disagree there cleangreen.
it was a fairly scrappy affair in the first half but the team settled into a rhythm in second half.
this was a chance for a lot of second string players to make a mark.
jordie barrett scored 4 tries and had a good all round game.
we had hookers putting good kicks through to set up tries.
ok, the result was never in doubt but the nature of the all blacks performance in the final test of a long season was heartening for this fan.
of more concern is the lopsided score england vs australia. 37-18 to england.
we need australian rugby to be stronger than it is at the moment.
ps, i don’t pay for any sport nowadays, its such an old fashioned habit.
We’re a country the size of Melbourne, generating sports teams that continue to conquer the world.
In Italy we just beat a country with the economic capacity to buy all of our top Rugby players multiple times over if it wanted.
Currently we’re battling it out with Pakistan, a country with 202 million people and over 10 million cricket players. We would be lucky to scrape together 2,000 top players.
Sport is one of New Zealand’s top industries.
It’s also one of the fastest upward routes out of deprivation for many of our citizens.
Well I certainly dislike the kiwi battler meme – bit of a cliche now – I dislike the financial/money angle for sure but hate? Bit OTT there – go and dig the garden you seem a bit worked up old chap.
Anyway I cannot be bothered getting hassled by the likes of you and james so I’ll fuck off and leave you to it.
You got reciprocated twerp. And ad, well the little battler bullshit stuck in my throat esp after the non acceptance from him imo last night that iwi organisations are more than corporates.
But being given shade from a rwnj like you is actually a badge of honour in leftie circles so thanks for the cred LOL
We have issues like climate change confronting the world, yet our puppet media and desperate people dribble on about a sports victory against a minnow team .
Rugby in Aotearoa is more than just a sport.
Rugby clubs have unified communities for generations.
Professional and labourer, town and country, Maori and Pakeha.
It is also how we grew up a little, and got out from the mother country yoke.
That doesn’t mean I can’t be concerned by inequality and CC.
Sport is simply bread and circuses for the masses. Our inane obsession with it says a lot about the mental immaturity of our Country. There are far more important pursuits in life. Sure, keep fit by doing some sport, but professionalism has turned it into something as bad as fundamentalist religion.
Ad isn’t always wrong marty mars. Don’t be prejudiced against him because he sees most things through a money lens. It is true that sport generates money, gives us an international profile, gives opportunities to see the world for low income men and women, gives jobs now to many low income families in a job–poor society (despite rock star rah rah statistics (finely made to match international specifications).
Ad can be relied on to take a certain pragmatic approach, and is pretty consistent, so we know what to expect and respect in his opinions.
I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to the World Women’s 7’s in Hamilton next year. We’ve already booked tickets. There are a couple of our greats who are close to retirement.
Gould might have also mentioned how blessed New Zealand has been to have waves of Pasifika migration to draw talent from across so many sporting fields including Rugby.
In some respects also we are good at enabling female participation as a matter of public policy – but only in the last two years. That’s unusual in global terms still, even if slowly improving.
Don’t get stuck on critique savenz. Bad for mental health. You are so good at taking a country-wide and global view so we know our problems, and also seeing what we could do. Perhaps each separate critical para you state how a change could improve or turn all negative into partly positive I think making a small positive input all the time may make a great change to the mood of the readers.
David Slack’s comment: “You can’t rely on the weather but there are two things you can set your clock by in November: NCEA exams and NCEA exam controversy. This year the level three history exam provided the popcorn. A question used the world ‘trivial’ and students complained this was not a word they knew. There was much rolling of eyes by people of a greater age.”
” There are more than 170,000 words in the Oxford dictionary, and it’s not easy staying on top of them all. John Key, an Auckland businessman and retired politician, left school with a B Bursary and prospered in the world of buying and selling money. He was once a luncheon guest of the Queen. They shared a glass of champagne, hollandaise eggs, beef, a panna cotta dessert and some cheese. “It was quite a fulsome lunch,” he told reporters afterwards, “I’m fairly full.” Over the past eight centuries the word fulsome has been used to mean copious, and it has also been used to mean foul, odious and rotten. Which meaning did he intend? What a conundrum of syzygy.”
Which meaning of syzygy did Slack mean? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygy – bright students would ponder the selection and come up with a simile not present: conjoined. Explain that to the class & the other students would be wondering `what does conjoined mean?’
Not in NCEA they can’t. A student asked me whether the word ‘differ’ was the same derivation as ‘different’. I couldn’t answer as an exam supervisor. All I could do was tell him I was not allowed and to do his best.
Some lucky bastards can be as fat as santa and have every other measurement within normal parameters – blod pressure, heart rate, uric acid, liver function, all of that shit. And live to a ripe old age.
In a nutshell: an AB win acts like mass medication to make Kiwis feel good about themselves (Big People) and their country. An AB loss OTOH makes Kiwis feel like Small People in a small country at the bottom of the World (AKA trivial).
Watched in horror on Friday as an elderly male bus driver jumped out of the blue Metro bus he was driving and ran to the vehicle in front. Karate chopped the front windscreen and then punched the young woman driver in the head 2 or 3 times. All happened in peak hour traffic and very quickly. Where do I lodge a report about this ? Police and Auckland Transport ? I have the bus number / time / place etc. And another witness who was with me.
Thank you, Ad. By the time I got out of my car the traffic was moving and the car driver behind me was blowing his horn. The passengers on the bus were not impressed but not sure they could see the violence.
Hard for anyone else to do something in that short space and time. And that fact of crush of traffic and impatience is probably behind the violence, and what might happen at home to an offending female explodes in public.
They are under so much stress, bus and truck drivers. Very sad it comes to that.
I feel that this could tie into something I noticed the other day. The driver of the local recycling truck came along on his busy round. They have a specially built cabin with the wheel on the left side, near the kerb, and space to stand behind it. They draw in, empty the bins into the moving auger? system carefully, make sure they stop that before they reach in to clear anything etc. and quickly move on to the next place. A busy and lonely job,.
I happened to be on the pavement nearby and said Good morning, no response. I spoke again about the weather, but no appearance of being heard or seen. I wondered if he was deaf, and watched how he went about it. He was concentrating on the job, finished dealing with a number of bins, and didn’t look up at all, head down all the time. It seemed, he didn’t want to have any interaction with others around, he seemed sullen, internally angry and unhappy.
It looked to me as if he had a major negative attitude brewing in his brain, was isolating himself from the general public, and it seemed as if a huge resentment and hate might be simmering which left me feeling very uneasy.
What’s your point gabby? Do you want to live in a friendly, happy, interactive society or not? If you have something to say can you make it have some point instead of the first thing that passes through your head momentarily.
That’s what you get when you pay $20 p/h in a stressful job. You mention he was elderly, and male, anything else you want to add in there Patricia? I’m guessing he was not white, thus not fitting the white male privilege… that people love to blame on everything these days… but happy to be proved wrong.
savenz
You are sounding like the way that China is thinking about reporting facts and truth, that they should be filtered in a way so that the results match their requirements for the ‘right’ appearance to be presented that matches the desired approach and image.
Yep, if you want to give a description do it properly, not subjectively, revealing your own bias or these days it seems more a concern about woke identity politics as a sort of brain washing, if you don’t want to reveal a person’s physical appearance, then just use the word, bus driver. The police will want to know anyway.
Actually I first thought is was not a big thing, but actually thinking about a bus driver that has actually left the vehicle to attack a women, actually sounds like a crime that is a police matter, especially as there is a growing issue in Auckland of fake drivers driving commercial vehicles and I have a friend who was hospitalised by one .
If he is that out of control he is assaulting people in public who knows what other things might be revealed.
Also maybe the guy goes home and beats up his wife, who knows?
Assault is a crime for police, not for AT, which is more for bad driving.
If you remove indentity politics, and it’s resulting gender, racial prejudice you get this.
I witnessed a bus driver hop out of the bus, go up to a car, smash the window and assault the driver.
Identity is irrelevant to the event, or the reality of a crime being committed.
Identity politics effect on Law results in a doubled sentence, due to the victims identity, for the male bus driver if the act or harm is identicle if a woman was the bus driver.
Don’t call Auckland Transport, they will do nothing. Call the police and lodge a report, if the driver is that bad they might run someone over next time they have a road rage attack and at least with the police there will be more chance of them catching who did it and working out whether the driver should be working with the public or not.
Also the police can check whether he has a fake bus license or not, which is a growing problem of both fake licenses and also identity swaps where the person driving does not match the whoever was supposed to be driving the vehicle.
Know someone who was hospitalised by that scam. Police are investigating and I think did bring charges, but the person who caused the accident looked nothing like the drivers license photo and tried to flee the scene in his delivery van. Meanwhile our hospitals are filling up and people’s lives being destroyed by injury by these fakes.
AT employ so many people doing processes it will never get anywhere, let alone they understand the seriousness of what is going on with drivers attacking people and all the fakes out there.
Gee you see a woman punched in the head two or three times and two days later ask on a forum where do you lodge a report?
It’s amazes me that people can’t work shit like this out and are happy to drive on and do nothing like call the police when they see a young woman assaulted.
Gee a little inadequate twerp makes all sorts of ill informed and ignorant judgments about another based on a question on this forum and shows, once again, why he is a waste of space and a loser.
It amazes me that people like that, so puffed up with their own privilege, just mouth off without engaging their brains.
Not stupidness but boredom – the boredom of a right wing nut job when pretending is even too much.
No, James has a point there. The incident should have been reported on Friday. As it was assault it probably should have been a 111 call but a *555 probably would have worked as well.
That said, this speaks of what I said the other day. People seeing an action that they don’t know how to handle because it’s outside of their experience.
The New Zealand truckies are workers seeking to stop being required to work over 70 hours a week. That’s 6 days a week 12 hours a day.
Those workers are controlling machinery weighing 1-2 tonnes traveling at 90 kilometers an hour often mere centimeters from the public which includes you and your family.
They don’t want to be worked so hard that they cause deaths.
Another option is to get trains running and a more workable way to transit from them (aka don’t put a port in the middle of downtown Auckland) so that we don’t need all these polluting, road damaging, and dangerous trucks on the road.
“Trucking companies are competing for big contracts at the expense of their staff, a truck driver’s union has warned.
It says the companies are competing for tenders by forcing drivers to accept low pay rates and long work hours.
First Union secretary for transport Jared Abbott said a lot of drivers were working at least 70 hours, the maximum hours allowed per week.
“We see it a lot where people are pushed to break the logbook rules or to breach health and safety in some way.
“Their scared – rightfully so – for their livelihoods to test it and we see it a lot with quite reputable companies where people do test it, they get shafted.”
Part of problem is most truckers are contractors in corporate colours ( mainfreifgt freight Courier post etc) They own the issue as well as many on wages now and in the pass have taken the piss on hours and looking after company vehicals; etc not to mention over the top Union action They in essence shafted themselves Saying that contractor drivers are way more incentivised to align business and individual interest; albeit agree it is a race to the bottom to a degree at the moment driven by procurement division of buyers of freight services not the freight companies themselves
At our NGO committee meeting with ‘Port of Napier’ executives in November 2016 we were advised of this; –
“The truckies have warned the Port of Napier that they will fight rail to retaining their 90% of moving logs to the port”.
So we are fighting a war against truckies who don’t want to use public owned rail period.
As to road safety;
So the Government needs urgently now to sort the truckies out here, as we will loose many lives on our narrow windy roads as the “wall of wood arrives”.
Your key responsibilities as an executive officer
Some key responsibilities may include ensuring that:
• your business practices do not require or encourage
drivers to:
― exceed the speed limits
― exceed regulated driving hours
― fail to meet the minimum rest requirements
― drive while impaired by fatigue.
• heavy vehicles and their loads comply with relevant mass
and dimension requirements
• you remain informed of business performance in regards
to CoR responsibilities
• you lead other parties in the supply chain with effective
guidance with regards to complying with the HVNL
• your decisions do not influence the conduct of the
corporation to breach the law
• systems to manage safety and all requirements and
obligations of the HVNL are in place.”
As I understand it, if an incident occurs the driver’s logs etc are examined to ensure that the workload expected and time taken to deliver was reasonable. If not, the responsibility for the incident is shifted to management.
That was disappointing Gabby. For a second I saw the ch and thought you were talking about chocolate! Choochoos, Thomas the tank engine and all, aren’t they stories that you read to children about long ago ways to get around and go to see at old technology parks? /sarc cleangreen don’t blow a foofoo valve.
Wonder if the truckies would be supportive of a law that prevented them from working more than 8 hours a day and no more than five days a week. They are, after all, correct in that long hours behind driving is dangerous and it’s not just to them but to the rest of the population as well.
I bet they\ truckies would not want to limit themselves to short hours like that and would rather work longer hours, but not to the extent they are pushed now. It wouldn’t be so bad if truckies got extra payment for working unsocial hours, and over the 8 hour limit, which would be justified. They would have been paid properly for their time and effort like that once. And of course there has to be an upper limit otherwise it is too hard on the drivers.
But they are being pressured to go too far for too long, and the roads are not coping. Nine years National had to work out a better transport plan, but no. And their stooge Ken Shirley happily on the one hand talks about how busy the transport industry is and then wants more money spent on roads. He used to be in the Labour Party I think. He knew which side has the best butter and most bread.
David is purposely starting fights in bars so someone will beat him up.
Jo is knowingly getting into positions that cause injury on the rugby field. Jo then aggravates the injury.
Daniel hides his self-harming and tells a counsellor years later after stopping.
Females aren’t the only ones that self-harm. David and Daniel are male. Jo is agender…
… there is an emphasis on seeing self-harm as largely a female issue – see for example a recent Stuff article, “Why are our girls hurting themselves?”
Some research suggests self-harm is more common in females. Other research suggests the number of males and females self-harming is about the same. And don’t forget there are more than two genders.
But even if self-harm is more common in females, it is still an issue for other genders…
… Stuff obtained figures from the Ministry of Health to show there was a significant number – 4,328 – of females aged between 10 and 29 hospitalised due to self-injury last year. Self-injury probably means suicidal behaviour and non-suicidal self-harm.
The figures also show there was a significant number of males hospitalised – 1,630…
… I worry anyone who isn’t female might hesitate to be open about self-harming. They may even fail to recognise that what they are doing is self-harm. This might hinder them asking for help, if it is needed.
A thought provoking post marty. Would this come under mental health?
Perhaps it shows expression of deeply felt pain. More funding for trained help could assist.
How do we create connections to provide community support? Self harm can be so hard to see sometimes. Some harm behaviours need a trigger, some are repeated responses to stress.
This is apparently a growing problem. A symptom of larger social ills?
Perhaps we are ‘connected by the internet’ but are ‘touch deprived’ so have constant grief.
Self harm for males can be exactly the same as females, in being a cry for help. It’s just not addressed, identified, diagnosed as well as females.
One issue for males is risk taking self harm. So the young male who isn’t intentionaly suiciding engages in high risk acts. Driving extremely dangerously combines with “look at me” male behavours. An episode of suicidle thoughts may combine with dangerous driving, as a release.
So the self harm is never identified because they don’t cut themselves etc.
Suicide for men often involves “cry for help” with nobody giving a shit.
Parliaments self immolation victim is a perfect example.
Male teens engage in risk-taking activities and behaviour because they think they’re indestructible, which is fuelled by testosterone spikes and the fact that their brains haven’t fully developed and matured.
It’s mating behavour of look at me, I’m the best, strongest, healthiest driven by sexual chemistry far more complex than just testosterone. You said they think but then said they don’t think.
It’s a direct counter to young females biologically being attracted older men, in that older men have proven to have successful genes. There is no thinking involved in the females mating preference.
Just as there is no thinking involved in females being sexually attracted to males or a male being sexually attracted to other men.
Replicated throughout the animal kingdom.
That is completely different from depression based suicide behavours and self harming.
Your comment is why recognising males with problems is ignored as it just gets attributed to feminist ideology that males are inherently flawed. A male acting out can be a cry for help but is put down as you expressed as just the actions of a stupid male.
It was true for some risk-taking males, just as your initial comment was true for others.
The difficulty with the self harm identified in the article is how an observer is supposed to identify the intention. Does someone get into bar fights because they are insecure and drunk, or because they are intentionally self-destructive? Is a fight a good time for them, reasserting macho dominance? A sportsman playing through an injury: intentional self harm, or foolish machismo “toughing out” the injury? A guy jumping off a wall: poor decision making, or intentional self harm?
Cuts with a razor and (sometimes) prescription overdoses leave little ambiguity.
But yes, just as heart attacks in women are often underdiagnosed because the publicised symptoms tend to be in males, and just as males can be late-diagnosed with eating disorders or breast cancer, self harm in males can be underdiagnosed.
Difficult as very few can deconstruct what they witness from family and freinds. Resulting in family saying they never saw any signs of there loved ones having issues prior to suicide. But they were present.
In the case of ambiguous injuries, there is a shortcoming where if we can’t see it, we can’t count it, and if we can’t count it, we can’t assess it as a need of the population.
And everything is a balance of resources until utopia comes: if a DHB has X$ to spend on public health and wellness campaigns and a greater number of potential compaigns looking for funding, It comes down to which selection of programs will do the greatest good for X$ spent. Which is how qualitative stuff sometimes gets ignored.
Very well said. Acting out often is just what it is: acting out, establishing boundaries, developing identity (and persona). Where warning signs can become tell-tale signs is when a negative repetitive pattern develops, for example.
The scientific literature must be awash with feminist propaganda but I stick with the literature nevertheless if you don’t mind – indeed, there are competing (or rather complementing) scientific hypotheses. But feel free to put up a credible link that supports your statement.
It’s mating behavour [sic] of look at me, I’m the best, strongest, healthiest driven by sexual chemistry far more complex than just testosterone.
Just as well that I didn’t argue that it was all down to “just testosterone”.
You said they think but then said they don’t think.
Please read it again; that isn’t at all what I said.
Your comment is why recognising males with problems is ignored as it just gets attributed to feminist ideology that males are inherently flawed.
This makes no sense whatsoever!? Males are flawed and therefore we ignore their problems or we assume that they don’t have a problems!? You seem to have hang ups about this “feminist ideology” you keep referring to.
A male acting out can be a cry for help but is put down as you expressed as just the actions of a stupid male.
This is exactly the point I was trying to make, which is that correct interpretation of a male acting out is very difficult. You grabbed the wrong end of the stick and went off on your rant.
True that, many males are still stuck in their teenage years. After all, it’s an important market segment for gyms. And don’t get me started on roid rage.
A apposed to females with I’m a princess syndrome manifesting in things like bridezillas who reject males for only offering $1,000 rings vs $5,000 dollar ones. An important market for pointless bits of rock.
All part of the mating behaviour. To you it’s a pointless bit of rock but to her it’s clear sign how much the potential mate ‘values’ her and how far he can and will go to woe her. Many women want their wedding day to be very special and the best day of their lives (AKA the dream wedding) but that doesn’t make them princesses or bridezillas. Reality TV is a misnomer, you know?
What does the man get in turn for this “woman want”. It is clearly not necessary then. It should be “special, best day”. Like out of a fantasy movie. Everything else is equal isn’t it?
So what do men get? Equality speaking. For a fantasy to come true for them?
We’re still talking about the mating ritual, are we? Almost 8 billion people on this planet all chasing fantasies? About half of them are bridezillas and the other half are hapless creatures that cannot and must not get fulfilment (or, as more directly verbalised by the Rolling Stones: satisfaction)? Do you and/or your partner/spouse wear a ring? A pointless bit of metal?
