@lprent: The latest comment editor won’t let me reply to someone else’s comment. If I hit the reply button, the comment reply box appears with my name and email autofilled and the cursor at the end of my name. However, the comment text box is only one row high and clicking in the text box doesn’t get the cursor to appear there (it just disappears from the name box). Doing a top-level comment like this one works fine though. Hitting the tab key moves it to email then website then disappears and doesn’t ever make it to the comment text box.
The previous comment editors tested over the last few days all worked fine for me.
Chrome Version 74.0.3729.108 (Official Build) (64-bit) Windows 10 Pro Version 1803 OS build 17134.648
Replies on my android phone go through ok. But I couldn’t do an edit, maybe because I turned the phone wifi off then back on between posting the comment and trying to edit it.
I had a similar problem this morning. No space for comment text in Editor and no cursor when using reply function but a single stand-alone comment did show that space + cursor. When cancelling a reply the space also disappeared in stand-alone comments unless I refreshed the whole page!?
I pressed something last night and the comment space disappeared so that nothing could be entered. My son looked at source? code and restored function but it returned to that same condition – something was 'hidden'. Hitting enter automatically creates a double space, I would prefer to make my own. But can put comment today, so far so good. It is interesting how there are format icons at the top now. But if I edit, the edit box uses the same functions as usual eg the <i> for italics.
Zelda D'Aprano in the 70's, a feminist protester for equality, spent a day trying to travel on buses, buy something, paying a smaller fare price than the official one, the discount being the percentage lower of women's wages than those of men. IThat was in Melbourne too.
I Was looking at some ‘not chicken’ meat choices at the supermarket. Expensive. They use oil salts and cides to grow the vegetable protein then this is shipped to a lab using copious amounts of energy then to be pounded prodded poked altered abridged extracted and exhumed into burger.
Then to be packaged, re-shipped primped and pimped, postered and posted to places placed precariously in piled presentations for punters perusal…
It doesn’t really matter if it tastes like meat.
They’ve added a laboratory, more shipping and more processing to pea farming. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crops-protein/big-ag-turns-to-peas-to-meet-soaring-global-protein-demand-idUSKCN1IJ1B3
Test tube meat is another story. I’ve not enough information to make a call I do understand the move to produce it. The profit motive, but also, whole protein for the masses without factory farms.
Dietary trends drive consumers to all sorts of ridiculous food choices (and some healthy). Growing a garden (and eating the produce) will improve your health better than Atkins, keto, low-carb, bla de bla, et al, etc.
<i>It doesn’t really matter if it tastes like meat.</i>
The people buying these triumphs of industrial food processing should stop calling themselves vegeterians and just eat chicken if they want to eat something that tastes like chicken.
<i>Growing a garden (and eating the produce) will improve your health better than Atkins, keto, low-carb, bla de bla, et al, etc.</i>
To be fair, any diet that minimises your refined carb intake will improve your health more than one that doesn’t. Both growing your own food and Atkins etc fit that bill, although it sounds plausible that growing your own food would give the most improvement.
Depends on your reasons for becoming a vegetarian – I reached 25 years as a vegetarian yesterday and my reasons were and are that I didn’t like the taste, animal welfare, and environmental impact of over-farming, so for me, fake meat is pointless because I don’t like the taste of it. For others, products like Quorn are just the ticket to become vegetarian without having to completely give up their favorite dishes or to allow families with mixed diets to share meals more easily.
You do know, I suppose, that the New Zealand Communist Party, like the equivalent in Britain, were strongly against opposing the Nazi's until June 1941?
"Early in the war, communists' allegiance to the Soviet Union aligned them with Germany. In 1940 their newspaper, People's Voice, was banned by the government, and books on communism were among those outlawed under New Zealand censorship controls. But when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the New Zealand Communist Party, along with others in the west, shifted its allegiance and swung in behind the war effort."
Looking at Bernie’s actual record suggests if he gets to be prez he’ll actually end up being moderate, even centrist. That’s without even considering the fact that to get any actual legislation through he would need the vote of the 50th senator, at best likely to be someone like Joe Manchin or Krysten Sinema. Which all means the anti-Bernie sentiment from moderate Dems is probably misplaced, but also those currently “feeling the Bern” would likely end up bitterly disappointed.
“Bolt in with Moulton”
“Burstin’ Kirstin”
“SuperLooper”
“Pretty Samey with Amy”
Tim Ryan: Working Class Man
“Warrior Worrying Warren”
and of course:
“Made America Great Again”
I think the 2020 election is the Democrat's to lose. I reckon there's around a 1 in 3 chance the Dems will indeed lose it.
Looks to me like the electorate is around 20% those who will vote for whatever has an (R) next to its name, even if it's a three-weeks gone mouldering corpse. There's another 20% that are middle-finger voters. The mandarin master baiter has those segments locked down hard. At this stage I find it hard to see he'll pull back much if any support from the remaining 60% of the electorate.
So the Dem candidate needs to be able to pull in a bit more than 2/3 of the remaining electorate. Against what's bound to be unprecedented levels of attempted smears over social media (having seen how successful that was against Hillary). That social media will target the far left, to try to push them to third party candidates or just not vote. They will also try to get centrists to not vote, by smears and by painting the vote as making no difference anyway.
There will also be unprecedented attempts at voter suppression (since that worked against Stacey Abrams in Georgia 2018). Because by then the courts will have been stacked enough there's a good chance of getting away with it.
I reckon Bernie and Biden are both particularly vulnerable to smear campaigns, because their long histories in Washington will have all kinds of little nuggets that can be twisted and blown up into major smears. For instance, Biden's treatment of Anita Hill would be quite a starting point for a campaign to turn woke lefties onto third parties or to just not vote. Then there's their age, which makes them both vulnerable to "hillary's health" type smears (never mind the 6'3 239lb incumbent's best physical condition for any president ever).
So I think a tough primary is going to be important for sorting out which candidates have the skilz for dealing with the coming smears, as well as finding most of the background weak points that can become the little grain of truth needed for a successful smear.
The numbers weren’t too bad at Waikumete Cemetery this morning for the dawn parade.
Couple of unwelcome changes however.
Police presence shutting off a large surrounding road, and constricting the whole of Great North Road with patrols.
And they used to have little candles lit under each of the hundreds of serried war graves, which were such a hopeful glimmer.
I want to see every neighborhood go back to their own commemoration, as well as the large regional ones. I thought this was supposed to be celebrating a free society? And bring back the candles.
Police have been clear the security requirements are for this year only, because of the well-known issue of increased threat levels for public gatherings after big terrorist events. I am confident that most attendees would happily trade temporarily-blocked nearby roads for a better chance of survival.
With Kushner in his pocket MBS can do whatever TF he likes.
Today’s mass execution of 37 people in Saudi Arabia is a chilling demonstration of the authorities' disregard for human life. It is yet another gruesome indication of how the death penalty is being used as a political tool to crush dissent. https://t.co/09BBTcfDgu
Just as Jared Kushner answered questions about the close ties between the White House and Saudi Arabia in New York on Tuesday, the Middle Eastern kingdom beheaded 37 people in its largest mass execution in at last three years. The executions, of mostly Shiite men accused of terrorism related crimes, were part of what Washington’s Gulf Institute director Ali Al-Ahmed called “the largest mass execution of Shiites in the kingdom’s history.” Al-Ahmed identified 34 of the 37 victims as Shiite. According to reports, Saudi Arabian security services nailed one of the heads to a poll as a warning and one victim was crucified after his execution. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/23/kushner-talks-accountability-crown-prince-just-saudis-offer-egregious-display
Kushner+Bolton have been reasonably successful bringing Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States together in the form of their common sworn enemy in the form of Iran. Iran threatens Israel’s regional nuclear monopoly and decreases is security dominance around israel. Iran threatens Saudi Arabia on security and religious grounds. How Iran threatens the US is completely beyond me.
With the U.S. President officially turning a blind eye to the Saudi murder of Khashoggi, and Netanyahu re-elected, this untied force against iran will re-bind and strengthen. The result will be Saudi leadership to induce other Arab states to open their economies to Israeli investment and technical expertise (particularly in fresh water, and security technology), brining Israel substantial economic benefits.
The bigger goal between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the US, is for money to talk louder than religion.
Which is not an unusual way to achieve lasting peace.
Fucking with other nation’s economies with oil sanctions has always worked out so well.
But if you want a war, why not.
“With the announcement today, we’ve made clear our seriousness of purpose,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a press conference on Monday. “We are going to zero. How long we remain there, at zero, depends solely on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s senior leaders. We’ve made our demands very clear to the ayatollah and his cronies.” The decision to stop issuing sanctions waivers threatens to wipe roughly 1 million barrels per day off the market at a time when analyst say oil supply is already tightening. Crude futures spiked to nearly six-month highs on news of the policy, which was first reported Sunday by The Washington Post. […] Companies in those countries now face the threat of being locked out of the U.S. financial system if they continue to import crude from Iran. The question is whether some of those countries will seek to skirt the sanctions, including by facilitating or encouraging purchases of Iranian crude through companies not tied to the U.S. financial system. China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday denounced Washington’s Iran policy. “China opposes the unilateral sanctions and so-called ‘long-arm jurisdictions’ imposed by the US. Our cooperation with Iran is open, transparent, lawful and legitimate, thus it should be respected,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told reporters. “Our government is committed to upholding the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and will play a positive and constructive role in upholding the stability of global energy market.” Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu also rejected the sanctions, saying they “will not serve regional peace and stability” and would hurt the Iranian people.
Agree with most of that, except: “Which is not an unusual way to achieve lasting peace”
There is the war with Iran bit that will come before any peace, with the way these governments are behaving.
The way you’ve written that last line suggests we should accept the alignment of interests that’s going on with a shrug.
Pricks are worried about the optics rather than the ethics of detaining children in a military prison.
The United States is considering housing migrant children at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay to help handle an up-tick in the number of immigrants crossing the US southern border, according to a new report. The idea was first proposed earlier this year as the Department of Homeland Security looked for military facilities where migrants could be held as they wait for their cases to be processed. But, the proposal has not gained much traction so far, with officials telling the New York Times that the idea has been less ideal because of the optics involved with housing children right next to terrorism suspects in the notorious American prison.
The Tax Working Group policy came from a regional conference as a policy remit to work through options (the regional conference had large numbers of tax remits to replace CGT as Labour Party policy as CGT had failed at the 2011 and 2014 elections and the mood from LECs was to dump CGT), so it was actually supported by Labour Party members, not just the MPs.
I also found it ironic that France and New Zealand are planning to lead an International Terrorism Summit next month given that France committed such an act on our soil in 1985. Its quite funny really, although the grand-master of wit and humour, David Lange probably wouldn’t think so.
Edit: lprent, the font size is very small in comment box – about 8 by the looks if it. A bit of struggle for us oldies.
We had a young French family holidaying here at the time back in 1985 and they were mortified and genuinely shocked that their govt had blown up the Rainbow Warrior and killed someone on NZ soil. We have French mayors here this ANZAC day that have come to remember the Kiwis who never made it home from WW1/WW2. There are places in France that celebrate and honour our soldiers efforts to free them from the Germans. The French will always have cap in hand when it comes to NZ and the irony of past events.
Good on our PM for seizing the moment, joining with France and “trying to right the wrongs on the cyber highway”.
So there is talk of Labour introducing a land tax, however the suggestion is it is to be applied and collected by local councils. Helping them with their shortfalls while robbing Labour of any revenue, thus funding to do more.
Therefore, it isn’t going to be much compensation for Labour abandoning a CGT. Which (going off their surprise re the public reaction to the dropping of a CGT) may come as another surprise to them.
“… robbing Labour of any revenue, thus funding to do more. Therefore, it isn’t going to be much compensation for Labour abandoning a CGT…”
Labour (and the working group) had talked about a revenue-neutral CGT/personal income tax programme – so it was never going to be a way to fund other initiatives.
It was going to restore some fairness to our tax system while helping to address inequality by redistributing the new tax take.
However, Jacinda unnecessarily put an end to that ever happening under her watch. An achievement the opposition never succeeded in and would be proud of.
As for being a way to fund other initiatives, it was only projected to be tax neutral for the fist 5 years, then the tax return vastly exceeds the proposed tax cuts. Thus, giving them scope (by providing the funding) to do far more.
It was going to restore some fairness to our tax system while helping to address inequality by redistributing the new tax take.
Improving the fairness of the tax system, while laudable, isn't about increasing revenue. Redistributing tax-based spending to address inequality can be done regardless of whether a CGT is implemented or not – the effects will be the same, because the tax take will be the same – CGT wasn't about increasing revenue.
Of course it was. That's how they were going to cover the accompanying tax cuts, thereby making it tax neutral (in the first 5 years). After which, the tax revenue vastly increases.
Moreover, it was about fairness via taxing currently tax free gains.
Yes, redistributing tax-based spending to address inequality can be done via other means, but those don't also address the unfairness of tax free gains.
In addition, the tax-free capital gains distort the economy by diverting investment from production to renting activity. Great for capital owners, not so great for anybody else. In the end, we all miss out. But the shortsightedness of some (many?) prevented a mature debate and the rest is history.
Some ‘critics’ only want to focus on what might have happened in 5 years’ time. These same ‘critics’ jump up & down when presented with projected figures. Go figure.
Labour built up the hype, talked a big game but are struggling to fund it. Now they are surprised they are being criticized for dropping a means that would have helped them fund it. Go figure indeed.
Chairman, you'll be happy with Patrick Smellie's prediction that the government is temporarily sticking to the course of their own budget responsibility rules for this term in order to earn the trust of the international money hawks (didn't realise they were so powerful).
Then, Patrick surmises, the government will loosen the rules and increase debt to international norms. He also points out that you can't just throw plans and money at infrastructure when building capacity is already stretched. If only we had a competent government over the last 10 years!
That's how they were going to cover the accompanying tax cuts, thereby making it tax neutral
If you increase one source of revenue so you can reduce another source of revenue by the same amount, you don't increase your revenue. That was the whole point of trading it off against tax cuts, being able to promise it wasn't a tax grab.
The view that it would eventually lead to dramatically increased revenue is "jam tomorrow" and, even if it were a realistic prospect, wouldn't give the government increased revenue in a timeframe useful to it – NZ governments don't get more than nine years and this one's nearly had two. If it had introduced a CGT it couldn't expect this alleged increase in revenue to turn up while it was still in power.
While you don't increase your net revenue, you still have to increase your revenue to provide redistribution via the proposed tax cuts to keep it tax neutral.
Moreover, Government accounting methods are largely based on forecasting. Thus, the added revenue stream from a CGT would improve the projected tax take beyond the 5 years, meaning the Government would be able to start increasing the capital and operating allowances in the Budget following it's implementation.
Jacinda's plan to reduce child poverty is a 10 year plan.
Workers pay tax on their wages; landlords pay tax on their rental incomes; businessmen pay tax on their profits; the only ones not paying tax on their earnings are those who are not taxed on their return on their investment in family homes, this return taking the form of free rental accommodation.
Untaxed capital gain from a transaction between a buyer and seller, which produces no income, and which affects nobody else but them, is hardly unfair.
Untaxed capital gain from a transaction between a buyer and seller, which produces no income, and which affects nobody else but them, is hardly unfair.
I see that you are still sticking to your capital gain is not income. The other mistake is that it does not affect anybody else but the vendor and the buyer. You will have a very hard time arguing that. For starters, lenders, real estate agents, and insurance companies. Then, the other houses in the same street and area. I’ll make a big pot of tea …
That's interesting. This is the first time I've heard the effects of capital gain on "lenders, real estate agents, and insurance companies" and on "other houses in the same street and area" raised in this particular debate. However, if a property rises in value, and then is sold, these side effects are going to occur, but that's the result of the capital increase itself, not of the transaction. The sale of family homes no doubt involve the same effects.
And, as you say I'm sticking to my assertion that capital gain is not income. And I'm not making a mistake in saying so.
It doesn't actually. In Vino, apparently incapab!e of presenting an intelligent rebuttal, has merely resorted to insults. Despite his pseudonym there really is no truth in him.
Your premise was wrong. A sale of an asset that realises capital gain cannot be viewed as a transaction strictly between two parties (buyer and vendor). It obviously involves other parties, often dictated by Law, and always has an impact on a third party or parties. If you fail to see this then any further engagement with you on this topic is utterly futile.
Please note that I don’t even have to bring CGT into the conversation up to this point.
Land tax makes complete sense to me as a means to lower the value of land and increase revenue, but the local government option in the TWG report recommends the Productivity Commission investigates local government levying tax on vacant land in addition to rates.
Personally, I would happily see a land tax on all land, even if it is at 0.5% above $500K or something like that.
Require far more detail to know how it will exactly impact. But we may see a land tax may only result in land becoming more productive and not less valuable.
Most are over local government continuously increasing rates above the rate of inflation, so giving them this revenue stream on top of their rate take will most likely go down like a cup of cold sick. Unless the majority are going to get rate cuts.
