on a perfect late summer’s afternoon yesterday.
Averse to paying rent or a mortgage, he has no idea where he will go. He has lived off-and-on at Tapuae for nearly two decades.
-snip-
Mr Brewer concedes he is living on the Queen’s Chain but says it is confiscated Maori land.
“I swear allegiance to this land, not the Queen of England,” he said.
[lprent: Yes. The result of some irritated and coffee concentrated cursing and other hard work. Turns out the the damn thing was trying to access admin functions without defining it as requiring a https connection. It will require some more work to get to play nicely with the rest of the system. But gives me more time to figure out a more elegant solution. ]
Like the Californian equivalent, Malibu, where the wealthy keep attempting to secure exclusive use of the beach in contrast to Venice Beach where it belongs to everyone.
They’re wealthy enough to buy their own but there’s no ‘look at me and what I’ve got’ ‘value in that and Public land is free, just use the system to keep the riff raff out.
“The New Plymouth District Council confirmed last night it was taking action after receiving complaints from nearby landowners and the public about “Mr Brewer’s unlawful activities on the land”.”
Interesting use of the word “unlawful” there. I wonder what they think it means.
However, from Campbell Live
Solid Energy : “a culture of extravagance at Stockton”, SUVs for Africa, a 6M machine unused,
yet, a cut-back on miners per shift hours
yet more days required of miners to be on site (bussed in)
from RNZ; Telecom- “too many people at the top-end” (lawyers and accountants among those getting the axe.
Back to tele,Fontera have re-bottled the Anchor Milk brand (light-blocking) while the executive oncedes upon questioning; Anchor sales have declined vs supermarket / house brands; that they are exactly the same (price premium justified by “all the R&D Anchor carry out; “milk consumption in NZ is flat and declining)
Obama offered little in speech to Palestinians (little was expected) yet “recovered his voice” when addressing Israeli students.
14:31 He who oppresses the por shows contempt for their maker, yet whoever is kind to the needy honours God.
Balaam’s error; the error of consuming greed.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
( a mischievious Goodfellow hub indeed; thanks, yet gave the candy away)
If the Minister is going to stand up and tell this House that 5,000 people have come off a sickness benefit, I will point out that during that time 7,000 people went on. Sure, absolutely, if they need to access it, they should. But it is absolutely disingenuous for that Minister to try and bandy around numbers as though her reforms have changed the world when in actual fact, for the people who are experiencing it on the front line, they have done no such thing.
TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West):
The other thing I want to say to Asenati Lole-Taylor is just that I believe that all honest work is inherently valuable, and although some is work that a lot of us would shy away from and that some of us are fortunate enough not to have to do, I have nothing but respect for those who are working on some of those humble and at times very, very unpleasant jobs. I am sure that every member of this House would want to support those people, and not in any way undermine their efforts.
So put your money where your mouth is and pay them a minimum of at least $15ph.
God told me to tell you to do it. :wanker:
Yeah past by 1 vote 61/60 what is best described as the Youth Employment Discrimination Bill should be one of the first of the ugly pieces of National Government legislation that the next Labour lead Government toss in the rubbish bin,
It’s ugly enough to be giving young people the kick through youth rates but applying those same youth rates to those a year or two older for having been on the dole for a while for no specific reason other than they thunk it makes me think that that particular piece of legislation might better have been named the Molestation of Young People in Employment Bill…
Yeah, I am waiting to see Tim MacIndoe clean the toilets at public facilities in Hamiltion then, voluntarily or on the minimum wage. Yeah Right, pull out YET ANOTHER TUI Board!
“He is ARROGANT, he is MOODY, he is CONTROLLING”
Bill Ralston’s wife has a go at him on air
“The Huddle”, NewstalkZB, Thursday 21 March 2013, 5:45 p.m.
Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Pam Corkery, Janet Wilson
Anyone who tuned into the usually dire “Huddle” segment yesterday would have heard something remarkable: Bill Ralston’s ghastly wife Janet Wilson took the opportunity to tell the world just what she thought of her husband Bill. However, she wasn’t so unwise as to do it directly; she chose the time-honored technique, widely used in Soviet Russia and other repressive regimes, of allegory….
LARRY “LACKWIT” WILLIAMS: Okay, ahhhhhhhhhmmm. Julia Gillard. She’s GONE for sure!
PAM CORKERY: Actually, I don’t think so. Kevin Rudd is extremely unpopular. I predict Gillard will win this leadership vote.
JANET WILSON: I agree with Pam. I’ve never understood the fascination of the Australian public with Kevin Rudd. [voice thickening to a croak as she becomes emotional] He is arrogant, he is moody, he is controlling.
[Several uneasy seconds of stunned silence follow…]
LACKWIT WILLIAMS: Okay, ummmm… errrr….
By the end of that little contribution, Janet Wilson was snarling, and I’m sure she was shaking with emotion too.
POINT TO PONDER
When Pam Corkery appears on this show, the quality improves noticeably. That’s because Corkery, one of the few liberal commentators allowed on, will not be bullied and shut out by Lackwit-Williams and whoever happens to be the other Huddle guest. She insists on making her points clearly and will not allow Lackwit-Williams to laugh her into silence. Today, after her coded attack on her husband, Janet Wilson spoke sensibly and thoughtfully, something she is just not usually compelled to do on this normally pisspoor program.
???Hah, you have to have a very ‘free thinking’ imagination to make the leap from the Australian politics being discussed in the part of the transcript that you have put up to entertain the belief that Ralston’s wife is talking about Him and not the Australian politicians being discussed,
Perhaps i am missing something here, are there special code words that indicate we should beleive She is talking of Her husband and not Kevin Rudd…
Yeah well you also have to have a fairly free-thinking imagination to call it a transcript as Morrissey is known to have quite a different definition of the word to everyone else on the planet.
1.) …. border-line slander seems to be that ones writing style…
What, pray tell, was slanderous in suggesting that an angry and emotionally fraught woman was taking the opportunity to publicly excoriate her obnoxious spouse? Of course, she was smart enough to phrase it so that it seemed like a criticism of an obnoxious Australian politician; but smart listeners—and admittedly there are not many of them in that station’s audience—-will have appreciated what she REALLY meant.
1.) >OK when applied to politicians but i don’t know about radio commenters…
Oh yes, we need to remember that the afternoon chatterboxes on NewstalkZB are dignified, professional and rigorously dedicated to telling the truth.
Nah what i do remember is Lange versus What’s His Face where the judge set out the difference between what could be slander against a politician and a ‘normal’ person, the latter having far more protection under the law than the former,
i cannot be bothered to expend the energy necessary to address the other part of your comment, except to say that it is as absurd as the original suggestion that the commenter on the radio station was addressing Her husband and not commenting on Kevin Rudd,and, you must have ‘special powers’ to be able to deduce from the comment made the inference later attributed to what was commented upon as the reason to come to that particular conclusion…
I went to pay my website bill after getting the final notice, only to find my payment was bounced back. When I contacted the sales team, they told me I could now no longer pay by bank transfer, as I agreed when I opened the account, because of the unforeseen death of the director.
So I asked what happens next? Do I just transfer to another place that wants my money? And within a minute I had a transfer key and a goodbye.
Maybe they just don’t want to make money. Maybe they just don’t want my site on their servers.
Site down (not that anyone visits) ’til I sort it.
I was going to post this also but you beat me to it :)..
A perfect example for those who say – if you don’t like the system, don’t participate in it. Go and live in the bush or something. To do this is damn near impossible. The system is so pervasive that even when one chooses to this is what inevitably happens
-In short You cannot be free of the system even if you want to.
Have a mind to drive up there and build another makeshift beach bach 30 meters down the beach after the council have gone and give it to him to live in and then keep doing it each time he is evicted!
Just where do these captains of industry get off?
One day the masses are going to wake up to the fact that these inflated egos are going to have to stop being able to nominate their worth to an organisation and be paid just a reasonable living wage.
Telecom have had a succession of leaders who have been paid multi-million annual salaries, after a few years have moved on with massive golden handshakes and then, suddenly, these organisations announce massive layoffs of the ordinary employees … (saying they have to trim the fat).
These same captains of industry of course join such organisations as the EMA, Round Table etc and dictate to the government what they think nurses, teachers, firemen etc are worth.
Testing (no HTML) Testing (Italics using the editor button)
<i>Testing</i> (Italics using HTML) This is a link (Link inserted using the editor function)
And, no, I don’t have the WYSIWYG turned on. At least it has an escapse to HTML.
So Bill from Dipton, the Minister of Finance is ‘surprised’ by having nearly 10% of Kiwi’s sign up for the preregistration of the legislated theft of Mighty River Power from the other 90% of Kiwi’s,
This 10% only too happy to be availed the chance to steal off of the other 90% of us are to be given what, 10% of the shares, 20% of the shares???,
The other 80-90% of the shares will go where, from what Bill says they will be ‘retailed’ on the open market so presumably the ‘mums and dads’ who are the likes of the Goldman Saches US Banking Cartel will swallow the majority of the shares in Mighty River Power,
Bill’s surprise, sounds like He has promised the ‘banking cartels’ that less than 10% of Kiwis will have the coin to buy into Mighty River so there would be no problem for them through their various Nominee Companies to gain the lions share of the float…
Yep, call it what it is. Theft. All those ‘law abiding’ citizens are stealing our property. Time for Labour to tell them they’ll renationalise any assets sold…come on DS…want to be a leader then fucking lead.
Yes as a starting point of ‘ownership’ Labour should look at the Cullen Super Fund becoming the ‘owner’ of all the shares of the assets that National plan on putting into the hands of the International Banking Cartels,
We could in the future then have a rational discussion, after the Baby Boomer Retirement Bump has passed about changing the focus of that Cullen Fund being used to pre-fund part or all future retirement from dividends of the assets held by it…
I have put the point that the wealthy have the option of shunting their children and the guidance of their young ones, to boarding schools. Gina Campbell, daughter of speed record winner Donald Campbell was sent to one at age two when her parents’ marriage broke up. Her father had three marriages, and her mother I think the same. She has written a book Daughter of Bluebird.
Later she had the experience of her mother needling her ex-husband with great promises to Gina about how she would look after her horse with top class treatment, which caused unrest as Gina thought she was in earnest. When the offer was accepted, the mother withdrew it with numerous excuses.
Poorer people’s abandonment of a child’s care tend to be obvious, the wealthy can slither out
from withholding emotional support and guidance to their child untouched by approbrium. ‘Look what I did for you’ is often the comment from parents who have given little personal love and care, but money spent on the child’s living and schooling piles up and is seen as a debt to the parents. The child becomes an object of charity to them with periods of erratic expressions of love and interest from them.
Further to my thoughts on parenting, I consider that this is relevant to the behaviour that we are receiving from politicians. Politicians are very resilient as you must be when as a child you have to be self-sufficient, have a drive for self-advancement, are self-centred, competitive and lack empathy, because that usually has to be learned from older, kind, wiser people. This lack would apply to Paula Bennett, John Key…
If we think of Lord of the Flies, this is the background that would set the direction of much political behaviour that we observe.
Slippery the Prime Minister was yesterday in Taranaki opening a gas fired electricity plant, the cost $100 million and it is capable of powering 70,000 homes,
In ‘primitive’ New Zealand it’s probably a forlorn hope that all the CO2 being given off as exhaust from ‘wasting’ all that gas will be captured at it’s source,
Of interest when i was looking for information on this project was the fact that the construction also included a gas storage facility, (an existing played out gas well that surplus gas is being pumped into),
i have to wonder if the ‘players’ in this gas to electricity game of waste realize that they are building the infrastructure that allows CO2 to be harvested from the atmosphere using the air’s own movement to bring the CO2 to the point of harvest and be turned into the very gas that they are at present taking from the ground and turning into CO2 by burning it,
Capturing that CO2 and turning it into Methane Gas, (even petrol), is a technology in it’s infancy but at least one country, Iceland, is capturing CO2 from it’s geothermal electricity generation,(yes apparently ‘some’ geothermal electricity generation does produce CO2), and doing just that with it,
Yes, we can all see the problem with turning CO2 into a fuel and then burning it as a fuel is still releasing CO2 to the atmosphere, BUT, harvesting CO2 from the atmosphere and refining that into fuel to produce electricity may be the way of the future IF the CO2 expelled in the production of electricity is captured at it’s source and refined back into the same fuel burned to create it in the first place…
So, after searching the web I’m figuring that that is 100MW generator. For just a little bit extra we could have had wind turbines with nowhere near as much pollution or need for ongoing importation (we’re almost out of natural gas in NZ) for gas.
The best thing that can be said about a gas generator is that it’s most likely to be shut down in a few years due of lack of fuel.
As far as running out of gas with which to cause even more CO2 to be pumped into the atmosphere, these people seem to think it’s going to be around for a while,
But, thats not really the point i am making, whats of interest is that it appears much of the present infrastructure of turning CO2 into methane gas, including it’s storage, is already present in Taranaki,
Here’s the fledgling CO2 to Methane industry in Iceland, the obvious BAD bit of that is to then allow the CO2 back into the atmosphere via burning the methane in vehicle engines,
What that Icelandic power plant should be doing is simply burning the product made from CO2 in it’s electricity generator, capturing the CO2 produced by having done so and sent that CO2 back through the process of turning it into Methane so as to enable it’s re-burning,
Also of interest on that page is the story of the ‘break-through’ science involved in using biological catalysts which enable CO2 to be turned into Methane using Sun-light without the expensive metals like gold previously thought to be the only catalyst able to perform such a function,
The next part of the jigsaw is of course the separation of the CO2 from the air, again such a ‘science’ is in it’s infancy but a theoretical study i have read, (will try and link to it later), ‘sees’ this to be not necessary as a removal of CO2 from the air at the source of the CO2 emissions but more a case of having the air movement in a place akin to todays wind farms bringing the CO2 to the means of it’s extraction from that air,
My particular interest in Taranaki at the moment is because the infrastructure present as part of the oil/gas system would also be the infrastructure necessary for a CO2 to fuel industry…
Grrr, bugger, did you get error 404???, the pages are not expired tho, if you Google the heading above the dud links it should, (hopefully), take you to the page,
1 out of 4, i spose i should look on the bright side of that, Grrr, that CO2 to Methanol site contains most of the info i am attempting to impart here and the third story on the page is also of interest as little old NZ gets a mention for the technology that is already in place in Taranaki,
Googling, Converting CO2 to Methanol also provides a zillion pages of useful info on the subject,
Of course Methanol has a lot more uses than just fuel, most of the plastics made in the world today contain the stuff, and IF we had the cost effective tech that took CO2 from the atmosphere and eventually made plastics with it then we have ‘fixed’ that CO2 for the lifetime of those plastics most of which i would dare suggest will end their existence buried in a landfill…
No not necessarily from what i have read, given that with bio-catalysts and sunlight quite a stream of methane can be obtained from CO2 with little ongoing energy cost the efficacy of doing so will come down to the cost of extracting such CO2 from suitably robust air-flows,
The rest is simply the cost of the rest of the process that the 2 methanol plants in Taranaki have been carrying out from time to time since they were built by Muldoons ‘think big’,
If a tonne of carbon had a price in NZ as a straight tax, such a tax could then be applied to the extraction of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere thus lowering the cost of fuels extracted from that carbon,
My next dig through the internet mountain of info i think will have to concentrate on both those questions, what price we as a society are willing to pay as tax for a tonne of carbon and what it might cost per tonne to extract such carbon from the atmosphere from suitable sites of high airflow,
Obviously the closer all these different ‘processes’ occur to the plants which manufacture methanol the more cost effective and commercially viable they become…
You have an interesting view on what is “just a little bit extra”.