You’re all over the place; does your left hand know what your right hand is doing? You seem to have too much time on your hands …
Well, it seems we do have something in common: an overactive brain that doesn’t know when to stop. For this reason I landed on TS a few years back and I’ve found it very therapeutic as well as educational and informative. Some Standardistas just blow me away. And there’s humour, not quite enough IMO, but at times it is enough to dissipate the worries and stresses of a long day at work and life in general.
You think of something, think “X would like that”, and do it, because you love them. And X does the same, not as a transaction but because they love you.
And sometimes people need reassurance that they are loved, and sometimes all this other crap is going on and future inlaws might be judging and the seating plan can’t have exes close to each other etc etc etc.
If I proposed to someone and they turned me down because the ring wasn’t expensive enough, I’d know it wasn’t reciprocal love and I’d be well out of that. But if someone’s cool with a transactional arrangement, fair enough.
If you want to reject someone then it’s easier to say “you’re ring is not worth enough” rather than “you’re the last man on earth I’d ever want to marry”. Rejected males are not the safest people to be around so it’s best to do it as impersonally as possible.
Yep. I was scared a partner would stab me to death in my sleep once. I had already had to flee through the house shuting myself in a room because my partner used a knife to explain my bank account was empty for good reasons. Getting out of relationships with crazy individuals isn’t easy. Honesty and self preservation conflict.
On a post last week, somebody mentioned a new article by public finance expert Don Gilling on AUT’s Briefing Papers website had disappeared. It is now back online:
It raises questions about the stewardship of the National Library and Archives NZ by the Department of Internal Affairs since these agencies were merged into DIA in 2010. Gilling notes the decline in NLNZ budget under DIA, even while the Department’s overall budget has risen, as well as the increasing proportion of NLNZ budget going to DIA for centrally managed costs. The implication is that DIA is milking NLNZ and Archives to cover other departmental functions.
One might also ask why the DIA is managing the current review of the Library, Archives and Nga Taonga, when there is such an apparent conflict of interest. Brian Easton alluded to this on his Pundit blog some months back:
lprent commented on Don’s article disappearing from Briefing Papers inhis patest post here (link below) and asked if anyone knew Don Gilling etc. he would be interested in seeing the article.
I do know him and was intending contacting him (or Brian Easton who is a very close friend/associate of Don’s) to ask what happened with it. By coincidence, yesterday I met his wife in a shop and mentioned the article and its disappearance from BPs and the fact that there were people here including lprent interested in seeing it. Apparently it had been put up there by someone else, not Don so then taken down. She was going to raise it with Don, but the article was probably already back up on BPs already by that stage.
Apparently Don has been getting a lot of interest and feedback on his thoughts in this article. I noted recently that Don is also now on the Committee of the Friends of the Turnbull Library here in Wellington for the 2018/19 year,
An implication of Don Gilling’s article is that NLNZ & Archives NZ have been subject to the same kind of austerity RNZ suffered under the last government. But, buried layers down in DIA, this has been far less visible.
Didn’t we lose a collection of historical photos a few years ago, due to the asinine decision to outsource them to a small digital conversion outfit in the US, which then went into bankruptcy and never returned those photos?
Whether they have been returned yet I don’t know. There were concerns at the time about whether Ministry of Culture and Heritage had exercised proper oversight under the Protected Objects Act.
We are like children being led into the Forest of Business and Dubious Efficiency. Questions were raised about the wisdom and good faith involved in taking control in 2010 of our heritage material and putting it under the wing of a big Department with wide responsibilities.
It raises questions about the stewardship of the National Library and Archives NZ by the Department of Internal Affairs since these agencies were merged into DIA [Department of Internal Affairs] in 2010.
Now we should be determined to stop this downgrading of irreplaceable stuff about our past. We have had decades of dilettantes in government to make useful profitable connections for themselves, interested in cutting the part of the budget that went on tasks requiring and needing government care and scrutiny. (Notice Sam A 5.2.1 – the missing photographs so carelessly dispensed with to the USA business.)
Also remember the horror of letting a populist politician get control over important historic records in Canada.
Like a bull in a china shop. The Harper Government Has Trashed and Destroyed Environmental Books and Documents
In the first few days of 2014, scientists, journalists, and environmentalists were horrified to discover that the Harper government had begun a process to close seven of the 11 of Canada’s world-renowned Department of Fisheries and Oceans libraries… https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/4w578d/the-harper-government-has-trashed-and-burned-environmental-books-and-documents
Various NZ s over the years need to set themselves up as Guardians of whatever and follow the taonga, Friends of the Taonga or Friends of … to differentiate Maori from pakeha objects as there are so many that could be lost, the kaitiaki of each should watch what they know and treasure, working in conjunction.
Thanks Sam. I couldn’t recall the details of the archive, and having it identified as Fairfax decision rather than government, means that our collective archive was not affected.
I recall at the time seeing images of some of the colonial photos that were being advertised on eBay, which seemed such a loss.
John Wight exposes the West’s war crimes in Yemen.
‘’As crimes pile up, they become invisible’: Western complicity in Saudi Arabia’s dirty war in Yemen.
The complicity of Western governments in the ocean of suffering being wrought in Yemen exposes them as agents of Saudi brutality.
After three years of relentless conflict, it has been estimated that out of a population of 27.4 million, 22.2 million people in Yemen are in need of humanitarian assistance, 17 million are food insecure, 14.8 million lack basic healthcare, 4.5 million children are suffering malnourishment, while 2.9 million people are internally displaced. As for dead and injured, the toll stands at almost 10,000 and 50,000 respectively.
…..Returning to Western complicity in the carnage and suffering being meted out to the Yemeni people, never has there been a more naked example of hypocrisy masquerading as democracy. Indeed, the longstanding alliance between the US, UK and Saudi Arabia takes a scalpel to the oft-repeated boasts of Washington and London when it comes to their self-appointed role as champions and guardians of human rights and democracy.
Beginning with the Obama administration, and ramped up under Trump, US involvement in this brutal conflict has consisted of direct military airstrikes (carried out against Al-Qaeda and Islamic State targets, according to Washington), along with logistical, intelligence, and other non-combat support provided to the anti-Houthi Saudi-led coalition. This, of course, is not forgetting US arms sales to the Kingdom, consisting of over 50 percent of all US arms exports.
….The war in Yemen is a dirty war, being waged by a Western-supported Saudi kleptocracy in the name of clerical fascism. Bertolt Brecht was right: “As crimes pile up, they become invisible”
On Monday, November 26, 2018, NASA’s Mars Insight is scheduled to land on Mars. The spacecraft will touch down at approximately 20:00 UTC (3 p.m. EST). Watch coverage of the event on NASA TV. Live landing commentary runs from 19:00-20:30 UTC (2-3:30 p.m. EST). Translate UTC to your time.
Great thanks Joe. The new age of hope perhaps turning into reality?
And this more of the same:
“…Instead of using propellers or turbines, the researchers used electroaerodynamics. The technology works by sending a current through an electrode which electrically charges the molecules in the surrounding air. These charged molecules are then attracted towards a separate electrode on the aircraft – this movement of ions and neutral air particles generates an effect known as ionic or electric wind. By positioning an aerofoil in this air flow, lift can be generated, potentially allowing powered flight.” https://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=12164473
Ion engines are already well established as the best in space, propulsion engine.
Essentially the rocket engine ejects matter at low speed, requiring scale to lift the rocket. The ion engine ejects very little mass but it is at extremely high speed.
The efficiency of rockets to create momentum is small. The efficiency of ion engines to create momentum is very high.
The energy for an ion energy is electricity from, nuclear heat/Stirling engines, or Solar. Solar is effective in the inner solar system but not in the outer solar system so most projects have nuclear heat/Stirling engines. Not to be confused by Nuclear power plants as they are not a controlled fission. They are simply concentrated radioactive elements giving off heat designed to match power needs, with the Stirling engine designed to match.
In theory ion engines (today’s tech) could accelerate a starship into the 5% to 10% of speed of light range. This results in interstellar travel below the 200 year mark for already identified colonisation viable solar systems.
The energy for an ion energy is electricity from, nuclear heat/Stirling engines, or Solar.
Nope. Radioisotope thermoelectric generator just use standard thermocouples. No Stirling engines involved. I suspect the added mass and complexity makes Stirling engines impractical.
I think this sort of tech is interesting because it highlights energy sources that are green and as yet have limited practical applications. I think it’s wrong to bypass it because it is yet to raise a Cessna.
Another that interests me is the way air rushes out of a tube that stretches from sea level up to mountain top.
It would be great if there was a natural geological tube that coastal air shot up and would carry positioned parcels up to a certain height and platform, then they could be directed down slides or something to a collection point below using gravity.
Probably not viable but the idea of a tube effect of fast moving air upwards is appealing.
That fast moving air upwards has to get its energy from somewhere. If we’re looking at then using that fast moving air to do work, chances are it’ll work out to be more efficient, convenient, and flexible to turn that energy into electricity. Either by using the fast moving air to drive a generator, or going a step further back and harvesting whatever energy source that made the air move fast to make electricity instead.
Reliability of the Stirling is an issue but I have seen figures of 100,000 hours reliable for inline magnetic and air bearing versions. They are not that big for the advantages, anything from cup size to fridge size, but much bigger than thermocouples. More expensive too.
A good example is adoption in sun following dish/mirrors in that they are by far the best performing heat to usable energy system.
If the basis of the system is to give grunt to an engine then the power you can put in matters.
Imagine a spacecraft supporting lots of people. The power requirements will be huge without solar being effective. The small spacecraft with 100W needs is perfect for RTG but large ships will go in the Stirling direction.
The Stirling generators were extensively tested on Earth by NASA, but their development was cancelled in 2013 before they could be deployed on actual spacecraft missions.
Reliability of the Stirling is an issue but I have seen figures of 100,000 hours reliable for inline magnetic and air bearing versions.
Voyager has been running continuously for 40+ years so for ~400,000 hours.
Imagine a spacecraft supporting lots of people. The power requirements will be huge without solar being effective. The small spacecraft with 100W needs is perfect for RTG but large ships will go in the Stirling direction.
More than likely at some point but it hasn’t happened yet.
Yes, they canceled that project along with many others, but it is still being developed for other projects in space. The lifecycle of the engine isn’t an issue if a person is there to do repairs. Voyager is a good example of what the design requirements are. No maintenance possible and thermocouples are the only option.
I was reading about spaceships powered by ion drives half a century ago, in scifi books, when I was a teenager. I knew enough college physics to get that it was plausible in theory, but haven’t heard of any building of such in practice since, so I routinely dismiss all such stuff nowadays a mere speculation.
In fact, although Kim Stanley Robinson did an excellent trilogy about the terraforming of Mars and atmospheric production could make it habitable if the rate exceeded gravitational loss at the upper margin, I’ve long since given up on the notion that it’ll happen. Those dozens of breakdowns & malfunctions in the DEW system, Chernobyl, Murphy’s Law, the tendency of computers to head into dysfunction just like people, nah, I got no faith in technology left…
I was reading about spaceships powered by ion drives half a century ago, in scifi books, when I was a teenager. I knew enough college physics to get that it was plausible in theory, but haven’t heard of any building of such in practice since, so I routinely dismiss all such stuff nowadays a mere speculation.
“We have shown that X3 can operate at over 100 kW of power,” said Alec Gallimore, who is leading the project, in an interview with Space.com. “It operated at a huge range of power from 5 kW to 102 kW, with electrical current of up to 260 amperes. It generated 5.4 Newtons of thrust, which is the highest level of thrust achieved by any plasma thruster to date,” added Gallimore, who is dean of engineering at the University of Michigan. The previous record was 3.3 Newtons, according to the school.
NOW EXPOSED: A UK-led, ‘New Cold War’ int’l intelligence propaganda & disinformation operation, using top Mainstream Media ‘journalists’, govt staff, #AtlanticCouncil, in partnership w/#NATO designed to increase fear and tension between West & Russia:.
Anonymous has published documents which it claims have unearthed a massive UK-led psyop to create a “large-scale information secret service” in Europe.
I wouldn’t view that stuff as anything much beyond an example of how stupidly paranoid some people are. This made me laugh – (From the “Integrity Initiative” handbook)
…the Integrity Initiative is funded by the Institute for Statecraft. The IfS gets its funding from multiple sources to ensure its independence. These include: private individuals; charitable foundations; international organisations (EU, NATO); UK Govt (FCO, MOD)
Kind of lacking in basic integrity I’d have thought. Oh, and the “independence”? Yeah well… probably best not to comment on the narrow focus embodied by such a ‘broad’ sweep of ‘diverse’ funding bodies, eh? 😉
Yes Germany has long wanted to even the score with Russia for the loss of the war in 1945 so the underside of Germany is alive still and want to see another ‘action’ against Russia.
Germany cant change their spots like others cant either.
That is human nature unfortunately and Britain knows that all to well.
There was a throwaway sentence in a textbook I was reading: "In 1793, the French actress Olympe de Gouges was guillotined by the Jacobins, after daring to demand political rights for women as well as men." Of course I had to find out who she was, and why I'd never heard of her. pic.twitter.com/59HaeekhtR— Hanna Nina Jameson (@Hanna_Jameson) October 27, 2018
Probably because a person who fights for the political rights for women as well as men is an actual Feminist. Completely different from those who stand in parliament spouting the magnificent Ministry for Women, claiming to be feminists, then vehemently attacking attempts to create a Ministry for Men.
Plus the patriarchy narrative requires ignoring the reality of our past so many brave women and mens actions are ignored. Kate Sheppards advocacy for women is made godlike, while the decades long voting rights battle behind both male suffrage and its resulting female voting rights becomes a footnote. Very few would know the names of the men who put forward male sufferage laws in NZ or who put forward female sufferage laws in NZ.
The Ecuadorian government has removed its ambassador to the UK, sparking speculation over Julian Assange’s future at the diplomatic mission there.
The 47-year-old founder of WikiLeaks moved into the Ecuadorian Embassy in central London in 2012 while wanted for questioning over sexual assault allegations in Sweden. Assange maintained his innocence and claimed the charges were nothing more than an attempt to extradite him to the United States.
Yes but where will they go. And perhaps there should be hermitage, sanctuary for whistleblowers who need protecting so they don’t get shot, damaged by acid, sawn up and other grisly outcomes.
he is a grown up, he can get a job, rent a flat, find a supermarket and buy some groceries. And next time he has sex with a women and the deal/agreement/consent is only with a condom, i suggest he wears a condom.
Can’t give a flying poo about this guy, he can go in the wilderness and stay there. The sooner he gets out of the media, real of fake the better. He has spammed the world long enough.
It is a pity that you “Pride Parade” guys and girls, slander the police. You clearly don’t understand the constant Bravery and Service the Police give to the Citizens of New Zealand.
No wonder the significant Businesses of Auckland have withdrawn their support from you – because of your childish attitudes.
Show off and Dance on our streets. Yes. But don’t pretend you are anything like as important as our Police Women and Men. They Lay their Bodies on the line. – Day and Night.
A couple of takeouts from Daniel Andrews’ crushing landslide win for Labor in Victoria.
Voters will overlook any number of missteps in a government if they see that government getting on doing stuff to make their lives better – so knock yourself out National, bang on about Sroubek, Clare Curran, Meka Whaitiri and all the rest of it as much as you like. So long voters think the Coalition is working for them it won’t make any difference.
It’s totally game over for the old Tory trick of promising tax cuts and small government without compromising essential services. Voters have wised up to that bullshit, they know they can’t have both tax cuts and well maintained hospitals, schools and transport and all the other government services. Middlemore Hospital, the WOF debacle, schools maintenance, you name it National is going to get whacked with this.
Infrastructure spending wins votes. Voters in Melbourne, a city bursting at the seams (its population topped 5 milllion earlier this year according to Stats Australia) flocked to Labor on the back of Andrews’ pledge to spend 50 billion dollars on infrastructure and they didn’t much care that some of that money will need to be borrowed.
With crime falling in most western democracies, banging the law and order drum doesn’t work like it used to. Earlier this year Peter Dutton claimed that Victorians were too scared to go out for dinner at night because of gang violence in Melbourne. A ridiculous statement that just seems to have pissed off Melburnians, not least because he’s a Queensland federal MP.
Nathan Guy was pretty unelectable after being sprung doing dodgy deals with developers in his role as the responsible minister when last in power.
Like here they’re getting on with it on an almost gridlocked Melbourne that’s done nowhere near enough on public transport as it zoomed past 5mill a few months ago.
In the days before mass immigration the middle classes of Russian, China, Middle East and India would rise up and overthrow their dictators and demand further rights, nowadays, the middle class support them, get a plane ticket out of those countries to places like NZ and the west and leave the tin pot dictators alone, who then use their money to reduce the welfare and rights of small countries like NZ, influence big countries, whose governments are only too keen to take the cash, the loans, and the cheap labour, decrease then educational standards, and pocket the money for their assets to be bought. Sometimes they are so frightened of being ‘racist’ they give them away for free, aka water rights because the laws have been written for that very purpose. Anyone who doesn’t agree is ‘racist’ apparently.
Likewise the mass displacement of the Middle East and Africa of refugees and economic migrants. Guess what, nobody says stop bombing the shit out of those countries and start spending money on making sure that those countries are habitable with enough food and water and resources to support themselves, that is where the debate should be…
nope straight too, where should these people go and making other countries forces secure the oil lines etc?
The people of earth themselves are between rock and a hard place with so many stupid politicians and political strategists and the world’s media owned by the world’s wealthy and sending the same messages of distraction and neoliberalism to further a short term gain and environmental destruction, massive migration for the privileged or desperate.
None of this will turn out well in the end for any of the countries and most of the people and the flora and fauna, but great if your individual goal in life is to own a super yacht, a sports team, gold curtains and more money and houses and assets than you can live in or even manage, and earn that by legal and illegal theft or manipulation of former public assets and resources.
I was looking at Karl Marx and petite bourgeoisie yesterday and go the quote below. It seems that the middle classes are not action-oriented for better things for all, rather re-action to protect their standard of living and growing privilege.
When i worked in a solicitor’s office dealing with accident claims before ACC, I didn’t notice them trying to get better law that was helpful and kinder to those who had workplace injuries. He wasn’t into changing anything for that reason.
An interesting piece of theory – He [Wilhelm Reich] claimed that the middle classes were a hotbed for political reaction due to their reliance on the patriarchal family (according to Reich, small businesses are often self-exploiting enterprises of families headed by the father, whose morality binds the family together in their somewhat precarious economic position) and the sexual repression that underlies it.[5]‘ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petite_bourgeoisie
It seems to me that feminists were majorly middle class and were agitating for better conditions. But they were thinking of themselves and when the
changes happened that suited them with a with some trickle-down to the poorer, disadvantaged, the pressure for change dropped. Things improved and then change slowed, and the ones who needed most, only got a toe-in I think, not a shoe-in.
Point being that the middle classes have never risen up against squat.
They are who they are because of their obeisance to their betters, their contemptible disregard for their lessors, and their continued prosperity relies entirely on maintaining the status quo.
Oooh you are so hard joe 90. I think I prefer living in the middle classes and perhaps I am not so good about caring and sharing. Thinks – uncomfortable.
Wrong. The middle class are the swing voters in democracy. (Steriotyping) The poor will vote left no matter what’s happening. The rich will vote right no matter what’s happening. The middle class will react to incompetence buy voting for the opposite, or react to voting bribes. The middle class in self preservation reacts to propaganda.
They rise up at every election. They just don’t march in the streets.
Hence democracy fails in that it never addresses the poor or reigns in the rich. The minority becomes oppressed by the majority.