Nevertheless, it robs central government of any funding revenue, thus their ability to do more.
In the ‘good old days’ people could claim depreciation on rental’s buildings and if you sold the rental for more than its depreciated value you were taxed on that income.
Because land is not depreciated, this won’t work but in essence, a CGT would be a tax on a fixed asset, including land that has risen in real value over time.
That's such a pathetic meme – rates only going up by inflation. That means that the Council could do very little to build infrastructure, cope with changing needs. Going up by inflation merely means keeping the spending value of the money at the same level, virtually a nil rise. It is the sort of bleat that comes from the older age group who want to be kept in the style they are used to.
It's the sort of noise you hear when you talk to just about anyone about their local council. Wasteful spending, budget blowouts and over taxing/rating are the most common gripes.
Many households are struggling, thus want councils to live more within their means.
Increasing council rates adds to the cost of home ownership while driving up rents.
Rates here in Orclund are based on capital value, which is land plus improvements. If it were just land value, the distribution of rates paid would be quite different than what it is now.
Rates pay for services and usage of infrastructure associated with the land. A CGT or land tax is a tax on income from the sale of that land. One is local, the other is national.
We pay GST on rates as well, so government gets some of it already, but I think a separate land tax on all sections > $500K would make sense even if it feels like taxing more tax again, not least because it would be administratively very simple to collect – gets added to rates and passed on quarterly.
@ Anne
Anzac Day
Very Ironic that many NZ TRoops have been Honoured by French Personnel – Mayors of Towns – and individuals.
Several Mayors are in New Zealand today, honouring the Grit and Purpose of our Troops. Also Bringing their thanks from the populations.
But you and and your friend soper would not know one iota of what our men and women achieved in France. Nor the extent of the gratitiude shown to this day by France.
You and Soper – should really aplogise to the families of the dead. Instead of having a fit of the funnies.
My comment was not a cynical overview of the spirit of ANZAC. It was merely a heads up concerning a somewhat wry point made by a journalist and did not include the body of his article. If you can't tell the difference, then you need your head read.
My father saw active service in 1918 during WW1 and lost a number of his mates. He was an army officer in WW2 who was responsible for the welfare of several Pacific Island nations and also spent periods of time fighting the Japanese in extremely precarious conditions.
OT, you obviously don't do irony. You appear to have completely misunderstood Anne's comments. I get her reference to the cynical element of Sopers article, why can't you. I couldn't imagine Anne being a "love dove" with Barry Soper, if she is then I have disembarked at the wrong planet.
I am aware that a female scorned is mayhem. Not in the least bit amusing.
Also when you see all the white Crosses pegged in the ground – each representing a motherless dead soldier, name imprinted – You are inclined to lose interest in the weak comedy of Soper.
So, via you Kat, I promise to giggle at Soper. He is a child. And hopefully I will leave Anne without any cross now or in the future.
Can't stand the Soper. I don't read him or the other ne'er do well tighty righties who frequent the pages of the Herald and other MSM outlets. Eg. the Hosk, and the Hosk's spouse (whose name escapes me), the Soper spouse, HDP and the Hooton. Oh and rwnj Leighton Smith. There’s a few more who are so low in my estimation I don’t know their names.
But I concede I was attracted to the Soper headline because the irony had not escaped either.
Although noted by Bryan Bruce, not hearing much outrage from many of the left on this. If it were National pulling this one, I'm sure there would be far more noise.
Not necessarily bullshit but certainly a convenient lack of rigour….and not a good look.
I would be very surprised if anything approaching the number of jobs claimed in application is ever achieved….but it seems to me that is unimportant in NZ Firsts grand scheme of things and that is quietly accepted by the coalition (the alternative being what it is)
Labour have limited ability to control Jones and it is possible that some initiatives could exceed job projections though I concede that is the lesser likelyhood
They better get on top of it/Jones otherwise they are just giving National more ammo to shoot them down.
These kind of issues pisses off voters from both the left and right. Even many NZF supporters will be pissed.
And while Labour are at it sorting this out, they should also look at the practice of giving offshore owned forestry companies money to plant trees.
Planting trees is what they already do. We have enough money heading offshore, we don't need a government assisting in more of this. Keep it local and keep it real.
I wondered what negative line you would be taking The Chairman. It appears that you have surfaced from the pond after having a whiff of the latest target, Shane Jones, as he goes round disrupting the comfortable patterns of patronage that Gnashional had set up.
I'd like to know how exactly this lighter-heavier-lighter thing works.
An innovative aircraft that turns into a “lighter-than-air” balloon to propel itself forward has been flown for the first time.
The Phoenix is designed to repeatedly switch between being lighter and heavier than air to generate thrust and allow it to stay in the skies indefinitely.
The article says "The vehicle’s fuselage contains helium, allowing to to ascend, as well as an air bag that inhales and compresses air, enabling it to descend."
So I'm picturing an outer bag that can take pressure, and an inner bag filled with helium. When you want maximum lift, vent the space between the two bags so the helium inner bag pushes out all the air between the two bags. When you want to descend, pump air between the two bags so the inner helium bag gets compressed down and you're adding all the weight of the air you're pumping in at higher than atmospheric pressure and density.
So to operate it, you have it rise in it's maximum lift to the desired altitude, with the little wings being used to push it in the desired horizontal direction. Then at the max altitude, pump air in so it wants to drop, and adjust the wings to keep going in the desired horizontal direction. Rinse and repeat.
A wee bit like tacking upwind in a sailboat, using the vertical dimension.
That outer shell is going to have to be incredibly strong.
At a guess, based on the photo I would think the volume would be about 40 cubic metres. Helium has a mass of about 0.18 kg/cubic metre at STP. Air is about 1.20 kg/cubic metre under the same conditions Thus the total lift would be around 40kg when there was only helium in the outer shell, at STP, and that would mean the maximum weight of the plane would have to be less than 40kg. That would seem to be an incredibly thin shell to have the total weight of a thing that size below 40 kg, when you consider the solar cells that are on the wings, particularly when you consider that it would have to be able to handle pressures that were significantly greater than the atmospheric pressure outside when air was pumped in and compressed.
Great idea though isn't it, and much cheaper than satellites for communication..
It might not have any structure to it at all, it may just be a flexible bag. The wings appear held in place with guy wires, and there's wrinkles visible at the tail. As far as weight goes, they look like thin-film solar cells, and for the wings you can make surprisingly rigid skins lighter than 300g/sqm.
As far as pressure goes, if I remember right a whitewater raft needs around 0.15ish bar. Something that much bigger won't need anywhere near as much pressure to hold its shape.
My use of STP was based on the fact that I assumed that the pressure inside the bag should be at least equal to the outside air pressure.
Your number if 0.15 bar is the pressure above the pressure outside. Thus the actual pressure, used to determine the mass of the gas inside would have to be taken as 1.15 bar assuming that the plane is at an elevation where the outside pressure is about 1 bar (ie fairly near the ground).
Looking at the photo again, and the other article you link to I agree that I have probably greatly underestimated the volume. Ah for the days of the 200,000 m3 Hindenberg though for a real airship.
BTW, that 40m^3 looks awfully stingy to me. The wings look quite a lot higher than the tops of the dudes' heads, so call it at least 2m radius/4m diameter. It's 15m long, but the tail is kinda skinny. so call it an ellipsoid 2m x 2m x 10m, for a volume of 170ish m^3. Other reports say it's 120kg, so that kinda ties in with a volume up over 150 m^3.
Counting the number of jobs created by Shane's fund by toting up the projected positions claimed in fund applicants' applications is outrageous. It smacks of deception.
Can someone count the pay packets please.
Shane's fund is in dire need of a credibility injection.
Always willing to put the boot in David Mac. I hope Shane's fund receives a lot of eyeballing from you. We will be interested to find out the good and the bad that you find from your cynical eye.
The interweb would be a boring place, bereft of credible commentary were it not for the contributions of Bryan Bruce.
A slightly different tone to this morning's offering. BB doesn't need to defend himself from such a numpty, but it was a pleasure to read. Each shot right on the mark.
Made all the sweeter as Bryan Bruce really does believe what he writes.
Hmmm, it looks like Mr Bruce is quoting verbatim Dr Eric Crampton of The New Zealand Initiative without proper citation or acknowledgement. Oh dear.
So, the promised 10,000 jobs – actually, it is 13,085 according to the latest available info from MBIE – is BS because they are based on promises and assumptions and may never eventuate? Future projections based on available information are verboten. Is that the crux of it?
Rob Stock doesn’t like to own stuff and gives his reasons. Interestingly, he omits two important considerations: 1) depreciation (most stuff becomes next to worthless over time and becomes literally junk) and 2) opportunity cost (money could be better invested in something that increases in value over time).
I think the Regional Growth Fund should have a career focus. Then it becomes an investment.
Clambering around a mountain planting seedlings is not a career.
Shane has left himself open to flying mud that will stick.
"It would of been cheaper for us to pay these people $100k a year to watch TV hey Shane."
When the positions come with the potential for a flourishing future, dividing a billion dollars by the actual jobs created becomes the price of promoting quality futures. Creating future top tax bracket workers.
You reckon. It's a big task. If you have nothing better to do than pontificate on what jobs are worthy of your consideration, perhaps you could do something useful and help in the planting.
Your song 'Don't do anything till you hear from me!'
I think the fund bankrolling a cultural facility beside the Hokianga is a superb idea. Everyone has nice scenery, it is Maori that make NZ unique.
I can think of 20 small business ideas that could spin off such an enterprise. Individual Hapu could put down the hangi, provide the Kapa Haka show, take visitors for a paddle in a Waka.
Too often we read of fraud associated with this type of initiative. It would be good to see some iron-clad protection. When he's back on his feet, make The Mad Butcher treasurer.
The Provincial Growth Fund is there to buy NZ First an electoral seat, that is all
Fuck Labour for agreeing to this, 3 billion fucking taxpayer dollars given to that fat prick jones to spend as he pleases with no strings attached for whoever he decides to play Santa Claus for.
It's bullshit and shouldn't be allowed to happen, politicians need to be held legally accountable for this sort of pork-barrel politics.
As per 31 March 2019, up to $735,962,077 has been announced in funding that will do sweet FA for growth in the regions? Each and every project is just a cover to “buy NZ First an electoral seat”? Your argument has the strength of a fart in a stormy night: pfffff – WOOSH.
BM, I think you're a closet leftie searching for enough reason to subscribe.
We all are. When we consider what matters the most to us, for nearly all of us it's our loved ones. If we accept that your loved ones are on an equal footing with my loved ones. We're Social Democrats BM.
It's time you came out, I'm sure your folks will be fine with it.
It’s a big reason why so many trade guys vote National now.
Tradies vote National "now?" That's "now" defined as "Psycho Milt's entire adult life and presumably longer," is it? I know we live in the eternal now, but that's ridiculous.
How many? So many. That many? Yup, that many and maybe even more. Wow, that’s a lot. Yup, it’s heaps and there are heaps more to come. I lost count at one …
The Far North is nature's Disneyland. When Nga Puhi eventually settle for their 2 cents on the dollar I think they will evolve into an International tourism powerhouse.
Up here, the ocean is still our back-up pantry. Peat lakes as black as Coke, packed with minerals that have made skin feel like it's 10 years old for 700 years. Up here where we're real skinny, from the car, you can say "Yep, that's the eastcoast and over there, that's the westcoast."
On the way to where our spirits depart, where we're skinny, you'll see a pristine sandy harbour with no road access. It is packed with silica and in the sun glistens like a mass of white diamonds. Glass manufacturers the world over covet the dunes at Parengarenga.
I think dressing up as an 1830 warrior and faking the take-over of a tourist bus on Ninety Mile Beach and leaving gifts rather than looting would be a cool school holiday job. Great confidence booster for the kid.
I think the factions of Nga Puhi that aren't building bridges towards a settlement need to look into the eyes of their grandchildren. They're in a position to make a worthwhile difference.
Yes, it's a melting pot of drama that needs to be sorted out before sitting across the table from Little.
There were a lot of muskets in Northland before a sheriff arrived.
The logical way would appear to be to include a representative from each of the conflicting factions. A united front presenting their individual concerns.
There have been a lot of tables sat round over years with lots of voices from all factions. There is unlikely to be a united front before Little has long gone.
Perhaps sequestering carbon is quite important as well? Some folk should "Keep their breath to cool their porridge". But then some enjoy poking the borax!!
The FDA has built and expanded a vast and hidden repository of reports on device-related injuries and malfunctions
Since 2016, at least 1.1 million incidents have flowed into the internal “alternative summary reporting” repository, instead of being described individually in the widely scrutinized public database known as MAUDE, which medical experts trust to identify problems that could put patients in jeopardy.
Yet the program, in all its iterations, has been so obscure that it is unknown to many of the doctors and engineers dedicated to improving device safety. Even a former FDA commissioner said he knew nothing of the program.
“The public has a right to know about this,” said Dr. S. Lori Brown, a former FDA official who accessed the data for her research. She said doctors relying just on the public reports — and unaware that many incidents may be omitted — can easily reach the wrong conclusion about the safety record of a particular device.
Just FYI; here at The Standard by convention the use of bolding is generally reserved for moderators in order to make their edits or actions more visible.
Someone ought to put that dozy bimbo right about where the shooter came from. Oz. And according to him it was a perfectly normal family.
[Deleted – A little too much information about the accused and naming him is definitely not ok. I thought that had been made clear previously – Incognito]
However Jenny Davies, who thinks that the idea is un-Australian could take PM Ardern’s place in the mural, hugging and comforting the Muslim woman, and showing how Australians have been upset and deeply moved by their fellow citizen’s deathly action.
I thought that copying from published info was right. And I don't see why some info now can't be released for public info. Sorry if the authorities have denied us this info, and thought that was the way to go. At this time I had thought that background should be provided. Otherwise how can some Oz bird say it is nothing to do with them. Time for some free information.
By way of my personal explanation, it was decided shortly after the massacre that the accused would not be named here on TS. As you know, moderation is not open to litigation.
A link with a short explanation or quote is usually more than sufficient; less is more and no need to copy & paste too much text with too many links (which will also automatically trigger a comment going into moderation). However, this is a special case, highly sensitive, and it is before the courts now. For lawyers and academics the name and personal history are important; for political debate here on TS they are largely irrelevant.
TS is not a conduit for public info on people accused of hideous crimes. If people want to know they can seek out the information for themselves, e.g. by using search engines.
Far too late to worry about aliens being here, but fear not, these guys aren't invading, they're just on a scheduled toilet stop on the way through to Proxima Centauri.
The prime directive prevents me from further explaining why the tour brochures definitely describe the Earth as the Huntly of our trip to somewhere nice.
Can we blame climate change on exhaust from intergalactic touring buses and waste from cosmic freedom campers? Do you ETs post your holiday pics on FB and Instagram too?
Since the forced landing I don't fly any more, you'll never get me up in one of those things again (why I’m stuck here), but no pollution from us, there's just you apes and a few other primitive species still doing that – We worked out cold fusion aeons ago.
No facebook for us but we do have alien news desk.
Oh, that’s disappointing because we really need somebody else to share the burden of blame with for climate change. Otherwise, the guilt would destroy us.
That musing is a doozy. I think it should be on How to Get There so am copying it for inclusion. Thanks.
in the 21st century there has been a recoupling: rising resource consumption has so far matched or exceeded the rate of economic growth. The absolute decoupling needed to avert environmental catastrophe (a reduction in material resource use) has never been achieved, and appears impossible while economic growth continues. Green growth is an illusion.
A piece from Chris Trotter on similarities between David Lange's government and that of Jacinda Ardern. It might shed light onto present directions
In one respect, at least, there is a very substantial difference between the governments of Lange and Ardern. In the case of the former, the shape and direction of economic reform (thoughtfully prepared by Treasury in advance) was condensed into a single, revolutionary manifesto – “Economic Management”. In the latter case, the task of mapping the progress of government reforms has been farmed-out to a multitude of working-groups. Their combined reports will, presumably, constitute the Labour Party’s 2020 manifesto.
Is this the explanation for Ardern’s willingness to content herself with the role of Coalition figurehead? Because she knows that her key political strength has always been to present the ideas of others in a lively and compelling fashion? How to identify the emotional potential within any given set of policies and communicate it directly to the voters? Her skill in delivering the party’s messages is very different from the old-fashioned oratorical skill of Lange. His was a twentieth century talent, hers belong to the twenty-first.
National have caused all the messs in the health bill housing shonky farming micro bovine virus many other problems when they ran the country to serve the wealthy first and formost . It does not work very well when everything is structured to suit the 00.1 % over the 99.9 % of Tangata .
I know that rheumatic fever hits the poor common tangata hardest Maori and our Pacific cousin make the majority of those people who are affected by this disease .