Your link give a cost of about $1.75m for a megawatt of nameplate capacity. That’s the average of the range of $1.3m – $2.2m given in your link. However that is the maximum possible generating capacity of the turbine. The actual efficiency of them varies between about 25% and 40% so you would expect to need about 3 times the installed capacity as the power you generate.
The cost of producing 100MW would then be about 100 * 1.75 * 3 million dollars.
This works out at about $525m as opposed to the quoted figure of $100m. To Bill Gates, (or perhaps David Shearer), that might be “just a little bit extra” but it doesn’t seem so to me.
There is also no reason at all to believe that we are just about of natural gas. That canard has been used for years worldwide and we seem to always find more. If the Greens get to ban any exploration or production it might come true but we live in hope that they won’t get the chance to do so.
And if the worst case scenario expounded by the climate scientists were to be correct??? what price would you put on your current lifestyles continuance, the very continuance of the life of your grandchildren???,
Capitalist bean-counters should in my opinion when it comes to the equation vis a vis money over climate simply be abused as the whole money system is a foolish joke clung to by the wing-nuts as an ancient African witch-doctor clung to his baubles of divination…
Yeah, Ok, I was out on the price. Still say that wind, being renewable and sustainable, would be better option. Price isn’t the best way to choose.
When will oil, natural gas, and coal peak?
Globally, gas peaks in the 2020s and we’re a small nation at the bottom of the world with very little reason for people to gas sell to us. We may have a small amount left but I heard a few years ago that the Maui Field was out.
That canard has been used for years worldwide and we seem to always find more.
Wrong concept. Natural gas economics is crashing mate. The fossil fuel industry will grind to a commercial halt while there are gigatonnes of the stuff left under the ground.
Jokeyhen’s attitude to NZ is that it is a great scenic background in front of which he can perform various celebrity gestures and give out uplifting and soothing speeches about the great conditions we have here. We’re like a unique handbag accessory for this most prominent NZer. The rest of us just have to use plastic ones with folksy pictures or a koru on them.
“Slippery the Prime Minister was yesterday in Taranaki opening a gas fired electricity plant, the cost $100 million and it is capable of powering 70,000 homes”
Slippery failed to do an essential thing: To light a cigarette with an open flame lighter, which could have saved the country from a damned lot of harm. But I suppose, he does not smoke, regrettably.
If it costs $1,500 per house to build a power station then wtf are we doing not doing so cooperatively? That is shit all coin. Far less than installing a solar number or something similar, by a large multiple.
And surely the ongoing cost of running the power station and supplying the fuel is relatively minor compared to the capital cost of construction.
If so, why on earth would the average hosuehold be paying around $2,500 per annum for electricity?
Does this not highlight something very very fishy around power companies …………..
If we paid for the power-stations through taxes and considered them a social good then we don’t need a return (profit) on the capital. At that point all we’d need to cover is the running and maintenance and that spread across all households would be SFA and that cost goes down if we use renewables as there’s no longer any drag from the costs of supplying fuel.
Conclusion: A state monopoly in power supply and reticulation is the most efficient and cost effective way of supplying power especially if using renewables.
No, I don’t think he’s that ignorant. He’ll know how to get rich which is to get a lot of people to give you a little bit of money (A little bit here, a little bit there and pretty soon you’re talking serious money). As such he’ll know that to keep costs per person down would be to spread them out across as many people as possible.
Selwyn Manning at his best, red rattler! Yes, it stinks so much, it is so bloody obvious, but the NZ media and public still have “blind” faith in a PM, like too many Germans once had in Hitler. When will they ever wake up?
A candle in a long street
A candle in the sleep of houses
A candle for frightened shops
A candle for bakeries
A candle for a journalist trembling in an empty office
A candle for a fighter
A candle for a woman doctor watching over patients
A candle for the wounded
A candle for plain talk
A candle for the stairs
A candle for a hotel packed with refugees
A candle for a singer
A candle for broadcasters in their hideouts
A candle for a bottle of water
A candle for the air
A candle for two lovers in a naked flat
A candle for the falling sky
A candle for the beginning
A candle for the ending
A candle for the last communique
A candle for conscience
A candle in your hands.
“We keep our hands in our pockets, and, unable to say “yes” to ourselves, we lack a “no” that is sure enough to stand between our best and our worst interests. We are left to make do with plans and policies that have little bearing on the main plot. It is a different play that is being staged, and we are actors and audience both, but unable to change the script.”
“The willingness to be less than what we could be is endemic. The lack of care and complicity of silence finds us all wanting. We cannot dissociate ourselves from the hypocricies of our governments or the immoralities of our corporations. Nor can we hide behind the screen of busyness, even if we do call it “work and family commitments”. This is classic middle-class camouflage : one of the more altruistic personae of self-interest.”
-Kerry Flattley
-Chris Wallace Crabbe.
Before you go, I need to tell you
why here tongues turn dry as piki bread.
No one knows why this story is true.
but I know there was a woman who
buried both her hands in blue dough. She said,
Before you go, I need to tell you
why Hopi corn grows short, in a few
spindly clumps, not deep wide and red.
No one knows why this story is true,
but I know it is not a lie. New
seed lay still; the sheep we gave for dead.
Before you go I need to tell you
the crater’s spirit gave us breath. Blu
winds swept ash from the mesa, it bled-
no one knows why this story is true-
earth’s sky blood washed ragged furrows. Blue
corn cracked tucked sharp in this lava bed.
Before you go, I need to tell you:
no one knows why this story is true.
-Peggy Shumaker
(Hopi corn is a biological riddle. It germinates only in thin volcanic soil and thrives in the sever, unforgiving climate of the high desert.)
A NZ living in Victoria has taken a case against the government there of discrimenation because he has been denied a student concession. The case is due to go before the Tribunal some months hence and if it succeeds it could unroll that denial and pay the student some compensation. The final comment was that the Oz government has been concerned about discrimination against NZ in the social welfare sector. Concerned enough to reverse this discrimination? Did Jokeyhen mention it to Gillard? I wonder.
The point, I imagine, is
not to learn to expect
betrayal, self-deceit, lies
however thick they collect
in the cul-de-sac of one’s days,
half-noticed, half-numbered, half-checked:
but rather to learn to praise
fidelity, trust and love
which in their modest ways continue to be and move
(however mocked, however derided,
however difficult, indeed, to prove),
utterly undivided-
if inarticulate or mute,
still mortally decided.
Neither fashionable nor astute
this point to take to heart:
merely final and absolute:
1. Semi-auto rifles account for less than 2% of fatalities (Might actually be less than 1%) in the USA
2. The gun murder rate has been dropping since the last ban (in the late 80s) was lifted
3. Making law-abiding citizens criminals won’t help
4. Prohibition doesn’t work
5. The “evil” weapons in the USA are available in NZ
6. There are over 20000 gun laws in the USA, enforce those first before implementing new ones
I think something along the lines of what Portugal is doing is what we should be doing. I would decriminalize all drugs and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.
I don’t think giving someone a criminal conviction and sending them to prison is the best way to deal with an addiction.
Mind you I’d up the sentence term for pushers, dealers and suppliers
Oh yeah forgot to add that in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans
You must be one of those ‘blue greenies’ some bod was telling us about the other day.
“and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.”
How would you have government pay for that?
“I don’t think giving someone a criminal conviction and sending them to prison is the best way to deal with an addiction.”
Agreed, though not all drug users are addicts.
“in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans”
Are you saying the people who now don’t own guns because of that legislation, or those that could have, but now can’t, are thug criminals? Good job they don’t have access to legal fire arms.
I don’t know about being blue-green just that prohibition and “the war on drugs” doesn’t/isn’t working and Portugal seems to be going well so why not try it
“and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.”
How would government pay for that?
Use the budget that isn’t spent on addicts in prison plus I’d imagine the long-term savings might sway some politicians…(yeah I’m naive)
“in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans”
Are you saying the people who now don’t own guns because of that legislation are now thug criminals? Good job they don’t have legal access to fire arms
No, I’m saying the UK implemented a big crackdown on firemarms in the wake of Dunblane and the rates of violent crime (knives and box cutters mostly) have massively increased whereas the USA ended its ban on semi-auto rifle sales in the late 80s and violent crime and gun deaths have steadily decreased.
Are there problems, yes. Is a knee-jerk feel-good ban on semi-auto rifles going to work, no. Are their better ways to deal with the problems, yes.
Just to note the weapons used at Columbine were a 12-gauge Savage-Springfield 67H pump-action shotgun and a Hi-Point 995 Carbine 9 mm carbine with thirteen 10-round magazines.
The carbine was developed in response to the ban on semi-auto rifles and capacity of magazine size.
Also a 9 mm Intratec TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun with one 52-, one 32-, and one 28-round magazine and a 12-gauge Stevens 311D double-barreled sawed-off shotgun.
It is illegal to cut a barrel down beyond a certain length but it didn’t stop him from doing it.
No, I think it was someone with an agenda, making a point, but very badly.
Oxymoron if ever I read one.
“Use the budget that isn’t spent on addicts in prison plus I’d imagine the long-term savings might sway some politicians…(yeah I’m naive)”
It’s an ambitious project and I’m sure quite costly to set up, certainly more than the prison spend. The left are advocates of spend now, reduce long term costs later. It’s all over education, health, welfare, but the right scream about the money and where it’s coming from and keep the status quo.
Good luck convincing your tory mp to support Labour and Green policy.
“No, I’m saying the UK implemented a big crackdown on firemarms in the wake of Dunblane and the rates of violent crime (knives and box cutters mostly) have massively increased”
As those chavs and idiots on the street would ever legally own a weapon before or after legislation, I don’t think there’s a case for linking the statistics.
There isn’t really a need for anyone to own guns, especially military grade killing tools. Sport and recreation are not good enough reasons to justify burying school children. Take up golf.
“military grade killing tools”
1. Theres no real difference between an AR-15 (the semi-auto civilian version of the american assault rifle) and a semi-auto rifle, in fact in some cases the semi-auto rifle is a better option
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing.
3. I wonder if proudly proclaiming you’re a “gun-free” zone is the smartest thing they could do:
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing
Think about it.
Firstly, think about the US Air Force. Then think about the Marine corp, the US Army, and the highly militarized police forces the US federal and state governments have.
Now ask yourself what sort of weaponry you would need to fight the US government, and look around to check the availability of such weaponry.
What does such thinking tell you about the theory that US citizens are given the right to collect weapons sufficient to beat off their government.
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing
Nah that’s bullshit.
The original Second Amendment talked about the right to bear arms within the context of a “well regulated militia” i.e. a trained, disciplined and organised state militia for the defence of the state and of the union.
Various judicial interpretations in recent decades has turned that into a right to bear arms individually for essentially any individual purpose, and with no connection or participation to any “well regulated militia”.
The US gun lobby have made their bed, they will sleep in it.
And people forget that there are up to 1M firearms here in NZ. And fuck all people get shot…on purpose.
Actually I think that if you look at what the makers of the constitution said at the time, the intent was to prevent governments from disarming the local militias. Disciplined formations of men are somewhat different to individual idiots with weapons.
From what was recorded, I’d think that they’d have been aghast at the idea of giving the right to bear “semi-auto” weapons (convertable to automatic with a freely available cheap kit) to random nutters who want them.
Looks at Madison and the arguments he was having in Virginia at the time of ratification. The timeline and evolution of the language of the amendment which he submitted seem to suggest it was mostly about leaving the States with the authority to call out their own militia to put down slave revolts without having to get Congressional say so.
Excellent. I hadn’t run across that before. But it fits.
In any case, it is clear that the intent of the framers of the constitution was for a disciplined and well regulated state run militia. The current position that people outside the national guard, state troopers, and other such well regulated bodies should bear arms is a travesty of the wording of the US constitution and the intent of the framers.
In which case I’d suggest that tightning up and enforcing rules against the mentally ill would have a greater effect on ending mass killings then enacting another law that’d most likely be ignored
Also this guy didn’t use guns to kill more then anybody else:
Think about when it was written, think about what they’d just come through, think about what the government of the day had imposed on them, think about the technology of the time
They didn’t know how big the government would become but they did know that the government should fear the people not the other way around, they knew there had to be checks and balances to stop the government of the day (whenever that day is) from becoming tyrannical and guaranteeing the rights of its citizens to bear is the simplest way to ensure that
Think about it
Now think what the Vietnamese did to americans, think about what the afghanis did to basically everyone that ever messed with them.
Technology can and has been beaten by superior tactics, self-belief and knowledge of terrain
Think about when it was written, think about what they’d just come through, think about what the government of the day had imposed on them, think about the technology of the time
You have to go back and read some of the (many many) things written at the time to work out what they were up to. There were long arguments about most stuff, and the right to bear arms was no different. The arguments weren’t focused on fighting the US government. A major aspect was the right of the States to have military patrols. Some thought that the States should not have this right, that it was similar to the standing army thing that was part of what the revolution was against. However, others felt the need to have regular armed patrols of the country side. Guess why (clue: these were the slave states).