S’cuse the ignorance, but since I don’t follow the machinations of Australian politics, I have to ask, – assuming that the Liberal Party is of the full on soggy shit smeared variety, is the Australian Labor Party much more worth or use than slightly and suspiciously soiled toilet paper ?
The bloke Julian Assange threw into the Washington military dungeon turned out to be a sweet young lady. Chelsea.
I hope Assange controls himself and keeps well away from her, – now that she is a respected USA Citizen.
What with Jules going a bit far with his two Swedish female staff – and Trump famous for his ever ready Pussygrope, Chelsea should take lots of care. Always board the right Boeing – Chelsea
in the meantime, Assange is pulling faces at the Ecuador Embassy and generally being the objectionable upstart that he always is.
Fascinating stuff Observer. This is why i generally keep away from discussing the USA-involved political stuff. It’s a sideshow to keep us from thinking about the serious development stuff we need to concentrate on – the world is a stage, and we need to be actors in our part of it is my certainty. Climate change is changing the scenery.
This is an example of how we can be easily distracted from politics. Start replacing interest in what is happening with entertainment – Punch and Judy anyone? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcE7ppOT_0c
Then on the other hand, can what is being shown in the longer show after the first short excerpt, is from Brighton Beach, UK. indicate an approach that would be right for now for New Brighton beach and pier in Christchurch NZ.
If Brighton, Christchurch could throw a regular event between 1 and 3pm on Saturday afternoons with traditional things like donkey rides, balloons, music, dancing to a youth band, and do it with good publicity for a season, they could boost their economic life.
Try Napier beach now it has a heavy deep ditch 10 meters off the shoreline, that now has developed super sized ‘undertow” of swirling currents that now knock you off your feet and drag you under.
Several have drowned now from this super sized undertow so yes the beaches are changing dramatically now because of increases in current flow and surrounding sea temperature increases we are told.
Here is piece on Christchurch, New Brighton that shows how well they are doing
and mentions the problems. That beach is one of Christchurch’s assets and
I am sure they will adapt and build jobs and businesses for the locals. Pop-ups for cheaper buildings on shaky ground, with limited investment in a changing coastline for instance. If you are there at Christmas – school holidays give them a visit and fly kites if the wind is right and make sandcastles on real sand on the long beach. And I think there is kite-surfing there.
It has a pretty good UPS system with the server and the network endpoints on it. I check it every 4 months and battery replace every year. It will last about 6-8 hours on fresh batteries. 4-6 when I replace them.
I’m in central Auckland which has been somewhat refurbished power-wise after they blacked or browned me and everyone else out periodically for 3 months in 1998 in a stunning display of the efficiency of greed and deregulation 🙂
Wouldn’t mind some largeish Li-ion or Li-iron. But they need very good control systems – especially in my living room 🙂 I work with large Li-ion in large quantities, so I can tell you that I don’t to see that kind of failure here.
Currently the prices are formidable, but coming down. But in the meantime sealed lead-acid is good enough and cheap enough to keep the site running.
From a farm pov this is a notable problem that shows up the city as polluter.
But we are talking here about people pollution, not farm animals. It is obvious that many NZ dairy farms are overstocked and ignoring good husbandry of their animals and their effluent. First step is to control runoff, limit irrigation, and destock numbers.
Similarly with people. The farm-business big-export, big-profit phalanx want to overstock NZ with people who either bring in investment money or are charged for working here at minimal wages. We now have too many people in pockets of concentration, for the modern facilities provided to keep the place healthy and attractive. If you want to reduce city pollution complain to the decision-making people suffering from the hungry tapeworm called super-wealth.
(There appears to be a serious outbreak of some disease which may be parasitic tapeworms – Ingesting the eggs leads to tapeworm larvae growing in many different human tissues, particularly brain and muscle. https://www.verywellhealth.com/parasitic-infections-of-the-central-nervous-system-2488670)
This would explain why we see such little brain power indicated in poor planning and decision making in the country, and the lack of physical activity driving many of these debilitated people to sit all day playing around with computer models which are supposed to mirror real life, but actually are pale imitations.
You started me off bwaghorn – the above guff is your fault!
Scientists are proposing an ingenious but as-yet-unproven way to tackle climate change: spraying sun-dimming chemicals into the Earth’s atmosphere.
The research by scientists at Harvard and Yale universities, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, proposes using a technique known as stratospheric aerosol injection, which they say could cut the rate of global warming in half.
The technique would involve spraying large amounts of sulfate particles into the Earth’s lower stratosphere at altitudes as high as 12 miles. The scientists propose delivering the sulfates with specially designed high-altitude aircraft, balloons or large naval-style guns.
From the Exec summary of this months O3/wmo report.
Intentional long-term geoengineering applications that substantially increase stratospheric aerosols to mitigate global warming by reflecting sunlight would alter the stratospheric ozone layer. The estimated magnitude and even the sign of ozone changes in some regions are uncertain because of the high sensitivity
to variables such as the amount, altitude, geographic location, type of injection and the halogen loading. An increase of the stratospheric sulfate aerosol burden in amounts sufficient to substantially reduce global radiative forcing would delay the recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole. Much less is known about the effects on
ozone from geoengineering solutions using non-sulfate aerosols.
Science proceeds via experiment. Trial & error. Atmosphere experimentation: if it doesn’t work, just throw it away & get another one. Normal scientific method, as performed by normal scientists.
The Archdruid is usually good on the big picture, and the past year or two he’s been on about faustian culture. Google it gets you this:
“Faustian culture is driven to reach as far as it can in all directions, almost as a virtue in itself. It sees itself as built atop all previous cultures. It dreams of global dominance, and has many senses achieved that but it is unsatisfied. The climb of perpetual progress is an important story to the Faustian man.”
“Faustian Culture began in Western Europe around the 10th century and according to Spengler such has been its expansionary power that by the 20th century it was covering the entire earth, with only a few regions where Islam provides an alternative world view.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decline_of_the_West
Alerts us to why China’s dictator is in rebel mode, eh? Too negligible to even rate a mention. “The use of the word ‘Faustian’ when describing the Western culture Spengler explained by pointing out a parallel between the tragic figure of Faust and the Western world. Just as Faust sold his soul to the devil to gain greater power, the Western man sold his soul to technics.” https://faustianeurope.wordpress.com/2007/07/…/oswald-spengler-and-faustian-cultur…
So there you have it. Techne – modern equivalent of magic – driven toward global transformation by the Promethean power drive in our collective unconscious. Don’t assume atmosphere experiments are merely scientific hubris!
Nothing obvious in the way of a substantial advance since I read up on it around seven years ago. Usage would snowball noticeably if the successes cited were generally replicable. The economic rewards would compel that.
One. Two
You know it all you smart arse. Well get off your bottom and go and fix it, whatever, instead of hanging round here trying to prevent us getting to know about some of the things your great mind has already absorbed. I am just so sick of you lazy geniuses, all talk and no commitment to useful action for the good of humankind.
You have no idea what I do or who I am, GW…so dial it a little bit eh…
If you think my pointing out that J90 was posting rehashed articles, which he has admitted to not actually reading before linking 20.4…then you’re barking up the wrong tree…
On you can be in your own way..same applies to every one of us…
which he has admitted to not actually reading before linking 20.4
Arse. After reading the abstract of the paper referred to in the CNN article I posted, I noted that the CNN article erroneously inferred that the paper was an actual proposal.
So again, do fuck off you supercilious sack of shit, and take your disingenuous drivel with you.
I have every idea what you do on this blog One Two. And what line you take usually – negative. Seeing that the world is in crisis perhaps you could start looking for better ways to aid your fellow humans instead of slagging us off.
By the way this site doesn’t profess to have the latest scientific things, and if you find there is something better, put up the link. Say this might be more up to date don’t criticise us as your first move.
Refer to what is important yourself instead.
Your style as here is not acceptable to me as a serious person worrying about the known problems not being tackled and the unknown ones that are looming.
‘Dimming The Sun’
Article title, that you linked Joe…
The ‘clue’ is in the title of the respective articles which are the ‘same subject’…
If you can’t ‘see’ the relationship…well…I would not be surprised if you’re not reading or understanding what you post about…
And after a quick squiz at the abstract, and despite my own flippancy, it looks like CNN clickbait.
The author’s read it as an actual proposal rather than what it is, a pie in the sky assessment.
Abstract
We review the capabilities and costs of various lofting methods intended to deliver sulfates into the lower stratosphere. We lay out a future solar geoengineering deployment scenario of halving the increase in anthropogenic radiative forcing beginning 15 years hence, by deploying material to altitudes as high as ~20 km. After surveying an exhaustive list of potential deployment techniques, we settle upon an aircraft-based delivery system. Unlike the one prior comprehensive study on the topic (McClellan et al 2012 Environ. Res. Lett. 7 034019), we conclude that no existing aircraft design—even with extensive modifications—can reasonably fulfill this mission. However, we also conclude that developing a new, purpose-built high-altitude tanker with substantial payload capabilities would neither be technologically difficult nor prohibitively expensive. We calculate early-year costs of ~$1500 ton−1 of material deployed, resulting in average costs of ~$2.25 billion yr−1 over the first 15 years of deployment. We further calculate the number of flights at ~4000 in year one, linearly increasing by ~4000 yr−1. We conclude by arguing that, while cheap, such an aircraft-based program would unlikely be a secret, given the need for thousands of flights annually by airliner-sized aircraft operating from an international array of bases.
I find your post fascinating Joe. It leads me to wonder what other ways we could turn the sun’s energy back on itself.
We all know how something painted black sucks up heat and something white has a greater tendency to reflect the heat and light.
One of the problems with diminishing snow and ice is that we’re not bouncing as much light and heat back up.
What if every sun struck man made item was white or mirrored? Cars, building roofs, supermarket carparks. Could pasture be genetically modified to be white?
Could we float a bio product on oceans that reflects more light than salt water?
The subject of albedo (reflectivity) is certainly a complex aspect of global warming.
In short, making the artificial surfaces you have control over white (or light green) actually does do quite a bit to reduce warming. To the point I was absolutely astonished when I found out Auckland Council required dark roofs on new construction in at least one semi-rural area.
Grassland is also quite a lot more reflective than forest. Most deserts are more reflective than grassland. In total, the increase in the earth’s reflectivity from land-use changes from human activity counteracts maybe 5% of the global warming from the greenhouse gases we’ve dumped into the atmosphere.
But the big albedo variable that’s still poorly understood is clouds. It’s for sure that a warmer world means more moisture in the atmosphere, which means more clouds, which you would think would reflect more sunlight. But it turns out to be a lot more complicated than that, since they also reflect heat radiated from the earth back down to ground (think how much warmer mornings are after a cloudy night than a clear night). The net effect apparently depends on how high and how thick the clouds are (among other variables).
Latent heat is the energy absorbed by or released from a substance during a phase change from a gas to a liquid or a solid or vice versa. … When these gas molecules condense into liquid drops, latent heat is released into the atmosphere which warms the air surrounding the molecule.
Yeah, that’s part of the complexity of clouds’ net effect on warming. I vaguely recall reading something that came to the conclusion that the height at which the latent heat was released or absorbed was fairly significant from a warming perspective, and that the water-ice transition was still quite important even though the latent heat of fusion is around 1/6 that of evaporation for water.
This is useful information to householders and landscapers too. Different plants have different levels of reflection. Part of reflection is heat energy.
Dark trees absorb more light and heat. Lighter trees reflect more light and heat. Nature does ambient lighting, you just need to be aware what you’re looking at.
Could we float rafts that create shadows and havens for fish and bird life on seas near coastlines. Perhaps over the Australian reefs, and where fisher people live so they can continue their ‘peasant’ fishing culture and diet.
We could float rafts that provide habitat, shelter, and double as phosphate collectors and even oceanic monitoring stations.
In freshwater we could float rafts that grow rampant plants as stock food, meanwhile stripping excess nutrients from water, providing habitat and shade, and with some cunning design, aeration to the surrounding water.
I was knocking up these designs for some NZ lakes when they were deemed to be complete shit holes decades ago. But the policy then was to pretend they weren’t shit holes.
Some such rafts are already in operation here in NZ. They work successfully, but many of our degraded lakes are big. Estuaries are the focus now – the penultimate receiving bodies of all that goes on and in further up the catchment. Silt and nutrient are the big issues, eutrophication the symptom of human carelessness. Unless big tides clear clogged estuaries, there’s not a lot else that can be done; all ideas gratefully received. (Rafts of plants are challenged by brackish waters). Giant sludge-sucking pumps are great science fiction.
I think really people need to realize that changes are coming and it does not matter what they burn down in anger.
France has a good public transport system at least in the larger areas and conecting to rural areas of importance.
But there are things to be done, i .e. community cars. Rather then have two / three cars per family, have community cars that are owned by a trust, that are maintained by membership contribution and that people can book in for when they need a car. Take me, i don’t actually need a car, – the little car that i got from my partner when his company gave him a car has served my inlaws when they lost their cars in the big floods a few years ago, then it was driven by the son in law when his car died and he could not afford one, then it was driven by a young lady with three kids who needed a car but could not afford one outright, so she the little old one until she had enough saved up to buy one herself. I haven not missed this car in a year and a half.
We – the people – need to come of our sofas and realise that the gravy years are over. We either want this planet to sustain us, or we can drive in an SUV to hell without a return ticket.
As for the conomic system being upset, it already is.
I like it when Shakespeare peers over our shoulders – thanks for reminding me!
I am a dullard compared to you writers … but yes – Iwanka taking her laptop home tof fiddle with Trumpian Profundities is very Innocent. Says Daddy.
How Lprent rides the WiFI Surf day in day out- I shall never know. But I admire his alertness and patience.
The Brighton Wharf is long – if i remember correctly. It could be Colourful if we allowed Judith Collins to invite her and her Beijing Comrades to bring the dragons and Balloons down there of a weekend.
China V Canterbury – attacking each other with high diving Kites.
Looks like someone has the stones to reel in the data crims.
The UK Parliament invoked a rarely used legal power to compel a US software company to hand over internal Facebook documents that could contain revelations on the run-up to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Damian Collins, MP and chair of the culture, media and sport select committee used a rare parliamentary mechanism to compel the founder of Six4Three to hand over the documents while on a business trip, local media reported on Saturday.
A serjeant was sent to his hotel to issue a final call and communicate a two-hour deadline to comply with the order. British daily The Guardian reported that when the firm founder failed to comply, he was escorted to parliament. Not complying with the request could have led to fines and even imprisonment.
The cache of documents is alleged to include email exchange between senior executives, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckenberg.
“We are in uncharted territory,” Mr Collins, who also chairs an inquiry into fake news, told local media. “This is an unprecedented move but it’s an unprecedented situation. We’ve failed to get answers from Facebook and we believe the documents contain information of very high public interest.”
Peter Calder went to check it out: “the Islamic Republic of Iran – is a hypermoralist theocracy in which pornography, prostitution, alcohol, drugs, YouTube, Facebook, and much else besides, is banned, on pain of imprisonment, and corporal or even capital punishment. Yet the population accesses all of them with a quietly exuberant abandon. Defiance, indeed, is the currency of daily life.”
“As the PBS show Frontline reported, Iran is the only state in which the executive branch does not control the armed forces.” “The hijab – a head-covering scarf – remains obligatory, even for tourist women. Meanwhile, the basij, a volunteer auxiliary corps of young men recognisable by their neatly trimmed beards and black clothing, enforce internal security, police morals (they question couples walking together to establish the legitimacy of their relationship) and suppress dissidents and protest gatherings.”
So you can see why some leftists onsite here support Iran in its opposition to Saudi Arabia, eh? That’d be because Trump doesn’t like the Iranian regime. Having to choose between a conservative narcissist and a totalitarian regime, they understandably prefer the latter.
“The exchange rate of the Iranian rial is soaring: the US dollar, worth IRR43,000 in international markets, was fetching 120,000 in early September and 140,000 by the end of the month. A grim joke doing the rounds asked what the dollar is worth. “Do you mean now, now or now?” was the punchline answer. Not since I was in Argentina in the 1970s have I experienced an exchange rate so grotesquely advantaging the visitor as it hammered the locals.”
Iran and Saudi Arabia drive their people to hate each other, and they are about as oppressive as each other. They aren’t the only two choices available.
European Council President Donald Tusk has recommended that the EU approve the Brexit deal at a summit on Sunday.
It comes after Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez received assurances from the UK government over Gibraltar, and dropped his threat to boycott the summit.
He said he had received the written guarantees he needed over Spain’s role in the future of the British territory.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has arrived in Brussels and held talks with top EU officials, ahead of the summit.
The terms of the UK’s withdrawal have been under negotiation since June 2016 following a referendum in which 51.9% voted to leave the EU.
Even if the EU approves the deal, it still has to be passed by the UK Parliament, with many MPs having stated their opposition.
Spain had raised last-minute objections ahead of the summit about how the issue of Gibraltar had been handled in the Brexit talks so far.
But EU leaders secured a compromise with the Spanish prime minister, who said that Europe and the UK “had accepted the conditions set down by Spain” and so would “vote in favour of Brexit”.
Mr Tusk, who represents EU leaders on the world stage, said he recommended “that we approve on Sunday the outcome of the Brexit negotiations” in a letter to members of the European Council.
He added: “No-one has reasons to be happy. But at least at this critical time, the EU 27 has passed the test of unity and solidarity.”
The political declaration, which sets out what the UK and EU’s relationship may be like after Brexit – outlining how things like UK-EU trade and security will work.
The EU withdrawal agreement: a 585-page, legally binding document setting out the terms of the UK’s exit from the EU. It covers the UK’s £39bn “divorce bill”, citizens’ rights and the Northern Ireland “backstop” – a way to keep the border with the Republic of Ireland open, if trade talks stall.
There is no formal vote on Sunday but the EU expects to proceed after reaching a consensus.
Dumb as I am, may I ask what good Merry England is going to do by snubbing its snotty nose at the accomplished EU. ?
We all know that Brits think themselves the bees knees and have the answer to everything under the Sun. But I have a feeling that the Boris Johnsons – and the Farrages will do well and the glory tories- but the rest of the UK will be living off sweet nothing.
Scotland and Ireland will do well. Because they are not stupid like the grumbling Brits. Hopefully the Welsh will ditch the mad Poms too.
Observer Tokoroa; – Ouch! – I married a pom 42 years ago and she’s been o/k.
I good mate I reckon, am I lucky?
I find that the EU was to hard on Greece and they are dictatorial after they allowed Greece borrow so much private funding to develop there infrastructure and went bust on foreign capital .
we are similarly exposed like Greece too.
Actually we still don’t know who we have borrowed $60 Billion from do we?
Goldman Sachs was the agent that Greece used and they are a shifty lot too.
I worry when the next GFC comes around what will happen to all those ‘cling-ons” new smaller states to the EU.
Some are very shaky, especially the eastern side of Europe, like Hungary and Romania and some others.
Actually, in NZ we are in a much more secure situation than Greece. The problem for Greece is that it uses a ‘foreign’ currency in the Euro and must therefore stay on good terms with the ECB and other European institutions. Unfortunately for Greece good terms means agreeing to aggressive Austerity demands and other economic ‘reforms’. Despite IMF forecasts for a quick recovery these reforms caused a 25% shrinkage in the Greek economy and 20% unemployment rate and will negatively influence the Greek economy for more than a decade.
In return for this (and probably against the letter of the ECB legislation) the ECB has been supporting the Greek government by maintaining a lowish interest rate on Greek government debt and allowing them not to default. The ECB is also doing this for other Euro countries.