Insight – Every year, up to 200 New Zealanders die from heart damage caused by rheumatic fever – an illness wiped out in many other wealthy countries. And despite a five-year campaign to tackle the disease here, rates are once again
There’s no record of the total number of New Zealanders affected by the rheumatic heart disease, but last year the number of new rheumatic cases was 188 – most of them children.
It’s almost the highest figure in a decade, while in other wealthy countries like the US and the UK, the disease has been all but stamped out. What's disappointed those in public health the most is that the numbers have risen despite a five-year push to reduce the rates on the rise. Philippa Tolley reports. The DHB’s public health physician, Pip Anderson, says rheumatic fever rates have risen in the area for the last two years, despite efforts to eradicate it. She says there are questions over whether a change in the prevention programme has reduced its impact, or whether other factors such as the housing crisis had overwhelmed the ability of the health system to reduce rates. The DHB says it is in the process of reviewing its approach
How this rheumatic fever problem isn't having everything thrown at it, like say the measles epidemic, is a matter that needs a serious study and response. I know some are working so hard and getting so discouraged and saddened that they are not able to get on top of it. I thought I would have a little look at what is happening Eco Maori. You may know more.
I think one thing that should be introduced all over the country, like as from yesterday, is a group of roving medical vans that take to the people the testing equipment and personnel to check on health and dispense minor everyday aids and medicine. It is hard to get children to the doctor, getting transport, coping with care of others at the same time – who babysits?
What's available – I can see a surgery bus. It seems a private-public partnership. With the breakdown of active, citizen-oriented government, perhaps this needs to be the new way of delivering health.
(The denizens in administration in the departments fill their time with designing computer projections and finding expensive managers overseas, or organising funds for new buildings for which they choose the lowest tender and enable charlatans; result a building that requires repairs ten years in, and replacement within thirty.)
…In early 2002, private company Mobile Health Solutions spent $5.2 million to build a specially designed 20-metre long, 39-tonne truck to show there was another way to provide day surgery to people living in rural areas.
The country's only surgical bus has since treated thousands of people by giving them access to hundreds of specialist surgical procedures not otherwise available in their towns….
The bus, which was funded by the Ministry of Health, now delivered about 1 per cent of the country's annual surgical workload – the same as an average operating theatre.
Trying to find info on helping access to health care seems hard to find looking on google. I found something on rural nursing done in 1994 so I'll put the link in case it is useful.
Every area of low income, especially where there is distance from services, should have it's own buses and teams of nurses, and advanced nurses-to-doctors and good equipment, and regular routes, with some diversions to the remote, when prior appointments are sought. Is this being done now? How widely? How frequently? Embedded into the system or innovative for effect to be abandoned when the set-term funding runs out? Has there been a national govt/local iwi connection made in areas, and is it being monitored and improved, cost-wise and effectiveness-wise? Have the staff done their proper cultural training and using that basis as much as possible?
Maori are keen to do good stuff, are there trained personnel able to bring it to the people and make a difference? Are those people then assisted to carry out schemes and feel part of a team for health, not just needy recipients? The Biggie – nice small warm cottages with all the requirements, and a cleaner/aid to do the windows and the extras as needed when difficult times have to be coped with. If there were more physical comforts, and mental rest through talking through difficulties with friendly advisors, there would likely be a huge change away from negative statistics.
Eco Maori backs the non violence protest to get the truth to the TANGATA ABOUT how badly climate change is affecting our poorer cosin NOW no tomorrow but NOW we can see the negative effects with our own EYEZ
British police said 1088 arrests have been made since the main protests began. The final day of protests is focusing on the international financial sector, which has made London its home.
"Extinction Rebellion to focus on the financial industry today," the group said in a statement. The "aim is to demand the finance industry tells the truth about the climate industry and the devastating impact the industry has on our planet."
The group advocates non-violent civil disobedience to force governments to reduce carbon emissions and avert what it says is a global climate crisis that will bring starvation, floods, wildfires and social collapse.
They are demanding the government declare a climate and ecological emergency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025 and create a citizen's assembly of members of the public to lead on decisions to address climate change.
In 2017, total United Kingdom greenhouse gas emissions were 43 percent lower than in 1990 and 2.6 per cent lower than 2016, according to government statistics.
The group said they will end their protests in London on Thursday and will end their blockades at Parliament Square and Marble Arch.
However, they promised more protests in the future, saying direct action was the only way to bring the issue to public attention Ka kite ano links below P.S I had to use my phone to get this out there .????????????????????????????????
Bottom Trawling for fish and dredging for shell fish is like driving a BULLDOZER to round up the sheep and cows if this was seen the real damage that these technology's do to our fish's habitats there would be a huge OUT CRY but because its out of SIGHT the money people can keep wreaking Tangaroa for short term gain of $$$£$$$££££$$$$£$$$$$$$
The fish need a whare to and those 2 techniques are ruining there whare the out come will BE our fish stocks collapseing. No fish for the Mokopuna grandchildren NO fish for our FUTURE .
According to the report, commercial fishing had reduced in the last decade, and 97 percent of commercially-caught fish came from stocks considered to be sustainably managed.
However, it also said 16 percent of routinely assessed stocks were overfished in 2017 and 10 stocks were considered collapsed. The report said bycatch of protected species such as seabirds had reduced, but this was based on data from before 2016.
Mrs Goddard said those statistics said nothing meaningful about the health of the ecosystem.
She said this was not the latest data, with seabird capture having increased 85 percent in some fisheries in the 2017/18 fishing year compared to the previous year, including hoki, hake, ling and warehou, according to data from the Department of Conservation.
"I think what's disappointing is it makes a bold statement in the report that bycatch is being reduced and that the number of threatened, endangered and protected marine species caught has been reduced."
Mrs Goddard said what she had gleaned from the most recent data was that is not the case.
Independent marine scientist Roger Grace said there were serious habitat-damaging issues such as trawling and dredging, which the report touches on, but not in great detail, so they aren't addressed effectively.
"For the last 30 to 50 years we've been hammering the shallow and inshore habitats and smashing the natural life there to bits, and it's no longer as good for juvenile fish habitat," he said Ka kite ano links below. P.S Whanau I told you that the civil servants run the countrys they are trying to paint a rosey picture about our fisheries if we let them fool US no fish for the Mokopuna look over sea the evedince is there fisheries collapseing all over the place .
There are a few people who are waving the alt right white supremacist flag in NZ.
The Australian man who was part of the Sri Lanka attacks show ECO MAORI that the Australian are targeting the wrong people sending Kiwis to their crap camps and deporting the to A country they don't NO. NZ
Hallys emperor penguins colony collapse show how finally balanced life is a little change can make or break LIFE. We need to take human caused climate change very seriously.
Cortez is Eco Maori pick I have exzamed the others they have strings attached to the people who are making a mess.
Our sports Stars help Aotearoa shine bright condolences to Collettes Whanau
Rammi is a cool actor.
Yes people get wild creatures without being prepared to care for them correctly. I found a crook Hawk when I was young it stayed around for a few days I just gave it food and water and let it FREE .
Eco Maori will have to stop the sandflys distracting ME from the Real threat to US. I say that is there tactics now trying there best to PISS me off they are merely little bugs in my journey in life they are trying there best to sap my MANA but in reality every move they make against me adds to my MANA I see it all over Te Papatuanukue Ka pai.
The main threat to US human kind is Global warming
. Some countries have profited from climate change while the same rise in average planetary temperatures has dragged down economic growth in the warmer countries.
The gap between those groups of nations with the highest and lowest economic output per person is now around 25% larger than it would have been had there been no climate change link below
Next is Artifical Intelligents this threat is being down play by some people but this technology will give the holders of Artifical Intelligents the POWER OF God's they will be able to do what ever they want and not be held accountable for there ACTIONS . Link below P.S I know it looks like that is the case now but they will be held accountable.
Waste and Consumerism is a big threat plastic can take a 1000 year to degrade need need to use biodegradable things like paper bags and cardboard make laws so stuff last 20 to 50 years not 2 to 3 years as some stuff only last that long everything has to recycled no if or buts everything has to be recycled. Ka kite ano video below.
Equality is up there to Equality for all life to be respected equality for Wahine we have to learn to treat all our Wahine like a Queens and LISTEN to them given equal saying in the way our society are RULED .
We must let the ruling class NO that the Way we are abuseing OUR decendints FUTURE is unlogical and unacceptable to US the 99.9 % of tangata /people Kia kaha
The power of grassroots, widespread climate action cannot be underestimated. When ordinary people start to organise among themselves and create communities of resistance in our schools, colleges, universities and neighbourhoods, those in positions of power begin to notice. The emergent climate movements are organising people of all ages to fight for a better world and to take the necessary steps to pressure political leaders to act.
The UK youth strikers Holly Gillibrand, George Bond and myself sat down with Greta, Jeremy Corbyn, Caroline Lucas, Vince Cable, Liz Saville-Roberts and Ian Blackford for the first climate talks of their kind in more a decade. Theresa May’s chair remained empty.
'Outrage is justified': David Attenborough backs school climate strikers
We pushed political leaders to commit to and agree upon some positive first steps to start addressing the climate crisis. Tens of thousands of young climate activists forced party leaders to acknowledge the gravity of the climate crisis, driving home the need to act urgently and collaboratively Ka kite ano links below.
We don't put down other people because they are different humans have bigger problems than that we will have a problem serviving on Papatuanukue if we don't change OUR Ways we treat Papatuanukue and her creations we will all go EXTINCT
But Darryl Ward, an Anglican lay preacher from Paraparaumu, urged Christians to instead show love and care "for our Muslim brothers and sisters".
Ward said Christianity had never been the "sole faith tradition" in New Zealand.
"Māori spiritual beliefs preceded the arrival of Europeans and Christianity, and other faith traditions from overseas soon
our Muslim brothers and sisters, or for that matter, anyone else because they worship God differently from us," Ward said he gave us two simple commandments; to love God and to love others. He also made it quite clear that it is through helping those in need that one gains eternal LIFE Ka kite ano P.S EQUALITY for all.
I see Mark Z is sueing someone from upper hut for minupulating there likes and dislike for monetary gain I planned to do a post on the new computer currency Ka kite ano P.S Artifical Intelligents is a topic we all need to be talking about the positive and negative about the technology
That's a huge fire on the highway in USA condolences to the people who lost there love ones in that crash.
Measles is still out of control in NZ those anti vaxers and the poor people who are to stressed trying to put food on the table to get there tamariki vacancied is part of the cause.
I have already commented on the USA politics Seen Don has helped Eco Maori Mana Wairua Ka pai But he is still a carbon man .oo.
It logical to move more imports out side of Auckland cannot have goods stuck in a Auckland traffic jam.
Roman? looks like a qute boy it's sad he has that illness we are fortunate not to have major sickness with OUR Mokopuna my eldest seems OK for now.
Ka pai to the Salvation Army campaign against the people selling expensive good off the back of a truck I say the laws should be changed to stop the loan Sharks ripping the poor common person off to. I new when I backed The Salvation Army last year as being Eco Maori number 1 charity I was correct.
I seen that they plan to use Cherynoble Russian nuclear accident sites as a green ENERGY site Ka kite ano P.S the sandflys tried their best to stuff up my video feed
This is going to be the new currency with a conscience that will make people and country's behave HUMANLY if they don't the dislike mount up and your networth goes down do good things and you get heaps of likes then your networth goes up. This can be the same for country's to. At the minute the monetary SYSTEM punishes POOR COUNTRY and PEOPLE by giving us a bad credit rating and charging the people who can least afford it huge unstainable INTREST Rates that need to reverse to change the wealthy higher interest rate and the poor common people lower interest rates .
I know that the security for a currency system like this will have to have the best protection that can be made by people but ha from what I SEE the uneqality that is happening around Papatuanukue the Systems definitely need to change.
Facebook alleges 'likes' were sold for commercial advantage.
The company operated the website Likesocial.co, currently undergoing "maintenance", and IGFamous.net.
Another of their companies, Social Envy, operates the SocialEnvy.co website.
Facebook cited the posting of a photograph from a user with no previous Instagram followers which immediately attracted 500 likes within seconds on Likesocial.co.
More photos from the same user achieved similar "likes" in March of this year, Facebook claimed.
The defendants allegedly "enriched themselves at the expense of Facebook and Instagram by US$9.3m", and the media company was seeking damages of the same amount.
Facebook claimed the behaviour was "fraudulent", and also damaged Facebook and Instagram computer systems
Many thanks to the British Labour Party for finally making a stand on the Papatuanukue issues with human caused climate change Ka pai. We have to respect our Decendints rights to a happy healthy equal FUTURE LIFE.
Labour will this week force a vote in parliament to declare a national environmental and climate change emergency as confidential documents show the government has spent only a fraction of a £100m fund allocated in 2015 to support clean air projects.
Jeremy Corbyn’s party will demand on Wednesday that the country wakes up to the threat and acts with urgency to avoid more than 1.5°C of warming, which will require global emissions to fall by about 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching “net zero” before 2050
Whanau the climate change deniers suffer from this effect they don't even understand WTF they are taking about cannot even truthfully self examination there past ACTIONS to find the negative things that they have done. They will allways only find their actions to be positive everyone else is at fault not THEE I thee I is perfect. YEA RIGHT .
Wheeler didn’t know what he didn’t know, and that’s the cognitive engine of what’s today rued and ridiculed as the Dunning-Kruger effect. It describes what Dunning later called “the anosognosia of everyday life”; a cognitive foible in which people lack the self-awareness—and yes, in some cases, the intelligence—to objectively estimate their own ability. Or, to paraphrase John Cleese: some people are too stupid to understand how stupid they are.
In studies of university students, Dunning and Kruger found a strong inverse relationship between actual and self-ascribed ability. Those who considered themselves competent consistently proved that they weren’t. In a test, many who ranked themselves near the 70th percentile actually scored in the 10th (intriguingly, the opposite effect expressed in smart students).
Now, commentators and researchers are invoking Dunning and Kruger again, as they try to make sense of a raft of recent studies that have found people of strong anti-science disposition almost always understand the least about that same science
Ka kite ano links below P.S I no a – – – – – – that suffer from this .
The person who did that in America Defend his race from what a imagined threat come on people we are all HUMANS.
I seen that story on simons slush fund complaint lol.
The Free Press is a must that includes social media as well free speach is a right for all people
The flat Earthers are foolish most living things have curves there are many things that I could put out to counter their beliefs but I m not even going to waste my time .
Kia kaha Rewa keep up the good Mahi with your strong Wahine goals hope you can beat your cancer problems
Good on him for helping the sick Hedgehog serviving losing his quills looks like it has a Whare for life its cool showing stories like that it will teach te Mokopuna to love OUR wild life have to be careful of it quills. Ka kite ano
This short blog post and the linked PDF document is the result of a collaborative effort by Anne-Marie Blackburn, Dana Nuccitelli, Bärbel Winkler, Ken Rice and John Cook. When the climate change (mis)information briefs pushed by David Legates and others started to make the rounds in January 2021 we wondered whether ...
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Let’s be clear: if Trump is not politically killed off once and for all, he will become a MAGA Dracula, rising from the dead to haunt US politics for years to come and giving inspiration to his wretched family of grifters and thousands of deplorables well into the next decade. ...
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Last month OMV quit the Great South Basin and surrendered its offshore exploration permits outside of Taranaki. This month, Australian-owned Beach Energy has done the same: Beach Energy Resources New Zealand has decided to abandon all of its oil and gas exploration permits off the South Island coast, including ...
The new Northland case has been linked to the South African strain of Covid-19, one of a number of new, more contagious Covid variants. Here’s how they emerge and why. Let’s start with the basics. The genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19 is a strand of RNA ...
MARVIN HUBBARD, US citizen by birth, New Zealand citizen by choice, Quaker and left-wing activist, has been broadcasting his show, "Community or Chaos", on Otago Access Radio for the best part of 30 years. On 24 November last year, I spoke with him about the outcome of the 2020 General ...
This is a guest blog post by Daniel Tamberg, Potsdam, co-founder and director of SCIARA GmbH. The non-profit organisation SCIARA is developing and operating a flexible software platform for scientific simulation games that allows thousands of players to explore, design and understand possible climate futures together. Decision-makers in politics, business, ...
Yesterday's Gone: Cold shivers are running up and down the spines of conservatives everywhere. Donald Trump may have gone, but all the signs point to there being something much more momentous in the wind-shift than a simple return to the status quo ante. A change is gonna come. ONE COULD ...
Is it possible to live and let live in the post-Trump era? The online campaign to vilify Christopher Liddell, ex-White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant to Trump, makes for an interesting case study. Liddell is a New Zealander whose illustrious career in corporate America once earned him plaudits ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 17, 2021 through Sat, Jan 23, 2021Editor's Choice12 new books explore fresh approaches to act on climate changeAuthors explore scientific, economic, and political avenues for climate action ...
