Open mike 23/09/2015

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 23rd, 2015 - 22 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

openmikeOpen mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

22 comments on “Open mike 23/09/2015 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. RedBaronCV 1
    23 September 2015 at 8:08 am

    And the latest ACC levy drop once again seems to be lowering levies for employers but not for the non work account funded by employees . Both pools pay out roughly the same level of claims so why is only one lot of levies going down.

    • Draco T Bastard 1.1
      23 September 2015 at 10:35 am

      Because National and Labour have, over the last thirty years, been putting ever more costs on the workers so that the bludgers at the top can have higher profits and less responsibility.

  2. gsays 2
    23 September 2015 at 8:16 am

    Morena, about a week ago I was reading a thread on roading, trucks, damage and funding.
    Someone was quoting from an official document.
    If anyone recalls this can they plz point me in the right direction.
    Than.

  3. adam 3
    23 September 2015 at 8:25 am

    In consumer news.

    This compound methylene chloride, is readily available in NZ . Predominate in paint strippers. Heck go on down to bunnings and grab some.

    http://www.bunnings.co.nz/diggers-paint-stripper-500ml-_p01567239

    The only problem is – this stuff kills, quickly, and quite simply. It deprives the brain of Oxygen, a then you have a heart attack.

    Having check the labels here, they almost as lack lustre as the one this article is complains about in the USA.

    http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/09/21/17991/common-solvent-keeps-killing-workers-consumers

    How about we – stop with the Bullshit and start putting real labels on products which are dangerous, and especially those which are lethal. I’m not saying stop selling them. Just put labels which tell the truth about a product. For example.

    “This paint stripper, if used incorrectly will kill you in a really painful way.”

    Or

    “The death from this product is quick and nasty, so follow the instructions.”

    • John Shears 3.1
      23 September 2015 at 10:20 am

      In case anyone is not quite sure how dangerous this chemical is this from the net.

      In many countries, products containing DCM must carry labels warning of its health risks.
      In February 2013, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health warned that at least 14 bathtub refinishers have died since 2000 from DCM exposure. These workers had been working alone, in poorly ventilated bathrooms, with inadequate or no respiratory protection, and no training about the hazards of DCM.[8][13][24] OSHA has since then issued a DCM standard.[25] In the European Union, the European Parliament voted in 2009 to ban the use of DCM in paint-strippers for consumers and many professionals.[26] The ban took effect in December 2010.

      Why is it not banned in New Zealand as an over the counter product?

      Oh! I forgot we are busy with fluttering flags and possible Pandas.
      Oh! &; nearly forgot ,the debt figure is now $105,179,280,000.
      and rising as we speak.

  4. dv 4
    23 September 2015 at 8:47 am

    WE have a double diversion.

    Look over there FLAG

    Oh shit

    Look over there PANDAS

  5. ianmac 5
    23 September 2015 at 9:21 am

    A bit weird in the House yesterday. Trevor Mallard kicked Nick Smith out of the House – twice. Andrea Vance’s report does not reflect the measured behaviour of Trevor but Nick is furious.
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/72314260/nick-smith-enrages-assistant-speaker-and-gets-booted-out-of-parliament

  8. Tautoko Mangō Mata 8
    23 September 2015 at 10:57 am

    People Power-

    “Turing to roll back pricing for Daraprim amid controversy”
    Turing Pharmaceuticals will lower the price of its drug Daraprim amid backlash over a sudden spike, NBC News confirmed Tuesday.

    The company’s decision to hike the drug’s price by more than 5,500 percent was the subject of a recent New York Times story. In a phone call with NBC News, Turing’s Martin Shkreli said he will cut the cost of treatment in response to the public outcry, but did not specify by how much.”
    http://www.cnbc.com/2015/09/22/oll-back-pricing-for-daraprim-amid-controversy.html

    • Treetop 8.1
      23 September 2015 at 1:54 pm

      To play with million’s of lives over the cost of a drug which has been around since 1962, tells me that the person who is doing this has no moral or ethical compass and they will deprive the people of a necessary treatment.

      What is this reject thinking, other than to profit off a person’s misery?

      • mac1 8.1.1
        23 September 2015 at 5:14 pm

        This technique of announcing a decision or policy and then shifting according to the amount of backlash is a technique that our government does. With this unspecified backtracking, “seeing what the market will bear”, are we seeing business practice being used in politics?

        As for the ‘excuse’ offered by Mr Shkeli- pfffft.

        “Yes it is absolutely a reaction — there were mistakes made with respect to helping people understand why we took this action, I think that it makes sense to lower the price in response to the anger that was felt by people,” Shkreli said, 32.

        Notice that it’s not the policy or action that was wrong- it was its marketing. The anger felt by people was the fault of either the people for not understanding, or the marketing. (Not the fault of the extortionate action.) If they understood why the company made this unbelievable increase in a 63 year old drug, then they would not be angry. FFS.

        • Treetop 8.1.1.1
          24 September 2015 at 12:37 pm

          Yes I agree, also that there is a trend to hike the price of some medication, some examples are 500%.

          Is it going to be the norm of drug companies to ask for a ransom on medication that they produce?

          It is my understanding that 12 people were prescribed Daraprim in NZ last year and there is a $30 government sibsidy for the drug. I am left wondering if the government would subsidise the drug if it was $750 – $1000 per tablet.

          Price gouging needs to be settled in the US courts.

  9. adam 9
    23 September 2015 at 6:11 pm

    I hope he is not right.

    If so we are looking down the rabbit hole.

  10. Grim 10
    23 September 2015 at 6:23 pm

    FirstHome
    Make your first home one of our FirstHomes.

    Housing New Zealand is regularly selling a selection of its properties across the country. The FirstHome home ownership initiative sets out to help eligible buyers afford to buy one of these homes with a grant of up to 10 percent of the purchase price of the property, capped at $20,000.

    http://www.hnzc.co.nz/buying-a-house/firsthome-properties

    Nice tax payer subsidy to help low income into their first home, with HNZ as the insurer covering the risk, not unlike the subprime mortgage deal is Key trying to be the NZ fannyMae or Freddy Mac? tax payer fronts the deposit, also covers the risk and national transfer state assets into private hands, when the low income families are unable to pay who ends up with the property?

    This is in relation to the thread “Housing Corp’s privatisation by stealth” that’s your 2,000 houses right there.

    “Since being re-elected we’ve introduced our HomeStart package, which has helped more than 2,000 Kiwis into their first home following its 1 April launch.” National website.

  11. lprent 11
    24 September 2015 at 1:52 pm

    Sorry about the outage. One of the RAID drives decided that it really didn’t want to run at full speed, and turned its write cache off. It was making everything rather slow when writing to the disk.

    First reboot in about 2-3 months, so I found a startup issue. It tried starting up on a encrypted microSD card with no operating system. I have taped off off the jack. I guess that is what happens when you have your server in the living room.

  12. greywarshark 12
    24 September 2015 at 2:00 pm

    You call that living?