In NZ however our parliament ultimately controls our central bank (which can do the same kinds of things as the ECB does) and so if push comes to shove NZ will never experience such problems of being bullied economically by higher level institutions. The UK is similar to NZ in that it also controls its Bank of England meaning the exchequer ultimately calls the shots for the UK. Not that this prevents self inflicted economic pain, as George Osborne caused when he (predictably, it was predicted) turned a single dip recession into a triple dip recession through mindless austerity policies. However I think the conservatives soon realized that running the economy into the ground with ideologically driven Austerity policies was going to be bad for their chances of re-election. At that point they kept talking up all the austerity they were doing, but basically stopped doing it.
Ultimately the important question seems to be if this stuff is controlled by elected representatives or if the elected representatives have to answer to un-elected institutions.
Amazon’s Alexa probably won’t admit there was a murder in her home, but the data she stores on the company’s servers might tell a different story.
An Amazon Echo, the device that houses the company’s Alexa AI, in the kitchen of a Farmington, N.H., home is at the heart of a double murder trial. Earlier this month, a judge ordered partial records of that device be released.
Prosecutors believe there may be recordings of the stabbings of two women from January 2017. Amazon has not yet said if it would release the information.
“I think this is the beginning of the ‘internet of evidence’ where lots of pieces of smart devices are going to show up in criminal prosecutions,” Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, author of The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement, told Day 6.
Kia ora The Am Show the jail term for dairy dack is just a political stunt by national there is no thought about what is good for people just what floats there toilet polls.
Last year all the retailers were advertising chrismas a the start of October this year they have not even started. Just like the work being done on the inter Island power cables being carried out at the start of summer instead of a few months earlier when the Hydro lakes are full. ?????????.
My Huawei phone got the signal fine I was not going to com on this subject till I heard Azzes make his statement .
simon your m8 has moved to Bali .
So long as the new Australian Governments combat climate change that’s the big picture Jason I will be doing a post on what the dozens of ex judges are calling for in Australia anti white collar corruption force nearly all the carbon lobbyist are ex mps a big conflicted of interest there hence all the problem in the Australian governments lobbyist should be banned all around the world .
The santa issue is just some man grandstanding the topic of Equality and everyone has fallen for the neo anti Equality mens tricks.
Who wrote those word for you Mark Communism is just a word nowadays used to trash socialism whats so wrong with the wealthy shearing there billions of lollies with common poor people so they get a house and not a bridge he tangata he tangata.
Yes we need a cabon tax and use the tax to of set the price of clean energy like Norway . Its cool that we have a lot of people buying electric cars in Aotearoa now.
I agree its stupid not rolling out a electric Car subsidy when we import most of our oil come on . Ka kite ano
This is a Wahine whos actions speak as loud as her word and a Mana Wahine I will tau toko her ka pai
Sweden’s then deputy prime minister remained enigmatic as the picture went viral and she was asked whether she had been “trolling” the US president. “It is up to the observer to interpret the photo,” she was quoted as saying. “We are a feminist government, which shows in this photo.”
Lövin is one of the leading figures in what she says is a resurgence in environmentally conscious politics across the continent. “There is a green wave going on in Europe, in Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium, and in Finland as well,” she says. “I’m convinced that green parties offer a positive vision, and also the willingness to take on the huge challenges that we see in the world right now.” Ka kite ano link below.
Dozens of former judges urge Scott Morrison to set up anti-corruption watchdog
Arguing that existing federal integrity agencies “lack the necessary jurisdiction, powers and know-how to investigate properly the impartiality and bona fides of decisions made by, and conduct of, the federal government and public sector” .
Greed drive the carbon barons to propagandize lie and cheat so they can keep poisoning our Grandchildren’s future with carbon. link below.
The Nationals’ WA branch similarly failed to respond when asked why it failed to declare the $20,000 donation from Mineral Resources.
The iron ore miner confirmed it had given a $20,000 bank cheque to the Nationals in March last year, around the time of the state election. But a spokesman said the company made donations to all sides, not just the Nationals. Its donations to Labor and the Liberals were declared properly.
More than half of all Australian lobbyists previously worked inside government or for the major political parties, with one in four staffing the offices of ministers, parliamentary secretaries or backbenchers.
Guardian Australia has investigated the backgrounds of all 483 individuals listed on July’s federal lobbyist register, checking each for a history in federal or state government, either as politicians, political staffers, party officials or public servants.
Australia’s lax lobbying regime the domain of party powerbrokers
Read more
The analysis, believed to be the first of its kind, reveals 255 lobbyists, or 52.8%, have a previous history within government or political party hierarchies.
It also revealed one in four lobbyists have worked as staffers – policy advisers, chiefs of staff, or electorate or media officers – to Australian politicians. Ka kite ano link below.
Kia ora Newshub Its cool that the District Health is upping the wages of there low paid workers .
Lloyd nice scarf .
Changing the WOF to 12 months was a fool of a move we don’t have nice flat straight 2 lane roads like they do overseas hence 6 monthly WOF .
Well thats shocking all these surgical devices being sold to Kiwis and they have not been tested wtf the people who make these thing are playing Russian roulette with Kiwi lives .
trump will be a bigger fool if he lets the ICE shoot those refugees at there Mexico boarder .
Ollie Ka pai to Scott for his win on the Super Car .
Ka kite ano
Kia ora The Crowd Goes Wild congrats to Mikayla and Brodie for there prizes .
Storm that was a good win for Scott.
Yes you cant do that to the Ranfurly Shield .
I liked his acting as Muhammad Ali Will that is that’s a cool movie they don’t make em like they use to.
Jen Hackman is a cool actor.
I say a golf game between Barak and trump would be cool
Good win King .
Ka kite ano Some countrys don’t no how to be good host guys
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
Data released today by Statistics NZ shows that unemployment rose to 5.1%, with 33,000 more people out of work than last year said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney. “The latest data shows that employment fell in Aotearoa at its fastest rate since the GFC. Unemployment rose in 8 ...
The December labour market statistics have been released, showing yet another increase in unemployment. There are now 156,000 unemployed - 34,000 more than when National took office. And having thrown all these people out of work, National is doubling down on cruelty. Because being vicious will somehow magically create the ...
Boarded up homes in Kilbirnie, where work on a planned development was halted. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 5 are;Housing Minister Chris Bishop yesterday announcedKāinga Ora would be stripped of ...
This week Kiwirail and Auckland Transport were celebrating the completion of the summer rail works that had the network shut or for over a month and the start of electric trains to Pukekohe. First up, here’s parts of the press release about the shutdown works. Passengers boarding trains in Auckland ...
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder and harder on the people thrown out of work by its own policies. To that end, Social Development Minister Louise Upston this week added two ...
This year, we've seen a radical, white supremacist government ignoring its Tiriti obligations, refusing to consult with Māori, and even trying to legislatively abrogate te Tiriti o Waitangi. When it was criticised by the Waitangi Tribunal, the government sabotaged that body, replacing its legal and historical experts with corporate shills, ...
Poor old democracy, it really is in a sorry state. It would be easy to put all the blame on the vandals and tyrants presently trashing the White House, but this has been years in the making. It begins with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and the spirit of Gordon ...
The new school lunches came in this week, and they were absolutely scrumptious.I had some, and even though Connor said his tasted like “stodge” and gave him a sore tummy, I myself loved it!Look at the photos - I knew Mr Seymour wouldn’t lie when he told us last year:"It ...
The tighter sanctions are modelled on ones used in Britain, which did push people off ‘the dole’, but didn’t increase the number of workers, and which evidence has repeatedly shown don’t work. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, ...
Catching you up on the morning’s global news and a quick look at the parallels -GLOBALTariffs are backSharemarkets in the US, UK and Europe have “plunged” in response to Trump’s tariffs. And while Mexico has won a one month reprieve, Canada and China will see their respective 25% and 10% ...
This post by Nicolas Reid was originally published on Linked in. It is republished here with permission. Gondolas are often in the news, with manufacturers of ropeway systems proposing them as a modern option for mass transit systems in New Zealand. However, like every next big thing in transport, it’s hard ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkBoth 2023 and 2024 were exceptionally warm years, at just below and above 1.5C relative to preindustrial in the WMO composite of surface temperature records, respectively. While we are still working to assess the full set of drivers of this warmth, it is clear that ...
Hi,I woke up feeling nervous this morning, realising that this weekend Flightless Bird is going to do it’s first ever live show. We’re heading to a sold out (!) show in Seattle to test the format out in front of an audience. If it works, we’ll do more. I want ...
From the United-For-Now States of America comes the thrilling news that a New Zealander may be at the very heart of the current coup. Punching above our weight on the world stage once more! Wait, you may be asking, what New Zealander? I speak of Peter Thiel, made street legal ...
Even Stevens: Over the 33 years between 1990 and 2023 (and allowing for the aberrant 2020 result) the average level of support enjoyed by the Left and Right blocs, at roughly 44.5 percent each, turns out to be, as near as dammit, identical.WORLDWIDE, THE PARTIES of the Left are presented ...
Back in 2023, a "prominent political figure" went on trial for historic sex offences. But we weren't allowed to know who they were or what political party they were "prominent" in, because it might affect the way we voted. At the time, I said that this was untenable; it was ...
I'm going, I'm goingWhere the water tastes like wineI'm going where the water tastes like wineWe can jump in the waterStay drunk all the timeI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayI'm gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure ...
Waitangi Day is a time to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and stand together for a just and fair Aotearoa. Across the motu, communities are gathering to reflect, kōrero, and take action for a future built on equity and tino rangatiratanga. From dawn ceremonies to whānau-friendly events, there are ...
Subscribe to Mountain Tūī ! Where you too can learn about exciting things from a flying bird! Tweet.Yes - I absolutely suck at marketing. It’s a fact.But first -My question to all readers is:How should I set up the Substack model?It’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask since November ...
Here’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s political economy on politics and in the week to Feb 3:PM Christopher Luxon began 2025’s first day of Parliament last Tuesday by carrying on where left off in 2024, letting National’s junior coalition partner set the political agenda and dragging ...
The PSA have released a survey of 4000 public service workers showing that budget cuts are taking a toll on the wellbeing of public servants and risking the delivery of essential services to New Zealanders. Economists predict that figures released this week will show continued increases in unemployment, potentially reaching ...
The Prime Minister’s speech 10 days or so ago kicked off a flurry of commentary. No one much anywhere near the mainstream (ie excluding Greens supporters) questioned the rhetoric. New Zealand has done woefully poorly on productivity for a long time and we really need better outcomes, and the sorts ...
President Trump on the day he announced tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China, unleashing a shock to supply chains globally that is expected to slow economic growth and increase inflation for most large economies. Photo: Getty ImagesLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 9 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 3Politics: New Zealand Government cabinet meeting usually held early afternoon with post-cabinet news conference possible at 4 pm, although they have not been ...
Trump being Trump, it won’t come as a shock to find that he regards a strong US currency (bolstered by high tariffs on everything made by foreigners) as a sign of America’s virility, and its ability to kick sand in the face of the world. Reality is a tad more ...
A listing of 24 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 26, 2025 thru Sat, February 1, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
What seems to be the common theme in the US, NZ, Argentina and places like Italy under their respective rightwing governments is what I think of as “the politics of cruelty.” Hate-mongering, callous indifference in social policy-making, corporate toadying, political bullying, intimidation and punching down on the most vulnerable with ...
If you are confused, check with the sunCarry a compass to help you alongYour feet are going to be on the groundYour head is there to move you aroundSo, stand in the place where you liveSongwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck.Hot in the CityYesterday, ...
Shane Jones announced today he would be contracting out his thinking to a smarter younger person.Reclining on his chaise longue with a mouth full of oysters and Kina he told reporters:Clearly I have become a has-been, a palimpsest, an epigone, a bloviating fossil. I find myself saying such things as: ...
Warning: This post contains references to sexual assaultOn Saturday, I spent far too long editing a video on Tim Jago, the ACT Party President and criminal, who has given up his fight for name suppression after 2 years. He voluntarily gave up just in time for what will be a ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is global warming ...
Our low-investment, low-wage, migration-led and housing-market-driven political economy has delivered poorer productivity growth than the rest of the OECD, and our performance since Covid has been particularly poor. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty this ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.As far as major government announcements go, a Three Ministers Event is Big. It can signify a major policy development or something has gone Very Well, or an absolute Clusterf**k. When Three Ministers assemble ...
One of those blasts from the past. Peter Dunne – originally neoliberal Labour, then leader of various parties that sought to work with both big parties (generally National) – has taken to calling ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s move to increase speed limits substantially on dozens of stretches of rural and often undivided highways will result in more serious harm. ...
In her first announcement as Economic Growth Minister, Nicola Willis chose to loosen restrictions for digital nomads from other countries, rather than focus on everyday Kiwis. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
A new monthly podiatry clinic has been launched today in Wairoa and will bring a much-needed service closer to home for the Wairoa community, Health Minister Simeon Brown says.“Health New Zealand has been successful in securing a podiatrist until the end of June this year to meet the needs of ...
The Judicial Conduct Commissioner has recommended a Judicial Conduct Panel be established to inquire into and report on the alleged conduct of acting District Court Judge Ema Aitken in an incident last November, Attorney-General Judith Collins said today. “I referred the matter of Judge Aitken’s alleged conduct during an incident ...
Students who need extra help with maths are set to benefit from a targeted acceleration programme that will give them more confidence in the classroom, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Last year, significant numbers of students did not meet the foundational literacy and numeracy level required to gain NCEA. To ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced three new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ...
Ki te kahore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te Iwi – without a vision, the people will perish. The Government has achieved its target to reduce the number of households in emergency housing motels by 75 per cent five years early, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The number of households ...
The opening of Palmerston North’s biggest social housing development will have a significant impact for whānau in need of safe, warm, dry housing, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. The minister visited the development today at North Street where a total of 50 two, three, and four-bedroom homes plus a ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced the new membership of the Public Advisory Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control (PACDAC), who will serve for a three-year term. “The Committee brings together wide-ranging expertise relevant to disarmament. We have made six new appointments to the Committee and reappointed two existing members ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora, good morning, talofa, malo e lelei, bula vinaka, da jia hao, namaste, sat sri akal, assalamu alaikum. It’s so great to be here and I’m ready and pumped for 2025. Can I start by acknowledging: Simon Bridges – CEO of the Auckland ...
The Government has unveiled a bold new initiative to position New Zealand as a premier destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) that will create higher paying jobs and grow the economy. “Invest New Zealand will streamline the investment process and provide tailored support to foreign investors, to increase capital investment ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins today announced the largest reset of the New Zealand science system in more than 30 years with reforms which will boost the economy and benefit the sector. “The reforms will maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into ...
Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead for all Kiwis, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. In the Prime Minister’s State of the Nation Speech in Auckland today, Christopher Luxon laid out the path to the prosperity that will affect all aspects of New Zealanders’ lives. ...
The latest set of accounts show the Government has successfully checked the runaway growth of public spending, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. “In the previous government’s final five months in office, public spending was almost 10 per cent higher than for the same period the previous year. “That is completely ...
The Government’s welfare reforms are delivering results with the number of people moving off benefits into work increasing year-on-year for six straight months. “There are positive signs that our welfare reset and the return consequences for job seekers who don't fulfil their obligations to prepare for or find a job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra US President Donald Trump has agreed to “consider” exempting Australia from the 25% tariff he has imposed on imports of steel and aluminium to the US. Trump gave the undertaking during a wide-ranging 40-minute ...
Pacific Media Watch Israeli police have confiscated hundreds of books with Palestinian titles or flags without understanding their contents in a draconian raid on a Palestinian educational bookshop in occupied East Jerusalem, say eyewitnesses. More details have emerged on the Israeli police raid on a popular bookstore in occupied East ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist China and the Cook Islands’ relationship “should not be disrupted or restrained by any third party”, says Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, as opposition leaders in Rarotonga express a loss of confidence in Prime Minister Mark Brown. In response to questions from the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Ogden, Associate Professor in Global Studies, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Donald Trump is moving rapidly to change the contours of contemporary international affairs, with the old US-dominated world order breaking down into a multipolar one with many centres of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ronnie Das, Associate Professor in Data Analytics, The University of Western Australia In the recent Border-Gavaskar series against India, Steve Smith agonisingly missed out reaching 10,000 Test runs in front of his home crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground, falling short by ...
In a brand new documentary series for The Spinoff, comedians and best friends Brynley Stent and Kura Forrester embark on a cross-country quest to find love. Bryn & Ku’s Singles Club is a brand new documentary series for The Spinoff following award-winning comedians and friends Brynley Stent and ...
🚐 Bryn and Ku pack their bags and swap the bleak dating scene of Tāmaki Makaurau for some meet and mingle events in Ōtautahi that will take them out of their comfort zone. ❣️ Bryn & Ku’s Singles Club follows comedians Brynley Stent and Kura Forrester as they head out ...
"The relationship between China and the Cook Islands does not target any third party," the Chinese Foreign Ministry says, as opposition leaders in Rarotonga plan protest. ...
From tradwives to ‘petite blonde’ preferences, this season feels like a throwback for all the wrong reasons, writes Alex Casey. First of all: I know. Complaining about bad stuff on Married at First Sight Australia is like complaining that water is wet. But I’ve been bobbing around in these waters ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a public servant who’s ‘trying to get better’ explains her approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female. Age: 24. Ethnicity: Pākehā and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zena Assaad, Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering, Australian National University Ziv Lavi/Shutterstock Last week, Google quietly abandoned a long-standing commitment to not use artificial intelligence (AI) technology in weapons or surveillance. In an update to its AI principles, which were first ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brenainn Simpson, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Florian Nimsdorf / Shutterstock About 400 kilometres northwest of Sydney, just south of Dubbo, lies a large and interesting body of rock formed around 215 million years ago by erupting volcanoes. Known as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mareike Riedel, Senior lecturer in law, Macquarie University The dramatic rise in antisemitic incidents has dominated headlines in Australia in recent months, with calls for urgent action to address what many are calling a crisis. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane McAdam, Scientia Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Sydney For a long time, it seemed refugee law had little relevance to people fleeing the impacts of climate change and disasters. Nearly 30 years ago, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maggie Kirkman, Senior Research Fellow, Global and Women’s Health, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock You’ve heard of the gender pay gap. What about the gap in medical care? Cardiovascular diseases – which can lead to heart ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Iain White, Professor of Environmental Planning, University of Waikato Getty Images Urban planning has a long history of promoting visionary ideas that advocate for particular futures. The most recent is the concept of the 15-minute city, which has gained traction globally. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew King, Associate Professor in Climate Science, ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, The University of Melbourne Earth is crossing the threshold of 1.5°C of global warming, according to two major global studies which together suggest the planet’s climate has ...
As support for the coalition dips, the PM and his soon-to-be-deputy have engaged in a public war of words. Stewart Sowman-Lund has the details in today’s edition of The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Support slips If there was ever a political honeymoon, or ...
Failure by successive governments has left the South Island’s freshwater in a near disastrous state, the High Court has been told, in a case that could force the Crown to jointly manage water bodies with Ngāi Tahu.Individual Ngāi Tahu leaders, and the collective group Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, are ...
Nearing the end of his career, the world’s greatest unicycle racer chases the sport’s most elusive record. There’s something different about world-class athletes. Even if you know nothing about their sport, you can see it. It’s the way they move – precise, powerful. It’s how they carry themselves – focused, ...
Migrants with money are the focus of new visa settings that the government hopes will boost the economy. Alice Neville explains.What’s all this then? On Sunday, as part of the government’s big plan to kickstart economic growth, changes were announced to the Active Investor Plus visa category, with the ...