This discussion is from a Twitter thread by Martin Kulldorff on 20 December 2020. He is a Professor at Harvard Medical School specialising in disease surveillance methods, infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety. His Twitter handle is @MartinKulldorff #1 Public health is about all health outcomes, not just a single ...
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Dan FalkBritons who switched on their TVs to “Good Morning Britain” on the morning of Sept. 15, 2020, were greeted by news not from our own troubled world, but from neighboring Venus. Piers Morgan, one of the hosts, was talking about a major science story that had surfaced the ...
Sara LutermanGrowing up autistic in a non-autistic world can be very isolating. We are often strange and out of sync with peers, despite our best efforts. Autistic adults have, until very recently, been largely absent from media and the public sphere. Finding role models is difficult. Finding useful advice ...
Doug JohnsonThe alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than ...
Getting to Browser Tab Zero so I can reboot the computer is awfully hard when the one open tab is a Table of Contents for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and every issue has more stuff I want to read. A few highlights: Gugler et al demonstrating ...
Michael Cowling, CQUniversity AustraliaWe’ve probably all been there. We buy some new smart gadget and when we plug it in for the first time it requires an update to work. So we end up spending hours downloading and updating before we can even play with our new toy. But ...
Timothy Ford, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Charles M. Schweik, University of Massachusetts AmherstTo mitigate health inequities and promote social justice, coronavirus vaccines need to get to underserved populations and hard-to-reach communities. There are few places in the U.S. that are unreachable by road, but other factors – many ...
Israel chose to pay a bit over the odds for the Pfizer vaccine to get earlier access. Here’s The Times of Israel from 16 November. American government will be charged $39 for each two-shot dose, and the European bloc even less, but Jerusalem said to agree to pay $56. Israel ...
Orla is a gender critical Marxist in Ireland. She gave a presentation on 15 January 2021 on the connection between postmodern/transgender identity politics and the current attacks on democratic and free speech rights. Orla has been active previously in the Irish Socialist Workers Party and the People Before Profit electoral ...
. . America: The Empire Strikes Back (at itself) Further to my comments in the first part of 2020: The History That Was, the following should be considered regarding the current state of the US. They most likely will be by future historians pondering the critical decades of ...
Nathaniel ScharpingIn March, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to shut down major cities in the U.S., researchers were thinking about blood. In particular, they were worried about the U.S. blood supply — the millions of donations every year that help keep hospital patients alive when they need a transfusion. ...
Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Zero emission buses, cleaner cars and environmentally-friendly biofuels will soon be hitting New Zealand’s roads, as the Government delivers on its election promise to make our transport network more sustainable. ...
The Green Party is already delivering on its commitment for cleaner, climate-friendly transport through our Cooperation Agreement with the Government. ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
Prudence Steven QC, barrister of Christchurch has been appointed as an Environment Judge and District Court Judge to serve in Christchurch, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Ms Steven has been a barrister sole since 2008, practising in resource management and local government / public law. She was appointed a Queen’s ...
The Government is delivering on its first tranche of election promises to take action on climate change with a raft of measures that will help meet New Zealand’s 2050 carbon neutral target, create new jobs and boost innovation. “This will be an ongoing area of action but we are moving ...
The Government is investing up to $10 million to support 30 of the country’s top early-career researchers to develop their research skills. “The pandemic has had widespread impacts across the science system, including the research workforce. After completing their PhD, researchers often travel overseas to gain experience but in the ...
A Waitomo-based Jobs for Nature project will keep up to ten people employed in the village as the tourism sector recovers post Covid-19 Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “This $500,000 project will save ten local jobs by deploying workers from Discover Waitomo into nature-based jobs. They will be undertaking local ...
Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw spoke yesterday with President Biden’s Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. “I was delighted to have the opportunity to speak with Mr. Kerry this morning about the urgency with which our governments must confront the climate emergency. I am grateful to him and ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta today announced three diplomatic appointments: Alana Hudson as Ambassador to Poland John Riley as Consul-General to Hong Kong Stephen Wong as Consul-General to Shanghai Poland “New Zealand’s relationship with Poland is built on enduring personal, economic and historical connections. Poland is also an important ...
Work begins today at Wainuiomata High School to ensure buildings and teaching spaces are fit for purpose, Education Minister Chris Hipkins says. The Minister joined principal Janette Melrose and board chair Lynda Koia to kick off demolition for the project, which is worth close to $40 million, as the site ...
A skilled and experienced group of people have been named as the newly established Oranga Tamariki Ministerial Advisory Board by Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis today. The Board will provide independent advice and assurance to the Minister for Children across three key areas of Oranga Tamariki: relationships with families, whānau, and ...
The green light for New Zealand’s first COVID-19 vaccine could be granted in just over a week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today. “We’re making swift progress towards vaccinating New Zealanders against the virus, but we’re also absolutely committed to ensuring the vaccines are safe and effective,” Jacinda Ardern said. ...
The Minister for ACC is pleased to announce the appointment of three new members to join the Board of ACC on 1 February 2021. “All three bring diverse skills and experience to provide strong governance oversight to lead the direction of ACC” said Hon Carmel Sepuloni. Bella Takiari-Brame from Hamilton ...
The Government is investing $9 million to upgrade a significant community facility in Invercargill, creating economic stimulus and jobs, Infrastructure Minister Grant Robertson and Te Tai Tonga MP Rino Tirikatene have announced. The grant for Waihōpai Rūnaka Inc to make improvements to Murihiku Marae comes from the $3 billion set ...
[Opening comments, welcome and thank you to Auckland University etc] It is a great pleasure to be here this afternoon to celebrate such an historic occasion - the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This is a moment many feared would never come, but ...
The Government is providing $3 million in one-off seed funding to help disabled people around New Zealand stay connected and access support in their communities, Minister for Disability Issues, Carmel Sepuloni announced today. The funding will allow disability service providers to develop digital and community-based solutions over the next two ...
Border workers in quarantine facilities will be offered voluntary daily COVID-19 saliva tests in addition to their regular weekly testing, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. This additional option will be rolled out at the Jet Park Quarantine facility in Auckland starting on Monday 25 January, and then to ...
The next steps in the Government’s ambitious firearms reform programme to include a three-month buy-back have been announced by Police Minister Poto Williams today. “The last buy-back and amnesty was unprecedented for New Zealand and was successful in collecting 60,297 firearms, modifying a further 5,630 firearms, and collecting 299,837 prohibited ...
Upscaling work already underway to restore two iconic ecosystems will deliver jobs and a lasting legacy, Conservation Minister Kiri Allan says. “The Jobs for Nature programme provides $1.25 billion over four years to offer employment opportunities for people whose livelihoods have been impacted by the COVID-19 recession. “Two new projects ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The New Zealand public sector and judiciary has again been ranked the least corrupt in the world. The 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released today by global anti-corruption organization Transparency International ranks New Zealand first equal ...
New Zealand is again ranked first equal with Denmark in the Transparency International annual index of perceived levels of public sector corruption. Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has welcomed New Zealand’s position in the 2020 index. He says New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Kaufman, Research Fellow, Vaccine Uptake Group, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute The federal government’s A$23.9 million COVID-19 vaccination information campaign, launchedyesterday, aims to reassure the public about vaccine safety and effectiveness. It will also provide information about the vaccine rollout. We’ve ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he’s joined by Hongi Luo, brand director at TikTok.In terms of cultural reach and impact, the ...
After Covid devastated its 2020, Basement Theatre comes roaring into 2021 with its Summer Season. Here’s the rundown of shows in-store, with some comments from programmer Nisha Madhan.Pre-FringeLust IslandWhen’s it on: February 2-6, 8pmWho’s involved: The women of improv troupe Hearthrobs (McKenzie’s Daughters, Salem Bitch Trials), including Brynley Stent, Alice ...
The whānau of Te Ahikaiata Turei supported by Māori and non-Māori staff at Unitec will take back a portrait of the Tūhoe leader who led the establishment of Te Noho Kotahitanga Marae and the values that brought the institute back from the brink of ...
A poll across the Early Childhood Education community found 93% in favour of pausing the ‘lunchbox rules’, or the Ministry of Education’s new Food Safety/choking changes to the Licensing Criteria, which came into effect on 25 January. “The message ...
Cycling advocates are calling for the transformation of urban transport, as New Zealand races to cut carbon. The Climate Change Commission will release its initial advice on Sunday 31 January. “Bikes and e-bikes are perfect for many local trips, ...
Three Ministers, led by the PM, joined in chorus today to warble about a bunch of measures aimed at helping to meet New Zealand’s 2050 carbon neutral target, create new jobs and boost innovation. Mind you, the measures mentioned seem to be more matters of decisions yet to be made ...
Michelle Kidd defines her role at Auckland’s specialist family violence court as te kaiwhakatere – the navigator. It’s a one-of-a-kind job, helping guide defendants through the court system. And there’s no one better suited to it than Whaea Michelle.First published November 24, 2020.Whaea Michelle is part of Frame, a series of short ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sallie Yea, Associate professor & Principal Research Fellow, La Trobe University Each year, thousands of men and boys labour under extremely exploitative conditions on commercial fishing vessels owned by Taiwanese, Chinese and South Korean companies. The Taiwanese fleet, which operates in all ...
Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis believes the Crown should maintain responsibility for the care and protection of at-risk and vulnerable children, regardless of their race. Moreover, he is confident his all-Maori team of advisers will not be taking race into account as they help to improve Oranga Tamariki’s care and protection of ...
It’s easy to sacrifice John Banks. It’s a lot harder for brands, sports organisations and government to truly stop funding racism. Are they willing to try?Yesterday John Banks, the former Auckland mayor and MP, became subject to one of the fastest firings in media history when audio covering his approving ...
A community is outraged after Auckland Council granted consent for a row of trees planted by local kids to be removed along a revitalised waterway in South Auckland, reports Justin Latif. An Auckland Council decision to give contractors the all-clear to chop down 12 mānuka and kānuka trees shading Māngere’s Tararata ...
Te Pūtahitanga o Te Waipounamu hopes that the recent changes to Oranga Tamariki leadership present an opportunity for a long overdue paradigm shift that will place whānau at the heart of the child welfare sector. Pouārahi Helen Leahy says that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rice, Professor of Management, University of New England Elon Musk is now the world’s richest person, edging out previous title holder Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. His rocketing fortune is due to the booming share price of Tesla, the maker of electric vehicles ...
There are now three returnees who contracted the virus in the Auckland isolation facility then left into the community while positive. These are some of the questions that need to be resolved. At 10.20pm last night the Ministry of Health confirmed that the two cases they’d been treating as probable ...
Having a hard time remembering to scan in on the NZ Covid Tracer app when you’re out and about? Get this song stuck in your head and you’ll never forget again.Learn the lyrics:Aotearoa, it’s time to get scanning!I mean if you think about it, it never really wasn’t time we ...
We conclude our week-long examination of New Zealand writer Roderick Finlayson with a review of his stories by John Newton Roger Hickin’s Cold Hub Press is one of the small miracles of contemporary New Zealand publishing. Over the last decade, on what can only be a shoe-string budget, the ...
Thursday 28th January, AUCKLAND: Drive Electric, the not-for-profit with one mission – making electric vehicle uptake in New Zealand mainstream, welcomes the announcement by the Government today as a sign of what’s to come through 2021, and we are confident ...
The Government announced today key policy decisions on the proposed clean car policies. The MIA has stated on many occasions that we support well thought out and constructive policies that will lead to an increased rate in the reduction of CO2 emissions from ...
Get wild, get cultured, get fed and then get to bed: the essential guide to a perfect few days in the southern city. There’s one thing that preoccupies the staff of The Spinoff almost as much as arranging popular food items into arbitrary lists, and that’s Dunedin. A quite remarkable ...
John Banks’ racist exchange with a Magic Talk listener on Tuesday was the latest in nearly 50 years of talkback controversies. Donna Chisholm has the receipts.John Banks axed over Māori ‘stone age culture’ comments on Magic Talk1972: On Radio I, sports talkback host Tim Bickerstaff launches a “Punch a Pom ...
*This article first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission.Two new community Covid-19 cases have been identified as the more infectious South African variant, but Auckland Mayor Phil Goff sayit would be "premature to go into lockdown now". The two new cases of Covid-19 identified in the ...
Today, for the second time in two months Dunedin climate protectors have locked themselves to the railway tracks outside the Dunedin Railway station to stop the KiwiRail coal train from Bathurst Resources’ Takitimu mine in Southland to Fonterra’s ...
KiwiRail STOP Hauling COAL Today, for the second time in two months Dunedin climate protectors have locked themselves to the railway tracks outside the Dunedin Railway station to stop the KiwiRail coal train from Bathurst Resources’ Takitimu mine ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Dunn, Associate professor, University of Sydney The government is rolling out a new public information campaign this week to reassure the public about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, which one expert has said “couldn’t be more crucial” to people actually getting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Therese O’Sullivan, Associate Professor, Edith Cowan University The COVID vaccine rollout has placed the issue of vaccination firmly in the spotlight. A successful rollout will depend on a variety of factors, one of which is vaccine acceptance. One potential hurdle to vaccine ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bernard Walker, Associate Professor in Organisations and Leadership, University of Canterbury Kiwis know what it’s like when life throws curveballs. We’ve had major quakes, floods, fires, an eruption, a terrorist attack and now a pandemic. In those situations, it’s the ability to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Irwin, Emeritus professor, Murdoch University While we continue to be occupied with the COVID pandemic, another life-threatening disease has emerged in northern Australia, one that’s cause for considerable alarm for the millions of dog owners around the country. This disease — ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cath Ferguson, Academic, Edith Cowan University Almost half of Australian adults struggle with reading. Similar levels of struggling readers are reported in the United Kingdom and United States. This does not mean all struggling readers are illiterate. It means they often struggle ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Abbas Shieh, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Design, Islamic Azad University The industrial revolution transformed cities, resulting in places of residence and work becoming more distant than ever before. This spatial segregation is still largely embedded in the design of our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia Review: Occupation: Rainfall, written and directed by Luke Sparke Historically, when a sequel to a film was greenlit, you could rest assured this was because the first film made a ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for January 28, keeping you up to date with the latest local and international news. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nzOur members make The Spinoff happen! Every dollar contributed directly funds our editorial team – click here to learn more about how you can support us ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Tourism suffers in the shadow of Covid-19, two new positive cases in Auckland confirmed, and National will contest the Māori electorates.The front page of the January 4 Greymouth Star carried grim tidings for several of the glacier towns on the ...
*This article first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. Two people who left managed isolation on January 15 have been confirmed as positive Covid-19 cases, with the Ministry of Health urging anyone who visited the same locations during the same time period as the infected pair in Auckland to ...
The watchlist of 'offensive or unreasonable' babies' names is to be reviewed, to include more names from other languages. Generations of the Īhaka family have played a meaningful role in bringing Te Reo and stories of Māori to our wider community. Archdeacon Sir Kīngi Matutaera Īhaka (Te Aupōuri, 1921-93) was known as the orator of ...
After Morocco’s flagrant violation of the terms of the ceasefire in Western Sahara on Friday 13 November 2020 war broke out between the two sides. In the midst of this war Tauranga based Ballance Agri-Nutrients has decided to carry on importing phosphate ...
Nicholas Agar suggests that our handling of the pandemic could be partly down to our distinctive Treaty of Waitangi relationship, and Māori ideas that enabled us to make it through without tens of thousands of deaths A mission for universities in the coming decade will be a deep understanding of the meaning ...
A young girl who once sent $5 to an embattled America's Cup team is now among the women on the water helping run the contest for the Auld Mug. As an eager and generous nine-year-old, Melanie Roberts posted a letter, with a $5 note, to OneAustralia’s America’s Cup team. It was 1995, ...
At 5am today, cock’s crow, the embargo lifted on the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards longlist. Here are the books in the race, followed by thoughts from poetry editor Chris Tse and books editor Catherine Woulfe. A shortlist of four books in each category will be announced March 3, with ...
Ignoring those QR codes when you drop into the supermarket? Can’t be bothered when you grab a coffee? The people serving you notice, and you’re freaking them out.So far, New Zealanders’ use of the Covid-19 Tracer app has been notably woeful. Food industry workers who’ve watched streams of customers walk ...
Steve Braunias reveals the longlist of the 2021 Ockham New Zealand book awards Apart from one or two unfortunate omissions which cast doubt on the sanity and intellectual acumen of judges, especially the nobodies who judged this year's non-fiction, the longlist for the 2021 Ockham New Zealand book awards is ...
By Lulu Mark in Port Moresby Papua New Guinea’s biggest hospital is straining to provide medical services to the growing population of the capital Port Moresby – with an estimated growth rate of 3 percent annually, a medical executive says. Port Moresby General Hospital chief executive officer Dr Paki Molumi ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Nationals who attend Thursday’s memorial service in Tweed Heads for Doug Anthony, who died last month aged 90, may muse on the contrast between the state of their party when he led it and now. ...