On the technology of the time, irrelevant. Unless you are suggesting that the constitution only allows muskets? Or that citizens should indeed be able to buy and maintain private air forces and set up SAM sites?
Now think what the Vietnamese did to americans, think about what the afghanis did to basically everyone that ever messed with them.
Technology can and has been beaten by superior tactics, self-belief and knowledge of terrain
Dude please. This is bloody “Wolverines!” nonsense. You cannot compare Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else to a supposed attempted overthrow of the US Federal Govt.
-You’ll note that not one of those wars were an existential war for the US. They were wars they could afford to lose.
-You’ll note that the opposing forces in those wars had better knowledge of the people and terrain, not something the US lacks in the US.
-You’re still left with the problem that rifles are not what you need. If the US gun nuts were serious about defending themselves from the government, they’d be buying different things.
If they were serious they would revolted years ago, like maybe when Bush declared that a President could just call a citizen an enemy combatant, and they’d lose all their legal rights. Or when Obama said he could put them on kill lists. Neither of which are subjected to any checks or balances. Just a President’s say so. How does that compare to King George/ what are they waiting for?
They are basically role playing at being rebels. It’s a hobby. They are not a threat to their government
Here’s a good read on what they should be buying if they’re serious;
GIs who’d seen what an RPG hit could do to an M113 got in the habit of saying, “I’ll walk, thanks.” The RPG warhead does something called “spalling,” which means the warhead turns the aluminum side armor of an APC into molten shrapnel which goes zipping through the guts of everybody inside like a Benihana chef’s knife, only it’s a knife as hot as the surface of the sun.
Thanks for the link…hey M113’s isnt’ that what the NZ Army used to drive around in?
Did the post Peters referred to really say that NZanders spend 27 days per year on overseas hols?
Btw, LPrent – when I leave the page (to follow a link for example) I am no longer able to return to the same place in the page I left. I’m returned to the top. It’s happened a quite a few times now.
Another disgusting OIA fob-off, and I have had them also. Now surely, there is no great difficulty in “collating” that information, as the PM himself could easily offer it, and if need be, airline tickets must exist and can be presented. The whole OIA process these days is ridiculous, it is not worth pursuing anymore. The DICTATORSHIP in AOTEAROA NZ is WORKING!
Is Cyprus about to implode across our screens? It is surely way too late now to take that money off depositors – you would think that sort of thing must be done overnight, not a week later. Otherwise the time gets people to thinking about reaction………
Indeed. And the theft of bank deposits will be quickly back on the table if the international capital strike now being organised against Cypress is effective.
Many Russians not happy. (Just like many Brits weren’t happy at Iceland…)
Oh look. It’s only been a couple of days and new proposals on the table suggest taking 25% of large bank accounts. Many accounts affected will belong to Russians.
Didn’t take long for banker pressure (threats) on the Cyprus parliament to do its job, did it.
(The geopolitical angle is the massive EU vs Russia stoush this is shaping into)
Activists, take note: People support reform if they believe the changes will enhance the future character of society, according to a study published online this month in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Namely, people support a future society that fosters the development of warm and moral individuals.
So one wonders how National and their ever present outright nastiness ever manages to get voted in to power.
Ouch, rumor via TV1 news is that Telecom will likely be cutting up to 2500 jobs in May, the flow on effects of that are a horror story,
Bill from Dipton was saying on the last Q+A that the welfare budget would probably have to have more money this year, wonder if the Finance Minister had prior knowledge…
That is why I gave up cycling around Auckland many years ago. It is too damned dangerous. In many European countries cycleways are clearly separated from the main road, and well marked and mostly well maintained, so no such close encounters with cars or trucks would usually happen.
But the cycleways in NZ, I am talking about Auckland by the way, are not quite as bad as they used to be, but still leave cyclists exposed to immense risks and danger.
NO, I won’t cycle in Auckland again, unless the whole infrastructure gets improved and car drivers are held more accountable for their negligence and dangerous driving.
My previous enthusiasm and sympathy for Brazil has been more than moderated over recent days. While I love the culture and spirit of people there, the newest top 50 of their “hits’ shows how corrupt and Americanised that society is. Even their own performers are rather up themselves and believing they are better than others. In some cases they may be, but not in all. I am disappointed, and the commercial world is taking its toll all over the place. It is rot, rot and more rot, not quality aand skill.
The top 50 hits will be those that get promoted on tv, especially by Rede Globo (think Murdoch in Portuguese). Brazil is a large and complex country, with the cultural differences from north to south being something like Invercargill to PNG. East to west isn’t much different. There are things about Brazil I absolutely love, and things I hate, but none of those things have much to do with the top 50.
How Can We Make Wellbeing at the Centre of Public Policy If We Dont Measure It?When the Minister of Finance announced in the 2018 budget that in the future economic policy would focus more on wellbeing, many saw a glimmer of hope that we were moving away from the mechanical ...
Below is a statement we received from LGB Fight Back in the States, a new group that advocates for LGB rights under vicious, homophobic attack by trans ideology activists. LGB Fight Back, a US-based organization that represents the interests of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people, launched on February 14, ...
Mā te mōhiotanga, ka mārama – mā te māramatanga, ka ora. (Through awareness comes understanding, and enlightenment empowers well-being) Dr Tahu Kukutai embodies this whakataukī (proverb), a wahine (woman) who is driven by a purpose to unveil the stories behind population statistics. Tahu specialises in Māori population research, Indigenous ...
Mihi mai ki a Jade Rangiwhiua Hyslop whose area of research is river restoration and kaupapa Māori. Passionate about the outdoors, learning and improving the environment in socially-just and innovative ways, she works at Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research in Kirikiriroa (Hamilton). A budding researcher in its Manaaki Taiao Māori research ...
The report is back on another Universal Basic Income trial, this time in the USA. And as with the others, it shows that this policy works: After getting $500 per month for two years without rules on how to spend it, 125 people in California paid off debt, got ...
Revolutionary Formula:A new Aotearoa is on the rise. Tangata Whenua (Māori) + Tangata Tiriti (all other ethnicities who are committed to a tiriti centric Aotearoa) = the Aotearoa I believe in fighting for. - Rawiri Waititi, Co-Leader of the Maori Party.NEW ZEALAND is in the early stages of a revolution. ...
Mob Psychology: Deep down inside us dwell all manner of dark and violent impulses. In times of social stress and/or crisis, these “atavistic” urges have a nasty habit of rising to the surface like an insufficiently weighted corpse – and unleashing mayhem.ARE WE AS SAVAGE as our forebears? Would we ...
Over the past few years there's been a growing trend for bespoke secrecy clauses in legislation, excluding specific types of information (or even whole agencies) from the coverage of the Official Information Act. These pop up in all sorts of unusual places, sometimes when introduced, sometimes put there by select ...
In this week’s podcast Selwyn Manning and I discuss the ethics and practicalities involved in the so-called “conflict industry.” It includes a discussion of the who and what of the “kill chain” and the implications of Rocket Lab’s position as a major US military logistical provider. You can find it ...
Ramin SkibbaTo turn the tide against climate change, on the day of his inauguration President Joe Biden signed an executive order instituting a raft of policy changes and initiatives. One directed his team to reassess the social cost of carbon. This seemingly obscure concept puts a number on how ...
All Out Of Kindness: At her post-Cabinet media conference on Monday, the Prime Minister demonstrated conclusively that she could be cruel as well as kind. Those revealed to have breached the self-isolation protocols felt the full force of Jacinda Ardern’s displeasure – and the nation lapped it up.JACINDA ARDERN KNOWS ...
Session Thirty-Seven… our last full session in the Dreamland. So the Fae Queen was after a rematch. To the extent that she was literally willing to destroy her own forest in order to replenish her forces. I imagine one of her advisers pointed out that “destroying something in ...
Today the shabby little train of denial ran out of smoke. Payment, apology in Dirty Politics case — Newsroom Crushing defeat for Dirty Politics PR man with apology to defamed academics — The Spinoff Here’s the apology wording, below. It’s ruined only by the clearly bullshit implication that there was ...
It’s always tempting to reach for the easiest “answers” to make sense of an uncertain world. It’s a tendency that has been there for a long time, but in the time of COVID, a lot of it seems to be on steroids.Desperate people do desperate things. In ...
Why New Research? Skeptical Science exists for the purpose of improving public capacity for critical thinking about anthropogenic climate change. Effective critical analysis requires a basis of information, and for our purpose the wellsprings of fundamental understanding are found in peer-reviewed academic literature, our best grasp of how Earth's climate operates and ...
This column will be calling it out. There’s so much folx need to educate ourselves about and DO BETTER. From cis privilege to white privilege, whether it’s how to decolonise, how to handle the pronoun illiterates, this column will be an inclusive space, for ALL GENDERS and ALL IDENTITIES. It ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh, Colombia, 26 February 2021 The recent decision taken in California to place men and women in the same wings of prisons as a response to the violence meted out to trans prisoners is a nascent issue in Colombia, but sooner or later it will get here. ...
About 10 years ago there was a proliferation of home wares promoting ‘Keep calm and carry on’. This adage came from World War 2 posters produced by the British Government in an effort to boost the morale of its citizens. Typically printed as white lettering on a red background you ...
Having spent most of the pandemic alternately calling for mass-death by relaxing lockdowns "for the economy", and for those who breach lockdowns to face harsher and harsher punishments, the National Party has finally made a useful contribution by calling for people told to self-isolate to be paid directly: The ...
The Ombudsman is supposed to be our core watchdog on administrative decision-making. Their central job is to review decisions by public agencies to ensure they are fair and reasonable and followed a proper process. So its more than a little embarrassing that they've been called to account by the courts ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington For many, people life moved online in 2020. From preschool to dissertation defenses, first dates to weddings, video calls brought us together. To entertain ourselves, we streamed concerts and movies, played video games, and scrolled social media. Demand for internet ...
The Government has made a litany of mistakes over Covid, and we have been more than willing to forgive Labour these missteps and give them some leeway. Branko Marcetic says that when members of the public also make mistakes, we should be focusing on designing a wider system that insulates ...
Naïve optimism has been blinding everyone from Ashley Bloomfield to Case M. Josh Van Veen argues we need to be more aware of our biases in dealing with Covid – but especially the authorities. In the United States, naive optimism was at the heart of the Trump Administration’s failed ...
Cecile Meier walks us through some of the costs of a border system that has neither been able to safely scale up to meet need, nor able to find any reasonable way of prioritising entry into those scarce MIQ spaces. When Zane Gillbee hugged his family goodbye in South Africa ...
Technology lists, what’s this thing called “Deep Tech”, and thinking beyond the tech. Top “x” lists of technology developments, breakthroughs and trends aren’t hard to find. But how useful are they? MIT’s “Breakthrough Technologies” This time every year MIT’s Technology Review magazine produces a “10 breakthrough technologies” list. This ...
Having watched and read about the Conference of the Paranoid, Angry and just plain Crazy (CPAC), including the Orange Merkin’s return to the political centre stage, I am more convinced then ever that if US conservatism, and indeed the US itself, is to find its way back to some semblance ...
Back in 2019, following media revelations that bullying was widespread within the police, the Independent Police Conduct Authority announced that it would be investigating the issue. Today, they reported back, and found the police to be a completely toxic organisation: An independent report into police culture has described a ...
Dr Ben Gray*New Zealand has begun to roll out its Covid-19 vaccination programme, starting with those working at the border, including in the Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) facilities. There have been calls for prioritising other groups such as those in South Auckland [1] and meat industry workers ...
The Climate Change Commission’s recommendations span the breadth of the economy. They are required to come up with sector-by-sector climate budgets consistent with getting New Zealand with net zero emissions under the Zero Carbon Act. The sector-by-sector budgets rest on underlying models. The models build predictions about what will happen ...
Revolution From Below: The original “Long March” was, of course, undertaken by Mao Zedong and what was left of his communist military forces. They did not, however, head off for the nearest school or university, government office or medical clinic. Their goal was not to infiltrate the institutions of capitalism, but ...
There are some genre authors who like to demonstrate their edgy, iconoclastic credentials by sticking the boot into J.R.R. Tolkien. Michael Moorcock springs to mind, with the much-beaten dead horse that is the Epic Pooh essay. Each to their own, I suppose, though seeing as Epic Pooh really boils ...
John SchwartzElizabeth Kolbert lives her stories. In the course of reporting her new book, “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future,” she got hit by a leaping carp near Ottawa, Illinois (“It felt like someone had slammed me in the shin with a Wiffle-ball bat”) and visited ...
New Zealand has an excellent Emissions Trading Scheme covering everything except agriculture – a non-trivial exclusion, but we can come back to that later. The ETS has a cap. Net emissions from the covered sector cannot exceed the cap. So any other regulations that affect sectors covered by the cap ...
Michael SchulsonDays before the inauguration of President Joe Biden, at a time when some Americans were animated by the false conviction that former President Donald J. Trump had actually won the November election, a man in Colorado began texting warnings to his family. The coming days, he wrote, would ...
Last year, Beef and Lamb New Zealand produced a bought-and-paid-for report claiming that their industry was already carbon neutral, so didn't need to do anything to reduce emissions. The report was full of obviously dodgy accounting - basicly, it didn't bother to follow international carbon accounting rules, because they would ...
Last year, the government chickened out on clean rivers, setting "water standards" that failed to properly control poisonous nitrates. So who was to blame? MPI: The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) opposed introducing a tough bottom line for nitrogen levels in rivers over concerns the economic impact would outweigh ...
Robert Greenberg, University of AucklandThe world was excited by the news last week that NASA’s Perseverance rover had successfully landed in a Martian crater. The rover will now set about collecting samples from what scientists say was an ancient lake fed by a river. The name of this exotic ...
Faith In The Essentials: Fenced-in, almost literally, by motorways. Located, seemingly permanently, at the bottom of politicians’ priority-lists. Heaped with praise for their cultural vibrancy, but not rewarded for it by the presence of white pupils in their public schools, South Aucklanders (like people of colour everywhere) provide their paler ...