We’re on the brink of a ‘tidal wave’ of misinformation.No one knows the size of it, but there’s a warning that leaving it to the government to sort out won’t work.In the year of local government elections, expect computer-generated content where the sources and authenticity are murky; more complaints about ...
Comment: The next four years are going to bring a terrible information environment, with absurd claims bubbling up from fever swamps overseas The post Paranoia and politics appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Swirly World Sails South, by Andrew Fagan (2012)I feel Andrew is totally under-rated as an author. Alongside his latest book, Swirly World: Lost at Sea, his earlier sailing book is among my favourites. It tells of his trip around New Zealand – via the Auckland Islands. When he set out, ...
A lineup of prominent figures have joined the call to halt the deportation of a mother convicted of inflicting injuries on her baby, as fears grow she could be another victim of a ...
Comment: Saturday February 1 was the grim fourth anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar. The date seems to have gone unnoticed back here in New Zealand. Even before war in Ukraine and then Gaza, Myanmar got little attention. Yet it is the most destructive conflict in our region. The ...
Yasser Abdulaal, who has lived in Ōtautahi Christchurch for five years, said his two sisters had lost their homes in the 15-month-long war. “Toxic wasteland” . . . Palestinians take shelter in tents set up amid heavily damaged buildings in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. Image: Al Jazeera screenshot ...
RNZ PacificMarshall Islands Journal editor Giff Johnson says US President Donald Trump’s decision on aid “is an opening for anybody else who wants to fill the gap” in the Pacific. Trump froze all USAID for 90 days on his first day in office and is now looking to significantly ...
RNZ at 7am news said that the ‘All blacks beat Italy with 10 tries today’
Yawn.
Glad I didn’t pay to watch it.
Just a walk in the park as Italy is not a rugby country but a rabid soccer loving country stacked full of fans.
We can’t feel good about beating Italy in rugby here. Hollow victory we got only.
disagree there cleangreen.
it was a fairly scrappy affair in the first half but the team settled into a rhythm in second half.
this was a chance for a lot of second string players to make a mark.
jordie barrett scored 4 tries and had a good all round game.
we had hookers putting good kicks through to set up tries.
ok, the result was never in doubt but the nature of the all blacks performance in the final test of a long season was heartening for this fan.
of more concern is the lopsided score england vs australia. 37-18 to england.
we need australian rugby to be stronger than it is at the moment.
ps, i don’t pay for any sport nowadays, its such an old fashioned habit.
We’re a country the size of Melbourne, generating sports teams that continue to conquer the world.
In Italy we just beat a country with the economic capacity to buy all of our top Rugby players multiple times over if it wanted.
Currently we’re battling it out with Pakistan, a country with 202 million people and over 10 million cricket players. We would be lucky to scrape together 2,000 top players.
Sport is one of New Zealand’s top industries.
It’s also one of the fastest upward routes out of deprivation for many of our citizens.
It’s good for us, celebrate the wins.
yeah – the wee battler yarp, yarp, yarp,
Change your mythology imo – because you seem to filter everything through that money-lens of yours.
You need to calm down and pull back from your keyboard.
You’re not adding anything except hate.
Well I certainly dislike the kiwi battler meme – bit of a cliche now – I dislike the financial/money angle for sure but hate? Bit OTT there – go and dig the garden you seem a bit worked up old chap.
Anyway I cannot be bothered getting hassled by the likes of you and james so I’ll fuck off and leave you to it.
“I cannot be bothered getting hassled by the likes of you and james so I’ll fuck off and leave you to it.”
Which is ironic since you replied to both of us with stupid and rude comments.
We hadn’t even engaged with you. But you try to make it all about you and we are hassling you. /facepalm
You got reciprocated twerp. And ad, well the little battler bullshit stuck in my throat esp after the non acceptance from him imo last night that iwi organisations are more than corporates.
But being given shade from a rwnj like you is actually a badge of honour in leftie circles so thanks for the cred LOL
I’m with you mm on this subject. I’m sure that makes you feel heaps better. 😉
Sick and tired of the ABs. Sometimes wish they would take a running jump over the nearest cliff.
As for the “we’re the little kiwi battlers” theme… get over all your insecurities I say and get on with your lives.
We have issues like climate change confronting the world, yet our puppet media and desperate people dribble on about a sports victory against a minnow team .
Pathetic.
You know Eddie that people like to read a wide range of topics – not everyone loves to wallow in misery and doom.
James you are a member of the elite. Of course you would not care.
Ed, life ain’t binary.
Yes I accept bread and circuses aspect to sport.
Rugby in Aotearoa is more than just a sport.
Rugby clubs have unified communities for generations.
Professional and labourer, town and country, Maori and Pakeha.
It is also how we grew up a little, and got out from the mother country yoke.
That doesn’t mean I can’t be concerned by inequality and CC.
Anyhoo, back to the grindstone.
You wish they would jump off a cliff because you are sick and tired of other people being entertained by them.
Classy.
What about consideration for those of us who have spent years having the ABs rammed down our throats.
Selfish.
Easier to just scroll past or change channel than wishing they jump off a cliff.
But hey wishing harm on others because you don’t like sports says a lot about you.
In addition to James not being able to spel good, it appears he doesn’t know what a figure of speech is.
Sport is simply bread and circuses for the masses. Our inane obsession with it says a lot about the mental immaturity of our Country. There are far more important pursuits in life. Sure, keep fit by doing some sport, but professionalism has turned it into something as bad as fundamentalist religion.
James,
I also am sick and tired of sports bullshit.
Get real; – and give constructive input into the ‘real issues’ climate change flooding and polluting of our environment for instance.
These things are far more serious than you will ever know if you ignore the signs that are impacting our lives.
try this firstly; -https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018670839/mike-joy-solving-nz-s-freshwater-crisis
Will you lower the tone on the sports banter as it is boring and so over-rated!!!!!!!.
Colin Peacock nails it on Mediawatch, displaying the idiocy of media rugby reporters in New Zealand.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018672555
Ed, thank you.
Ad isn’t always wrong marty mars. Don’t be prejudiced against him because he sees most things through a money lens. It is true that sport generates money, gives us an international profile, gives opportunities to see the world for low income men and women, gives jobs now to many low income families in a job–poor society (despite rock star rah rah statistics (finely made to match international specifications).
Ad can be relied on to take a certain pragmatic approach, and is pretty consistent, so we know what to expect and respect in his opinions.
Bryan Gould on why New Zealand is so good at Rugby across the genders and age-grades.
http://www.bryangould.com/what-makes-the-all-blacks-so-good/
I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to the World Women’s 7’s in Hamilton next year. We’ve already booked tickets. There are a couple of our greats who are close to retirement.
Gould might have also mentioned how blessed New Zealand has been to have waves of Pasifika migration to draw talent from across so many sporting fields including Rugby.
In some respects also we are good at enabling female participation as a matter of public policy – but only in the last two years. That’s unusual in global terms still, even if slowly improving.
Professional Sport Ad. The rest is recreation. Cheers.
Recreational sport is a massive direct and indirect social and economic benefit to this country as well.
We all started as amateurs, and most continue to give back long after their professional paying years are done.
Makes for a great country to be in sport.
Don’t you mean sport is one of NZ’s top corporate welfare recipients.
Actually certain sports such as Rugby and Yacht racing are NZ’s top corporate welfare recipients.
Crumbs for other sports and for participation in sports, judging from our growing obesity rates.
Plenty of fat people into sport, and good on them. I was one.
All industry gets welfare in this country. It’s our thing.
Yes forgot you can be fat and fit now, with the PC culture.
Being fat is just woke healthy.
I better go off and try and start a twitter account to change the word ‘trivial’.
Don’t get stuck on critique savenz. Bad for mental health. You are so good at taking a country-wide and global view so we know our problems, and also seeing what we could do. Perhaps each separate critical para you state how a change could improve or turn all negative into partly positive I think making a small positive input all the time may make a great change to the mood of the readers.
David Slack’s comment: “You can’t rely on the weather but there are two things you can set your clock by in November: NCEA exams and NCEA exam controversy. This year the level three history exam provided the popcorn. A question used the world ‘trivial’ and students complained this was not a word they knew. There was much rolling of eyes by people of a greater age.”
” There are more than 170,000 words in the Oxford dictionary, and it’s not easy staying on top of them all. John Key, an Auckland businessman and retired politician, left school with a B Bursary and prospered in the world of buying and selling money. He was once a luncheon guest of the Queen. They shared a glass of champagne, hollandaise eggs, beef, a panna cotta dessert and some cheese. “It was quite a fulsome lunch,” he told reporters afterwards, “I’m fairly full.” Over the past eight centuries the word fulsome has been used to mean copious, and it has also been used to mean foul, odious and rotten. Which meaning did he intend? What a conundrum of syzygy.”
Which meaning of syzygy did Slack mean? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygy – bright students would ponder the selection and come up with a simile not present: conjoined. Explain that to the class & the other students would be wondering `what does conjoined mean?’
OK Google. What did John Key mean when he said he had a fulsome lunch?
(In summary – I’m a complete dickhead)
The students have the right to ask the meaning of the word during a test. A trivial point, but an important one.
Not in NCEA they can’t. A student asked me whether the word ‘differ’ was the same derivation as ‘different’. I couldn’t answer as an exam supervisor. All I could do was tell him I was not allowed and to do his best.
I’ve been misinformed. It was a right wing person that did that too me as well.
It reminded me of a movie scene. A chain of monkeys sending a message up to a penguin.
Some lucky bastards can be as fat as santa and have every other measurement within normal parameters – blod pressure, heart rate, uric acid, liver function, all of that shit. And live to a ripe old age.
Utter bastards.
So fat & fit is a thing.
It was always going to be an easy game.
I assume that you didn’t pay for England or Ireland either.
The Ireland game was particularly good.
In a nutshell: an AB win acts like mass medication to make Kiwis feel good about themselves (Big People) and their country. An AB loss OTOH makes Kiwis feel like Small People in a small country at the bottom of the World (AKA trivial).
That’s a very broad brush you are painting with there incognito.
Indeed, it is.
Watched in horror on Friday as an elderly male bus driver jumped out of the blue Metro bus he was driving and ran to the vehicle in front. Karate chopped the front windscreen and then punched the young woman driver in the head 2 or 3 times. All happened in peak hour traffic and very quickly. Where do I lodge a report about this ? Police and Auckland Transport ? I have the bus number / time / place etc. And another witness who was with me.
Call Auckland Transport 09 301 0101
Thank you, Ad. By the time I got out of my car the traffic was moving and the car driver behind me was blowing his horn. The passengers on the bus were not impressed but not sure they could see the violence.
Hard for anyone else to do something in that short space and time. And that fact of crush of traffic and impatience is probably behind the violence, and what might happen at home to an offending female explodes in public.
They are under so much stress, bus and truck drivers. Very sad it comes to that.
I feel that this could tie into something I noticed the other day. The driver of the local recycling truck came along on his busy round. They have a specially built cabin with the wheel on the left side, near the kerb, and space to stand behind it. They draw in, empty the bins into the moving auger? system carefully, make sure they stop that before they reach in to clear anything etc. and quickly move on to the next place. A busy and lonely job,.
I happened to be on the pavement nearby and said Good morning, no response. I spoke again about the weather, but no appearance of being heard or seen. I wondered if he was deaf, and watched how he went about it. He was concentrating on the job, finished dealing with a number of bins, and didn’t look up at all, head down all the time. It seemed, he didn’t want to have any interaction with others around, he seemed sullen, internally angry and unhappy.
It looked to me as if he had a major negative attitude brewing in his brain, was isolating himself from the general public, and it seemed as if a huge resentment and hate might be simmering which left me feeling very uneasy.
Maybe you should let him get on with his job and stop trying to distract him.
What’s your point gabby? Do you want to live in a friendly, happy, interactive society or not? If you have something to say can you make it have some point instead of the first thing that passes through your head momentarily.
I don’t want to be crushed by a bloke emptying bins because some clot wanted a chinwag greysy.
So, what you’re saying is that it’s better for a worker in an unsatisfying job to ‘flip’ rather than for you to be inconvenienced?
Getting crushed by a truck’s bloody incovenient draccy.
Why would you be standing in front of it?
A distracted operator, and the fucker could kill in an instant.
https://screenshotscdn.firefoxusercontent.com/images/ba85ef93-0808-44f9-824d-4a6ba9369521.png
Neithrt do I want people to be treated like robotsd by an uncaring and thoughtless master or mistress class grabby.
Perhaps he didn’t speak english?
That’s what you get when you pay $20 p/h in a stressful job. You mention he was elderly, and male, anything else you want to add in there Patricia? I’m guessing he was not white, thus not fitting the white male privilege… that people love to blame on everything these days… but happy to be proved wrong.
savenz
You are sounding like the way that China is thinking about reporting facts and truth, that they should be filtered in a way so that the results match their requirements for the ‘right’ appearance to be presented that matches the desired approach and image.
Yep, if you want to give a description do it properly, not subjectively, revealing your own bias or these days it seems more a concern about woke identity politics as a sort of brain washing, if you don’t want to reveal a person’s physical appearance, then just use the word, bus driver. The police will want to know anyway.
Actually I first thought is was not a big thing, but actually thinking about a bus driver that has actually left the vehicle to attack a women, actually sounds like a crime that is a police matter, especially as there is a growing issue in Auckland of fake drivers driving commercial vehicles and I have a friend who was hospitalised by one .
If he is that out of control he is assaulting people in public who knows what other things might be revealed.
Also maybe the guy goes home and beats up his wife, who knows?
Assault is a crime for police, not for AT, which is more for bad driving.
If you remove indentity politics, and it’s resulting gender, racial prejudice you get this.
I witnessed a bus driver hop out of the bus, go up to a car, smash the window and assault the driver.
Identity is irrelevant to the event, or the reality of a crime being committed.
Identity politics effect on Law results in a doubled sentence, due to the victims identity, for the male bus driver if the act or harm is identicle if a woman was the bus driver.
Don’t call Auckland Transport, they will do nothing. Call the police and lodge a report, if the driver is that bad they might run someone over next time they have a road rage attack and at least with the police there will be more chance of them catching who did it and working out whether the driver should be working with the public or not.
Also the police can check whether he has a fake bus license or not, which is a growing problem of both fake licenses and also identity swaps where the person driving does not match the whoever was supposed to be driving the vehicle.
Know someone who was hospitalised by that scam. Police are investigating and I think did bring charges, but the person who caused the accident looked nothing like the drivers license photo and tried to flee the scene in his delivery van. Meanwhile our hospitals are filling up and people’s lives being destroyed by injury by these fakes.
AT employ so many people doing processes it will never get anywhere, let alone they understand the seriousness of what is going on with drivers attacking people and all the fakes out there.
Gee you see a woman punched in the head two or three times and two days later ask on a forum where do you lodge a report?
It’s amazes me that people can’t work shit like this out and are happy to drive on and do nothing like call the police when they see a young woman assaulted.
Stupidity or laziness is enabling the attacker.
Gee a little inadequate twerp makes all sorts of ill informed and ignorant judgments about another based on a question on this forum and shows, once again, why he is a waste of space and a loser.
It amazes me that people like that, so puffed up with their own privilege, just mouth off without engaging their brains.
Not stupidness but boredom – the boredom of a right wing nut job when pretending is even too much.
You are a bitter wee thing today aren’t you.
I mean more than you normally are.
Try doing something fun today – it might put you in a better disposition.
Yes you and ad are onto me lol
I just think you were mean and I replyed in the same vein. Probably a mistake but there you go.
Anyway you are correct I’ve had a hard night with the people I work with so i’ll leave you and ad to it.
Cheer up Marty Mars. There is a fine line between bitterness and pithy.
You often ‘put your finger on ‘ popular concerns.
Sorry you are going through a ‘hard time with people you work with’.
That can change the way a person views everything else.
Been there done the hard yards. Kia mau kaha toku hoa.
DFTT and your internal rage and depression.
You keep saying your going Marty and leaving james et al to it; only to bounce back in a couple of threads, take a break for every ones benefit
No, James has a point there. The incident should have been reported on Friday. As it was assault it probably should have been a 111 call but a *555 probably would have worked as well.
That said, this speaks of what I said the other day. People seeing an action that they don’t know how to handle because it’s outside of their experience.
Woah that would have been scary to see.
Good on you for having the sense to note the details and doing something about it.
I heard this on RNZ truckies want rules to stop pressures on truck drivers
https://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018672721
And BBC news; – Truckies and farmers in France want diesel tax dropped!!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDO8SDIlxNk
So it appears that they want to keep using ‘dirty diesel to pollute planet’ eh?
Mmmmmm!
The New Zealand truckies are workers seeking to stop being required to work over 70 hours a week. That’s 6 days a week 12 hours a day.
Those workers are controlling machinery weighing 1-2 tonnes traveling at 90 kilometers an hour often mere centimeters from the public which includes you and your family.
They don’t want to be worked so hard that they cause deaths.
Seems pretty reasonable.
I’ll agree with you on that, AD.
Another option is to get trains running and a more workable way to transit from them (aka don’t put a port in the middle of downtown Auckland) so that we don’t need all these polluting, road damaging, and dangerous trucks on the road.
Yes totally agree.
“Trucking companies are competing for big contracts at the expense of their staff, a truck driver’s union has warned.
It says the companies are competing for tenders by forcing drivers to accept low pay rates and long work hours.
First Union secretary for transport Jared Abbott said a lot of drivers were working at least 70 hours, the maximum hours allowed per week.
“We see it a lot where people are pushed to break the logbook rules or to breach health and safety in some way.
“Their scared – rightfully so – for their livelihoods to test it and we see it a lot with quite reputable companies where people do test it, they get shafted.”
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/376670/trucking-contracts-putting-staff-at-risk
Part of problem is most truckers are contractors in corporate colours ( mainfreifgt freight Courier post etc) They own the issue as well as many on wages now and in the pass have taken the piss on hours and looking after company vehicals; etc not to mention over the top Union action They in essence shafted themselves Saying that contractor drivers are way more incentivised to align business and individual interest; albeit agree it is a race to the bottom to a degree at the moment driven by procurement division of buyers of freight services not the freight companies themselves
You do know that the rail used to go to the port right?
The big trucks are more like 30 tonne
???
That’s up to 50+ tonnes.
The machinery I had in mind there was just the truck so 1-2 tonnes.
The regs for weight by each kind of axle are here:
https://www.drivingtests.co.nz/resources/heavy-vehicle-weights-and-loads/
‘Truckies; Slow to learn, resistant to change, another type of nimby.
Or workers trying to change their conditions in a threatened industry.
Yes Patricia, SaveNZ, and Ad.
At our NGO committee meeting with ‘Port of Napier’ executives in November 2016 we were advised of this; –
“The truckies have warned the Port of Napier that they will fight rail to retaining their 90% of moving logs to the port”.
So we are fighting a war against truckies who don’t want to use public owned rail period.
As to road safety;
So the Government needs urgently now to sort the truckies out here, as we will loose many lives on our narrow windy roads as the “wall of wood arrives”.
Australia have already made moves to address this with the CoR – Chain of Responsibility legislation.
As I understand it, if an incident occurs the driver’s logs etc are examined to ensure that the workload expected and time taken to deliver was reasonable. If not, the responsibility for the incident is shifted to management.
You no doubt noticed that programme didn’t mention choochoos once that I recall cleany?
That was disappointing Gabby. For a second I saw the ch and thought you were talking about chocolate! Choochoos, Thomas the tank engine and all, aren’t they stories that you read to children about long ago ways to get around and go to see at old technology parks? /sarc cleangreen don’t blow a foofoo valve.