Returning to quarantine-free travel in 2021 doesn't just need a vaccine, but a way to check whether arriving passengers are actually immune to the virus. A smart Kiwi science start-up is working with a global biometrics giant to make that happen. A deal signed between Kiwi research and development company Orbis Diagnostics, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlyn Forster, PhD Candidate, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney This summer’s wetter conditions have created great conditions for flowering plants. Flowers provide sweet nectar and protein-rich pollen, attracting many insects, including bees. Commercial honey bees are also thriving: ...
Lotto scratchie tickets featuring the pop band Six60 are being withdrawn after a public backlash. In a statement, Lotto NZ said there had been a mutual decision made with the band to remove the tickets from sale following the negative feedback, and it offered an apology. The band faced criticism, both ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Russell Dean Christopher Bicknell, Post-doctoral researcher in Palaeobiology , University of New England Shell-crushing predation was already in full swing half a billion years ago, as our new research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B reveals. A hyena devouring ...
Vodafone has suspended advertising on the radio station amid calls for talkback host John Banks to be taken off air after yet another racist outburst. Alex Braae reports. In an alarming segment of talkback radio, former Auckland mayor John Banks endorsed the views of a caller who described Māori as a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Welch, Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland When a COVID-19 case was found in Northland last Sunday, Aotearoa’s second-longest period with no detected community case came to an end. ESR scientists worked late into Sunday night to obtain a whole genome sequence ...
He has the perfect moustache, an exceptional mullet, and he uses terms like ‘face hole’ on national TV. Who or what is Dr Joel Rindelaub?I was drawn in by the moustache, but it was the mullet that really kept me there. Watching TVNZ’s Breakfast yesterday morning I was fixated. Often, ...
We’ll never be royals with nearly a quarter of declined baby names featuring “Royal” in some form or another. Te Tari Taiwhenua Department of Internal Affairs has released the list of names declined in 2020 by the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and ...
After a raft of inquiries delving into and recommending what should be done about the politically beleaguered Orangi Tamaraki, along with the briefing papers we suppose he has been given, we imagined Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis would have no more need for expert advice. Wrong. He has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vincent Ho, Senior Lecturer and clinical academic gastroenterologist, Western Sydney University There’s a common assumption men take longer than women to poo. People say so on Twitter, in memes, and elsewhereonline. But is that right? What could explain it? And if ...
Just as sexuality is a spectrum, so too is asexuality. In Ace of Hearts, members of New Zealand’s asexual community talk about the challenges and misconceptions of identifying as ace.First published November 17, 2020.Ace of Hearts is part of Frame, a series of short documentaries produced by Wrestler for The Spinoff.“A ...
Sam Brooks wasn’t allowed to watch kids TV as a kid. Now, as a 30 year old man, he watches it for the first time.My mother’s approach to parenting was unorthodox. I wrote weekly book reports on top of my actual homework, I did maths equations in Roman numerals and ...
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk More leading Indonesian figures have made racial slurs against Natalius Pigai, former chair of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) – and all West Papuans, says United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) interim president Benny Wenda. “Since the illegal Indonesian invasion in 1963, Indonesian ...
“The Government’s failure to even conduct a standard cost-benefit analysis for the most expensive infrastructure project in New Zealand’s history is mind-bogglingly arrogant,” says New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke. “A ...
The Ministry of Health is today drawing backlash from the local New Zealand vaping industry following its release of proposed regulations for the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act. Vaping Trade Association New Zealand (VTANZ) President, ...
Sophie Gilmour and Simon Day are joined by special guest Hugo Baird, co-owner of Grey Lynn’s Honey Bones and Lilian, to talk about opening new pub Hotel Ponsonby.Auckland is a city of many bars but few really good pubs – the kind of places you’d be just as comfortable going ...
The appointment of an advisory board for Oranga Tamariki is welcome and should be a step toward a total transformation of the care and protection system to a by Māori, for Māori approach, Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft said today. Minister ...
Taking control of your financial wellbeing can have cascading positive impacts for your life and it can also be fun. With the help of the team at Kiwi Wealth, we’ve compiled some simple tricks for balancing your books in 2021. There’s something about the beginning of a new year, especially after ...
@lprent: The latest comment editor won’t let me reply to someone else’s comment. If I hit the reply button, the comment reply box appears with my name and email autofilled and the cursor at the end of my name. However, the comment text box is only one row high and clicking in the text box doesn’t get the cursor to appear there (it just disappears from the name box). Doing a top-level comment like this one works fine though. Hitting the tab key moves it to email then website then disappears and doesn’t ever make it to the comment text box.
The previous comment editors tested over the last few days all worked fine for me.
Chrome Version 74.0.3729.108 (Official Build) (64-bit) Windows 10 Pro Version 1803 OS build 17134.648
Replies on my android phone go through ok. But I couldn’t do an edit, maybe because I turned the phone wifi off then back on between posting the comment and trying to edit it.
Now that is weird. That is almost the exact version that I tested with.
I’ll revert back and retest later.
If you haven't already seen it, Sacha at comment 10 is having the same problem on a Mac OS.
This reply done on my laptop, so something has just fixed the problem for me.
eidt: Anne at 12 should be happier too, it appears to also have reverted back to a larger font.
FWIW, firefox quantum 66.0.3 on win10 replies ok, but the "cancel reply" button doesn't do anything (reads as a link to [thispage]/#respond )
edit… reads down page: sacha already reported it. #readWholeThreadBeforeResponding
Indeed, Cancel reply is dead.
f5 always worked better anyway.
Still works, but a little blunt to cancel a reply. I often have something active in the Find box (Ctrl-f) and that disappears too when using F5.
Try it now.. This one (CkEditor) works ok.
The TinyMce is the one you had a problem with. It is a bit surprising as it uses the underlying javascript editor.
Working for me now, thanks. Was the content field’s tabindex = -1 setting standard for that tinymce editor?
I had a similar problem this morning. No space for comment text in Editor and no cursor when using reply function but a single stand-alone comment did show that space + cursor. When cancelling a reply the space also disappeared in stand-alone comments unless I refreshed the whole page!?
I had the latter behaviour as well.
I pressed something last night and the comment space disappeared so that nothing could be entered. My son looked at source? code and restored function but it returned to that same condition – something was 'hidden'. Hitting enter automatically creates a double space, I would prefer to make my own. But can put comment today, so far so good. It is interesting how there are format icons at the top now. But if I edit, the edit box uses the same functions as usual eg the <i> for italics.
Yep. The re-edit box just shows raw.
Once I get the 'right' editor, I'll edd that to re-edit as well.
Editor controls look nice.
Cancel Reply button does nothing.
Ummm. Testing.
Yep – sure doesn't. Adding to Jira list.
Ummm. Testing.
Yep – sure doesn't make the reply go away. However it does seem to stop the save ??
Adding to Jira list.
”get woke, go broke”
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2019/04/melbourne-vegan-caf-that-charged-men-18-percent-surcharge-to-reflect-the-pay-gap-closes-down.html
Cafe that charges men 18% more goes broke – who would have guessed.
Clearly, 18% more wasn’t enough.
Ok – that was funny.
Zelda D'Aprano in the 70's, a feminist protester for equality, spent a day trying to travel on buses, buy something, paying a smaller fare price than the official one, the discount being the percentage lower of women's wages than those of men. IThat was in Melbourne too.
I Was looking at some ‘not chicken’ meat choices at the supermarket. Expensive. They use oil salts and cides to grow the vegetable protein then this is shipped to a lab using copious amounts of energy then to be pounded prodded poked altered abridged extracted and exhumed into burger.
Then to be packaged, re-shipped primped and pimped, postered and posted to places placed precariously in piled presentations for punters perusal…
It doesn’t really matter if it tastes like meat.
They’ve added a laboratory, more shipping and more processing to pea farming.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crops-protein/big-ag-turns-to-peas-to-meet-soaring-global-protein-demand-idUSKCN1IJ1B3
Test tube meat is another story. I’ve not enough information to make a call I do understand the move to produce it. The profit motive, but also, whole protein for the masses without factory farms.
Dietary trends drive consumers to all sorts of ridiculous food choices (and some healthy). Growing a garden (and eating the produce) will improve your health better than Atkins, keto, low-carb, bla de bla, et al, etc.
<i>It doesn’t really matter if it tastes like meat.</i>
The people buying these triumphs of industrial food processing should stop calling themselves vegeterians and just eat chicken if they want to eat something that tastes like chicken.
<i>Growing a garden (and eating the produce) will improve your health better than Atkins, keto, low-carb, bla de bla, et al, etc.</i>
To be fair, any diet that minimises your refined carb intake will improve your health more than one that doesn’t. Both growing your own food and Atkins etc fit that bill, although it sounds plausible that growing your own food would give the most improvement.
Depends on your reasons for becoming a vegetarian – I reached 25 years as a vegetarian yesterday and my reasons were and are that I didn’t like the taste, animal welfare, and environmental impact of over-farming, so for me, fake meat is pointless because I don’t like the taste of it. For others, products like Quorn are just the ticket to become vegetarian without having to completely give up their favorite dishes or to allow families with mixed diets to share meals more easily.
WtB
A massive missile aimed at masticating mankind in metamorphosis.
Like you – as an omnivore, there isn't a fruit or vegetable that I don't enjoy.
But also, we omnivores also enjoy beef, mutton, pork, chicken etc as well.
Just as homo sapiens [as omnivores] have ALWAYS done.
You woke early today, James. Been to the parade?
im up early every morning.
C’mon. You know James doesn’t believe in a “socialist” endeavor, such as collectively opposing the Nazi’s.
You do know, I suppose, that the New Zealand Communist Party, like the equivalent in Britain, were strongly against opposing the Nazi's until June 1941?
"Early in the war, communists' allegiance to the Soviet Union aligned them with Germany. In 1940 their newspaper, People's Voice, was banned by the government, and books on communism were among those outlawed under New Zealand censorship controls. But when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the New Zealand Communist Party, along with others in the west, shifted its allegiance and swung in behind the war effort."
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/second-world-war-at-home/in-dissent
Would you call that "collectively opposing the Nazi's" in a socialist endeavour?
WTF has that to do with my comment.
Pete George promotes white poppies over red in his Anzac Day post
https://yournz.org/2019/04/25/anzac-day-2019/
Rooster in the neighbourhood, James?
Shane Jones 🙂
Or a peacock
Over stuffed turkey
Gobble gobble
Looking at Bernie’s actual record suggests if he gets to be prez he’ll actually end up being moderate, even centrist. That’s without even considering the fact that to get any actual legislation through he would need the vote of the 50th senator, at best likely to be someone like Joe Manchin or Krysten Sinema. Which all means the anti-Bernie sentiment from moderate Dems is probably misplaced, but also those currently “feeling the Bern” would likely end up bitterly disappointed.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/4/24/18510756/bernie-sanders-2020-democrats-neoliberals-chill
Bernie’s campaign slogan should be
“Prepare for the disappointment.”
“Downer is coming”
“OBummer”
“Despair and stasis”
“Just Biden my time.”
“Better with Beto”
“Bolt in with Moulton”
“Burstin’ Kirstin”
“SuperLooper”
“Pretty Samey with Amy”
Tim Ryan: Working Class Man
“Warrior Worrying Warren”
and of course:
“Made America Great Again”
"Kool Kids for Kamala"
Do you see Trump's chances of a second term as greater, or lesser than, 45% chance of success?
I think the 2020 election is the Democrat's to lose. I reckon there's around a 1 in 3 chance the Dems will indeed lose it.
Looks to me like the electorate is around 20% those who will vote for whatever has an (R) next to its name, even if it's a three-weeks gone mouldering corpse. There's another 20% that are middle-finger voters. The mandarin master baiter has those segments locked down hard. At this stage I find it hard to see he'll pull back much if any support from the remaining 60% of the electorate.
So the Dem candidate needs to be able to pull in a bit more than 2/3 of the remaining electorate. Against what's bound to be unprecedented levels of attempted smears over social media (having seen how successful that was against Hillary). That social media will target the far left, to try to push them to third party candidates or just not vote. They will also try to get centrists to not vote, by smears and by painting the vote as making no difference anyway.
There will also be unprecedented attempts at voter suppression (since that worked against Stacey Abrams in Georgia 2018). Because by then the courts will have been stacked enough there's a good chance of getting away with it.
I reckon Bernie and Biden are both particularly vulnerable to smear campaigns, because their long histories in Washington will have all kinds of little nuggets that can be twisted and blown up into major smears. For instance, Biden's treatment of Anita Hill would be quite a starting point for a campaign to turn woke lefties onto third parties or to just not vote. Then there's their age, which makes them both vulnerable to "hillary's health" type smears (never mind the 6'3 239lb incumbent's best physical condition for any president ever).
So I think a tough primary is going to be important for sorting out which candidates have the skilz for dealing with the coming smears, as well as finding most of the background weak points that can become the little grain of truth needed for a successful smear.
Bern’ere Before!
Bernie bascially just wants a return to the US of 1933-1980, without the wife beatings and cross burnings.
In other words, more or less a Keynesian welfare state, with strong trade unions.
That seems to be what passes for socialism in the USA.
The numbers weren’t too bad at Waikumete Cemetery this morning for the dawn parade.
Couple of unwelcome changes however.
Police presence shutting off a large surrounding road, and constricting the whole of Great North Road with patrols.
And they used to have little candles lit under each of the hundreds of serried war graves, which were such a hopeful glimmer.
I want to see every neighborhood go back to their own commemoration, as well as the large regional ones. I thought this was supposed to be celebrating a free society? And bring back the candles.
Police have been clear the security requirements are for this year only, because of the well-known issue of increased threat levels for public gatherings after big terrorist events. I am confident that most attendees would happily trade temporarily-blocked nearby roads for a better chance of survival.
With Kushner in his pocket MBS can do whatever TF he likes.
Just as Jared Kushner answered questions about the close ties between the White House and Saudi Arabia in New York on Tuesday, the Middle Eastern kingdom beheaded 37 people in its largest mass execution in at last three years.
The executions, of mostly Shiite men accused of terrorism related crimes, were part of what Washington’s Gulf Institute director Ali Al-Ahmed called “the largest mass execution of Shiites in the kingdom’s history.”
Al-Ahmed identified 34 of the 37 victims as Shiite.
According to reports, Saudi Arabian security services nailed one of the heads to a poll as a warning and one victim was crucified after his execution.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/23/kushner-talks-accountability-crown-prince-just-saudis-offer-egregious-display
Kushner+Bolton have been reasonably successful bringing Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States together in the form of their common sworn enemy in the form of Iran. Iran threatens Israel’s regional nuclear monopoly and decreases is security dominance around israel. Iran threatens Saudi Arabia on security and religious grounds. How Iran threatens the US is completely beyond me.
With the U.S. President officially turning a blind eye to the Saudi murder of Khashoggi, and Netanyahu re-elected, this untied force against iran will re-bind and strengthen. The result will be Saudi leadership to induce other Arab states to open their economies to Israeli investment and technical expertise (particularly in fresh water, and security technology), brining Israel substantial economic benefits.
The bigger goal between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the US, is for money to talk louder than religion.
Which is not an unusual way to achieve lasting peace.
The end game is the Aramco IPO (the worlds most profitable company)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenrwald/2019/04/01/saudi-aramco-is-the-most-profitable-company-in-the-world-but-where-is-all-the-money-going/#47a07a4857d8
Destabalise other global exporters ie Iran, Venezuela,Libya value goes up.
Fucking with other nation’s economies with oil sanctions has always worked out so well.
But if you want a war, why not.
“With the announcement today, we’ve made clear our seriousness of purpose,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a press conference on Monday. “We are going to zero. How long we remain there, at zero, depends solely on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s senior leaders. We’ve made our demands very clear to the ayatollah and his cronies.”
The decision to stop issuing sanctions waivers threatens to wipe roughly 1 million barrels per day off the market at a time when analyst say oil supply is already tightening. Crude futures spiked to nearly six-month highs on news of the policy, which was first reported Sunday by The Washington Post.
[…]
Companies in those countries now face the threat of being locked out of the U.S. financial system if they continue to import crude from Iran. The question is whether some of those countries will seek to skirt the sanctions, including by facilitating or encouraging purchases of Iranian crude through companies not tied to the U.S. financial system.
China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday denounced Washington’s Iran policy.
“China opposes the unilateral sanctions and so-called ‘long-arm jurisdictions’ imposed by the US. Our cooperation with Iran is open, transparent, lawful and legitimate, thus it should be respected,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told reporters.
“Our government is committed to upholding the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and will play a positive and constructive role in upholding the stability of global energy market.”
Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu also rejected the sanctions, saying they “will not serve regional peace and stability” and would hurt the Iranian people.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/22/trump-expected-to-end-iran-oil-waivers-try-to-drive-exports-to-zero.html
great way to hasten the abandonment of the US dollar in oil deals, and the expanded use of alternative arrangements to SWIFT
Yeah, sanctions have always encouraged nations to make good decisions.