Image credit:POLITICAL BLOG I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or the numbers seem very low please check this out. After correcting send me the URL ...
Since the pandemic began, the UK government has restricted protests in an effort to contain the plague. But of course, they're plotting to make these restrictions permanent: Concern over the government’s limitation of the right to protest during lockdown continues to mount after it emerged that the home secretary, ...
Completed reads for February: The Dream of Scipio, by CiceroThe Dragon Masters, by Jack Vance The Dream of Scipio is Pearman’s translation. A very quiet month in the reading department… but a truly excellent one in the writing department. Better yet, this was not merely short stories, but solid ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (Colombia, 18 February 2020) Two soldiers, Jhony Andrés Castillo Ospino and Jesús Alberto Muñoz Segovia, fell into the hands of the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN; National Liberation Army). Their capture produced the usual reactions that they had been kidnapped when in fact they were prisoners ...
As much of the world is still implementing lockdowns, including New Zealand, it is a good time to see how Sweden has fared. After being demonised for a year for having relatively moderate restrictions the Swedish death toll is rather much in line with other years. Sweden followed the standard ...
Under The Influence Of The "Governance" Kool-Aid: The furore surrounding Mayor Andy Foster's "review" of the Wellington City Council's "governance" is but the latest example of the quite conscious delegitimization, and sinister re-framing, of spirited political opposition and debate as irresponsible, immature and “dysfunctional”. It shows how very far from ...
Hello there everybody. I’ve been asked by Mr Thinks to come on his blog today and speak my mind about stuff. The government has a lot to answer for. I was sitting there last week as Auckland came out of it’s latest lockdown and I knew the government was making ...
There are times when tikanga needs to be broken for tikanga to survive.I recently gave a presentation on Māori economic history based on my Not in Narrow Seas. Its most important message was that Māori proved to be a very adaptable people continually evolving as new opportunities arose. The European ...
Some of you may remember our blog post "A conundrum: our continued presence on Facebook" in which we detailed our misgivings about and decision to stick with Facebook for the time being. So these latest developments - reposted from the Cranky Uncle homepage - might come as a bit of surprise! ...
Image credit:Quick Data Lessons: Data Dredging Oh dear – another scientific paper claiming evidence of toxic effects from fluoridation. But a critical look at the paper shows evidence of p-hacking, data dredging and motivated reasoning to derive their conclusions. And it was published in a journal shown to be ...
We've had a housing crisis for the past decade, and successive governments have done nothing to solve it. Why not? Bernard Hickey gets it right when he says its all about protecting the rich: The Government is reluctant to push down house prices fearing they'll loses the support of ...
There’s more of the Obama legacy here and Deporter in Chief: Obama chucks out 2,000,000 and Can Trump really deport more people than Obama? and Obama, gay rights and the killing drones ...
My Department Right Or Wrong: Far from “politicians involving themselves in some Corrections matters” being a bad thing, their involvement – along with that of the Ombudsman – constitutes a necessary check upon the unreasonable and unlawful exercise of authority over prison inmates by prison staff. A Corrections Minister who ...
New Zealand is supposed to have a progressive tax system, which taxes people according to their ability to pay. But it turns out that the rich are cheating: The wealthiest New Zealanders pay just 12 per cent of their total income in tax on average, according to research from ...
Ground truths on warming When we think about rapid climate change of the kind we've accidentally unleashed and the warming of Earth systems inherent in the process, we tend to focus on phenomena in order of their immediate tangibility, their drama. Sea ice loss in the Arctic, atmospheric and ocean ...
by Daphna Whitmore The Department of Corrections has called in the police over a pamphlet that supports protests at Waikeria Prison, saying the material might incite another riot. The group People Against Prisons Aotearoa denies it advocates for riots and has said it “encourages persistent, peaceful protest action such as striking from ...
One theme in the literature dedicated to democratic theory is the notion of a “tyranny of the minority.” This is where the desire to protect the interests of and give voice to electoral minorities leads to a tail wagging the dog syndrome whereby minorities wind up having disproportionate influence in ...
I've just lodged my fourth complaint to the Ombudsman for deemed refusal of an OIA request by police this year. That brings their total to four for four - every request I have sent them has not been answered within the legal timeframe, even when they extend it to give ...
Will the health reforms proposed for the Labour Government make the system better or worse? Health commentator Ian Powell (formerly the Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists) gives his analysis of what change is most necessary, and what should be avoided. The review of the Health ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections An off-course polar vortex meandered toward the Mexican border, bringing with it frigid Arctic air rarely seen as far south as Texas. Frozen equipment rendered power generation systems in the state inoperable, forcing grid operators to begin rolling blackouts to customers then left to fend ...
Just as National once produced a “rock star economy” that Grant Robertson rejected as being only for the rich, the Labour Government has produced an economic “bounce back” that leaves out the poor. Branko Marcetic argues for a rise in benefit levels to give the poor a real bounce back. ...
Virginia has voted to abolish the death penalty: State lawmakers gave final approval on Monday to a bill that will end capital punishment in Virginia, a dramatic turnaround for a state that has executed more people than any other. The legislation repealing the death penalty now heads to the ...
Yesterday a New Zealand Judge issued a formal finding that the Department of Corrections had treated prisoners in a cruel, degrading and inhumane manner, illegally detaining them, using excessive force, denying them basic necessities unless they performed degrading rituals of submission first. Some of the conduct appears to be criminal: ...
The Herald reports that there is a "storm brewing for the Climate Change Commission". The "problem"? Polluters are unhappy with its economic projections saying that action will not be as costly as they have previously claimed: Last week a coalition of over a dozen New Zealand business and industry ...
The Green Party are calling on the Government to assess how the COVID-19 leave support scheme can be better improved, distributed and enforced so that workers can properly take leave when self-isolating. ...
We know that when our rural communities do well, all of New Zealand benefits. Labour is committed to supporting our regions so that, together, we can achieve even more. Here are just some of the ways we’re backing rural communities. ...
Government data today shows that the wealthiest New Zealanders aren’t paying their fair share of tax, whilst everyone else chips in, Green Party spokesperson on Finance Julie Anne Genter said today. ...
The Green Party welcomes the change in the Reserve Bank’s remit to consider the impacts on housing when making financial decisions, but housing affordability shouldn’t be left to the Reserve Bank, Green Party Co-leader and Housing spokesperson Marama Davidson said today. ...
The Green Party welcomes the passing of the Local Electorate Act Māori Wards Amendment Bill which ensures Māori have a say on local issues across Aotearoa New Zealand. ...
New UMR research reveals that 69 percent of New Zealanders agree that the government should increase the amount if income support paid to those on low incomes or not in paid work. ...
The Green Party are celebrating the Labour Government bringing forward the timeline to ban conversion therapy, and will push to ensure any draft bill properly protects all of our Rainbow communities. ...
The Green Party is joining the call for ‘brave policy action’ to address rapidly increasing inequality in New Zealand, which is likely to be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. ...
Green MPs currently in Auckland, Marama Davidson, Chlöe Swarbrick and Golriz Ghahraman, will remain in Auckland for the next 72 hours. Those in Auckland today for Big Gay Out who have flown home will self-isolate for 72 hours. These decisions will be subject to any new information that may arise ...
Health Minister Andrew Little welcomes the Initial Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission’s assessment that transformation of New Zealand’s approach to mental health and addiction is underway. “This is an important step in the Government’s work to provide better and equitable mental health and wellbeing outcomes for all people in New ...
The Government’s Consumer Travel Reimbursement Scheme has helped return over $352 million of refunds and credits to New Zealanders who had overseas travel cancelled due to COVID-19, Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark says. “Working with the travel sector, we are helping New Zealanders retrieve the money owed to them by ...
An additional 88,000 students in 322 schools and kura across the country have started the school year with a regular lunch on the menu, thanks to the Government’s Ka Ora, Ka Ako Healthy School Lunches programme. They join 42,000 students already receiving weekday lunches under the scheme, which launched last ...
New Zealand’s economic recovery has again been reflected in the Government’s books, which are in better shape than expected. The Crown accounts for the seven months to the end of January 2021 were better than forecast in the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU). The operating balance before gains ...
More than half of New Zealand’s estimated 12,000 border workforce have now received their first vaccinations, as a third batch of vaccines arrive in the country, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. As of midnight Tuesday, a total of 9,431 people had received their first doses. More than 70 percent ...
The Government is significantly increasing its investment in restoring Central Otago’s waterways while at the same time delivering jobs to the region hard-hit by the economic impact of Covid-19, says Land Information Minister, Damien O’Connor. Mr O’Connor says two new community projects under the Jobs for Nature funding programme will ...
The Government has confirmed details of COVID-19 support for business and workers following the increased alert levels due to a resurgence of the virus over the weekend. Following two new community cases of COVID-19, Auckland moved to Alert Level 3 and the rest of New Zealand moved to Alert Level ...
The Government remains committed to hosting the Women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in 2022 should a decision be made by World Rugby this weekend to postpone this year’s tournament. World Rugby is recommending the event be postponed until next year due to COVID-19, with a final decision to ...
Community and social service support providers have again swung into action to help people and families affected by the current COVID-19 alert levels. “The Government recognises that in many instances social service, community, iwi and Whānau Ora organisations are best placed to provide vital support to the communities impacted by ...
The Government is following through on an election promise to conduct an independent review into PHARMAC, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Andrew Little announced today. The Review will focus on two areas: How well PHARMAC performs against its current objectives and whether and how its performance against these ...
Some of the country’s most forward-thinking early-career conservationists are among recipients of a new scholarship aimed at supporting a new generation of biodiversity champions, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. The Department of Conservation (DOC) has awarded one-year postgraduate research scholarships of $15,000 to ten Masters students in the natural ...
I acknowledge our whānau overseas, joining us from Te Whenua Moemoeā, and I wish to pay respects to their elders past, present, and emerging. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all today. I am very pleased to be part of the conversation on Indigenous business, and part ...
Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced today that main benefits will increase by 3.1 percent on 1 April, in line with the rise in the average wage. The Government announced changes to the annual adjustment of main benefits in Budget 2019, indexing main benefit increases to the average ...
A Deed of Settlement has been signed between Ngāti Maru and the Crown settling the iwi’s historical Treaty of Waitangi claims, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little announced today. The Ngāti Maru rohe is centred on the inland Waitara River valley, east to the Whanganui River and its ...
With a suite of Government income support packages available, Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni is encouraging people, and businesses, connected to the recent Auckland COVID-19 cases to check the Work and Income website if they’ve been impacted by the need to self-isolate. “If you are required to ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has expressed her condolences at the passing of long-serving former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare. “Our thoughts are with Lady Veronica Somare and family, Prime Minister James Marape and the people of Papua New Guinea during this time of great ...
E te tī, e te tā Tēnei te mihi maioha ki a koutou Ki te whenua e takoto nei Ki te rangi e tū iho nei Ki a tātou e tau nei Tēnā tātou. It’s great to be with you today, along with some of the ministerial housing team; Hon Peeni Henare, the ...
The Government is backing a new project to use drone technology to transform our understanding and protection of the Māui dolphin, Aotearoa’s most endangered dolphin. “The project is just one part of the Government’s plan to save the Māui dolphin. We are committed to protecting this treasure,” Oceans and Fisheries ...
Major water reform has taken a step closer with the appointment of the inaugural board of the Taumata Arowai water services regulator, Hon Nanaia Mahuta says. Former Director General of Health and respected public health specialist Dame Karen Poutasi will chair the inaugural board of Crown agency Taumata Arowai. “Dame ...
The newly completed Hibiscus Coast Bus Station will help people make better transport choices to help ease congestion and benefit the environment, Transport Minister Michael Wood and Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said today. Michael Wood and Phil Goff officially opened the Hibiscus Coast Bus Station which sits just off the ...
New funding announced by Conservation Minister Kiri Allan today will provide work and help protect the unique values of Northland’s Te Ārai Nature Reserve for future generations. Te Ārai is culturally important to Te Aupōuri as the last resting place of the spirits before they depart to Te Rerenga Wairua. ...
Today the Government has taken a key step to support Pacific people to becoming Community Housing providers, says the Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio. “This will be great news for Pacific communities with the decision to provide Pacific Financial Capability Grant funding and a tender process to ...
Conservation Minister Kiri Allan is encouraging New Zealanders to have their say on a proposed marine mammal sanctuary to address the rapid decline of bottlenose dolphins in Te Pēwhairangi, the Bay of Islands. The proposal, developed jointly with Ngā Hapū o te Pēwhairangi, would protect all marine mammals of the ...
Attorney-General David Parker today announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges. Two of the appointees will take up their roles on 1 April, replacing sitting Judges who have reached retirement age. Kirsten Lummis, lawyer of Auckland has been appointed as a District Court Judge with jury jurisdiction to ...
Government announces list of life-shortening conditions guaranteeing early KiwiSaver access The Government changed the KiwiSaver rules in 2019 so people with life-shortening congenital conditions can withdraw their savings early The four conditions guaranteed early access are – down syndrome, cerebral palsy, Huntington’s disease and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder An alternative ...
The Reserve Bank is now required to consider the impact on housing when making monetary and financial policy decisions, Grant Robertson announced today. Changes have been made to the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee’s remit requiring it to take into account government policy relating to more sustainable house prices, while working ...
The Labour Government will invest $6 million for 70 additional adult cochlear implants this year to significantly reduce the historical waitlist, Health Minister Andrew Little says. “Cochlear implants are life changing for kiwis who suffer from severe hearing loss. As well as improving an individual’s hearing, they open doors to ...
The Local Electoral (Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Bill passed its third reading today and will become law, Minister of Local Government Hon Nanaia Mahuta says. “This is a significant step forward for Māori representation in local government. We know how important it is to have diversity around ...
The Government has added 1,000 more transitional housing places as promised under the Aotearoa New Zealand Homelessness Action Plan (HAP), launched one year ago. Minister of Housing Megan Woods says the milestone supports the Government’s priority to ensure every New Zealander has warm, dry, secure housing. “Transitional housing provides people ...
