Time for New Zealand to assert its independence from foreign superpowers.
“Twenty-nine academics, researchers and human rights advocates have written an open letter to Jacinda Ardern in support of China critic and Canterbury University politics professor Anne-Marie Brady.
“We have been shocked and disturbed by the reports of intimidation and harassment suffered by Professor Anne-Marie Brady,” the letter said.
“Attempts to intimidate and harass one academic in New Zealand have implications for freedoms of all the others – and indeed, for the freedoms of all who live here.”
The group also urged the prime minister to “make a clear statement in defence of academic freedom” in light of the case and to be “very clear that any intimidation and threats aimed at silencing academic voices in this country will not be tolerated”.
Damn right. Prof Brady: “The Education Act requires all political leaders and government agencies to protect and defend our academic freedom and uphold the critic and conscience role of the academic. So I do my job, and I expect the government to do their job.”
A spokesperson for the prime minister said she supported and defended the legal right to academic freedom, as set out in law. “The matters contained in this letter are under investigation by the police and it is not appropriate to comment on them before the investigation is finished.” But Prof Brady said the investigation was over, and the issue was now in the government’s hands. [RNZ]
So another Schrodinger’s Cat situation. The police investigation is over and is not over simultaneously. Truth lies somewhere between the two? Could be the PM’s spokesperson is misrepresenting the situation?
Perhaps someone will open the box and report whether the Cat is really alive or dead. And if the truth is that a police report must be written and obtained by the PM before the truth can be ascertained by her, the slowly-grinding wheels of public service bureaucracy will probably ensure that she goes to the xmas break none the wiser. Her relief at not having to do her job will probably be considerable! Will Chinese agents successfully eliminate Professor Brady while we wait?
Andrews actually went into the campaign beset by a number of controversies in his Victorian Labor Party but voters seem to have responded to his plans for major infrastructure spending across the state. And of course, all those Labor campaign billboards of state Liberal leader Guy hanging out with Peter Dutton, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison helped.
There is a new game in town. Well, in America. Combining both waste and storm water for treatment, treated waters are redirected to spreading basins where they can percolate into the land and recharge aquifers.
While these methods are land intensive, they bring up some points worth noting.
We have done nothing towards recharging aquifers, despite corporate entities showing it is liquid gold.
2. We have significant wastewater resources in both rural and urban settings that contain revenue streams, we have not tapped these, namely: water for irrigation, composts for agriculture, biogas for power.
The resources are right there waiting for some government body to wake up. NZ water revenue should be returned, 100%, to NZ. The revenue generated can pay for improvements to water treatment and storm water diversion. Here we need to think big, but on a catchment by catchment basis.
In 2017 391 billion litres of bottled water were sold.
Billions, that’s what we are giving away. Take it back and get NZ on track.
There is an aquifer-recharge project being “scoped” in Southland, at Five Rivers, where it is proposed river water be “directed” into a depleted aquifer. In theory, the water will be taken at high flow, but I’ve concerns about the mixing of previously seperate “waters”, especially in light of their bacterial (and nitrogenous) make-up; natural filtering and time can clean surface water before it gets into an aquifer and this “direct injection” through reverse bore, will result in an “unnatural” introduction of pathogens, potentially. Of course, it may be that there’s no problem, but if successful there, other farming operations might see potential to fill their own aquifers with flood water, say, and be able to irrigate at a greater rate and thereby, intensify their farming operations. Mike Joy wouldn’t be a supporter, I’m guessing. I know there’s a lot of natural river/aquifer interaction in many cases, but it seems to me these geo-engineering jobs don’t always pan out well (if ever). All in my opinion, naturally 🙂
Wetlands are spreading basins. They could also be for tourism, aquaculture, ornithology, duck season, boating, walking, education…
The idea of topping aquifers from river flow is insane. We get our highly polluted shit and run it into our pristine sources. Then our potential for $ per litre goes down to parts of a cent per litre for shitty irrigation. How is that a good thing?
We need to stop falling over ourselves to accommodate farmers. Why build such an obviously shitty system? Farmers… that’s all.
Farmers should be playing a large part in recharging groundwater, but no, they merely take it. Imagine if we were to do something as simple as put floodgates at storm culverts letting the drainage systems of the country fill before overflowing (same flow capacity as it is governed by diameter of pipes under roads). All of a sudden the entire countryside is holding and percolating water after storm events. And that’s just getting started. Add swales and ponds…
Those stormwater drains, it makes no difference if they’re full or empty, except, when full they replenish the land, and are vast potential aquaculture infrastructure.
Who is it ‘scoping’ five rivers? They need a boot up the ass.
Well now, I couldn’t have said it like that, could I 🙂
Because there was such a hue and cry about “visible” dammed/damned water storage proposed by farmers in, especially North Canterbury, the industry has looked for hidden opportunities and aquifer recharge occurred to them. Have you done any work on the biology of aquifers? There’s living creatures down in them cold, dark waters! They probably won’t enjoy a dose of what their surface-dwelling cousins have to put up with .