Wonder if the truckies would be supportive of a law that prevented them from working more than 8 hours a day and no more than five days a week. They are, after all, correct in that long hours behind driving is dangerous and it’s not just to them but to the rest of the population as well.
I bet they\ truckies would not want to limit themselves to short hours like that and would rather work longer hours, but not to the extent they are pushed now. It wouldn’t be so bad if truckies got extra payment for working unsocial hours, and over the 8 hour limit, which would be justified. They would have been paid properly for their time and effort like that once. And of course there has to be an upper limit otherwise it is too hard on the drivers.
But they are being pressured to go too far for too long, and the roads are not coping. Nine years National had to work out a better transport plan, but no. And their stooge Ken Shirley happily on the one hand talks about how busy the transport industry is and then wants more money spent on roads. He used to be in the Labour Party I think. He knew which side has the best butter and most bread.
A good follow up article on self harm.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/108797977/females-arent-the-only-ones-that-selfharm
Maybe that was Patricia’s bus driver. Desperate to leave AT.
A thought provoking post marty. Would this come under mental health?
Perhaps it shows expression of deeply felt pain. More funding for trained help could assist.
How do we create connections to provide community support? Self harm can be so hard to see sometimes. Some harm behaviours need a trigger, some are repeated responses to stress.
This is apparently a growing problem. A symptom of larger social ills?
Perhaps we are ‘connected by the internet’ but are ‘touch deprived’ so have constant grief.
Self harm for males can be exactly the same as females, in being a cry for help. It’s just not addressed, identified, diagnosed as well as females.
One issue for males is risk taking self harm. So the young male who isn’t intentionaly suiciding engages in high risk acts. Driving extremely dangerously combines with “look at me” male behavours. An episode of suicidle thoughts may combine with dangerous driving, as a release.
So the self harm is never identified because they don’t cut themselves etc.
Suicide for men often involves “cry for help” with nobody giving a shit.
Parliaments self immolation victim is a perfect example.
Male teens engage in risk-taking activities and behaviour because they think they’re indestructible, which is fuelled by testosterone spikes and the fact that their brains haven’t fully developed and matured.
That was feminist propaganda.
It’s mating behavour of look at me, I’m the best, strongest, healthiest driven by sexual chemistry far more complex than just testosterone. You said they think but then said they don’t think.
It’s a direct counter to young females biologically being attracted older men, in that older men have proven to have successful genes. There is no thinking involved in the females mating preference.
Just as there is no thinking involved in females being sexually attracted to males or a male being sexually attracted to other men.
Replicated throughout the animal kingdom.
That is completely different from depression based suicide behavours and self harming.
Your comment is why recognising males with problems is ignored as it just gets attributed to feminist ideology that males are inherently flawed. A male acting out can be a cry for help but is put down as you expressed as just the actions of a stupid male.
It was true for some risk-taking males, just as your initial comment was true for others.
The difficulty with the self harm identified in the article is how an observer is supposed to identify the intention. Does someone get into bar fights because they are insecure and drunk, or because they are intentionally self-destructive? Is a fight a good time for them, reasserting macho dominance? A sportsman playing through an injury: intentional self harm, or foolish machismo “toughing out” the injury? A guy jumping off a wall: poor decision making, or intentional self harm?
Cuts with a razor and (sometimes) prescription overdoses leave little ambiguity.
But yes, just as heart attacks in women are often underdiagnosed because the publicised symptoms tend to be in males, and just as males can be late-diagnosed with eating disorders or breast cancer, self harm in males can be underdiagnosed.
Good comment Mc Flock
Difficult as very few can deconstruct what they witness from family and freinds. Resulting in family saying they never saw any signs of there loved ones having issues prior to suicide. But they were present.
In the case of ambiguous injuries, there is a shortcoming where if we can’t see it, we can’t count it, and if we can’t count it, we can’t assess it as a need of the population.
And everything is a balance of resources until utopia comes: if a DHB has X$ to spend on public health and wellness campaigns and a greater number of potential compaigns looking for funding, It comes down to which selection of programs will do the greatest good for X$ spent. Which is how qualitative stuff sometimes gets ignored.
Very well said. Acting out often is just what it is: acting out, establishing boundaries, developing identity (and persona). Where warning signs can become tell-tale signs is when a negative repetitive pattern develops, for example.
The scientific literature must be awash with feminist propaganda but I stick with the literature nevertheless if you don’t mind – indeed, there are competing (or rather complementing) scientific hypotheses. But feel free to put up a credible link that supports your statement.
Just as well that I didn’t argue that it was all down to “just testosterone”.
Please read it again; that isn’t at all what I said.
This makes no sense whatsoever!? Males are flawed and therefore we ignore their problems or we assume that they don’t have a problems!? You seem to have hang ups about this “feminist ideology” you keep referring to.
This is exactly the point I was trying to make, which is that correct interpretation of a male acting out is very difficult. You grabbed the wrong end of the stick and went off on your rant.
Teenage males aren’t alone in that coggy.
True that, many males are still stuck in their teenage years. After all, it’s an important market segment for gyms. And don’t get me started on roid rage.
A apposed to females with I’m a princess syndrome manifesting in things like bridezillas who reject males for only offering $1,000 rings vs $5,000 dollar ones. An important market for pointless bits of rock.
All part of the mating behaviour. To you it’s a pointless bit of rock but to her it’s clear sign how much the potential mate ‘values’ her and how far he can and will go to woe her. Many women want their wedding day to be very special and the best day of their lives (AKA the dream wedding) but that doesn’t make them princesses or bridezillas. Reality TV is a misnomer, you know?
What does the man get in turn for this “woman want”. It is clearly not necessary then. It should be “special, best day”. Like out of a fantasy movie. Everything else is equal isn’t it?
So what do men get? Equality speaking. For a fantasy to come true for them?
We’re still talking about the mating ritual, are we? Almost 8 billion people on this planet all chasing fantasies? About half of them are bridezillas and the other half are hapless creatures that cannot and must not get fulfilment (or, as more directly verbalised by the Rolling Stones: satisfaction)? Do you and/or your partner/spouse wear a ring? A pointless bit of metal?
You’re all over the place; does your left hand know what your right hand is doing? You seem to have too much time on your hands …
I’m trying to use my time wisely. It’s not easy living a a mind that doesn’t have a pause button. This just good therapy and positive thoughts.
Well, it seems we do have something in common: an overactive brain that doesn’t know when to stop. For this reason I landed on TS a few years back and I’ve found it very therapeutic as well as educational and informative. Some Standardistas just blow me away. And there’s humour, not quite enough IMO, but at times it is enough to dissipate the worries and stresses of a long day at work and life in general.
I’m not sure romantic love is a transaction.
You think of something, think “X would like that”, and do it, because you love them. And X does the same, not as a transaction but because they love you.
And sometimes people need reassurance that they are loved, and sometimes all this other crap is going on and future inlaws might be judging and the seating plan can’t have exes close to each other etc etc etc.
If I proposed to someone and they turned me down because the ring wasn’t expensive enough, I’d know it wasn’t reciprocal love and I’d be well out of that. But if someone’s cool with a transactional arrangement, fair enough.
Depends on the man/fantasy and the arrangement between the couple. Tis their business and nobody else’s, as long as it harms none.
Everyone has different ideas, dreams. Relationships are about compromise, nothing like a wedding to start that ball rolling.
Exhusband and I both agreed that buying our first home was way more important than a fancy wedding. So we did it that way.
Wedding was awesome, honeymoon was epic. Buying that house, worked out well for all.
Everyone has different priorities re a wedding, depends on the volume of brainwashing and visual media one has been exposed to.
Also depends on the communication channels and honesty between a couple.
Yep you got it spot on.
If you want to reject someone then it’s easier to say “you’re ring is not worth enough” rather than “you’re the last man on earth I’d ever want to marry”. Rejected males are not the safest people to be around so it’s best to do it as impersonally as possible.
Yep. I was scared a partner would stab me to death in my sleep once. I had already had to flee through the house shuting myself in a room because my partner used a knife to explain my bank account was empty for good reasons. Getting out of relationships with crazy individuals isn’t easy. Honesty and self preservation conflict.
On a post last week, somebody mentioned a new article by public finance expert Don Gilling on AUT’s Briefing Papers website had disappeared. It is now back online:
http://briefingpapers.co.nz/follow-the-money/
It raises questions about the stewardship of the National Library and Archives NZ by the Department of Internal Affairs since these agencies were merged into DIA in 2010. Gilling notes the decline in NLNZ budget under DIA, even while the Department’s overall budget has risen, as well as the increasing proportion of NLNZ budget going to DIA for centrally managed costs. The implication is that DIA is milking NLNZ and Archives to cover other departmental functions.
One might also ask why the DIA is managing the current review of the Library, Archives and Nga Taonga, when there is such an apparent conflict of interest. Brian Easton alluded to this on his Pundit blog some months back:
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/whither-archives-new-zealand-and-the-national-library
Thanks for that, Sam A.
lprent commented on Don’s article disappearing from Briefing Papers inhis patest post here (link below) and asked if anyone knew Don Gilling etc. he would be interested in seeing the article.
https://thestandard.org.nz/my-civics-the-new-zealand-civil-war/
I do know him and was intending contacting him (or Brian Easton who is a very close friend/associate of Don’s) to ask what happened with it. By coincidence, yesterday I met his wife in a shop and mentioned the article and its disappearance from BPs and the fact that there were people here including lprent interested in seeing it. Apparently it had been put up there by someone else, not Don so then taken down. She was going to raise it with Don, but the article was probably already back up on BPs already by that stage.
Apparently Don has been getting a lot of interest and feedback on his thoughts in this article. I noted recently that Don is also now on the Committee of the Friends of the Turnbull Library here in Wellington for the 2018/19 year,
I read it on my way back home on Thursday. Planning to write a post on it after I get the anger under control.
Thanks, look forward to your post. I haven’t read Don’s article yet …
Yes I look forward to that also.
An implication of Don Gilling’s article is that NLNZ & Archives NZ have been subject to the same kind of austerity RNZ suffered under the last government. But, buried layers down in DIA, this has been far less visible.
Didn’t we lose a collection of historical photos a few years ago, due to the asinine decision to outsource them to a small digital conversion outfit in the US, which then went into bankruptcy and never returned those photos?
Molly, I think this is what you refer to:
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/93966105/fairfax-nz-photo-library-set-to-return-home-after-us-wrangle
Whether they have been returned yet I don’t know. There were concerns at the time about whether Ministry of Culture and Heritage had exercised proper oversight under the Protected Objects Act.
We are like children being led into the Forest of Business and Dubious Efficiency. Questions were raised about the wisdom and good faith involved in taking control in 2010 of our heritage material and putting it under the wing of a big Department with wide responsibilities.
It raises questions about the stewardship of the National Library and Archives NZ by the Department of Internal Affairs since these agencies were merged into DIA [Department of Internal Affairs] in 2010.
Now we should be determined to stop this downgrading of irreplaceable stuff about our past. We have had decades of dilettantes in government to make useful profitable connections for themselves, interested in cutting the part of the budget that went on tasks requiring and needing government care and scrutiny. (Notice Sam A 5.2.1 – the missing photographs so carelessly dispensed with to the USA business.)
Also remember the horror of letting a populist politician get control over important historic records in Canada.
Like a bull in a china shop.
The Harper Government Has Trashed and Destroyed Environmental Books and Documents
In the first few days of 2014, scientists, journalists, and environmentalists were horrified to discover that the Harper government had begun a process to close seven of the 11 of Canada’s world-renowned Department of Fisheries and Oceans libraries…
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/4w578d/the-harper-government-has-trashed-and-burned-environmental-books-and-documents
Various NZ s over the years need to set themselves up as Guardians of whatever and follow the taonga, Friends of the Taonga or Friends of … to differentiate Maori from pakeha objects as there are so many that could be lost, the kaitiaki of each should watch what they know and treasure, working in conjunction.
Some links about caring for safety of museum and artifacts disasters and heroism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donny_George_Youkhanna
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/revealed-the-real-story-behind-the-great-iraq-museum-thefts-515067.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32824379 – Palmyra
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/18/isis-beheads-archaeologist-syria
https://www.ajaonline.org/online-review-museum/364
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/201841596/saving-ancient-religious-manuscripts-from-destruction
https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-politics/national-museum-staff-saves-irreplaceable-pieces-during-fire/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2018/09/05/heres-how-you-can-help-document-rios-national-museum-collections-after-the-catastrophic-fire/#8e5b2303dacd
https://mentalfloss.com/article/556959/wikipedia-digitally-preserving-items-destroyed-brazil-national-museum-fire
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-we-need-fight-save-mosuls-cultural-heritage-180962091/
http://savingantiquities.org/natural-disasters-and-their-impact-on-looting-and-destruction-of-cultural-heritage/
https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/destroying-cultural-heritage-more-just-material-damage
Thanks Sam. I couldn’t recall the details of the archive, and having it identified as Fairfax decision rather than government, means that our collective archive was not affected.
I recall at the time seeing images of some of the colonial photos that were being advertised on eBay, which seemed such a loss.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/11/auckland-pride-parade-organisers-consider-ditching-sponsors-completely.html
Im guessing that this might be the last pride festival (if this one happens at all).
I do not believe that the board understands how off side they are with public opinion on this one.
Correct james.
John Wight exposes the West’s war crimes in Yemen.
‘’As crimes pile up, they become invisible’: Western complicity in Saudi Arabia’s dirty war in Yemen.
The complicity of Western governments in the ocean of suffering being wrought in Yemen exposes them as agents of Saudi brutality.
After three years of relentless conflict, it has been estimated that out of a population of 27.4 million, 22.2 million people in Yemen are in need of humanitarian assistance, 17 million are food insecure, 14.8 million lack basic healthcare, 4.5 million children are suffering malnourishment, while 2.9 million people are internally displaced. As for dead and injured, the toll stands at almost 10,000 and 50,000 respectively.
…..Returning to Western complicity in the carnage and suffering being meted out to the Yemeni people, never has there been a more naked example of hypocrisy masquerading as democracy. Indeed, the longstanding alliance between the US, UK and Saudi Arabia takes a scalpel to the oft-repeated boasts of Washington and London when it comes to their self-appointed role as champions and guardians of human rights and democracy.
Beginning with the Obama administration, and ramped up under Trump, US involvement in this brutal conflict has consisted of direct military airstrikes (carried out against Al-Qaeda and Islamic State targets, according to Washington), along with logistical, intelligence, and other non-combat support provided to the anti-Houthi Saudi-led coalition. This, of course, is not forgetting US arms sales to the Kingdom, consisting of over 50 percent of all US arms exports.
….The war in Yemen is a dirty war, being waged by a Western-supported Saudi kleptocracy in the name of clerical fascism. Bertolt Brecht was right: “As crimes pile up, they become invisible”
https://t.co/PMfkXdrCW3?amp=1
For the spaceflight tragics.
(Tuesday 27 at 9.00am)
On Monday, November 26, 2018, NASA’s Mars Insight is scheduled to land on Mars. The spacecraft will touch down at approximately 20:00 UTC (3 p.m. EST). Watch coverage of the event on NASA TV. Live landing commentary runs from 19:00-20:30 UTC (2-3:30 p.m. EST). Translate UTC to your time.
https://earthsky.org/space/how-to-watch-insight-mars-landing-nov26-2018
Wonder if the ion energy that you linked to will be a feature in the space travel? Powered by solar energy I expect.
Little things make big things happen.
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/214206-the-first-satellite-powered-entirely-by-ion-engines-is-online
Great thanks Joe. The new age of hope perhaps turning into reality?
And this more of the same:
“…Instead of using propellers or turbines, the researchers used electroaerodynamics. The technology works by sending a current through an electrode which electrically charges the molecules in the surrounding air. These charged molecules are then attracted towards a separate electrode on the aircraft – this movement of ions and neutral air particles generates an effect known as ionic or electric wind. By positioning an aerofoil in this air flow, lift can be generated, potentially allowing powered flight.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=12164473
Ion engines are already well established as the best in space, propulsion engine.
Essentially the rocket engine ejects matter at low speed, requiring scale to lift the rocket. The ion engine ejects very little mass but it is at extremely high speed.
The efficiency of rockets to create momentum is small. The efficiency of ion engines to create momentum is very high.
The energy for an ion energy is electricity from, nuclear heat/Stirling engines, or Solar. Solar is effective in the inner solar system but not in the outer solar system so most projects have nuclear heat/Stirling engines. Not to be confused by Nuclear power plants as they are not a controlled fission. They are simply concentrated radioactive elements giving off heat designed to match power needs, with the Stirling engine designed to match.
In theory ion engines (today’s tech) could accelerate a starship into the 5% to 10% of speed of light range. This results in interstellar travel below the 200 year mark for already identified colonisation viable solar systems.
Nope. Radioisotope thermoelectric generator just use standard thermocouples. No Stirling engines involved. I suspect the added mass and complexity makes Stirling engines impractical.
I think this sort of tech is interesting because it highlights energy sources that are green and as yet have limited practical applications. I think it’s wrong to bypass it because it is yet to raise a Cessna.
Another that interests me is the way air rushes out of a tube that stretches from sea level up to mountain top.
I’m pretty sure that radioisotopes aren’t all that green.
???
Maybe a solar updraft tower?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower
It would be great if there was a natural geological tube that coastal air shot up and would carry positioned parcels up to a certain height and platform, then they could be directed down slides or something to a collection point below using gravity.
Probably not viable but the idea of a tube effect of fast moving air upwards is appealing.
That fast moving air upwards has to get its energy from somewhere. If we’re looking at then using that fast moving air to do work, chances are it’ll work out to be more efficient, convenient, and flexible to turn that energy into electricity. Either by using the fast moving air to drive a generator, or going a step further back and harvesting whatever energy source that made the air move fast to make electricity instead.
You will be interested in this then.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_radioisotope_generator
So 4 times as energy efficient as an RTG system.
Reliability of the Stirling is an issue but I have seen figures of 100,000 hours reliable for inline magnetic and air bearing versions. They are not that big for the advantages, anything from cup size to fridge size, but much bigger than thermocouples. More expensive too.
A good example is adoption in sun following dish/mirrors in that they are by far the best performing heat to usable energy system.
If the basis of the system is to give grunt to an engine then the power you can put in matters.
Imagine a spacecraft supporting lots of people. The power requirements will be huge without solar being effective. The small spacecraft with 100W needs is perfect for RTG but large ships will go in the Stirling direction.
From your link.
Voyager has been running continuously for 40+ years so for ~400,000 hours.
More than likely at some point but it hasn’t happened yet.
Yes, they canceled that project along with many others, but it is still being developed for other projects in space. The lifecycle of the engine isn’t an issue if a person is there to do repairs. Voyager is a good example of what the design requirements are. No maintenance possible and thermocouples are the only option.
I was reading about spaceships powered by ion drives half a century ago, in scifi books, when I was a teenager. I knew enough college physics to get that it was plausible in theory, but haven’t heard of any building of such in practice since, so I routinely dismiss all such stuff nowadays a mere speculation.
In fact, although Kim Stanley Robinson did an excellent trilogy about the terraforming of Mars and atmospheric production could make it habitable if the rate exceeded gravitational loss at the upper margin, I’ve long since given up on the notion that it’ll happen. Those dozens of breakdowns & malfunctions in the DEW system, Chernobyl, Murphy’s Law, the tendency of computers to head into dysfunction just like people, nah, I got no faith in technology left…
The first successful test of one was in 1964. There have been quite a few since then.