A second batch of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines arrived safely yesterday at Auckland International Airport, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says. “This shipment contained about 76,000 doses, and follows our first shipment of 60,000 doses that arrived last week. We expect further shipments of vaccine over the coming weeks,” Chris Hipkins said. ...
The Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni has today announced $18 million to support creative spaces. Creative spaces are places in the community where people with mental health needs, disabled people, and those looking for social connection, are welcomed and supported to practice and participate in the arts ...
Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little today welcomed Moriori to Parliament to witness the first reading of the Moriori Claims Settlement Bill. “This bill is the culmination of years of dedication and hard work from all the parties involved. “I am delighted to reach this significant milestone today,” Andrew ...
22,400 fewer children experiencing material hardship 45,400 fewer children in low income households on after-housing costs measure After-housing costs target achieved a year ahead of schedule Government action has seen child poverty reduce against all nine official measures compared to the baseline year, Prime Minister and Minister for Child Poverty ...
It’s time to recognise the outstanding work early learning services, kōhanga reo, schools and kura do to support children and young people to succeed, Minister of Education Chris Hipkins says. The 2021 Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards are now open through until April 16. “The past year has reminded us ...
Three new Jobs for Nature projects will help nature thrive in the Bay of Plenty and keep local people in work says Conservation Minister Kiri Allan. “Up to 30 people will be employed in the projects, which are aimed at boosting local conservation efforts, enhancing some of the region’s most ...
The Government has accepted all of the Holidays Act Taskforce’s recommended changes, which will provide certainty to employers and help employees receive their leave entitlements, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood announced today. Michael Wood said the Government established the Holidays Act Taskforce to help address challenges with the ...
The Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and faster than expected economic recovery has been acknowledged in today’s credit rating upgrade. Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) today raised New Zealand’s local currency credit rating to AAA with a stable outlook. This follows Fitch reaffirming its AA+ rating last ...
Tena koutou e nga Maata Waka Ngai Tuahuriri, Ngai Tahu whanui, Tena koutou. Nau mai whakatau mai ki tenei ra maumahara i te Ru Whenua Apiti hono tatai hono, Te hunga mate ki te hunga mate Apiti hono tatai hono, Te hunga ora ki te hunga ora Tena koutou, Tena ...
The Minister of Justice has reaffirmed the Government’s urgent commitment, as stated in its 2020 Election Manifesto, to ban conversion practices in New Zealand by this time next year. “The Government has work underway to develop policy which will bring legislation to Parliament by the middle of this year and ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage and Social Development Hon Carmel Sepuloni today launched a new Creative Careers Service, which is expected to support up to 1,000 creatives, across three regions over the next two years. The new service builds on the most successful aspects of the former Pathways to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Camilo López-Aguirre, PhD Candidate, UNSW Scientists have found another piece in the puzzle of how echolocation evolved in bats, moving closer to solving a decades-long evolutionary mystery. All bats — apart from the fruit bats of the family Pteropodidae (also called flying ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jordy Meekes, Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, The University of Melbourne That Australian women earn less than Australian men is well-known. The latest calculation put the gap – the extent to which the average female full-time wage is ...
All the major news events, which will hopefully not be too many. Get in touch at info@thespinoff.co.nz Help keep The Spinoff alive and kicking. Click here to learn how you can support The Spinoff from as little as $1.8.00am: The day aheadThere are a couple of things we’ll be looking out ...
In this week's Critic's Choice review, Guy Somerset watches I Care a Lot on Amazon Prime and wonders if kindness has its limits Do you think Jacinda Ardern has been watching I Care a Lot? It would explain a lot, As Newsroom political editor Jo Moir wrote earlier this week, ...
By Ramzy Baroud At a glance, it may appear that the split of Arab political parties in Israel is consistent with a typical pattern of political and ideological divisions which have afflicted the Arab body politic for many years. This time, however, the ...
Discovering that her favourite summer drink is apparently an offence against wine, Charlotte Muru-Lanning sets out to uncover whether it’s actually so awful to serve red wine on the rocks.After many summers spent pouring red wine over ice without much thought, it recently struck me that maybe this combination was, ...
LISTEN: Extra Time examines two big issues in women's sport this week - postponing the Rugby World Cup and the Silver Ferns' battle for the crown that eludes them. Poised at one game a piece, can the Silver Ferns overcome a spirited young Australian Diamonds side and end a nine-year drought without netball's ...
"If Maggie said she was going to bake a cake, Lois always turned up with one that was bigger, more chocolatey and with fancier icing": a shaggy cake story by Shani Naylor. It was 2am. Maggie opened her eyes and lay still in bed. She could hear her husband Ken's ...
The art world is being bombarded with something called ‘non-fungible tokens’. We asked artist and crypto expert Simon Denny to help us explain what they are.At first glimpse, a gif of Nyan Cat is nothing special. It’s a bit cute, a bit nostalgic. So why did one sell for US$450,000? ...
Journalists avoid his calls, editors loathe it when he highlights mistakes. But he reckons he’s not scary at all. Chris Schulz meets RNZ’s Mr Mediawatch, Colin Peacock.Over his summer holidays, Colin Peacock tried to switch off. For much of the previous 12 months, the 52-year-old host of Radio ...
While it has since been deleted and apologised for, an op-ed by former Labour MP Michael Bassett published by the Northland Age and the NZ Herald this week caused an uproar for its racist cherry-picking and false reporting of historical facts. Historian Scott Hamilton sets the record straight.Michael Bassett is ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Deaths, West Europe still not “out of the woods”. Chart by Keith Rankin. Deaths, East Europe remains a major concern. Chart by Keith Rankin. At first glance through our rear-vision mirror, western Europe had a substantial spring outbreak of Covid19, and further outbreaks in spring and ...
A starter’s list for the national Aotearoa museum of the sporting damned. Richard Irvine confronts the demons.The sunGenerally it’s hard to make an argument against the giver of all life, as it provides photosynthesis, vitamin D and enables a wide range of recreational activities. But when it runs rampant around ...
Auckland can breathe a sigh relief knowing at 6am on Sunday the region will move down to Alert Level 2 after another seven long days in lockdown. Government and health officials are now turning their minds to lessons learnt, following a week of mixed messaging, rule-breaking and blame and shame, writes political ...
Three future scenarios after today’s large offshore earthquakes.A trio of serious earthquakes saw parts of Aotearoa shaken, tsunami threats triggered, and tens of thousands of people heading inland after evacuation instructions.Of the magnitude-7-plus events, the first, shortly before 2.30am, was centered off East Cape. Measuring 7.1, it was felt across ...
Analysis - The prime minister came down hard on lockdown rule-breakers but were they clearly told what they had to do? Peter Wilson looks into the reports as another crisis lurks in the background. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Gleeson, Associate professor, La Trobe University News of the blockage of a shipment of 250,000 COVID-19 vaccines from Europe to Australia has caused concern and outrage. The immediate problem will probably be quickly solved through diplomatic channels. Even if it is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Stern, Professor of Geophysics, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington The Tonga Kermadec subduction zone stretches between New Zealand and south of Samoa.USGS, CC BY-SA A sequence of three major offshore earthquakes, including a magnitude 8.1 quake near ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and Director of the Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis Dr Laine Dare discuss the week in politics. This week the pair discuss some of the 148 recommendations ...
The minister responsible for the country's spy agencies says they can't constantly monitor the internet to identify terror threats and instead rely on the public to raise the alarm. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle Celebrity testimonials abound for pills, potions and creams that purport to make you look younger. This time collagen supplements are in the spotlight, after Jennifer Aniston became the face of one ...
Have the government’s Covid-related messages been getting through to Pacific and non-Pacific ethnic communities in South Auckland? Justin Latif tried to find out.John Pulu is one of the best-known television and radio personalities in New Zealand’s Pacific community. He not only fronts TVNZ’s Tagata Pasifika Saturday morning show, but also hosts ...
James Elliott tries to work out what made Mike Hosking and Brian Tamaki tick everyone off this week. The week started with Aucklanders back under Alert level 3 and Mike Hosking on Alert Level 6. “Mike’s Minute” on NewstalkZB on Monday, which as usual lasted significantly longer than a minute, ...
Fonterra has confirmed what most analysts had been predicting and lifted its 2020/21 forecast farmgate milk price range to $7.30 – $7.90 kg/MS, up from $6.90 – $7.50. This should send a further surge of confidence across NZ’s rural regions, hopefully in a wave strong enough to encourage farmers to ...
A Financial Times leader delivers advice that Finance Minister Grant Robertson should (but probably won’t) consider. Essentially, the advice is to resist the temptation to involve the central bank in the challenge of slowing the rise in house prices. Changing regulation and reforming planning law is a smarter way to ...
The NZ Superannuation Fund has divested from five Israeli banks due to their suspected involvement in illegal settlement construction. Michael Andrew reports.The Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation, an autonomous crown entity and manager of the multi-billion NZ Super Fund, has divested from five Israeli banks due to their funding of ...
A contestant on the new season of The Bachelor has apologised for ‘controversial’ social media posts comparing mask wearing to ‘slavery’ and for questioning the scientific consensus around Covid-19. Stewart Sowman-Lund reports.Shivani Pragji is – according to her LinkedIn profile – a solicitor working for the Ministry of Business, Innovation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, PhD, Media and Politics, Deakin University A couple of days ago, the musician Grimes sold some animations she made with her brother Mac on a website called Nifty Gateway. Some were one-offs, while others were limited editions of a few ...
Analysis: We are able to send a blaring alert to the phone of every New Zealanders to warn of Covid lockdowns, yet we still struggle to warn them of the danger of a tsunami This coming week, it will be 10 years since Japan was hit by the Tohoku earthquake, one ...
Moa brewery sold in February for $1.9m, leaving behind an unsavoury legacy. Michael Andrew speaks to the new owner about how the brewery plans to move forward, while at the same time returning to its Marlborough roots.Moa Brewing Company’s new owner Stephen Smith has criticised the company’s old marketing strategy, ...
By RNZ News An 8.0 earthquake has struck near the Kermadec Islands, hours after a 7.4 quake near the Kermadecs and a 7.1 off the North Island coast, A 7.4 quake struck near the Kermadec Islands earlier this morning. The islands are 800km to 1000km from New Zealand. National Emergency ...
National Parks are being closed off to allow fallow deer to be bombarded with 1080 poison. The proposal has drawn strong criticism from the Australian hunting public and also New Zealand’s Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust. Laurie Collins, spokesman ...
In the fallout from the Dirty Politics defamation hearing, how can the Food and Grocery Council and its chief continue to deny involvement in attacks on public health academics? Tim Murphy explains its stance. The middleman has 'fessed up. So where does that leave the two prominent players on either side ...
Mike Hosking is a king of breakfast radio, a lover of blazers, and deliverer of opinions via his long-running online video series, Mike’s Minute. José Barbosa absorbed three months’ worth of those opinions in one go, and lived to tell the tale. Just. To be honest, I hadn’t thought about ...
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 The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury, $25)This 2011 bestseller set during the Trojan War has ...
A new poem from Melbourne-based poet Grace Yee.I have heardthat the price of a pound of gold has gone grey over the last couple of monthsthat the first sovereign lord beheaded his grandsonthat chinese market gardeners in suburbia shipped out after decades of fastingand purificationthat evil-intentioned hooligans penetrated the palace ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dave Parry, Professor of Computer Science, Auckland University of Technology Although international travel restrictions for Australia have been extended to at least June, there may still be potential for a trans-Tasman bubble with New Zealand (and maybe some other countries), according to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jamie Triccas, Professor of Medical Microbiology, University of Sydney The United States’ drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), said last week COVID vaccines updated for variants won’t need to go through full randomised controlled clinical trials. The booster shots will ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Milte, Matthew Flinders Senior Research Fellow, Flinders University The final report from the aged care royal commission this week was damning. Speaking of a system in crisis, it calls for an urgent overhaul. The Morrison government has been facing difficult questions ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David John Eldridge, Professor of Dryland Ecology, UNSW After 200 years of European farming practices, Australian soils are in bad shape – depleted of nutrients and organic matter, including carbon. This is bad news for both soil health and efforts to address ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zoe Vaill, PhD Candidate Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology Students are heading off to universities around Australia, whether for the first time or as returning students, with expectations of a year of learning, making friends and enjoyable socialising. For some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jan Thomas, Vice-Chancellor, Massey University As first-year students flooded onto campuses around the country this week, gripped with uncertainty and curiosity about their new lives, I too returned to university to learn. For the first time since what feels like forever, but ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW After years of repeatedly missing its inflation target through too timid monetary policy, in the past week the Reserve Bank has decided to get tough. Not only did it hold its closely watched cash rate target ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter McNeil, Distinguished Professor of Design History, UTS, University of Technology Sydney It’s Sydney Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras festival time. LGBTQI people are enjoying what some call “gay or lesbian Christmas”. It’s not quite the same in the era of COVID, ...
A tech expert is warning the government could face multiple stumbling blocks if it makes QR code scanning mandatory - in particular when dealing with tech giants like Apple and Google. ...
*This story first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. A tsunami alert has been issued after a 7.4 earthquake near the Kermadec Islands. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) says it expects strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore. It says the threat is from ...
Live coverage of the snap lockdown and the search for a source of the latest infection. Auckland is now at alert level three, NZ at level two. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz 7.50am: Two major earthquakes strike; tsunami warning in placeTwo major earthquakes have struck off the coast of New Zealand ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Cabinet to decide on lifting lockdown today, questions raised about the stability of the housing market, and people instinctively respond to tsunami threat after earthquake.A decision will be made today on whether or not Auckland will come out of level ...
The military is showing little sign of backing down, but the coup could have the unintended consequence of unifying Myanmar society in opposition, across significant ethnic divisions. A month ago, citing dubious claims of electoral fraud in the November 2020 election, Myanmar’s military deposed the country’s democratically elected National League for Democracy ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve BrauniasFICTION 1 Auē by Becky Manawatu (Makaro Press, $35) "She wrote a lot of Auē in a family friend’s house at the moody mouth of the Mokihunui River, 20km ...
A Harvard professor presenting his opinions on alien life as fact when the field at large doesn't agree is misrepresenting science, argues Dr Heloise Stevance For years now Abraham (Avi) Loeb has been a rather passionate advocate for what I call 'The Alien Hypothesis' 一 the idea that extraterrestrial lifeforms are the source of ...