/.
Not sure Aramco is a solid buy – there's some softness in the Ghawar field at least.
The other big winner you haven’t mentioned from the Iran shenanigans is Russia.
That’s no lie
Agree with most of that, except:
“Which is not an unusual way to achieve lasting peace”
There is the war with Iran bit that will come before any peace, with the way these governments are behaving.
The way you’ve written that last line suggests we should accept the alignment of interests that’s going on with a shrug.
Pricks are worried about the optics rather than the ethics of detaining children in a military prison.
The United States is considering housing migrant children at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay to help handle an up-tick in the number of immigrants crossing the US southern border, according to a new report.
The idea was first proposed earlier this year as the Department of Homeland Security looked for military facilities where migrants could be held as they wait for their cases to be processed.
But, the proposal has not gained much traction so far, with officials telling the New York Times that the idea has been less ideal because of the optics involved with housing children right next to terrorism suspects in the notorious American prison.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/guantanamo-bay-migrant-children-us-immigration-trump-border-a8883511.html
@lprent – same problem as Andre at 1, different platform: MacOS 10.14.4, FF 66.0.3
Was working for me yesterday, whatever has changed since.
While Jacinda has put an end to a comprehensive CGT, it hasn’t stopped National from attacking them on tax.
Conveniently, National already gave us the bright line test which functions like a mild version of CGT.
Yes.
Meanwhile, it seems Labour were surprised from supporters CGT reaction.
It will be interesting to see (in the next round of polls) if Jacinda did expend some of that political capital after all.
The Tax Working Group policy came from a regional conference as a policy remit to work through options (the regional conference had large numbers of tax remits to replace CGT as Labour Party policy as CGT had failed at the 2011 and 2014 elections and the mood from LECs was to dump CGT), so it was actually supported by Labour Party members, not just the MPs.
Cynical though it may be, Soper’s latest Herald contribution does have a point:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12225063
I also found it ironic that France and New Zealand are planning to lead an International Terrorism Summit next month given that France committed such an act on our soil in 1985. Its quite funny really, although the grand-master of wit and humour, David Lange probably wouldn’t think so.
Edit: lprent, the font size is very small in comment box – about 8 by the looks if it. A bit of struggle for us oldies.
We had a young French family holidaying here at the time back in 1985 and they were mortified and genuinely shocked that their govt had blown up the Rainbow Warrior and killed someone on NZ soil. We have French mayors here this ANZAC day that have come to remember the Kiwis who never made it home from WW1/WW2. There are places in France that celebrate and honour our soldiers efforts to free them from the Germans. The French will always have cap in hand when it comes to NZ and the irony of past events.
Good on our PM for seizing the moment, joining with France and “trying to right the wrongs on the cyber highway”.
So there is talk of Labour introducing a land tax, however the suggestion is it is to be applied and collected by local councils. Helping them with their shortfalls while robbing Labour of any revenue, thus funding to do more.
Therefore, it isn’t going to be much compensation for Labour abandoning a CGT. Which (going off their surprise re the public reaction to the dropping of a CGT) may come as another surprise to them.
There is talk of National introducing a new PNT (pay no tax) round of tax cuts followed by a GNS (get no services) when becoming govt next.
Insurance companies are understandably excited and already working on a suite of policies with competitive premiums for those that can pay.
Hardly surprising.
With the abandoning of a CGT and the suggestion of gifting councils any land tax revenue, looks as if Labour are trying to beat them to it.
“… robbing Labour of any revenue, thus funding to do more. Therefore, it isn’t going to be much compensation for Labour abandoning a CGT…”
Labour (and the working group) had talked about a revenue-neutral CGT/personal income tax programme – so it was never going to be a way to fund other initiatives.
It was going to restore some fairness to our tax system while helping to address inequality by redistributing the new tax take.
However, Jacinda unnecessarily put an end to that ever happening under her watch. An achievement the opposition never succeeded in and would be proud of.
As for being a way to fund other initiatives, it was only projected to be tax neutral for the fist 5 years, then the tax return vastly exceeds the proposed tax cuts. Thus, giving them scope (by providing the funding) to do far more.
It was going to restore some fairness to our tax system while helping to address inequality by redistributing the new tax take.
Improving the fairness of the tax system, while laudable, isn't about increasing revenue. Redistributing tax-based spending to address inequality can be done regardless of whether a CGT is implemented or not – the effects will be the same, because the tax take will be the same – CGT wasn't about increasing revenue.
Of course it was. That's how they were going to cover the accompanying tax cuts, thereby making it tax neutral (in the first 5 years). After which, the tax revenue vastly increases.
Moreover, it was about fairness via taxing currently tax free gains.
Yes, redistributing tax-based spending to address inequality can be done via other means, but those don't also address the unfairness of tax free gains.
In addition, the tax-free capital gains distort the economy by diverting investment from production to renting activity. Great for capital owners, not so great for anybody else. In the end, we all miss out. But the shortsightedness of some (many?) prevented a mature debate and the rest is history.
I agree. My dispute is with the idea that by killing it the government's foregone a lucrative income stream it could use on welfare programmes.
Some ‘critics’ only want to focus on what might have happened in 5 years’ time. These same ‘critics’ jump up & down when presented with projected figures. Go figure.
Labour built up the hype, talked a big game but are struggling to fund it. Now they are surprised they are being criticized for dropping a means that would have helped them fund it. Go figure indeed.
Chairman, you'll be happy with Patrick Smellie's prediction that the government is temporarily sticking to the course of their own budget responsibility rules for this term in order to earn the trust of the international money hawks (didn't realise they were so powerful).
Then, Patrick surmises, the government will loosen the rules and increase debt to international norms. He also points out that you can't just throw plans and money at infrastructure when building capacity is already stretched. If only we had a competent government over the last 10 years!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/112231423/you-want-transformational-government-try-this
What is “it”?
That's how they were going to cover the accompanying tax cuts, thereby making it tax neutral
If you increase one source of revenue so you can reduce another source of revenue by the same amount, you don't increase your revenue. That was the whole point of trading it off against tax cuts, being able to promise it wasn't a tax grab.
The view that it would eventually lead to dramatically increased revenue is "jam tomorrow" and, even if it were a realistic prospect, wouldn't give the government increased revenue in a timeframe useful to it – NZ governments don't get more than nine years and this one's nearly had two. If it had introduced a CGT it couldn't expect this alleged increase in revenue to turn up while it was still in power.
While you don't increase your net revenue, you still have to increase your revenue to provide redistribution via the proposed tax cuts to keep it tax neutral.
Moreover, Government accounting methods are largely based on forecasting. Thus, the added revenue stream from a CGT would improve the projected tax take beyond the 5 years, meaning the Government would be able to start increasing the capital and operating allowances in the Budget following it's implementation.
Jacinda's plan to reduce child poverty is a 10 year plan.
Workers pay tax on their wages; landlords pay tax on their rental incomes; businessmen pay tax on their profits; the only ones not paying tax on their earnings are those who are not taxed on their return on their investment in family homes, this return taking the form of free rental accommodation.
Untaxed capital gain from a transaction between a buyer and seller, which produces no income, and which affects nobody else but them, is hardly unfair.
I see that you are still sticking to your capital gain is not income. The other mistake is that it does not affect anybody else but the vendor and the buyer. You will have a very hard time arguing that. For starters, lenders, real estate agents, and insurance companies. Then, the other houses in the same street and area. I’ll make a big pot of tea …
That's interesting. This is the first time I've heard the effects of capital gain on "lenders, real estate agents, and insurance companies" and on "other houses in the same street and area" raised in this particular debate. However, if a property rises in value, and then is sold, these side effects are going to occur, but that's the result of the capital increase itself, not of the transaction. The sale of family homes no doubt involve the same effects.
And, as you say I'm sticking to my assertion that capital gain is not income. And I'm not making a mistake in saying so.
Well, I suppose that deliberate lying is not in the nature of a mistake…
Your obfuscatory manoeuvres are risible.
Thanks, In Vino, that saves me from having to reply.
It doesn't actually. In Vino, apparently incapab!e of presenting an intelligent rebuttal, has merely resorted to insults. Despite his pseudonym there really is no truth in him.
"Obfuscatory maneuvres"? Really ? Or is it just that your powers of comprehension are somewhat weak ?
Your premise was wrong. A sale of an asset that realises capital gain cannot be viewed as a transaction strictly between two parties (buyer and vendor). It obviously involves other parties, often dictated by Law, and always has an impact on a third party or parties. If you fail to see this then any further engagement with you on this topic is utterly futile.
Please note that I don’t even have to bring CGT into the conversation up to this point.
Land tax makes complete sense to me as a means to lower the value of land and increase revenue, but the local government option in the TWG report recommends the Productivity Commission investigates local government levying tax on vacant land in addition to rates.
Personally, I would happily see a land tax on all land, even if it is at 0.5% above $500K or something like that.
Require far more detail to know how it will exactly impact. But we may see a land tax may only result in land becoming more productive and not less valuable.
Most are over local government continuously increasing rates above the rate of inflation, so giving them this revenue stream on top of their rate take will most likely go down like a cup of cold sick. Unless the majority are going to get rate cuts.
Nevertheless, it robs central government of any funding revenue, thus their ability to do more.
In the ‘good old days’ people could claim depreciation on rental’s buildings and if you sold the rental for more than its depreciated value you were taxed on that income.
Because land is not depreciated, this won’t work but in essence, a CGT would be a tax on a fixed asset, including land that has risen in real value over time.
That's such a pathetic meme – rates only going up by inflation. That means that the Council could do very little to build infrastructure, cope with changing needs. Going up by inflation merely means keeping the spending value of the money at the same level, virtually a nil rise. It is the sort of bleat that comes from the older age group who want to be kept in the style they are used to.
It's the sort of noise you hear when you talk to just about anyone about their local council. Wasteful spending, budget blowouts and over taxing/rating are the most common gripes.
Many households are struggling, thus want councils to live more within their means.
Increasing council rates adds to the cost of home ownership while driving up rents.
"Councils living within their means" almost all the time leads to libraries closing, parks being sold off, pools closing, halls being demolished etc."
Every time.
Extremist rubbish, millsy.
Councils living within their means simply means expenditure on such infrastructure will better reflect what a community can afford.
Already paying Land Tax in the form of rates.
Rates are not a Land Tax as such.
Of course they are . They are based on the value of your land.
Rates here in Orclund are based on capital value, which is land plus improvements. If it were just land value, the distribution of rates paid would be quite different than what it is now.
Rates pay for services and usage of infrastructure associated with the land. A CGT or land tax is a tax on income from the sale of that land. One is local, the other is national.
We pay GST on rates as well, so government gets some of it already, but I think a separate land tax on all sections > $500K would make sense even if it feels like taxing more tax again, not least because it would be administratively very simple to collect – gets added to rates and passed on quarterly.
We are discussing sources of revenue for central government. Rates are local government revenue.
@ Anne
Anzac Day
Very Ironic that many NZ TRoops have been Honoured by French Personnel – Mayors of Towns – and individuals.
Several Mayors are in New Zealand today, honouring the Grit and Purpose of our Troops. Also Bringing their thanks from the populations.
But you and and your friend soper would not know one iota of what our men and women achieved in France. Nor the extent of the gratitiude shown to this day by France.
You and Soper – should really aplogise to the families of the dead. Instead of having a fit of the funnies.
Soper,
You stupid ass.
My comment was not a cynical overview of the spirit of ANZAC. It was merely a heads up concerning a somewhat wry point made by a journalist and did not include the body of his article. If you can't tell the difference, then you need your head read.
My father saw active service in 1918 during WW1 and lost a number of his mates. He was an army officer in WW2 who was responsible for the welfare of several Pacific Island nations and also spent periods of time fighting the Japanese in extremely precarious conditions.
You apologise to me.
@Anne
Anazac Day 2019
I didn't for a moment think you would apologise. Certainly your little friend Soper won't.
Enjoy your funnies. You two little dove loves can keep on abusing the French, but neither of you will ever mature.
OT, you obviously don't do irony. You appear to have completely misunderstood Anne's comments. I get her reference to the cynical element of Sopers article, why can't you. I couldn't imagine Anne being a "love dove" with Barry Soper, if she is then I have disembarked at the wrong planet.
Hi Kat
I am aware that a female scorned is mayhem. Not in the least bit amusing.
Also when you see all the white Crosses pegged in the ground – each representing a motherless dead soldier, name imprinted – You are inclined to lose interest in the weak comedy of Soper.
So, via you Kat, I promise to giggle at Soper. He is a child. And hopefully I will leave Anne without any cross now or in the future.
Thank You Kat
Yes, you're on the right planet Kat. 😉
Can't stand the Soper. I don't read him or the other ne'er do well tighty righties who frequent the pages of the Herald and other MSM outlets. Eg. the Hosk, and the Hosk's spouse (whose name escapes me), the Soper spouse, HDP and the Hooton. Oh and rwnj Leighton Smith. There’s a few more who are so low in my estimation I don’t know their names.
But I concede I was attracted to the Soper headline because the irony had not escaped either.
George was a thoroughly likeable character when I worked with him many years ago.
Condolences to Dame Tariana and whānau.
https://www.waateanews.com/waateanews/x_news/MjE1ODc/Rock-of-M%C4%81ori-party-George-Turia-dies
The bullshit 10,000 jobs claim?
Although noted by Bryan Bruce, not hearing much outrage from many of the left on this. If it were National pulling this one, I'm sure there would be far more noise.
If you wish to include others into the conversation with yourself, it pays to explain what you’re talking about.
The Provincial growth fund and the incredibly dubious way new jobs are calculated.
What’s the reference to Bryan Bruce?
He notes it in his latest blog.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/04/25/guest-blog-bryan-bruce-the-complete-take-down-of-nz-labour-no-matthew-i-have-not-been-sleeping-or-deliberately-misleading/
He's bringing Kiwiblog's talking points over here: The bullshit 10,000 jobs claim. Hold your nose if you follow the link.
No. You linked to kiwiblog. My reference was to the daily blog.
Nevertheless, the talking point is totally valid as many on the left aren't going to be happy with this dubious carry on either.
Trouble is that at the moment the Government is making itself an easy target.
Copping it quite rightly from all sides.
An understandable error from PM.
Not necessarily bullshit but certainly a convenient lack of rigour….and not a good look.
I would be very surprised if anything approaching the number of jobs claimed in application is ever achieved….but it seems to me that is unimportant in NZ Firsts grand scheme of things and that is quietly accepted by the coalition (the alternative being what it is)
A promised job is not a job created, thus bullshit indeed.
While it may be NZF's baby, people will be questioning Labour's oversight.
It's a real shame this fund has been managed so poorly as it had real potential to do so much more.
Labour needs to get on top of this before all the money is gone and been largely wasted.
Labour have limited ability to control Jones and it is possible that some initiatives could exceed job projections though I concede that is the lesser likelyhood
They better get on top of it/Jones otherwise they are just giving National more ammo to shoot them down.
These kind of issues pisses off voters from both the left and right. Even many NZF supporters will be pissed.
And while Labour are at it sorting this out, they should also look at the practice of giving offshore owned forestry companies money to plant trees.
Planting trees is what they already do. We have enough money heading offshore, we don't need a government assisting in more of this. Keep it local and keep it real.
The answer(s) might be hiding in here: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/110212861/400-a-day-forestry-industry-told-to-improve-pay-to-meet-one-billion-tree-planting-target
Jones let the cat out of the bag from the get go. Work for the dole was what he first touted.
Evidently, the living wage wasn't a priority when it should have been a condition of receiving the taxpayer funding.
You are criticising Jones for being simplistic in a simplistic way. That’s not very constructive, is it now?
I wondered what negative line you would be taking The Chairman. It appears that you have surfaced from the pond after having a whiff of the latest target, Shane Jones, as he goes round disrupting the comfortable patterns of patronage that Gnashional had set up.
Really, greywarshark? Are you backing the dubious way new jobs are being calculated while having a go at me for highlighting it?
"Planting trees is what they already do"
Nah.
Not so much
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/incompetence-laid-bare-national-lambastes-destruction-400-000-pine-tree-seedlings
I'd like to know how exactly this lighter-heavier-lighter thing works.
An innovative aircraft that turns into a “lighter-than-air” balloon to propel itself forward has been flown for the first time.
The Phoenix is designed to repeatedly switch between being lighter and heavier than air to generate thrust and allow it to stay in the skies indefinitely.
https://wtop.com/tech/2019/04/lighter-than-air-aircraft-has-first-test-flight/
The article says "The vehicle’s fuselage contains helium, allowing to to ascend, as well as an air bag that inhales and compresses air, enabling it to descend."
So I'm picturing an outer bag that can take pressure, and an inner bag filled with helium. When you want maximum lift, vent the space between the two bags so the helium inner bag pushes out all the air between the two bags. When you want to descend, pump air between the two bags so the inner helium bag gets compressed down and you're adding all the weight of the air you're pumping in at higher than atmospheric pressure and density.