General info
Ion Thruster Prototype Breaks Records in Tests, Could Send Humans to Mars
NOW EXPOSED: A UK-led, ‘New Cold War’ int’l intelligence propaganda & disinformation operation, using top Mainstream Media ‘journalists’, govt staff, #AtlanticCouncil, in partnership w/#NATO designed to increase fear and tension between West & Russia:.
Anonymous has published documents which it claims have unearthed a massive UK-led psyop to create a “large-scale information secret service” in Europe.
https://t.co/mwgjKrxpvv?amp=1
I wouldn’t view that stuff as anything much beyond an example of how stupidly paranoid some people are. This made me laugh – (From the “Integrity Initiative” handbook)
…the Integrity Initiative is funded by the Institute for Statecraft. The IfS gets its funding from multiple sources to ensure its independence. These include: private individuals; charitable foundations; international organisations (EU, NATO); UK Govt (FCO, MOD)
Kind of lacking in basic integrity I’d have thought. Oh, and the “independence”? Yeah well… probably best not to comment on the narrow focus embodied by such a ‘broad’ sweep of ‘diverse’ funding bodies, eh? 😉
Hi Ed,
Yes Germany has long wanted to even the score with Russia for the loss of the war in 1945 so the underside of Germany is alive still and want to see another ‘action’ against Russia.
Germany cant change their spots like others cant either.
That is human nature unfortunately and Britain knows that all to well.
Thread.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1056198831086452737.html
Thanks joe 90 and we thought we were trail blazers back in the mid 1900’s.
We live in interesting times, centuries, millenia! (I hope.)
Probably because a person who fights for the political rights for women as well as men is an actual Feminist. Completely different from those who stand in parliament spouting the magnificent Ministry for Women, claiming to be feminists, then vehemently attacking attempts to create a Ministry for Men.
Plus the patriarchy narrative requires ignoring the reality of our past so many brave women and mens actions are ignored. Kate Sheppards advocacy for women is made godlike, while the decades long voting rights battle behind both male suffrage and its resulting female voting rights becomes a footnote. Very few would know the names of the men who put forward male sufferage laws in NZ or who put forward female sufferage laws in NZ.
[citation needed]
Males have always been able to vote in NZ. It was non-owners that were prevented.
Who has dibs on Jules?
The Ecuadorian government has removed its ambassador to the UK, sparking speculation over Julian Assange’s future at the diplomatic mission there.
The 47-year-old founder of WikiLeaks moved into the Ecuadorian Embassy in central London in 2012 while wanted for questioning over sexual assault allegations in Sweden. Assange maintained his innocence and claimed the charges were nothing more than an attempt to extradite him to the United States.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/23/uk/julian-assange-ecuador-diplomacy-gbr-intl/index.html
Gosh you just can’t evict some wily tenants.
stop feeding them and watch them squirrel away into the darkness to find some other ‘benefactor’ that will keep the housed and fed.
Yes but where will they go. And perhaps there should be hermitage, sanctuary for whistleblowers who need protecting so they don’t get shot, damaged by acid, sawn up and other grisly outcomes.
he is a grown up, he can get a job, rent a flat, find a supermarket and buy some groceries. And next time he has sex with a women and the deal/agreement/consent is only with a condom, i suggest he wears a condom.
Can’t give a flying poo about this guy, he can go in the wilderness and stay there. The sooner he gets out of the media, real of fake the better. He has spammed the world long enough.
Hey – Look At my wonderful body
It is a pity that you “Pride Parade” guys and girls, slander the police. You clearly don’t understand the constant Bravery and Service the Police give to the Citizens of New Zealand.
No wonder the significant Businesses of Auckland have withdrawn their support from you – because of your childish attitudes.
Show off and Dance on our streets. Yes. But don’t pretend you are anything like as important as our Police Women and Men. They Lay their Bodies on the line. – Day and Night.
Can’t the police have their own parade? I don’t remember them parading with Pride in the early days, maybe because they didn’t.
Police marched in this year’s parade.
A couple of takeouts from Daniel Andrews’ crushing landslide win for Labor in Victoria.
Voters will overlook any number of missteps in a government if they see that government getting on doing stuff to make their lives better – so knock yourself out National, bang on about Sroubek, Clare Curran, Meka Whaitiri and all the rest of it as much as you like. So long voters think the Coalition is working for them it won’t make any difference.
It’s totally game over for the old Tory trick of promising tax cuts and small government without compromising essential services. Voters have wised up to that bullshit, they know they can’t have both tax cuts and well maintained hospitals, schools and transport and all the other government services. Middlemore Hospital, the WOF debacle, schools maintenance, you name it National is going to get whacked with this.
Infrastructure spending wins votes. Voters in Melbourne, a city bursting at the seams (its population topped 5 milllion earlier this year according to Stats Australia) flocked to Labor on the back of Andrews’ pledge to spend 50 billion dollars on infrastructure and they didn’t much care that some of that money will need to be borrowed.
With crime falling in most western democracies, banging the law and order drum doesn’t work like it used to. Earlier this year Peter Dutton claimed that Victorians were too scared to go out for dinner at night because of gang violence in Melbourne. A ridiculous statement that just seems to have pissed off Melburnians, not least because he’s a Queensland federal MP.
Nathan Guy was pretty unelectable after being sprung doing dodgy deals with developers in his role as the responsible minister when last in power.
Like here they’re getting on with it on an almost gridlocked Melbourne that’s done nowhere near enough on public transport as it zoomed past 5mill a few months ago.
Matthew Guy . . . .
‘Murica – raise $10k, or die.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dsxs93cU8AEkm0J.jpg
In the days before mass immigration the middle classes of Russian, China, Middle East and India would rise up and overthrow their dictators and demand further rights, nowadays, the middle class support them, get a plane ticket out of those countries to places like NZ and the west and leave the tin pot dictators alone, who then use their money to reduce the welfare and rights of small countries like NZ, influence big countries, whose governments are only too keen to take the cash, the loans, and the cheap labour, decrease then educational standards, and pocket the money for their assets to be bought. Sometimes they are so frightened of being ‘racist’ they give them away for free, aka water rights because the laws have been written for that very purpose. Anyone who doesn’t agree is ‘racist’ apparently.
Likewise the mass displacement of the Middle East and Africa of refugees and economic migrants. Guess what, nobody says stop bombing the shit out of those countries and start spending money on making sure that those countries are habitable with enough food and water and resources to support themselves, that is where the debate should be…
nope straight too, where should these people go and making other countries forces secure the oil lines etc?
The people of earth themselves are between rock and a hard place with so many stupid politicians and political strategists and the world’s media owned by the world’s wealthy and sending the same messages of distraction and neoliberalism to further a short term gain and environmental destruction, massive migration for the privileged or desperate.
None of this will turn out well in the end for any of the countries and most of the people and the flora and fauna, but great if your individual goal in life is to own a super yacht, a sports team, gold curtains and more money and houses and assets than you can live in or even manage, and earn that by legal and illegal theft or manipulation of former public assets and resources.
When did the middle classes of Russian, China, Middle East and India rise up?.
I was looking at Karl Marx and petite bourgeoisie yesterday and go the quote below. It seems that the middle classes are not action-oriented for better things for all, rather re-action to protect their standard of living and growing privilege.
When i worked in a solicitor’s office dealing with accident claims before ACC, I didn’t notice them trying to get better law that was helpful and kinder to those who had workplace injuries. He wasn’t into changing anything for that reason.
An interesting piece of theory –
He [Wilhelm Reich] claimed that the middle classes were a hotbed for political reaction due to their reliance on the patriarchal family (according to Reich, small businesses are often self-exploiting enterprises of families headed by the father, whose morality binds the family together in their somewhat precarious economic position) and the sexual repression that underlies it.[5]‘
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petite_bourgeoisie
It seems to me that feminists were majorly middle class and were agitating for better conditions. But they were thinking of themselves and when the
changes happened that suited them with a with some trickle-down to the poorer, disadvantaged, the pressure for change dropped. Things improved and then change slowed, and the ones who needed most, only got a toe-in I think, not a shoe-in.
Point being that the middle classes have never risen up against squat.
They are who they are because of their obeisance to their betters, their contemptible disregard for their lessors, and their continued prosperity relies entirely on maintaining the status quo.
OTOH, peasants…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasant_revolts
Oooh you are so hard joe 90. I think I prefer living in the middle classes and perhaps I am not so good about caring and sharing. Thinks – uncomfortable.
Wrong. The middle class are the swing voters in democracy. (Steriotyping) The poor will vote left no matter what’s happening. The rich will vote right no matter what’s happening. The middle class will react to incompetence buy voting for the opposite, or react to voting bribes. The middle class in self preservation reacts to propaganda.
They rise up at every election. They just don’t march in the streets.
Hence democracy fails in that it never addresses the poor or reigns in the rich. The minority becomes oppressed by the majority.
It never ends well joey, not even in France.
Bloodbath, landslide.
Labour smash the coalition out of the park. That said the Greens did not really increase their vote.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-24/as-it-happened-victorian-election-2018-results/10521290
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-25/victorian-election-winners-and-losers/10544750
S’cuse the ignorance, but since I don’t follow the machinations of Australian politics, I have to ask, – assuming that the Liberal Party is of the full on soggy shit smeared variety, is the Australian Labor Party much more worth or use than slightly and suspiciously soiled toilet paper ?
No.
You should have seen Peta Credlin spinning like a top. You could almost see the wrinkles developing around her mouth
Hi Greywarshark
The bloke Julian Assange threw into the Washington military dungeon turned out to be a sweet young lady. Chelsea.
I hope Assange controls himself and keeps well away from her, – now that she is a respected USA Citizen.
What with Jules going a bit far with his two Swedish female staff – and Trump famous for his ever ready Pussygrope, Chelsea should take lots of care. Always board the right Boeing – Chelsea
in the meantime, Assange is pulling faces at the Ecuador Embassy and generally being the objectionable upstart that he always is.
Hit and Hide – is Jules motto.
Fascinating stuff Observer. This is why i generally keep away from discussing the USA-involved political stuff. It’s a sideshow to keep us from thinking about the serious development stuff we need to concentrate on – the world is a stage, and we need to be actors in our part of it is my certainty. Climate change is changing the scenery.
This is an example of how we can be easily distracted from politics. Start replacing interest in what is happening with entertainment – Punch and Judy anyone?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcE7ppOT_0c
Then on the other hand, can what is being shown in the longer show after the first short excerpt, is from Brighton Beach, UK. indicate an approach that would be right for now for New Brighton beach and pier in Christchurch NZ.
If Brighton, Christchurch could throw a regular event between 1 and 3pm on Saturday afternoons with traditional things like donkey rides, balloons, music, dancing to a youth band, and do it with good publicity for a season, they could boost their economic life.
greywarshark; 100% to that.
Try Napier beach now it has a heavy deep ditch 10 meters off the shoreline, that now has developed super sized ‘undertow” of swirling currents that now knock you off your feet and drag you under.
Several have drowned now from this super sized undertow so yes the beaches are changing dramatically now because of increases in current flow and surrounding sea temperature increases we are told.
Here is piece on Christchurch, New Brighton that shows how well they are doing
and mentions the problems. That beach is one of Christchurch’s assets and
I am sure they will adapt and build jobs and businesses for the locals. Pop-ups for cheaper buildings on shaky ground, with limited investment in a changing coastline for instance. If you are there at Christmas – school holidays give them a visit and fly kites if the wind is right and make sandcastles on real sand on the long beach. And I think there is kite-surfing there.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/100814553/the-long-road-towards-a-new-new-brighton
Kite surfing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBO7dZPMndo
You’re on it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oqohzfA5ZM
Running
Christchurch 10km Series: Sand – NZ Running Calendar
https://www.runningcalendar.co.nz/event/christchurch-10km-series-sand/
Nov 9, 2018 – The first event in the 2019 Christchurch 10km Series has sand and sea at North Beach in New Brighton on Sunday, 20 January.
Christchurch
https://www.christchurchnz.org.nz/news/christchurch-welcomes-a-bumper-summer-of-events/
Nasty power blip. Both UPS blipped. Screen went off for 20 seconds.
Normally my systems don’t blip. It usually means a nasty power outage somewhere in Auckland. Anyone on batteries?
Tripped at te awamutu.
https://www.transpower.co.nz/sites/default/files/interfaces/exn/EXN%20Voltage%20North%20Island%20Te%20Awamutu%20T1%20Tripped%2C%20Hangatiki%202953737450.pdf
System is still fragile due to cook strait HVDC shutdown,and intermittent wind.
Shit Iprent,
We need to put a fund raiser up to buy you a backup battery solar power system?
It has a pretty good UPS system with the server and the network endpoints on it. I check it every 4 months and battery replace every year. It will last about 6-8 hours on fresh batteries. 4-6 when I replace them.
I’m in central Auckland which has been somewhat refurbished power-wise after they blacked or browned me and everyone else out periodically for 3 months in 1998 in a stunning display of the efficiency of greed and deregulation 🙂
Wouldn’t mind some largeish Li-ion or Li-iron. But they need very good control systems – especially in my living room 🙂 I work with large Li-ion in large quantities, so I can tell you that I don’t to see that kind of failure here.
Currently the prices are formidable, but coming down. But in the meantime sealed lead-acid is good enough and cheap enough to keep the site running.
Iprent,
My son has been installing backup solar systems all around HB to Waitako and several lodges and motels with Tesla battery backup systems.
He is buggering off to Germany for a year but has all the data on them.
I am considering one to, but i would like to see the government give some grants for solar like Germany does.
We will wait their move to solar.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12165591
We need to start seriously imposing big fines on these filthy councils ruining our beaches.
From a farm pov this is a notable problem that shows up the city as polluter.
But we are talking here about people pollution, not farm animals. It is obvious that many NZ dairy farms are overstocked and ignoring good husbandry of their animals and their effluent. First step is to control runoff, limit irrigation, and destock numbers.
Similarly with people. The farm-business big-export, big-profit phalanx want to overstock NZ with people who either bring in investment money or are charged for working here at minimal wages. We now have too many people in pockets of concentration, for the modern facilities provided to keep the place healthy and attractive. If you want to reduce city pollution complain to the decision-making people suffering from the hungry tapeworm called super-wealth.
(There appears to be a serious outbreak of some disease which may be parasitic tapeworms – Ingesting the eggs leads to tapeworm larvae growing in many different human tissues, particularly brain and muscle.
https://www.verywellhealth.com/parasitic-infections-of-the-central-nervous-system-2488670)
This would explain why we see such little brain power indicated in poor planning and decision making in the country, and the lack of physical activity driving many of these debilitated people to sit all day playing around with computer models which are supposed to mirror real life, but actually are pale imitations.
You started me off bwaghorn – the above guff is your fault!
So, chemtrails it is.
Scientists are proposing an ingenious but as-yet-unproven way to tackle climate change: spraying sun-dimming chemicals into the Earth’s atmosphere.
The research by scientists at Harvard and Yale universities, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, proposes using a technique known as stratospheric aerosol injection, which they say could cut the rate of global warming in half.
The technique would involve spraying large amounts of sulfate particles into the Earth’s lower stratosphere at altitudes as high as 12 miles. The scientists propose delivering the sulfates with specially designed high-altitude aircraft, balloons or large naval-style guns.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/23/health/sun-dimming-aerosols-global-warming-intl-scli/index.html
From the Exec summary of this months O3/wmo report.
Intentional long-term geoengineering applications that substantially increase stratospheric aerosols to mitigate global warming by reflecting sunlight would alter the stratospheric ozone layer. The estimated magnitude and even the sign of ozone changes in some regions are uncertain because of the high sensitivity
to variables such as the amount, altitude, geographic location, type of injection and the halogen loading. An increase of the stratospheric sulfate aerosol burden in amounts sufficient to substantially reduce global radiative forcing would delay the recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole. Much less is known about the effects on
ozone from geoengineering solutions using non-sulfate aerosols.
Dont need it for the SH.
Science proceeds via experiment. Trial & error. Atmosphere experimentation: if it doesn’t work, just throw it away & get another one. Normal scientific method, as performed by normal scientists.
The Archdruid is usually good on the big picture, and the past year or two he’s been on about faustian culture. Google it gets you this:
“Faustian culture is driven to reach as far as it can in all directions, almost as a virtue in itself. It sees itself as built atop all previous cultures. It dreams of global dominance, and has many senses achieved that but it is unsatisfied. The climb of perpetual progress is an important story to the Faustian man.”
“Faustian Culture began in Western Europe around the 10th century and according to Spengler such has been its expansionary power that by the 20th century it was covering the entire earth, with only a few regions where Islam provides an alternative world view.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decline_of_the_West
Alerts us to why China’s dictator is in rebel mode, eh? Too negligible to even rate a mention. “The use of the word ‘Faustian’ when describing the Western culture Spengler explained by pointing out a parallel between the tragic figure of Faust and the Western world. Just as Faust sold his soul to the devil to gain greater power, the Western man sold his soul to technics.” https://faustianeurope.wordpress.com/2007/07/…/oswald-spengler-and-faustian-cultur…
So there you have it. Techne – modern equivalent of magic – driven toward global transformation by the Promethean power drive in our collective unconscious. Don’t assume atmosphere experiments are merely scientific hubris!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_Weather_Modification_Office
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_modification
Nothing obvious in the way of a substantial advance since I read up on it around seven years ago. Usage would snowball noticeably if the successes cited were generally replicable. The economic rewards would compel that.
Always hard how much credit to give WP but you may have missed the hint to a non-Western culture.
See, SirPonyboy was right all along.That’ll be why he’s positioned himself on the Air NZ board.
Old ‘news’ J90.
Another years old rehashed article…signalling what has already been deployed…
Global Dimming…BBC ran articles about that ‘phenomena’…years ago also..
Which was about the declining amount of solar energy reaching the Earth’s surface, and has zip to do with the article posted.
‘Dimming The Sun’
Article title, that you linked Joe…
The ‘clue’ is in the title of the respective articles which are the ‘same subject’…
If you can’t ‘see’ the relationship…well…I would not be surprised if you’re not reading or understanding what you post about…
Edit: wiki is acceptable for such a reference
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_dimming
Oh do fuck off with your arcane claptrap.
One. Two
You know it all you smart arse. Well get off your bottom and go and fix it, whatever, instead of hanging round here trying to prevent us getting to know about some of the things your great mind has already absorbed. I am just so sick of you lazy geniuses, all talk and no commitment to useful action for the good of humankind.
You have no idea what I do or who I am, GW…so dial it a little bit eh…
If you think my pointing out that J90 was posting rehashed articles, which he has admitted to not actually reading before linking 20.4…then you’re barking up the wrong tree…
On you can be in your own way..same applies to every one of us…
I have every idea what you do on this blog One Two. And what line you take usually – negative.
Seeing that the world is in crisis perhaps you could start lookinhg for ways to aid your fellow humans instead of slagging us off.
Arse. After reading the abstract of the paper referred to in the CNN article I posted, I noted that the CNN article erroneously inferred that the paper was an actual proposal.
So again, do fuck off you supercilious sack of shit, and take your disingenuous drivel with you.
I have every idea what you do on this blog One Two. And what line you take usually – negative. Seeing that the world is in crisis perhaps you could start looking for better ways to aid your fellow humans instead of slagging us off.
By the way this site doesn’t profess to have the latest scientific things, and if you find there is something better, put up the link. Say this might be more up to date don’t criticise us as your first move.
Refer to what is important yourself instead.
Your style as here is not acceptable to me as a serious person worrying about the known problems not being tackled and the unknown ones that are looming.