Anna Rawhiti-Connell doesn't want an investment or an asset, but a home. Yet because of last century’s broken promises, she feels like an idiot fish, destined to swim against a current with other idiot fish who think their life savings and lifelong debt will guarantee them a house. We went to some open homes ...
All eyes are on the Prime Minister to schedule the rollout – or flyout – to the more remote corners of NZ and the Pacific There is growing anticipation about the announcement of the Covid vaccine rollout to New Zealand's general population and the Pacific realm countries. The schedule is close ...
Were we right to leave lockdown so early after the Valentine's Day cluster was first discovered? And was our return to lockdown a result of anything more than bad luck? Marc Daalder reports Ashley Bloomfield and Jacinda Ardern fronted a press conference on February 17, three days after Auckland plunged ...
With the America's Cup first-to-seven showdown about to begin, Suzanne McFadden asks a six-time winner how much could it come down to the helmsmen? Murray Jones knows the exact essence of what makes an America’s Cup helmsman great. A phenomenal Kiwi sailor in his own right, Jones has worked alongside ...
Rio Olympian Helena Gasson may be one of the oldest Kiwi swimmers still at the top of their game, but she's found a new gear - breaking 20 NZ records in the past 18 months. Even in the year of Covid, with her plans abruptly changed and her training schedule interrupted, Helena ...
After literally thousands of requests, we’ve finally caved. We’ve decided to rank beans in an arbitrary yet unequivocally correct fashion.A-mung the current chaos of the world we live in, there’s an inherent desire to create order. Some found that order in the first lockdown by cleaning their house or exercising ...
A bar planned for Auckland’s St Kevin’s Arcade is facing opposition from locals concerned about the character of the owner, former Married at First Sight contestant Chris Mansfield, who still faces outstanding domestic violence charges in the US.The two lots inside St Kevin’s Arcade where Chris Mansfield plans to open ...
We thought the Covid messages were clear - but the latest Auckland lockdown has muddied the message. One political strategist says it's been like "putting tomato sauce on ice cream". New Zealand's Covid-19 communications response has been hailed the world over. Its success has catapulted us into the pages ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison has a near obsession with control. But suddenly – in the course of only weeks – he has found himself presiding over a government in a shambles, where he is reacting rather than ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia A great deal has been written and said in the last few days about the next steps in the historic claim of rape against Attorney-General Christian Porter. There are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carola Garcia de Vinuesa, Professor and Co-Director, Centre for Personalised Immunology, NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence, Australian National University Some 90 prominent scientists, including Nobel laureates and other leading Australian and international researchers, today called for convicted child murderer Kathleen Folbigg to ...
The threats to use car bombs at the two mosques that were attacked on 15 March 2019 are especially cruel as we come up to the second anniversary of those attacks. It shows the need for a strong national security system, with clear leadership and direction ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Royal Commission into Aged Care has now delivered its final report, and its findings are an indictment of the inadequacies of the present system. The report calls for a refocus within the aged care ...
Police have arrested two people following an online threat against two Christchurch mosques, Marc Daalder reports Christchurch police say two people arrested over an online threat against two mosques are being cooperative. One of the people arrested, a 27-year-old man, has been charged with threatening to kill. On Sunday, a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Iliadis, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Deakin University The continuing media coverage of rape and sexual assault allegations faced by current and former political figures has put many sexual abuse survivors at risk of being traumatised all over again. Widespread media attention ...
“Thanks to Labour’s bungling bureaucracy, hardworking New Zealanders are locked down with their livelihoods threatened, and the Prime Minister still isn’t telling the truth. It is time for a reset. We need a purpose built, Taiwan-style, Epidemic ...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8458171/Evicted-beachcomber-says-he-ll-go-quietly
This is bullshit. This guy is just spending more time on the beach than others.
This “eviction” is so that the wealthy people can enjoy uninterrupted views as well as reinforcing the capital model of paying exorbitant rental…to the wealthy! We’ve just come full circle.
An eccentric living in a hand-made driftwood and tarpaulin home on the foreshore near Oakura has been given his marching orders.
But Eric Brewer, 62, says he is unfazed at the threat to remove him from his seaside home with the million-dollar views at Tapuae.
“I’m out of here,” the sickness beneficiary told the Taranaki Daily News team whom he warmly welcomed into his beach bach on a perfect late summer’s afternoon yesterday.
Averse to paying rent or a mortgage, he has no idea where he will go. He has lived off-and-on at Tapuae for nearly two decades.
-snip-
Mr Brewer concedes he is living on the Queen’s Chain but says it is confiscated Maori land.
“I swear allegiance to this land, not the Queen of England,” he said.
We need more like him.
OMG edit function is back!!
[lprent: Yes. The result of some irritated and coffee concentrated cursing and other hard work. Turns out the the damn thing was trying to access admin functions without defining it as requiring a https connection. It will require some more work to get to play nicely with the rest of the system. But gives me more time to figure out a more elegant solution. ]
Like the Californian equivalent, Malibu, where the wealthy keep attempting to secure exclusive use of the beach in contrast to Venice Beach where it belongs to everyone.
They’re wealthy enough to buy their own but there’s no ‘look at me and what I’ve got’ ‘value in that and Public land is free, just use the system to keep the riff raff out.
“The New Plymouth District Council confirmed last night it was taking action after receiving complaints from nearby landowners and the public about “Mr Brewer’s unlawful activities on the land”.”
Interesting use of the word “unlawful” there. I wonder what they think it means.
In this case it appears to mean irritating rich people by being poor and on the beach.
However, from Campbell Live
Solid Energy : “a culture of extravagance at Stockton”, SUVs for Africa, a 6M machine unused,
yet, a cut-back on miners per shift hours
yet more days required of miners to be on site (bussed in)
from RNZ; Telecom- “too many people at the top-end” (lawyers and accountants among those getting the axe.
Back to tele,Fontera have re-bottled the Anchor Milk brand (light-blocking) while the executive oncedes upon questioning; Anchor sales have declined vs supermarket / house brands; that they are exactly the same (price premium justified by “all the R&D Anchor carry out; “milk consumption in NZ is flat and declining)
Obama offered little in speech to Palestinians (little was expected) yet “recovered his voice” when addressing Israeli students.
14:31 He who oppresses the por shows contempt for their maker, yet whoever is kind to the needy honours God.
Balaam’s error; the error of consuming greed.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
( a mischievious Goodfellow hub indeed; thanks, yet gave the candy away)
I fail to see how any of that is in anyway related to this thread.
It’s unlawful to have a view that you haven’t paid a developer for. Same principle holds in GI with the evictions.
If the Minister is going to stand up and tell this House that 5,000 people have come off a sickness benefit, I will point out that during that time 7,000 people went on. Sure, absolutely, if they need to access it, they should. But it is absolutely disingenuous for that Minister to try and bandy around numbers as though her reforms have changed the world when in actual fact, for the people who are experiencing it on the front line, they have done no such thing.
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Debates/Debates/a/e/d/50HansD_20130320_00000012-Social-Security-Benefit-Categories-and-Work.htm
TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West) :
The other thing I want to say to Asenati Lole-Taylor is just that I believe that all honest work is inherently valuable, and although some is work that a lot of us would shy away from and that some of us are fortunate enough not to have to do, I have nothing but respect for those who are working on some of those humble and at times very, very unpleasant jobs. I am sure that every member of this House would want to support those people, and not in any way undermine their efforts.
So put your money where your mouth is and pay them a minimum of at least $15ph.
God told me to tell you to do it. :wanker:
Yeah past by 1 vote 61/60 what is best described as the Youth Employment Discrimination Bill should be one of the first of the ugly pieces of National Government legislation that the next Labour lead Government toss in the rubbish bin,
It’s ugly enough to be giving young people the kick through youth rates but applying those same youth rates to those a year or two older for having been on the dole for a while for no specific reason other than they thunk it makes me think that that particular piece of legislation might better have been named the Molestation of Young People in Employment Bill…
Yeah, I am waiting to see Tim MacIndoe clean the toilets at public facilities in Hamiltion then, voluntarily or on the minimum wage. Yeah Right, pull out YET ANOTHER TUI Board!
“He is ARROGANT, he is MOODY, he is CONTROLLING”
Bill Ralston’s wife has a go at him on air
“The Huddle”, NewstalkZB, Thursday 21 March 2013, 5:45 p.m.
Larry “Lackwit” Williams, Pam Corkery, Janet Wilson
Anyone who tuned into the usually dire “Huddle” segment yesterday would have heard something remarkable: Bill Ralston’s ghastly wife Janet Wilson took the opportunity to tell the world just what she thought of her husband Bill. However, she wasn’t so unwise as to do it directly; she chose the time-honored technique, widely used in Soviet Russia and other repressive regimes, of allegory….
LARRY “LACKWIT” WILLIAMS: Okay, ahhhhhhhhhmmm. Julia Gillard. She’s GONE for sure!
PAM CORKERY: Actually, I don’t think so. Kevin Rudd is extremely unpopular. I predict Gillard will win this leadership vote.
JANET WILSON: I agree with Pam. I’ve never understood the fascination of the Australian public with Kevin Rudd. [voice thickening to a croak as she becomes emotional] He is arrogant, he is moody, he is controlling.
[Several uneasy seconds of stunned silence follow…]
LACKWIT WILLIAMS: Okay, ummmm… errrr….
By the end of that little contribution, Janet Wilson was snarling, and I’m sure she was shaking with emotion too.
POINT TO PONDER
When Pam Corkery appears on this show, the quality improves noticeably. That’s because Corkery, one of the few liberal commentators allowed on, will not be bullied and shut out by Lackwit-Williams and whoever happens to be the other Huddle guest. She insists on making her points clearly and will not allow Lackwit-Williams to laugh her into silence. Today, after her coded attack on her husband, Janet Wilson spoke sensibly and thoughtfully, something she is just not usually compelled to do on this normally pisspoor program.
???Hah, you have to have a very ‘free thinking’ imagination to make the leap from the Australian politics being discussed in the part of the transcript that you have put up to entertain the belief that Ralston’s wife is talking about Him and not the Australian politicians being discussed,
Perhaps i am missing something here, are there special code words that indicate we should beleive She is talking of Her husband and not Kevin Rudd…
Yeah well you also have to have a fairly free-thinking imagination to call it a transcript as Morrissey is known to have quite a different definition of the word to everyone else on the planet.
Lolz, my bad, it’s my new image, i should have said WTF is that s**t, but, i am trying to do nice lolz,
Yeah border-line slander seems to be that ones writing style, OK when applied to politicians but i don’t know about radio commenters…
1.) …. border-line slander seems to be that ones writing style…
What, pray tell, was slanderous in suggesting that an angry and emotionally fraught woman was taking the opportunity to publicly excoriate her obnoxious spouse? Of course, she was smart enough to phrase it so that it seemed like a criticism of an obnoxious Australian politician; but smart listeners—and admittedly there are not many of them in that station’s audience—-will have appreciated what she REALLY meant.
1.) >OK when applied to politicians but i don’t know about radio commenters…
Oh yes, we need to remember that the afternoon chatterboxes on NewstalkZB are dignified, professional and rigorously dedicated to telling the truth.
Nah what i do remember is Lange versus What’s His Face where the judge set out the difference between what could be slander against a politician and a ‘normal’ person, the latter having far more protection under the law than the former,
i cannot be bothered to expend the energy necessary to address the other part of your comment, except to say that it is as absurd as the original suggestion that the commenter on the radio station was addressing Her husband and not commenting on Kevin Rudd,and, you must have ‘special powers’ to be able to deduce from the comment made the inference later attributed to what was commented upon as the reason to come to that particular conclusion…
Talking of conspiracy theories…
I went to pay my website bill after getting the final notice, only to find my payment was bounced back. When I contacted the sales team, they told me I could now no longer pay by bank transfer, as I agreed when I opened the account, because of the unforeseen death of the director.
So I asked what happens next? Do I just transfer to another place that wants my money? And within a minute I had a transfer key and a goodbye.
Maybe they just don’t want to make money. Maybe they just don’t want my site on their servers.
Site down (not that anyone visits) ’til I sort it.
I was going to post this also but you beat me to it :)..
A perfect example for those who say – if you don’t like the system, don’t participate in it. Go and live in the bush or something. To do this is damn near impossible. The system is so pervasive that even when one chooses to this is what inevitably happens
-In short You cannot be free of the system even if you want to.
Have a mind to drive up there and build another makeshift beach bach 30 meters down the beach after the council have gone and give it to him to live in and then keep doing it each time he is evicted!
Just where do these captains of industry get off?
One day the masses are going to wake up to the fact that these inflated egos are going to have to stop being able to nominate their worth to an organisation and be paid just a reasonable living wage.
Telecom have had a succession of leaders who have been paid multi-million annual salaries, after a few years have moved on with massive golden handshakes and then, suddenly, these organisations announce massive layoffs of the ordinary employees … (saying they have to trim the fat).
These same captains of industry of course join such organisations as the EMA, Round Table etc and dictate to the government what they think nurses, teachers, firemen etc are worth.
Yay, the edit function is back and working, thank you very much i can now return to bad spelling and mangled English with the ability to amend such…
Testing (no HTML)
Testing (Italics using the editor button)
<i>Testing</i> (Italics using HTML)
This is a link (Link inserted using the editor function)
And, no, I don’t have the WYSIWYG turned on. At least it has an escapse to HTML.
Yeah – just turned it off. There are issues with it leaving replies at the end of the comments as well.
So Bill from Dipton, the Minister of Finance is ‘surprised’ by having nearly 10% of Kiwi’s sign up for the preregistration of the legislated theft of Mighty River Power from the other 90% of Kiwi’s,
This 10% only too happy to be availed the chance to steal off of the other 90% of us are to be given what, 10% of the shares, 20% of the shares???,
The other 80-90% of the shares will go where, from what Bill says they will be ‘retailed’ on the open market so presumably the ‘mums and dads’ who are the likes of the Goldman Saches US Banking Cartel will swallow the majority of the shares in Mighty River Power,
Bill’s surprise, sounds like He has promised the ‘banking cartels’ that less than 10% of Kiwis will have the coin to buy into Mighty River so there would be no problem for them through their various Nominee Companies to gain the lions share of the float…
Yep, call it what it is. Theft. All those ‘law abiding’ citizens are stealing our property. Time for Labour to tell them they’ll renationalise any assets sold…come on DS…want to be a leader then fucking lead.