So to operate it, you have it rise in it's maximum lift to the desired altitude, with the little wings being used to push it in the desired horizontal direction. Then at the max altitude, pump air in so it wants to drop, and adjust the wings to keep going in the desired horizontal direction. Rinse and repeat.
A wee bit like tacking upwind in a sailboat, using the vertical dimension.
Ingenious as Scottish inventions have often been.
That outer shell is going to have to be incredibly strong.
At a guess, based on the photo I would think the volume would be about 40 cubic metres. Helium has a mass of about 0.18 kg/cubic metre at STP. Air is about 1.20 kg/cubic metre under the same conditions Thus the total lift would be around 40kg when there was only helium in the outer shell, at STP, and that would mean the maximum weight of the plane would have to be less than 40kg. That would seem to be an incredibly thin shell to have the total weight of a thing that size below 40 kg, when you consider the solar cells that are on the wings, particularly when you consider that it would have to be able to handle pressures that were significantly greater than the atmospheric pressure outside when air was pumped in and compressed.
Great idea though isn't it, and much cheaper than satellites for communication..
It might not have any structure to it at all, it may just be a flexible bag. The wings appear held in place with guy wires, and there's wrinkles visible at the tail. As far as weight goes, they look like thin-film solar cells, and for the wings you can make surprisingly rigid skins lighter than 300g/sqm.
As far as pressure goes, if I remember right a whitewater raft needs around 0.15ish bar. Something that much bigger won't need anywhere near as much pressure to hold its shape.
My use of STP was based on the fact that I assumed that the pressure inside the bag should be at least equal to the outside air pressure.
Your number if 0.15 bar is the pressure above the pressure outside. Thus the actual pressure, used to determine the mass of the gas inside would have to be taken as 1.15 bar assuming that the plane is at an elevation where the outside pressure is about 1 bar (ie fairly near the ground).
Looking at the photo again, and the other article you link to I agree that I have probably greatly underestimated the volume. Ah for the days of the 200,000 m3 Hindenberg though for a real airship.
BTW, that 40m^3 looks awfully stingy to me. The wings look quite a lot higher than the tops of the dudes' heads, so call it at least 2m radius/4m diameter. It's 15m long, but the tail is kinda skinny. so call it an ellipsoid 2m x 2m x 10m, for a volume of 170ish m^3. Other reports say it's 120kg, so that kinda ties in with a volume up over 150 m^3.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-48013519
Bryan Bruce exposes Labour's spin
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/04/25/guest-blog-bryan-bruce-the-complete-take-down-of-nz-labour-no-matthew-i-have-not-been-sleeping-or-deliberately-misleading/
Counting the number of jobs created by Shane's fund by toting up the projected positions claimed in fund applicants' applications is outrageous. It smacks of deception.
Can someone count the pay packets please.
Shane's fund is in dire need of a credibility injection.
Indeed, David.
Always willing to put the boot in David Mac. I hope Shane's fund receives a lot of eyeballing from you. We will be interested to find out the good and the bad that you find from your cynical eye.
As usual Bryan Bruce nails it.
As usual Bryan Bruce nails it.
The interweb would be a boring place, bereft of credible commentary were it not for the contributions of Bryan Bruce.
A slightly different tone to this morning's offering. BB doesn't need to defend himself from such a numpty, but it was a pleasure to read. Each shot right on the mark.
Made all the sweeter as Bryan Bruce really does believe what he writes.
Eloquently done
That's two goes at the same thing on the same post The Chairman.
Please make your point and not repeat yourself, it makes you sound aged.
I don't know who Matthew Craig is but I think he just got his arse handed to him on a plate.
Yeah…I did actually try to look him up, nada…and I'm handicapped by not being on Faceache…
Hmmm, it looks like Mr Bruce is quoting verbatim Dr Eric Crampton of The New Zealand Initiative without proper citation or acknowledgement. Oh dear.
So, the promised 10,000 jobs – actually, it is 13,085 according to the latest available info from MBIE – is BS because they are based on promises and assumptions and may never eventuate? Future projections based on available information are verboten. Is that the crux of it?
Rob Stock doesn’t like to own stuff and gives his reasons. Interestingly, he omits two important considerations: 1) depreciation (most stuff becomes next to worthless over time and becomes literally junk) and 2) opportunity cost (money could be better invested in something that increases in value over time).
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/112223434/the-battle-between-your-possessions-and-your-savings
I find Rob Stock to be one of the better financial writers, with a lot of common sense and written so it's easy to understand.
Yes, lucid writing.
I think the Regional Growth Fund should have a career focus. Then it becomes an investment.
Clambering around a mountain planting seedlings is not a career.
Shane has left himself open to flying mud that will stick.
"It would of been cheaper for us to pay these people $100k a year to watch TV hey Shane."
When the positions come with the potential for a flourishing future, dividing a billion dollars by the actual jobs created becomes the price of promoting quality futures. Creating future top tax bracket workers.
David Mac
You reckon. It's a big task. If you have nothing better to do than pontificate on what jobs are worthy of your consideration, perhaps you could do something useful and help in the planting.
Your song 'Don't do anything till you hear from me!'
You've misread me grey, I don't want to choose the vocations.
Nobody wants to spend their life planting baby trees. I'd rather watch TV.
Lets plant for a week and spend alternate weeks studying the field or working with a tree harvesting gang, create paths to follow. A chance.
This seems like a promising angle – raising the seedlings rather than planting them involves perhaps more valuable skills: https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018692048/minginui-the-town-time-forgot-is-growing
I think the fund bankrolling a cultural facility beside the Hokianga is a superb idea. Everyone has nice scenery, it is Maori that make NZ unique.
I can think of 20 small business ideas that could spin off such an enterprise. Individual Hapu could put down the hangi, provide the Kapa Haka show, take visitors for a paddle in a Waka.
Too often we read of fraud associated with this type of initiative. It would be good to see some iron-clad protection. When he's back on his feet, make The Mad Butcher treasurer.
Iwi can fund those ventures, not the taxpayer.
That fact that they haven’t speaks volumes about the viability of such projects.
Far easier to put your hand out than risk your own money.
Yeah, not so much up here BM. NZ's largest tribe are yet to see any compensation for being royally shafted.
It’s gonna be difficult to run a Provincial Growth Fund without assisting Māori enterprises, don’t you think?
The Provincial Growth Fund is there to buy NZ First an electoral seat, that is all
Fuck Labour for agreeing to this, 3 billion fucking taxpayer dollars given to that fat prick jones to spend as he pleases with no strings attached for whoever he decides to play Santa Claus for.
It's bullshit and shouldn't be allowed to happen, politicians need to be held legally accountable for this sort of pork-barrel politics.
Your argument is idiotic. You are saying that Jones is giving money to his Maori mates to buy a Pakeha seat. Drugs i think you must be on.
It's enough dosh to make a valuable difference.
I believe Jones wants to see it used to make NZ a better place for all of us.
Rather than shrieking about it being pissed up against a wall…be useful.
What do you think Jones should be chucking a fire under?
How about $500 million to build a Colossus of Jones statue at the mouth of the Hokianga?
I reckon I'd be a shoe in.
Thanks for answering my question so pointedly.
As per 31 March 2019, up to $735,962,077 has been announced in funding that will do sweet FA for growth in the regions? Each and every project is just a cover to “buy NZ First an electoral seat”? Your argument has the strength of a fart in a stormy night: pfffff – WOOSH.
BM, I think you're a closet leftie searching for enough reason to subscribe.
We all are. When we consider what matters the most to us, for nearly all of us it's our loved ones. If we accept that your loved ones are on an equal footing with my loved ones. We're Social Democrats BM.
It's time you came out, I'm sure your folks will be fine with it.
Welcome comrade, your shout.
With my background, I should be
I just struggle with the snivelling pretentious liberal wankers that seem to be steering the left wing boat at the moment.
Fuck me, they're just so dislikable, I just can't relate to that.
It's a big reason why so many trade guys vote National now.
Too many women in charge now, eh?
Do you like getting dominated by females Mutton bird?
[Deleted – no need for this kind of language – Incognito]
I can see why you vote Labour.
Please watch your language, BM.
Those people are hard-work for virtually everyone BM, regardless of political colour.
Utube etc is chokka with it because it gets clicked. Click = $.
The vast majority of us think it should be fine to say that a woman looks great and not attract a law suit.
It’s a big reason why so many trade guys vote National now.
Tradies vote National "now?" That's "now" defined as "Psycho Milt's entire adult life and presumably longer," is it? I know we live in the eternal now, but that's ridiculous.
How many? So many. That many? Yup, that many and maybe even more. Wow, that’s a lot. Yup, it’s heaps and there are heaps more to come. I lost count at one …
Some do. Particularly those who do not have a functioning business. That rely on capital gains, and WFF to subsidise their paying low wages.
Actual tradies, however. Are intelligent enough to know that National making their customers poorer, is not good for their job prospects.
The Far North is nature's Disneyland. When Nga Puhi eventually settle for their 2 cents on the dollar I think they will evolve into an International tourism powerhouse.
Up here, the ocean is still our back-up pantry. Peat lakes as black as Coke, packed with minerals that have made skin feel like it's 10 years old for 700 years. Up here where we're real skinny, from the car, you can say "Yep, that's the eastcoast and over there, that's the westcoast."
On the way to where our spirits depart, where we're skinny, you'll see a pristine sandy harbour with no road access. It is packed with silica and in the sun glistens like a mass of white diamonds. Glass manufacturers the world over covet the dunes at Parengarenga.
I think dressing up as an 1830 warrior and faking the take-over of a tourist bus on Ninety Mile Beach and leaving gifts rather than looting would be a cool school holiday job. Great confidence booster for the kid.
I think the factions of Nga Puhi that aren't building bridges towards a settlement need to look into the eyes of their grandchildren. They're in a position to make a worthwhile difference.
The only thing that can stop Ngā Puhi thriving as you say are the fools who can't agree how to work together.
Yes, it's a melting pot of drama that needs to be sorted out before sitting across the table from Little.
There were a lot of muskets in Northland before a sheriff arrived.
The logical way would appear to be to include a representative from each of the conflicting factions. A united front presenting their individual concerns.
There have been a lot of tables sat round over years with lots of voices from all factions. There is unlikely to be a united front before Little has long gone.
Too many chiefs in the North ?
Oh dear, David Mac….wheesht! They'll all be heading to the FFN and it won't be pristine for long.
Yeah, I came for a holiday, 10 years ago. Monaco for paupers.
Perhaps sequestering carbon is quite important as well? Some folk should "Keep their breath to cool their porridge". But then some enjoy poking the borax!!
https://khn.org/news/hidden-fda-database-medical-device-injuries-malfunctions
FDA Hiding Adverse Reaction Data
The FDA has built and expanded a vast and hidden repository of reports on device-related injuries and malfunctions
Since 2016, at least 1.1 million incidents have flowed into the internal “alternative summary reporting” repository, instead of being described individually in the widely scrutinized public database known as MAUDE, which medical experts trust to identify problems that could put patients in jeopardy.
Yet the program, in all its iterations, has been so obscure that it is unknown to many of the doctors and engineers dedicated to improving device safety. Even a former FDA commissioner said he knew nothing of the program.
“The public has a right to know about this,” said Dr. S. Lori Brown, a former FDA official who accessed the data for her research. She said doctors relying just on the public reports — and unaware that many incidents may be omitted — can easily reach the wrong conclusion about the safety record of a particular device.
Who knew someone would display the downside of a new Bold button so early?
Asinine comment, Sacha…
Do you have anything productive to add about the FDA hiding adverse reaction data?
Or did the link and information demoralize you down to the level of lashing out at use of a highlighting tool?
If you stop doing the equivalent of shouting, more people might listen.
Good grief…read or don't read…same thing to me, Sacha…
Making excuses for yourself by projecting nonsense about a highlighting tool used sporadically as being the equivalent of shouting…is rather pathetic!
@ One Two
Just FYI; here at The Standard by convention the use of bolding is generally reserved for moderators in order to make their edits or actions more visible.
So the bold tool can't be used in any other way ?
If not…so be it…the various highlight options are all useful…
God Bless Mike Gravel
There's a petition to stop the mural of JA hugging a Muslim woman to be painted on a Melbourne silo! A bona fide picture for the ages.
Jenny Davies signed and said, "Its not wanted in Australia. Nothing to do with Australia."
I'd have agree with Jenny. Tolerance and compassion are not wanted in Australia and are nothing to do with Australia.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12225277
I’d always thought that it was pretty standard for Oz to claim our successes as theirs!? Maybe this exception proves the rule …
Someone ought to put that dozy bimbo right about where the shooter came from. Oz. And according to him it was a perfectly normal family.
[Deleted – A little too much information about the accused and naming him is definitely not ok. I thought that had been made clear previously – Incognito]
However Jenny Davies, who thinks that the idea is un-Australian could take PM Ardern’s place in the mural, hugging and comforting the Muslim woman, and showing how Australians have been upset and deeply moved by their fellow citizen’s deathly action.
A gentle reminder to not name the accused. Any comment will go straight into moderation.
I thought that copying from published info was right. And I don't see why some info now can't be released for public info. Sorry if the authorities have denied us this info, and thought that was the way to go. At this time I had thought that background should be provided. Otherwise how can some Oz bird say it is nothing to do with them. Time for some free information.
By way of my personal explanation, it was decided shortly after the massacre that the accused would not be named here on TS. As you know, moderation is not open to litigation.
A link with a short explanation or quote is usually more than sufficient; less is more and no need to copy & paste too much text with too many links (which will also automatically trigger a comment going into moderation). However, this is a special case, highly sensitive, and it is before the courts now. For lawyers and academics the name and personal history are important; for political debate here on TS they are largely irrelevant.
TS is not a conduit for public info on people accused of hideous crimes. If people want to know they can seek out the information for themselves, e.g. by using search engines.
Oh crap, it's started. Planet of the Apes…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12225299
Oh crap, monkey business.
Not if the Aliens get us first.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12225228
This item amazes me. Why is it not the biggest headline everywhere.
UFO's!
Because the Aliens are suppressing it. Duh!
Same article is also on Stuff, of course …
Far too late to worry about aliens being here, but fear not, these guys aren't invading, they're just on a scheduled toilet stop on the way through to Proxima Centauri.
You would say that, wouldn’t you?
The prime directive prevents me from further explaining why the tour brochures definitely describe the Earth as the Huntly of our trip to somewhere nice.
Can we blame climate change on exhaust from intergalactic touring buses and waste from cosmic freedom campers? Do you ETs post your holiday pics on FB and Instagram too?
Since the forced landing I don't fly any more, you'll never get me up in one of those things again (why I’m stuck here), but no pollution from us, there's just you apes and a few other primitive species still doing that – We worked out cold fusion aeons ago.
No facebook for us but we do have alien news desk.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9287050/
Oh, that’s disappointing because we really need somebody else to share the burden of blame with for climate change. Otherwise, the guilt would destroy us.
If we had AND I would still be watching TV. Instead, I roam the internet, which is where I found this: https://www.npr.org/series/tiny-desk-concerts/
I do have a soft spot for you monkey brain two legs, but you're arrogance and ignorance is often infuriating. You burn it, you own it.
My time travelling mate says it gets a lot worse before it gets really bad.
One thing we are very good at is fooling ourselves and denial. I forgot what the other thing was
"Our choice comes down to this. Do we stop life to allow capitalism to continue, or stop capitalism to allow life to continue?"
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/25/capitalism-economic-system-survival-earth
One of Monbiot's better musings
That musing is a doozy. I think it should be on How to Get There so am copying it for inclusion. Thanks.
in the 21st century there has been a recoupling: rising resource consumption has so far matched or exceeded the rate of economic growth. The absolute decoupling needed to avert environmental catastrophe (a reduction in material resource use) has never been achieved, and appears impossible while economic growth continues. Green growth is an illusion.
Green growth is an illusion? Now we are f…..ed.
A piece from Chris Trotter on similarities between David Lange's government and that of Jacinda Ardern. It might shed light onto present directions
In one respect, at least, there is a very substantial difference between the governments of Lange and Ardern. In the case of the former, the shape and direction of economic reform (thoughtfully prepared by Treasury in advance) was condensed into a single, revolutionary manifesto – “Economic Management”. In the latter case, the task of mapping the progress of government reforms has been farmed-out to a multitude of working-groups. Their combined reports will, presumably, constitute the Labour Party’s 2020 manifesto.
Is this the explanation for Ardern’s willingness to content herself with the role of Coalition figurehead? Because she knows that her key political strength has always been to present the ideas of others in a lively and compelling fashion? How to identify the emotional potential within any given set of policies and communicate it directly to the voters? Her skill in delivering the party’s messages is very different from the old-fashioned oratorical skill of Lange. His was a twentieth century talent, hers belong to the twenty-first.
https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/97407/chris-trotter-questions-whether-pm-jacinda-ardern-really-running-government-or-merely
National have caused all the messs in the health bill housing shonky farming micro bovine virus many other problems when they ran the country to serve the wealthy first and formost . It does not work very well when everything is structured to suit the 00.1 % over the 99.9 % of Tangata .