‘Dimming The Sun’
Article title, that you linked Joe…
The ‘clue’ is in the title of the respective articles which are the ‘same subject’…
If you can’t ‘see’ the relationship…well…I would not be surprised if you’re not reading or understanding what you post about…
Edit: wiki is acceptable for such a reference
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_dimming
Your style here is not acceptable to me…
So instead of dialing it back you’ve doubled down…
GW, if my comments and the syle of them go past you…well..so be it…I don’t write for you…
That you ‘believe’ I see the world as a crisis indicates you don’t comprehend my comments…you’re a long way off the mark…
Your comments read like you have a grudge of some sort…
Move on from it…leave the personal insults to others here…you’re probably better than that…
And after a quick squiz at the abstract, and despite my own flippancy, it looks like CNN clickbait.
The author’s read it as an actual proposal rather than what it is, a pie in the sky assessment.
Abstract
We review the capabilities and costs of various lofting methods intended to deliver sulfates into the lower stratosphere. We lay out a future solar geoengineering deployment scenario of halving the increase in anthropogenic radiative forcing beginning 15 years hence, by deploying material to altitudes as high as ~20 km. After surveying an exhaustive list of potential deployment techniques, we settle upon an aircraft-based delivery system. Unlike the one prior comprehensive study on the topic (McClellan et al 2012 Environ. Res. Lett. 7 034019), we conclude that no existing aircraft design—even with extensive modifications—can reasonably fulfill this mission. However, we also conclude that developing a new, purpose-built high-altitude tanker with substantial payload capabilities would neither be technologically difficult nor prohibitively expensive. We calculate early-year costs of ~$1500 ton−1 of material deployed, resulting in average costs of ~$2.25 billion yr−1 over the first 15 years of deployment. We further calculate the number of flights at ~4000 in year one, linearly increasing by ~4000 yr−1. We conclude by arguing that, while cheap, such an aircraft-based program would unlikely be a secret, given the need for thousands of flights annually by airliner-sized aircraft operating from an international array of bases.
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aae98d/meta
I find your post fascinating Joe. It leads me to wonder what other ways we could turn the sun’s energy back on itself.
We all know how something painted black sucks up heat and something white has a greater tendency to reflect the heat and light.
One of the problems with diminishing snow and ice is that we’re not bouncing as much light and heat back up.
What if every sun struck man made item was white or mirrored? Cars, building roofs, supermarket carparks. Could pasture be genetically modified to be white?
Could we float a bio product on oceans that reflects more light than salt water?
The subject of albedo (reflectivity) is certainly a complex aspect of global warming.
In short, making the artificial surfaces you have control over white (or light green) actually does do quite a bit to reduce warming. To the point I was absolutely astonished when I found out Auckland Council required dark roofs on new construction in at least one semi-rural area.
Grassland is also quite a lot more reflective than forest. Most deserts are more reflective than grassland. In total, the increase in the earth’s reflectivity from land-use changes from human activity counteracts maybe 5% of the global warming from the greenhouse gases we’ve dumped into the atmosphere.
But the big albedo variable that’s still poorly understood is clouds. It’s for sure that a warmer world means more moisture in the atmosphere, which means more clouds, which you would think would reflect more sunlight. But it turns out to be a lot more complicated than that, since they also reflect heat radiated from the earth back down to ground (think how much warmer mornings are after a cloudy night than a clear night). The net effect apparently depends on how high and how thick the clouds are (among other variables).
https://skepticalscience.com/earth-albedo-effect-intermediate.htm
Latent heat is the energy absorbed by or released from a substance during a phase change from a gas to a liquid or a solid or vice versa. … When these gas molecules condense into liquid drops, latent heat is released into the atmosphere which warms the air surrounding the molecule.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_heat
Yeah, that’s part of the complexity of clouds’ net effect on warming. I vaguely recall reading something that came to the conclusion that the height at which the latent heat was released or absorbed was fairly significant from a warming perspective, and that the water-ice transition was still quite important even though the latent heat of fusion is around 1/6 that of evaporation for water.
This is useful information to householders and landscapers too. Different plants have different levels of reflection. Part of reflection is heat energy.
Dark trees absorb more light and heat. Lighter trees reflect more light and heat. Nature does ambient lighting, you just need to be aware what you’re looking at.
Could we float rafts that create shadows and havens for fish and bird life on seas near coastlines. Perhaps over the Australian reefs, and where fisher people live so they can continue their ‘peasant’ fishing culture and diet.
We could float rafts that provide habitat, shelter, and double as phosphate collectors and even oceanic monitoring stations.
In freshwater we could float rafts that grow rampant plants as stock food, meanwhile stripping excess nutrients from water, providing habitat and shade, and with some cunning design, aeration to the surrounding water.
I was knocking up these designs for some NZ lakes when they were deemed to be complete shit holes decades ago. But the policy then was to pretend they weren’t shit holes.
Some such rafts are already in operation here in NZ. They work successfully, but many of our degraded lakes are big. Estuaries are the focus now – the penultimate receiving bodies of all that goes on and in further up the catchment. Silt and nutrient are the big issues, eutrophication the symptom of human carelessness. Unless big tides clear clogged estuaries, there’s not a lot else that can be done; all ideas gratefully received. (Rafts of plants are challenged by brackish waters). Giant sludge-sucking pumps are great science fiction.
In the meantime Paris
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/11/watch-utter-anarchy-champs-elysees-paris-erupts-fiery-protests-fuel-prices/
Diesel has gone up 23% in the last year. Bound to upset the economic system.IIRR
it will go up further.
I think really people need to realize that changes are coming and it does not matter what they burn down in anger.
France has a good public transport system at least in the larger areas and conecting to rural areas of importance.
But there are things to be done, i .e. community cars. Rather then have two / three cars per family, have community cars that are owned by a trust, that are maintained by membership contribution and that people can book in for when they need a car. Take me, i don’t actually need a car, – the little car that i got from my partner when his company gave him a car has served my inlaws when they lost their cars in the big floods a few years ago, then it was driven by the son in law when his car died and he could not afford one, then it was driven by a young lady with three kids who needed a car but could not afford one outright, so she the little old one until she had enough saved up to buy one herself. I haven not missed this car in a year and a half.
We – the people – need to come of our sofas and realise that the gravy years are over. We either want this planet to sustain us, or we can drive in an SUV to hell without a return ticket.
As for the conomic system being upset, it already is.
” the world is a stage” all the world
Greywarshark
I like it when Shakespeare peers over our shoulders – thanks for reminding me!
I am a dullard compared to you writers … but yes – Iwanka taking her laptop home tof fiddle with Trumpian Profundities is very Innocent. Says Daddy.
How Lprent rides the WiFI Surf day in day out- I shall never know. But I admire his alertness and patience.
The Brighton Wharf is long – if i remember correctly. It could be Colourful if we allowed Judith Collins to invite her and her Beijing Comrades to bring the dragons and Balloons down there of a weekend.
China V Canterbury – attacking each other with high diving Kites.
Hey Observer you have found this blog very invigorating for ideas as I have.
Cheers.
Looks like someone has the stones to reel in the data crims.
The UK Parliament invoked a rarely used legal power to compel a US software company to hand over internal Facebook documents that could contain revelations on the run-up to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Damian Collins, MP and chair of the culture, media and sport select committee used a rare parliamentary mechanism to compel the founder of Six4Three to hand over the documents while on a business trip, local media reported on Saturday.
A serjeant was sent to his hotel to issue a final call and communicate a two-hour deadline to comply with the order. British daily The Guardian reported that when the firm founder failed to comply, he was escorted to parliament. Not complying with the request could have led to fines and even imprisonment.
The cache of documents is alleged to include email exchange between senior executives, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckenberg.
“We are in uncharted territory,” Mr Collins, who also chairs an inquiry into fake news, told local media. “This is an unprecedented move but it’s an unprecedented situation. We’ve failed to get answers from Facebook and we believe the documents contain information of very high public interest.”
https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/uk-parliament-seizes-internal-facebook-documents-1.795495
Peter Calder went to check it out: “the Islamic Republic of Iran – is a hypermoralist theocracy in which pornography, prostitution, alcohol, drugs, YouTube, Facebook, and much else besides, is banned, on pain of imprisonment, and corporal or even capital punishment. Yet the population accesses all of them with a quietly exuberant abandon. Defiance, indeed, is the currency of daily life.”
“As the PBS show Frontline reported, Iran is the only state in which the executive branch does not control the armed forces.” “The hijab – a head-covering scarf – remains obligatory, even for tourist women. Meanwhile, the basij, a volunteer auxiliary corps of young men recognisable by their neatly trimmed beards and black clothing, enforce internal security, police morals (they question couples walking together to establish the legitimacy of their relationship) and suppress dissidents and protest gatherings.”
So you can see why some leftists onsite here support Iran in its opposition to Saudi Arabia, eh? That’d be because Trump doesn’t like the Iranian regime. Having to choose between a conservative narcissist and a totalitarian regime, they understandably prefer the latter.
“The exchange rate of the Iranian rial is soaring: the US dollar, worth IRR43,000 in international markets, was fetching 120,000 in early September and 140,000 by the end of the month. A grim joke doing the rounds asked what the dollar is worth. “Do you mean now, now or now?” was the punchline answer. Not since I was in Argentina in the 1970s have I experienced an exchange rate so grotesquely advantaging the visitor as it hammered the locals.”
“Islam is more than a religion; it is a tool of state control. Most Iranians (particularly in urban areas) are not devout, or even practising, Muslims, but admitting as much is fatal to employment prospects.” https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/world/iran-us-sanctions-corrupt-ideologues-defiance/
Iran and Saudi Arabia drive their people to hate each other, and they are about as oppressive as each other. They aren’t the only two choices available.
Brexit looks to be a goer today.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46330380
European Council President Donald Tusk has recommended that the EU approve the Brexit deal at a summit on Sunday.
It comes after Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez received assurances from the UK government over Gibraltar, and dropped his threat to boycott the summit.
He said he had received the written guarantees he needed over Spain’s role in the future of the British territory.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has arrived in Brussels and held talks with top EU officials, ahead of the summit.
The terms of the UK’s withdrawal have been under negotiation since June 2016 following a referendum in which 51.9% voted to leave the EU.
Even if the EU approves the deal, it still has to be passed by the UK Parliament, with many MPs having stated their opposition.
Spain had raised last-minute objections ahead of the summit about how the issue of Gibraltar had been handled in the Brexit talks so far.
But EU leaders secured a compromise with the Spanish prime minister, who said that Europe and the UK “had accepted the conditions set down by Spain” and so would “vote in favour of Brexit”.
Mr Tusk, who represents EU leaders on the world stage, said he recommended “that we approve on Sunday the outcome of the Brexit negotiations” in a letter to members of the European Council.
He added: “No-one has reasons to be happy. But at least at this critical time, the EU 27 has passed the test of unity and solidarity.”
The political declaration, which sets out what the UK and EU’s relationship may be like after Brexit – outlining how things like UK-EU trade and security will work.
The EU withdrawal agreement: a 585-page, legally binding document setting out the terms of the UK’s exit from the EU. It covers the UK’s £39bn “divorce bill”, citizens’ rights and the Northern Ireland “backstop” – a way to keep the border with the Republic of Ireland open, if trade talks stall.
There is no formal vote on Sunday but the EU expects to proceed after reaching a consensus.
Hi Cleangreen
Dumb as I am, may I ask what good Merry England is going to do by snubbing its snotty nose at the accomplished EU. ?
We all know that Brits think themselves the bees knees and have the answer to everything under the Sun. But I have a feeling that the Boris Johnsons – and the Farrages will do well and the glory tories- but the rest of the UK will be living off sweet nothing.
Scotland and Ireland will do well. Because they are not stupid like the grumbling Brits. Hopefully the Welsh will ditch the mad Poms too.
Observer Tokoroa; – Ouch! – I married a pom 42 years ago and she’s been o/k.
I good mate I reckon, am I lucky?
I find that the EU was to hard on Greece and they are dictatorial after they allowed Greece borrow so much private funding to develop there infrastructure and went bust on foreign capital .
we are similarly exposed like Greece too.
Actually we still don’t know who we have borrowed $60 Billion from do we?
Goldman Sachs was the agent that Greece used and they are a shifty lot too.
I worry when the next GFC comes around what will happen to all those ‘cling-ons” new smaller states to the EU.
Some are very shaky, especially the eastern side of Europe, like Hungary and Romania and some others.
Time will tell.
Actually, in NZ we are in a much more secure situation than Greece. The problem for Greece is that it uses a ‘foreign’ currency in the Euro and must therefore stay on good terms with the ECB and other European institutions. Unfortunately for Greece good terms means agreeing to aggressive Austerity demands and other economic ‘reforms’. Despite IMF forecasts for a quick recovery these reforms caused a 25% shrinkage in the Greek economy and 20% unemployment rate and will negatively influence the Greek economy for more than a decade.
In return for this (and probably against the letter of the ECB legislation) the ECB has been supporting the Greek government by maintaining a lowish interest rate on Greek government debt and allowing them not to default. The ECB is also doing this for other Euro countries.
In NZ however our parliament ultimately controls our central bank (which can do the same kinds of things as the ECB does) and so if push comes to shove NZ will never experience such problems of being bullied economically by higher level institutions. The UK is similar to NZ in that it also controls its Bank of England meaning the exchequer ultimately calls the shots for the UK. Not that this prevents self inflicted economic pain, as George Osborne caused when he (predictably, it was predicted) turned a single dip recession into a triple dip recession through mindless austerity policies. However I think the conservatives soon realized that running the economy into the ground with ideologically driven Austerity policies was going to be bad for their chances of re-election. At that point they kept talking up all the austerity they were doing, but basically stopped doing it.
Ultimately the important question seems to be if this stuff is controlled by elected representatives or if the elected representatives have to answer to un-elected institutions.
Telescreens, anyone?
Amazon’s Alexa probably won’t admit there was a murder in her home, but the data she stores on the company’s servers might tell a different story.
An Amazon Echo, the device that houses the company’s Alexa AI, in the kitchen of a Farmington, N.H., home is at the heart of a double murder trial. Earlier this month, a judge ordered partial records of that device be released.
Prosecutors believe there may be recordings of the stabbings of two women from January 2017. Amazon has not yet said if it would release the information.
“I think this is the beginning of the ‘internet of evidence’ where lots of pieces of smart devices are going to show up in criminal prosecutions,” Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, author of The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement, told Day 6.
https://t.co/DZk9GcH7K2
Scoop needs us. It is ready to go further as a community NZ owned news service.
https://www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/5837-scoop-3-0-crowdsale-and-crowdfunding-campaign
What’s with the lack of produce in the supermarket lately?
Thanks Cleangreen
I am glad you are pleased with your lovely Girl. She is a Treasure.
Although I am of British stock I do not trust the Parliament of the Uk.
It exists for the very Wealthy. Not for the Many.
Perhaps one day the Brits may realise that Equality and Fraternity are better than a sham toy Parliament.
Again thanks Cleangreen
Kia ora The Am Show the jail term for dairy dack is just a political stunt by national there is no thought about what is good for people just what floats there toilet polls.
Last year all the retailers were advertising chrismas a the start of October this year they have not even started. Just like the work being done on the inter Island power cables being carried out at the start of summer instead of a few months earlier when the Hydro lakes are full. ?????????.
My Huawei phone got the signal fine I was not going to com on this subject till I heard Azzes make his statement .
simon your m8 has moved to Bali .
So long as the new Australian Governments combat climate change that’s the big picture Jason I will be doing a post on what the dozens of ex judges are calling for in Australia anti white collar corruption force nearly all the carbon lobbyist are ex mps a big conflicted of interest there hence all the problem in the Australian governments lobbyist should be banned all around the world .
The santa issue is just some man grandstanding the topic of Equality and everyone has fallen for the neo anti Equality mens tricks.
Who wrote those word for you Mark Communism is just a word nowadays used to trash socialism whats so wrong with the wealthy shearing there billions of lollies with common poor people so they get a house and not a bridge he tangata he tangata.
Yes we need a cabon tax and use the tax to of set the price of clean energy like Norway . Its cool that we have a lot of people buying electric cars in Aotearoa now.
I agree its stupid not rolling out a electric Car subsidy when we import most of our oil come on . Ka kite ano
This is a Wahine whos actions speak as loud as her word and a Mana Wahine I will tau toko her ka pai
Sweden’s then deputy prime minister remained enigmatic as the picture went viral and she was asked whether she had been “trolling” the US president. “It is up to the observer to interpret the photo,” she was quoted as saying. “We are a feminist government, which shows in this photo.”
Lövin is one of the leading figures in what she says is a resurgence in environmentally conscious politics across the continent. “There is a green wave going on in Europe, in Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium, and in Finland as well,” she says. “I’m convinced that green parties offer a positive vision, and also the willingness to take on the huge challenges that we see in the world right now.” Ka kite ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/24/isabella-lovin-trolled-trump-swedish-minister-climate-change-mission-fishing-ban
Dozens of former judges urge Scott Morrison to set up anti-corruption watchdog
Arguing that existing federal integrity agencies “lack the necessary jurisdiction, powers and know-how to investigate properly the impartiality and bona fides of decisions made by, and conduct of, the federal government and public sector” .
Greed drive the carbon barons to propagandize lie and cheat so they can keep poisoning our Grandchildren’s future with carbon. link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/25/dozens-of-former-judges-urge-scott-morrison-to-set-up-anti-corruption-watchdog
The Nationals’ WA branch similarly failed to respond when asked why it failed to declare the $20,000 donation from Mineral Resources.
The iron ore miner confirmed it had given a $20,000 bank cheque to the Nationals in March last year, around the time of the state election. But a spokesman said the company made donations to all sides, not just the Nationals. Its donations to Labor and the Liberals were declared properly.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/26/major-parties-failed-to-declare-corporate-donations-electoral-commission-finds
More than half of all Australian lobbyists previously worked inside government or for the major political parties, with one in four staffing the offices of ministers, parliamentary secretaries or backbenchers.
Guardian Australia has investigated the backgrounds of all 483 individuals listed on July’s federal lobbyist register, checking each for a history in federal or state government, either as politicians, political staffers, party officials or public servants.
Australia’s lax lobbying regime the domain of party powerbrokers
Read more
The analysis, believed to be the first of its kind, reveals 255 lobbyists, or 52.8%, have a previous history within government or political party hierarchies.
It also revealed one in four lobbyists have worked as staffers – policy advisers, chiefs of staff, or electorate or media officers – to Australian politicians. Ka kite ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/sep/16/in-the-family-majority-of-australias-lobbyists-are-former-political-insiders
Kia ora Newshub Its cool that the District Health is upping the wages of there low paid workers .
Lloyd nice scarf .
Changing the WOF to 12 months was a fool of a move we don’t have nice flat straight 2 lane roads like they do overseas hence 6 monthly WOF .
Well thats shocking all these surgical devices being sold to Kiwis and they have not been tested wtf the people who make these thing are playing Russian roulette with Kiwi lives .
trump will be a bigger fool if he lets the ICE shoot those refugees at there Mexico boarder .
Ollie Ka pai to Scott for his win on the Super Car .
Ka kite ano
Kia ora The Crowd Goes Wild congrats to Mikayla and Brodie for there prizes .
Storm that was a good win for Scott.
Yes you cant do that to the Ranfurly Shield .
I liked his acting as Muhammad Ali Will that is that’s a cool movie they don’t make em like they use to.
Jen Hackman is a cool actor.
I say a golf game between Barak and trump would be cool
Good win King .
Ka kite ano Some countrys don’t no how to be good host guys