Yes as a starting point of ‘ownership’ Labour should look at the Cullen Super Fund becoming the ‘owner’ of all the shares of the assets that National plan on putting into the hands of the International Banking Cartels,
We could in the future then have a rational discussion, after the Baby Boomer Retirement Bump has passed about changing the focus of that Cullen Fund being used to pre-fund part or all future retirement from dividends of the assets held by it…
And have Shonkey ask him if he’s going to pay for them out of secret bank accounts in the USA. A great leader he isn’t.
bad12
+1
I have put the point that the wealthy have the option of shunting their children and the guidance of their young ones, to boarding schools. Gina Campbell, daughter of speed record winner Donald Campbell was sent to one at age two when her parents’ marriage broke up. Her father had three marriages, and her mother I think the same. She has written a book Daughter of Bluebird.
Later she had the experience of her mother needling her ex-husband with great promises to Gina about how she would look after her horse with top class treatment, which caused unrest as Gina thought she was in earnest. When the offer was accepted, the mother withdrew it with numerous excuses.
Poorer people’s abandonment of a child’s care tend to be obvious, the wealthy can slither out
from withholding emotional support and guidance to their child untouched by approbrium. ‘Look what I did for you’ is often the comment from parents who have given little personal love and care, but money spent on the child’s living and schooling piles up and is seen as a debt to the parents. The child becomes an object of charity to them with periods of erratic expressions of love and interest from them.
Further to my thoughts on parenting, I consider that this is relevant to the behaviour that we are receiving from politicians. Politicians are very resilient as you must be when as a child you have to be self-sufficient, have a drive for self-advancement, are self-centred, competitive and lack empathy, because that usually has to be learned from older, kind, wiser people. This lack would apply to Paula Bennett, John Key…
If we think of Lord of the Flies, this is the background that would set the direction of much political behaviour that we observe.
on the subject of children
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10872838
Oh, great, more attacks on necessary government services.
Charter Schools Damage Students and Teachers
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/8458649/Charter-schools-damage-students-and-teachers
“no excuses” now.
Slippery the Prime Minister was yesterday in Taranaki opening a gas fired electricity plant, the cost $100 million and it is capable of powering 70,000 homes,
In ‘primitive’ New Zealand it’s probably a forlorn hope that all the CO2 being given off as exhaust from ‘wasting’ all that gas will be captured at it’s source,
Of interest when i was looking for information on this project was the fact that the construction also included a gas storage facility, (an existing played out gas well that surplus gas is being pumped into),
i have to wonder if the ‘players’ in this gas to electricity game of waste realize that they are building the infrastructure that allows CO2 to be harvested from the atmosphere using the air’s own movement to bring the CO2 to the point of harvest and be turned into the very gas that they are at present taking from the ground and turning into CO2 by burning it,
Capturing that CO2 and turning it into Methane Gas, (even petrol), is a technology in it’s infancy but at least one country, Iceland, is capturing CO2 from it’s geothermal electricity generation,(yes apparently ‘some’ geothermal electricity generation does produce CO2), and doing just that with it,
Yes, we can all see the problem with turning CO2 into a fuel and then burning it as a fuel is still releasing CO2 to the atmosphere, BUT, harvesting CO2 from the atmosphere and refining that into fuel to produce electricity may be the way of the future IF the CO2 expelled in the production of electricity is captured at it’s source and refined back into the same fuel burned to create it in the first place…
So, after searching the web I’m figuring that that is 100MW generator. For just a little bit extra we could have had wind turbines with nowhere near as much pollution or need for ongoing importation (we’re almost out of natural gas in NZ) for gas.
The best thing that can be said about a gas generator is that it’s most likely to be shut down in a few years due of lack of fuel.
Yes wind generation also seems to be on the cards for Taranaki,
Coastal site eyed for large wind farm,
http://www.wanganuichronicle.co.nz/news/coastal…wind-farm/1600159
As far as running out of gas with which to cause even more CO2 to be pumped into the atmosphere, these people seem to think it’s going to be around for a while,
Tag oil upbeat on well strike/stuff.co.nz,
http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/…/tag-oil-upbeat-on-well-strike...
2012-O&G industry kicks off to great start/ energy stream,
http://www.energystream.co.nz>newscenter
But, thats not really the point i am making, whats of interest is that it appears much of the present infrastructure of turning CO2 into methane gas, including it’s storage, is already present in Taranaki,
Here’s the fledgling CO2 to Methane industry in Iceland, the obvious BAD bit of that is to then allow the CO2 back into the atmosphere via burning the methane in vehicle engines,
What that Icelandic power plant should be doing is simply burning the product made from CO2 in it’s electricity generator, capturing the CO2 produced by having done so and sent that CO2 back through the process of turning it into Methane so as to enable it’s re-burning,
CO2 to Methanol.com, Iceland converts CO2 into Methanol,
http://www.co2tomethanol.com/
Also of interest on that page is the story of the ‘break-through’ science involved in using biological catalysts which enable CO2 to be turned into Methane using Sun-light without the expensive metals like gold previously thought to be the only catalyst able to perform such a function,
The next part of the jigsaw is of course the separation of the CO2 from the air, again such a ‘science’ is in it’s infancy but a theoretical study i have read, (will try and link to it later), ‘sees’ this to be not necessary as a removal of CO2 from the air at the source of the CO2 emissions but more a case of having the air movement in a place akin to todays wind farms bringing the CO2 to the means of it’s extraction from that air,
My particular interest in Taranaki at the moment is because the infrastructure present as part of the oil/gas system would also be the infrastructure necessary for a CO2 to fuel industry…
got the links sussed then
Lolz, have i ???, i just ‘hopeded’, haven’t tried them myself as yet…
1 in 4; others appear “expired” this end anyway
Grrr, bugger, did you get error 404???, the pages are not expired tho, if you Google the heading above the dud links it should, (hopefully), take you to the page,
1 out of 4, i spose i should look on the bright side of that, Grrr, that CO2 to Methanol site contains most of the info i am attempting to impart here and the third story on the page is also of interest as little old NZ gets a mention for the technology that is already in place in Taranaki,
Googling, Converting CO2 to Methanol also provides a zillion pages of useful info on the subject,
Of course Methanol has a lot more uses than just fuel, most of the plastics made in the world today contain the stuff, and IF we had the cost effective tech that took CO2 from the atmosphere and eventually made plastics with it then we have ‘fixed’ that CO2 for the lifetime of those plastics most of which i would dare suggest will end their existence buried in a landfill…
Energy. It can be done but the energy required and the cost of that energy is going to be massively prohibitive.
No not necessarily from what i have read, given that with bio-catalysts and sunlight quite a stream of methane can be obtained from CO2 with little ongoing energy cost the efficacy of doing so will come down to the cost of extracting such CO2 from suitably robust air-flows,
The rest is simply the cost of the rest of the process that the 2 methanol plants in Taranaki have been carrying out from time to time since they were built by Muldoons ‘think big’,
If a tonne of carbon had a price in NZ as a straight tax, such a tax could then be applied to the extraction of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere thus lowering the cost of fuels extracted from that carbon,
My next dig through the internet mountain of info i think will have to concentrate on both those questions, what price we as a society are willing to pay as tax for a tonne of carbon and what it might cost per tonne to extract such carbon from the atmosphere from suitable sites of high airflow,
Obviously the closer all these different ‘processes’ occur to the plants which manufacture methanol the more cost effective and commercially viable they become…
You have an interesting view on what is “just a little bit extra”.
Your link give a cost of about $1.75m for a megawatt of nameplate capacity. That’s the average of the range of $1.3m – $2.2m given in your link. However that is the maximum possible generating capacity of the turbine. The actual efficiency of them varies between about 25% and 40% so you would expect to need about 3 times the installed capacity as the power you generate.
The cost of producing 100MW would then be about 100 * 1.75 * 3 million dollars.
This works out at about $525m as opposed to the quoted figure of $100m. To Bill Gates, (or perhaps David Shearer), that might be “just a little bit extra” but it doesn’t seem so to me.
There is also no reason at all to believe that we are just about of natural gas. That canard has been used for years worldwide and we seem to always find more. If the Greens get to ban any exploration or production it might come true but we live in hope that they won’t get the chance to do so.
And if the worst case scenario expounded by the climate scientists were to be correct??? what price would you put on your current lifestyles continuance, the very continuance of the life of your grandchildren???,
Capitalist bean-counters should in my opinion when it comes to the equation vis a vis money over climate simply be abused as the whole money system is a foolish joke clung to by the wing-nuts as an ancient African witch-doctor clung to his baubles of divination…
Yeah, Ok, I was out on the price. Still say that wind, being renewable and sustainable, would be better option. Price isn’t the best way to choose.
When will oil, natural gas, and coal peak?
Globally, gas peaks in the 2020s and we’re a small nation at the bottom of the world with very little reason for people to gas sell to us. We may have a small amount left but I heard a few years ago that the Maui Field was out.
Wrong concept. Natural gas economics is crashing mate. The fossil fuel industry will grind to a commercial halt while there are gigatonnes of the stuff left under the ground.
Jokeyhen’s attitude to NZ is that it is a great scenic background in front of which he can perform various celebrity gestures and give out uplifting and soothing speeches about the great conditions we have here. We’re like a unique handbag accessory for this most prominent NZer. The rest of us just have to use plastic ones with folksy pictures or a koru on them.
“Slippery the Prime Minister was yesterday in Taranaki opening a gas fired electricity plant, the cost $100 million and it is capable of powering 70,000 homes”
Slippery failed to do an essential thing: To light a cigarette with an open flame lighter, which could have saved the country from a damned lot of harm. But I suppose, he does not smoke, regrettably.
If it costs $1,500 per house to build a power station then wtf are we doing not doing so cooperatively? That is shit all coin. Far less than installing a solar number or something similar, by a large multiple.
And surely the ongoing cost of running the power station and supplying the fuel is relatively minor compared to the capital cost of construction.
If so, why on earth would the average hosuehold be paying around $2,500 per annum for electricity?
Does this not highlight something very very fishy around power companies …………..
If we paid for the power-stations through taxes and considered them a social good then we don’t need a return (profit) on the capital. At that point all we’d need to cover is the running and maintenance and that spread across all households would be SFA and that cost goes down if we use renewables as there’s no longer any drag from the costs of supplying fuel.
Conclusion: A state monopoly in power supply and reticulation is the most efficient and cost effective way of supplying power especially if using renewables.
Well yes John Key’s visit today would seem to underscore that reality.
Why do you think John Key would not recognise it? Blinkers? Paymasters? Dogmatism? Sheer ignorance?
All of the above?
No, I don’t think he’s that ignorant. He’ll know how to get rich which is to get a lot of people to give you a little bit of money (A little bit here, a little bit there and pretty soon you’re talking serious money). As such he’ll know that to keep costs per person down would be to spread them out across as many people as possible.
Key US imperialism spy sock puppet
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/03/22/special-feature-rudderless-within-the-great-game/
Selwyn Manning at his best, red rattler! Yes, it stinks so much, it is so bloody obvious, but the NZ media and public still have “blind” faith in a PM, like too many Germans once had in Hitler. When will they ever wake up?
When the Jackboots march over their doorstep?
The Denial of Racism in Godzone
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/maori/news/article.cfm?c_id=252&objectid=10872055
a “hidden evil”
the failing pursuit of growth
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/education/news/article.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=10872671
Hamra Night -Sa’di Yusef (Lebanon)
A candle in a long street
A candle in the sleep of houses
A candle for frightened shops
A candle for bakeries
A candle for a journalist trembling in an empty office
A candle for a fighter
A candle for a woman doctor watching over patients
A candle for the wounded
A candle for plain talk
A candle for the stairs
A candle for a hotel packed with refugees
A candle for a singer
A candle for broadcasters in their hideouts
A candle for a bottle of water
A candle for the air
A candle for two lovers in a naked flat
A candle for the falling sky
A candle for the beginning
A candle for the ending
A candle for the last communique
A candle for conscience
A candle in your hands.
“We keep our hands in our pockets, and, unable to say “yes” to ourselves, we lack a “no” that is sure enough to stand between our best and our worst interests. We are left to make do with plans and policies that have little bearing on the main plot. It is a different play that is being staged, and we are actors and audience both, but unable to change the script.”
“The willingness to be less than what we could be is endemic. The lack of care and complicity of silence finds us all wanting. We cannot dissociate ourselves from the hypocricies of our governments or the immoralities of our corporations. Nor can we hide behind the screen of busyness, even if we do call it “work and family commitments”. This is classic middle-class camouflage : one of the more altruistic personae of self-interest.”
-Kerry Flattley
-Chris Wallace Crabbe.
Before you go, I need to tell you
why here tongues turn dry as piki bread.
No one knows why this story is true.
but I know there was a woman who
buried both her hands in blue dough. She said,
Before you go, I need to tell you
why Hopi corn grows short, in a few
spindly clumps, not deep wide and red.
No one knows why this story is true,
but I know it is not a lie. New
seed lay still; the sheep we gave for dead.
Before you go I need to tell you
the crater’s spirit gave us breath. Blu
winds swept ash from the mesa, it bled-
no one knows why this story is true-
earth’s sky blood washed ragged furrows. Blue
corn cracked tucked sharp in this lava bed.
Before you go, I need to tell you:
no one knows why this story is true.
-Peggy Shumaker
(Hopi corn is a biological riddle. It germinates only in thin volcanic soil and thrives in the sever, unforgiving climate of the high desert.)
A NZ living in Victoria has taken a case against the government there of discrimenation because he has been denied a student concession. The case is due to go before the Tribunal some months hence and if it succeeds it could unroll that denial and pay the student some compensation. The final comment was that the Oz government has been concerned about discrimination against NZ in the social welfare sector. Concerned enough to reverse this discrimination? Did Jokeyhen mention it to Gillard? I wonder.
The Point (?)