I know that rheumatic fever hits the poor common tangata hardest Maori and our Pacific cousin make the majority of those people who are affected by this disease .
Insight – Every year, up to 200 New Zealanders die from heart damage caused by rheumatic fever – an illness wiped out in many other wealthy countries. And despite a five-year campaign to tackle the disease here, rates are once again
There’s no record of the total number of New Zealanders affected by the rheumatic heart disease, but last year the number of new rheumatic cases was 188 – most of them children.
It’s almost the highest figure in a decade, while in other wealthy countries like the US and the UK, the disease has been all but stamped out. What's disappointed those in public health the most is that the numbers have risen despite a five-year push to reduce the rates on the rise. Philippa Tolley reports. The DHB’s public health physician, Pip Anderson, says rheumatic fever rates have risen in the area for the last two years, despite efforts to eradicate it. She says there are questions over whether a change in the prevention programme has reduced its impact, or whether other factors such as the housing crisis had overwhelmed the ability of the health system to reduce rates. The DHB says it is in the process of reviewing its approach
Ka kite ano P.S EQUALITY IS NEEDED. Links below.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/2018686731/nz-s-heart-breaker-rheumatic-fever-rates-on-the-rise
Treasure Our tamariki
How this rheumatic fever problem isn't having everything thrown at it, like say the measles epidemic, is a matter that needs a serious study and response. I know some are working so hard and getting so discouraged and saddened that they are not able to get on top of it. I thought I would have a little look at what is happening Eco Maori. You may know more.
I think one thing that should be introduced all over the country, like as from yesterday, is a group of roving medical vans that take to the people the testing equipment and personnel to check on health and dispense minor everyday aids and medicine. It is hard to get children to the doctor, getting transport, coping with care of others at the same time – who babysits?
What's available – I can see a surgery bus. It seems a private-public partnership. With the breakdown of active, citizen-oriented government, perhaps this needs to be the new way of delivering health.
(The denizens in administration in the departments fill their time with designing computer projections and finding expensive managers overseas, or organising funds for new buildings for which they choose the lowest tender and enable charlatans; result a building that requires repairs ten years in, and replacement within thirty.)
So – http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/8467237/Mobile-surgery-brings-health-to-rural-New-Zealand
…In early 2002, private company Mobile Health Solutions spent $5.2 million to build a specially designed 20-metre long, 39-tonne truck to show there was another way to provide day surgery to people living in rural areas.
The country's only surgical bus has since treated thousands of people by giving them access to hundreds of specialist surgical procedures not otherwise available in their towns….
The bus, which was funded by the Ministry of Health, now delivered about 1 per cent of the country's annual surgical workload – the same as an average operating theatre.
https://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/hosted-content/mobile-health-delivering-more-surgery-rural-new-zealand
Trying to find info on helping access to health care seems hard to find looking on google. I found something on rural nursing done in 1994 so I'll put the link in case it is useful.
http://www.moh.govt.nz/NoteBook/nbbooks.nsf/0/84F52F035006C70CCC2574A2000A5468/$file/rural-nursing-aspects-of-practice-mar08.pdf
Every area of low income, especially where there is distance from services, should have it's own buses and teams of nurses, and advanced nurses-to-doctors and good equipment, and regular routes, with some diversions to the remote, when prior appointments are sought. Is this being done now? How widely? How frequently? Embedded into the system or innovative for effect to be abandoned when the set-term funding runs out? Has there been a national govt/local iwi connection made in areas, and is it being monitored and improved, cost-wise and effectiveness-wise? Have the staff done their proper cultural training and using that basis as much as possible?
Maori are keen to do good stuff, are there trained personnel able to bring it to the people and make a difference? Are those people then assisted to carry out schemes and feel part of a team for health, not just needy recipients? The Biggie – nice small warm cottages with all the requirements, and a cleaner/aid to do the windows and the extras as needed when difficult times have to be coped with. If there were more physical comforts, and mental rest through talking through difficulties with friendly advisors, there would likely be a huge change away from negative statistics.
Eco Maori backs the non violence protest to get the truth to the TANGATA ABOUT how badly climate change is affecting our poorer cosin NOW no tomorrow but NOW we can see the negative effects with our own EYEZ
British police said 1088 arrests have been made since the main protests began. The final day of protests is focusing on the international financial sector, which has made London its home.
"Extinction Rebellion to focus on the financial industry today," the group said in a statement. The "aim is to demand the finance industry tells the truth about the climate industry and the devastating impact the industry has on our planet."
The group advocates non-violent civil disobedience to force governments to reduce carbon emissions and avert what it says is a global climate crisis that will bring starvation, floods, wildfires and social collapse.
They are demanding the government declare a climate and ecological emergency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025 and create a citizen's assembly of members of the public to lead on decisions to address climate change.
In 2017, total United Kingdom greenhouse gas emissions were 43 percent lower than in 1990 and 2.6 per cent lower than 2016, according to government statistics.
The group said they will end their protests in London on Thursday and will end their blockades at Parliament Square and Marble Arch.
However, they promised more protests in the future, saying direct action was the only way to bring the issue to public attention Ka kite ano links below P.S I had to use my phone to get this out there .????????????????????????????????
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.rnz.co.nz/article/3b688365-80d7-4c42-af02-3e338715ce64
Bottom Trawling for fish and dredging for shell fish is like driving a BULLDOZER to round up the sheep and cows if this was seen the real damage that these technology's do to our fish's habitats there would be a huge OUT CRY but because its out of SIGHT the money people can keep wreaking Tangaroa for short term gain of $$$£$$$££££$$$$£$$$$$$$
The fish need a whare to and those 2 techniques are ruining there whare the out come will BE our fish stocks collapseing. No fish for the Mokopuna grandchildren NO fish for our FUTURE .
According to the report, commercial fishing had reduced in the last decade, and 97 percent of commercially-caught fish came from stocks considered to be sustainably managed.
However, it also said 16 percent of routinely assessed stocks were overfished in 2017 and 10 stocks were considered collapsed. The report said bycatch of protected species such as seabirds had reduced, but this was based on data from before 2016.
Mrs Goddard said those statistics said nothing meaningful about the health of the ecosystem.
She said this was not the latest data, with seabird capture having increased 85 percent in some fisheries in the 2017/18 fishing year compared to the previous year, including hoki, hake, ling and warehou, according to data from the Department of Conservation.
"I think what's disappointing is it makes a bold statement in the report that bycatch is being reduced and that the number of threatened, endangered and protected marine species caught has been reduced."
Mrs Goddard said what she had gleaned from the most recent data was that is not the case.
Independent marine scientist Roger Grace said there were serious habitat-damaging issues such as trawling and dredging, which the report touches on, but not in great detail, so they aren't addressed effectively.
"For the last 30 to 50 years we've been hammering the shallow and inshore habitats and smashing the natural life there to bits, and it's no longer as good for juvenile fish habitat," he said Ka kite ano links below. P.S Whanau I told you that the civil servants run the countrys they are trying to paint a rosey picture about our fisheries if we let them fool US no fish for the Mokopuna look over sea the evedince is there fisheries collapseing all over the place .
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/387817/rosy-environment-report-card-for-nz-a-greenwash-say-marine-experts
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute .
Love is a underrated VALUE that the Papatuanukue needs
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute
Kia ora Newshub.
Love is all we need
There are a few people who are waving the alt right white supremacist flag in NZ.
The Australian man who was part of the Sri Lanka attacks show ECO MAORI that the Australian are targeting the wrong people sending Kiwis to their crap camps and deporting the to A country they don't NO. NZ
Hallys emperor penguins colony collapse show how finally balanced life is a little change can make or break LIFE. We need to take human caused climate change very seriously.
Cortez is Eco Maori pick I have exzamed the others they have strings attached to the people who are making a mess.
Our sports Stars help Aotearoa shine bright condolences to Collettes Whanau
Rammi is a cool actor.
Yes people get wild creatures without being prepared to care for them correctly. I found a crook Hawk when I was young it stayed around for a few days I just gave it food and water and let it FREE .
Ka kite ano P.S we are there Guardians
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Eco Maori will have to stop the sandflys distracting ME from the Real threat to US. I say that is there tactics now trying there best to PISS me off they are merely little bugs in my journey in life they are trying there best to sap my MANA but in reality every move they make against me adds to my MANA I see it all over Te Papatuanukue Ka pai.
The main threat to US human kind is Global warming
. Some countries have profited from climate change while the same rise in average planetary temperatures has dragged down economic growth in the warmer countries.
The gap between those groups of nations with the highest and lowest economic output per person is now around 25% larger than it would have been had there been no climate change link below
https://physicsworld.com/a/global-warming-tips-scales-against-the-poor/
Next is Artifical Intelligents this threat is being down play by some people but this technology will give the holders of Artifical Intelligents the POWER OF God's they will be able to do what ever they want and not be held accountable for there ACTIONS . Link below P.S I know it looks like that is the case now but they will be held accountable.
Waste and Consumerism is a big threat plastic can take a 1000 year to degrade need need to use biodegradable things like paper bags and cardboard make laws so stuff last 20 to 50 years not 2 to 3 years as some stuff only last that long everything has to recycled no if or buts everything has to be recycled. Ka kite ano video below.
Equality is up there to Equality for all life to be respected equality for Wahine we have to learn to treat all our Wahine like a Queens and LISTEN to them given equal saying in the way our society are RULED .
KA KITE ANO LINKS BELOW
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/25/the-white-house-wont-empower-women-sudans-protests-will-womens-rights-ivanka-trump-poland-argentina/
Eco Maori video.
We must let the ruling class NO that the Way we are abuseing OUR decendints FUTURE is unlogical and unacceptable to US the 99.9 % of tangata /people Kia kaha
The power of grassroots, widespread climate action cannot be underestimated. When ordinary people start to organise among themselves and create communities of resistance in our schools, colleges, universities and neighbourhoods, those in positions of power begin to notice. The emergent climate movements are organising people of all ages to fight for a better world and to take the necessary steps to pressure political leaders to act.
The UK youth strikers Holly Gillibrand, George Bond and myself sat down with Greta, Jeremy Corbyn, Caroline Lucas, Vince Cable, Liz Saville-Roberts and Ian Blackford for the first climate talks of their kind in more a decade. Theresa May’s chair remained empty.
'Outrage is justified': David Attenborough backs school climate strikers
We pushed political leaders to commit to and agree upon some positive first steps to start addressing the climate crisis. Tens of thousands of young climate activists forced party leaders to acknowledge the gravity of the climate crisis, driving home the need to act urgently and collaboratively Ka kite ano links below.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/26/school-climate-strikes-success-forced-uk-politicians-healthy-planet
Emma all governments are playing lip service to the people on the issue facing our grandchildrens FUTURES
We don't put down other people because they are different humans have bigger problems than that we will have a problem serviving on Papatuanukue if we don't change OUR Ways we treat Papatuanukue and her creations we will all go EXTINCT
But Darryl Ward, an Anglican lay preacher from Paraparaumu, urged Christians to instead show love and care "for our Muslim brothers and sisters".
Ward said Christianity had never been the "sole faith tradition" in New Zealand.
"Māori spiritual beliefs preceded the arrival of Europeans and Christianity, and other faith traditions from overseas soon
our Muslim brothers and sisters, or for that matter, anyone else because they worship God differently from us," Ward said he gave us two simple commandments; to love God and to love others. He also made it quite clear that it is through helping those in need that one gains eternal LIFE Ka kite ano P.S EQUALITY for all.
Kia ora R&R.
I see Mark Z is sueing someone from upper hut for minupulating there likes and dislike for monetary gain I planned to do a post on the new computer currency Ka kite ano P.S Artifical Intelligents is a topic we all need to be talking about the positive and negative about the technology
Kia ora Newshub .
That's a huge fire on the highway in USA condolences to the people who lost there love ones in that crash.
Measles is still out of control in NZ those anti vaxers and the poor people who are to stressed trying to put food on the table to get there tamariki vacancied is part of the cause.
I have already commented on the USA politics Seen Don has helped Eco Maori Mana Wairua Ka pai But he is still a carbon man .oo.
It logical to move more imports out side of Auckland cannot have goods stuck in a Auckland traffic jam.
Roman? looks like a qute boy it's sad he has that illness we are fortunate not to have major sickness with OUR Mokopuna my eldest seems OK for now.
Ka pai to the Salvation Army campaign against the people selling expensive good off the back of a truck I say the laws should be changed to stop the loan Sharks ripping the poor common person off to. I new when I backed The Salvation Army last year as being Eco Maori number 1 charity I was correct.
I seen that they plan to use Cherynoble Russian nuclear accident sites as a green ENERGY site Ka kite ano P.S the sandflys tried their best to stuff up my video feed
This is going to be the new currency with a conscience that will make people and country's behave HUMANLY if they don't the dislike mount up and your networth goes down do good things and you get heaps of likes then your networth goes up. This can be the same for country's to. At the minute the monetary SYSTEM punishes POOR COUNTRY and PEOPLE by giving us a bad credit rating and charging the people who can least afford it huge unstainable INTREST Rates that need to reverse to change the wealthy higher interest rate and the poor common people lower interest rates .
I know that the security for a currency system like this will have to have the best protection that can be made by people but ha from what I SEE the uneqality that is happening around Papatuanukue the Systems definitely need to change.
Facebook alleges 'likes' were sold for commercial advantage.
The company operated the website Likesocial.co, currently undergoing "maintenance", and IGFamous.net.
Another of their companies, Social Envy, operates the SocialEnvy.co website.
Facebook cited the posting of a photograph from a user with no previous Instagram followers which immediately attracted 500 likes within seconds on Likesocial.co.
More photos from the same user achieved similar "likes" in March of this year, Facebook claimed.
The defendants allegedly "enriched themselves at the expense of Facebook and Instagram by US$9.3m", and the media company was seeking damages of the same amount.
Facebook claimed the behaviour was "fraudulent", and also damaged Facebook and Instagram computer systems
Ka kite ano link below.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/112295050/facebook-seeks-us10m-damages-and-jury-trial-against-upper-hutt-trio
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
I'm quite good a seeing – – – – – – people
Many thanks to the British Labour Party for finally making a stand on the Papatuanukue issues with human caused climate change Ka pai. We have to respect our Decendints rights to a happy healthy equal FUTURE LIFE.
Labour will this week force a vote in parliament to declare a national environmental and climate change emergency as confidential documents show the government has spent only a fraction of a £100m fund allocated in 2015 to support clean air projects.
Jeremy Corbyn’s party will demand on Wednesday that the country wakes up to the threat and acts with urgency to avoid more than 1.5°C of warming, which will require global emissions to fall by about 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching “net zero” before 2050
Ka kite ano P.S I see te links links below
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/27/corbyn-declares-national-climate-emergency
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Whanau the climate change deniers suffer from this effect they don't even understand WTF they are taking about cannot even truthfully self examination there past ACTIONS to find the negative things that they have done. They will allways only find their actions to be positive everyone else is at fault not THEE I thee I is perfect. YEA RIGHT .
Wheeler didn’t know what he didn’t know, and that’s the cognitive engine of what’s today rued and ridiculed as the Dunning-Kruger effect. It describes what Dunning later called “the anosognosia of everyday life”; a cognitive foible in which people lack the self-awareness—and yes, in some cases, the intelligence—to objectively estimate their own ability. Or, to paraphrase John Cleese: some people are too stupid to understand how stupid they are.
In studies of university students, Dunning and Kruger found a strong inverse relationship between actual and self-ascribed ability. Those who considered themselves competent consistently proved that they weren’t. In a test, many who ranked themselves near the 70th percentile actually scored in the 10th (intriguingly, the opposite effect expressed in smart students).
Now, commentators and researchers are invoking Dunning and Kruger again, as they try to make sense of a raft of recent studies that have found people of strong anti-science disposition almost always understand the least about that same science
Ka kite ano links below P.S I no a – – – – – – that suffer from this .
https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/ignorance-is-arrogance/?source=footer
Kia ora Newshub .
The person who did that in America Defend his race from what a imagined threat come on people we are all HUMANS.
I seen that story on simons slush fund complaint lol.
The Free Press is a must that includes social media as well free speach is a right for all people
The flat Earthers are foolish most living things have curves there are many things that I could put out to counter their beliefs but I m not even going to waste my time .
Kia kaha Rewa keep up the good Mahi with your strong Wahine goals hope you can beat your cancer problems
Good on him for helping the sick Hedgehog serviving losing his quills looks like it has a Whare for life its cool showing stories like that it will teach te Mokopuna to love OUR wild life have to be careful of it quills. Ka kite ano