The point, I imagine, is
not to learn to expect
betrayal, self-deceit, lies
however thick they collect
in the cul-de-sac of one’s days,
half-noticed, half-numbered, half-checked:
but rather to learn to praise
fidelity, trust and love
which in their modest ways continue to be and move
(however mocked, however derided,
however difficult, indeed, to prove),
utterly undivided-
if inarticulate or mute,
still mortally decided.
Neither fashionable nor astute
this point to take to heart:
merely final and absolute:
without it no people, no life, no art.
-Evan Jones.
now, back to mischief. 🙂
ghost +1
Awww nu!!!…Paula Bennett de-friended me on facebook 🙂
Lolz, really, i feel your pain…
I’m not even going to ask why. After seeing several years of the steadily improving ‘quality’ of your comments, I think I can guess. 😈
Like a fine red wine 😀
Yep. Practise and gray hairs leveraging….
You deserve a medal for that!!!
And fortunately the American Congress gets something right but for the wrong reasons
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/8459865/Congress-too-scared-to-ban-assault-rifles
Yes, allowing more mass murderers easy access to weapons is obviously the right thing to do.
/sarc
1. Semi-auto rifles account for less than 2% of fatalities (Might actually be less than 1%) in the USA
2. The gun murder rate has been dropping since the last ban (in the late 80s) was lifted
3. Making law-abiding citizens criminals won’t help
4. Prohibition doesn’t work
5. The “evil” weapons in the USA are available in NZ
6. There are over 20000 gun laws in the USA, enforce those first before implementing new ones
“1. Semi-auto rifles account for less than 2% of fatalities”
But 100% responsible for each of those deaths.
“3. Making law-abiding citizens criminals won’t help
4. Prohibition doesn’t work”
Is this also your view in the drugs debate?
Yes
I think something along the lines of what Portugal is doing is what we should be doing. I would decriminalize all drugs and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.
I don’t think giving someone a criminal conviction and sending them to prison is the best way to deal with an addiction.
Mind you I’d up the sentence term for pushers, dealers and suppliers
Oh yeah forgot to add that in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans
“Yes”
You must be one of those ‘blue greenies’ some bod was telling us about the other day.
“and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.”
How would you have government pay for that?
“I don’t think giving someone a criminal conviction and sending them to prison is the best way to deal with an addiction.”
Agreed, though not all drug users are addicts.
“in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans”
Are you saying the people who now don’t own guns because of that legislation, or those that could have, but now can’t, are thug criminals? Good job they don’t have access to legal fire arms.
I don’t know about being blue-green just that prohibition and “the war on drugs” doesn’t/isn’t working and Portugal seems to be going well so why not try it
“and instead of sending druggies to jail I’d send them to hospitals (maybe set up treatment centers within hospital grounds) for treatment.”
How would government pay for that?
Use the budget that isn’t spent on addicts in prison plus I’d imagine the long-term savings might sway some politicians…(yeah I’m naive)
“in the UK the overall violent crime rate has risen dramatically since they implemented thier gun bans”
Are you saying the people who now don’t own guns because of that legislation are now thug criminals? Good job they don’t have legal access to fire arms
No, I’m saying the UK implemented a big crackdown on firemarms in the wake of Dunblane and the rates of violent crime (knives and box cutters mostly) have massively increased whereas the USA ended its ban on semi-auto rifle sales in the late 80s and violent crime and gun deaths have steadily decreased.
Are there problems, yes. Is a knee-jerk feel-good ban on semi-auto rifles going to work, no. Are their better ways to deal with the problems, yes.
Just to note the weapons used at Columbine were a 12-gauge Savage-Springfield 67H pump-action shotgun and a Hi-Point 995 Carbine 9 mm carbine with thirteen 10-round magazines.
The carbine was developed in response to the ban on semi-auto rifles and capacity of magazine size.
Also a 9 mm Intratec TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun with one 52-, one 32-, and one 28-round magazine and a 12-gauge Stevens 311D double-barreled sawed-off shotgun.
It is illegal to cut a barrel down beyond a certain length but it didn’t stop him from doing it.
“I don’t know about being blue-green”
No, I think it was someone with an agenda, making a point, but very badly.
Oxymoron if ever I read one.
“Use the budget that isn’t spent on addicts in prison plus I’d imagine the long-term savings might sway some politicians…(yeah I’m naive)”
It’s an ambitious project and I’m sure quite costly to set up, certainly more than the prison spend. The left are advocates of spend now, reduce long term costs later. It’s all over education, health, welfare, but the right scream about the money and where it’s coming from and keep the status quo.
Good luck convincing your tory mp to support Labour and Green policy.
“No, I’m saying the UK implemented a big crackdown on firemarms in the wake of Dunblane and the rates of violent crime (knives and box cutters mostly) have massively increased”
As those chavs and idiots on the street would ever legally own a weapon before or after legislation, I don’t think there’s a case for linking the statistics.
There isn’t really a need for anyone to own guns, especially military grade killing tools. Sport and recreation are not good enough reasons to justify burying school children. Take up golf.
“military grade killing tools”
1. Theres no real difference between an AR-15 (the semi-auto civilian version of the american assault rifle) and a semi-auto rifle, in fact in some cases the semi-auto rifle is a better option
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing.
3. I wonder if proudly proclaiming you’re a “gun-free” zone is the smartest thing they could do:
(takes ten minutes but its worth it)
2. Their constitution (as I understand it) allows them the right to bear arms for their own protection if their government of the day acts unlawfully and considering what some governments do to their own people I don’t think thats a bad thing
Think about it.
Firstly, think about the US Air Force. Then think about the Marine corp, the US Army, and the highly militarized police forces the US federal and state governments have.
Now ask yourself what sort of weaponry you would need to fight the US government, and look around to check the availability of such weaponry.
What does such thinking tell you about the theory that US citizens are given the right to collect weapons sufficient to beat off their government.
Nah that’s bullshit.
The original Second Amendment talked about the right to bear arms within the context of a “well regulated militia” i.e. a trained, disciplined and organised state militia for the defence of the state and of the union.
Various judicial interpretations in recent decades has turned that into a right to bear arms individually for essentially any individual purpose, and with no connection or participation to any “well regulated militia”.
The US gun lobby have made their bed, they will sleep in it.
And people forget that there are up to 1M firearms here in NZ. And fuck all people get shot…on purpose.
Actually I think that if you look at what the makers of the constitution said at the time, the intent was to prevent governments from disarming the local militias. Disciplined formations of men are somewhat different to individual idiots with weapons.
From what was recorded, I’d think that they’d have been aghast at the idea of giving the right to bear “semi-auto” weapons (convertable to automatic with a freely available cheap kit) to random nutters who want them.
lprent
fascinating paper here:
http://www.saf.org/lawreviews/bogus2.htm
shorter write up:
http://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2013/01/was-second-amendment-adopted-slaveholders
Looks at Madison and the arguments he was having in Virginia at the time of ratification. The timeline and evolution of the language of the amendment which he submitted seem to suggest it was mostly about leaving the States with the authority to call out their own militia to put down slave revolts without having to get Congressional say so.
Excellent. I hadn’t run across that before. But it fits.
In any case, it is clear that the intent of the framers of the constitution was for a disciplined and well regulated state run militia. The current position that people outside the national guard, state troopers, and other such well regulated bodies should bear arms is a travesty of the wording of the US constitution and the intent of the framers.
Gun manufacturer lobby likes it.
[citation needed]
Gun crime statistics by US state: latest data (Unfortunately, that blog isn’t actually dated)
I’d say it’s probably an overall societal effect (i.e, People are just less violent) rather than a change in laws that’s brought about the decline.
In which case I’d suggest that tightning up and enforcing rules against the mentally ill would have a greater effect on ending mass killings then enacting another law that’d most likely be ignored
Also this guy didn’t use guns to kill more then anybody else:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Kehoe
And this is interesting reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luby%27s_massacre
To pascals bookie
Think about it
Think about when it was written, think about what they’d just come through, think about what the government of the day had imposed on them, think about the technology of the time
They didn’t know how big the government would become but they did know that the government should fear the people not the other way around, they knew there had to be checks and balances to stop the government of the day (whenever that day is) from becoming tyrannical and guaranteeing the rights of its citizens to bear is the simplest way to ensure that
Think about it
Now think what the Vietnamese did to americans, think about what the afghanis did to basically everyone that ever messed with them.
Technology can and has been beaten by superior tactics, self-belief and knowledge of terrain
FFS yeah time to target the “mentally ill” again, that’s a good old canard to trot out, guns don’t kill people, mentally ill people do etc.
Think about when it was written, think about what they’d just come through, think about what the government of the day had imposed on them, think about the technology of the time
You have to go back and read some of the (many many) things written at the time to work out what they were up to. There were long arguments about most stuff, and the right to bear arms was no different. The arguments weren’t focused on fighting the US government. A major aspect was the right of the States to have military patrols. Some thought that the States should not have this right, that it was similar to the standing army thing that was part of what the revolution was against. However, others felt the need to have regular armed patrols of the country side. Guess why (clue: these were the slave states).
On the technology of the time, irrelevant. Unless you are suggesting that the constitution only allows muskets? Or that citizens should indeed be able to buy and maintain private air forces and set up SAM sites?
Now think what the Vietnamese did to americans, think about what the afghanis did to basically everyone that ever messed with them.
Technology can and has been beaten by superior tactics, self-belief and knowledge of terrain
Dude please. This is bloody “Wolverines!” nonsense. You cannot compare Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else to a supposed attempted overthrow of the US Federal Govt.
-You’ll note that not one of those wars were an existential war for the US. They were wars they could afford to lose.
-You’ll note that the opposing forces in those wars had better knowledge of the people and terrain, not something the US lacks in the US.
-You’re still left with the problem that rifles are not what you need. If the US gun nuts were serious about defending themselves from the government, they’d be buying different things.
If they were serious they would revolted years ago, like maybe when Bush declared that a President could just call a citizen an enemy combatant, and they’d lose all their legal rights. Or when Obama said he could put them on kill lists. Neither of which are subjected to any checks or balances. Just a President’s say so. How does that compare to King George/ what are they waiting for?
They are basically role playing at being rebels. It’s a hobby. They are not a threat to their government
Here’s a good read on what they should be buying if they’re serious;
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=7322
Thanks for the link…hey M113’s isnt’ that what the NZ Army used to drive around in?
Winston Peters picks up on a Standard post:
http://www.3news.co.nz/Default.aspx?TabId=1607&articleID=291370&ce17407
Amusing.
Did the post Peters referred to really say that NZanders spend 27 days per year on overseas hols?
Btw, LPrent – when I leave the page (to follow a link for example) I am no longer able to return to the same place in the page I left. I’m returned to the top. It’s happened a quite a few times now.
Another disgusting OIA fob-off, and I have had them also. Now surely, there is no great difficulty in “collating” that information, as the PM himself could easily offer it, and if need be, airline tickets must exist and can be presented. The whole OIA process these days is ridiculous, it is not worth pursuing anymore. The DICTATORSHIP in AOTEAROA NZ is WORKING!
Is Cyprus about to implode across our screens? It is surely way too late now to take that money off depositors – you would think that sort of thing must be done overnight, not a week later. Otherwise the time gets people to thinking about reaction………
As I understand it, from Al Jazeera News Hour this morning, the theft of bank deposits is off the table. Other alternatives are being looked at.
methinks the damage is done.
Indeed. And the theft of bank deposits will be quickly back on the table if the international capital strike now being organised against Cypress is effective.
Many Russians not happy. (Just like many Brits weren’t happy at Iceland…)
Very significant consequences. I will watch your capital strike theory wth interest CV – you’ve mentioned it a few times lately.
Oh look. It’s only been a couple of days and new proposals on the table suggest taking 25% of large bank accounts. Many accounts affected will belong to Russians.
Didn’t take long for banker pressure (threats) on the Cyprus parliament to do its job, did it.
(The geopolitical angle is the massive EU vs Russia stoush this is shaping into)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/23/cyprus-savings-levy-minister-european
Cyprus
http://www.cityam.com/article/four-days-save-cyprus
and the Eurozone
http://www.scmp.com/business/money/markets-investing/article/1197042/asian-markets-mixed-eyes-trained-cyprus
Three Shades of War
http://www.euronews.com/2013/03/21/iran-fires-warning-to-israel/
http://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2299725&Language=en
(North Korea)
Rely on the B-52
http://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2299725&Language=en
Scientists find visions of a benevolent future society motivate reform
So one wonders how National and their ever present outright nastiness ever manages to get voted in to power.
A brighter future, don’t you know.
Ouch, rumor via TV1 news is that Telecom will likely be cutting up to 2500 jobs in May, the flow on effects of that are a horror story,
Bill from Dipton was saying on the last Q+A that the welfare budget would probably have to have more money this year, wonder if the Finance Minister had prior knowledge…
Campbell Live – cyclist funeral. Heartbreaking. She was well loved.
Was this RL’s relative 🙁
I think so. Big funeral.
Yes it was. Saw notice in the Herald this week.
That is why I gave up cycling around Auckland many years ago. It is too damned dangerous. In many European countries cycleways are clearly separated from the main road, and well marked and mostly well maintained, so no such close encounters with cars or trucks would usually happen.
But the cycleways in NZ, I am talking about Auckland by the way, are not quite as bad as they used to be, but still leave cyclists exposed to immense risks and danger.
NO, I won’t cycle in Auckland again, unless the whole infrastructure gets improved and car drivers are held more accountable for their negligence and dangerous driving.
My previous enthusiasm and sympathy for Brazil has been more than moderated over recent days. While I love the culture and spirit of people there, the newest top 50 of their “hits’ shows how corrupt and Americanised that society is. Even their own performers are rather up themselves and believing they are better than others. In some cases they may be, but not in all. I am disappointed, and the commercial world is taking its toll all over the place. It is rot, rot and more rot, not quality aand skill.
Don’t be too harsh mate that’s like judging NZers via the GC
The top 50 hits will be those that get promoted on tv, especially by Rede Globo (think Murdoch in Portuguese). Brazil is a large and complex country, with the cultural differences from north to south being something like Invercargill to PNG. East to west isn’t much different. There are things about Brazil I absolutely love, and things I hate, but none of those things have much to do with the top 50.