A subterranean cave was explored by Charles Mitchell and some peers. They discovered sixty year old kokopu that had no food source. They’d lived purely through minerals ingested from water. Blind, albino kokopu.
One ‘silly idea’ I’ve had for Canterbury is to follow the Hawaiian example and run a tunnel through the mountain range taking west coast excess water to Canterbury.
Who was opposed to water bodies in Canterbury? Was it a large dam, or on farm ponds? I reckon turning the region into a monoculture desert is ugly enough, and ponds and plantings would improve the place. But what do I know.
Years ago “think big style” with electricity it was decided to redirect high flow water going into other waterway systems into the Taupo water system. So it’s gravitational potential energy could best be utilised.
There is no reason why your idea, that has been proposed for many rears, cannot be a reality.
Tunnel boring machines in the 1meter diameter range are cheap and you could create a little team of people running a site, creating a tube from one side to the other. The rock waste can be used in civil engineering.
If a big earthquake happens and the tube gets ruined, you accept it as part of reality, you then go in and fix it.
Making farms more productive because of water supply, because they become more drought resistant, or crops get water at the correct time of their life cycle. When farmland produces more from increasing the efficient use of sunlight everything is a benifit.
They absorb more CO2.
The farms Eco systems benifit.
If the farm is more efficient, profitable, it can invest in projects were fence to drain distances increase, a small area of trees and a wetland can be added, etc.
They can invest in environmental solutions. A farm of 100Ha doing mainstream farming can decide to try a few Ha in some radical new way, with the intent of lowering urea use, or improving production due to animal health benifits rather than off farm inputs. Diets creating less methane, plants that result in less nitrate leaching, etc etc.
The no to everything for farming is the wrong approach, and bringing water from the west coast as part of solving water issues should have happened decades ago.
Auckland city steals the Wiakato systems water for example. That happened because it was a good idea.
Are you on the turn @DJ?
Not too many days/weeks ago, you were coming in here as just another pompous trolling git.
These days……reading your thoughts and contributions is worthwhile
I saw something interesting by DJ the other day. Looked like real thought and not knee jerk stuff. Mmmm. You can’t be sure about anything these days. Grizzle.
That’s too far-fetched for me to believe 🙂
That said, we discovered a dog who’d been trapped in a glasshouse for 6 weeks over winter (hail and snow) without food, seemingly, who lived, though very thin (she went in plump). Curiously, there was no dog poo on the ground 🙂
Obscene profits being made (taken off NZ for private concerns).
A rich asshole I know was jizzing over these profits a decade ago as National came in. The Nats and their donors were in there like a shark feeding frenzy.
We have the Central Inceptor at a cost of $1.2b
Yet in a time of where “user Pays” still exists where greenfield developments have to provide infrastructure at the cost of the new locals and when these developments will have additional rates applied to pay for their infrastructure https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12159099 https://www.watercare.co.nz/About-us/News-media/Central-Interceptor-one-step-closer-to-start-date
Why do these wealthy inner city areas expect the rest of Auckland to pay for solutions to THEIR waste water issues ?
They already have the best public transport service available, subsidised by all rate payers. And as they are increasingly serviced e.g. new rail link, the value of their properties increase, yet they make no additional contributions for this.
“During wet weather the central wastewater network currently overflows to local waterways and the Waitematā Harbour at more than 100 locations and to the north-eastern Manukau Harbour at 14 locations. The Central Interceptor is expected to reduce the volume of overflows by over 80 per cent.”
Sounds really good. Not comprehensive but it is a large improvement.
I’m guessing actinobacteria are still the major issue in biological treatment (clumping), however, am very pleased they’ve not gone the silly chemical sanitation route, which produces treated yet unusable water. The clumping could be used for solids removal and processing as solid compost making the water treatment a lot easier. I’ve seen similar on a farm where solids were taken out before effluent ponding, the solids becoming compost. The Farmer could not get enough of the compost though it sat for a year and let the worms have at it to finish.
The composts from these processes can then feed non-edible crops to make them removed from human consumption/western sensibilities e.g. timber crops.
Exactly Herodotus, are the developers in particular those that are contributing the most to wastewater pollution with large high rises, are not being charged a new levy for ‘user pays’ with new builds for pollution and wastewater, as because as you rightly say, they are also getting the cream of public transport money too.
And often the inner city apartments are not good options for Kiwi families who sound like they are one of the poorest demographics now. But new builds and in particular apartments are open to be speculated on by the world’s wealthy as they are exempt from the OIA.
Meanwhile the poor on the outer city limits with no or few public transport options are forced to pay the petrol tax that the mostly inner/central city folks are largely exempted from for commuting to work or university.
Of course getting to the airport is a priority for work and holidays which is why that is PRIORITY number one for public transport. We can’t let the politicians get stuck in traffic going to Wellington or Phil Goff’s trip to China or expect them to pay an airline levy for the public transport link that Auckland ratepayers are expected to pay for.
Rampant development around beaches and more and more run off from roads are having a horrible effect.
Long Bay (rampant development) was the only beach to experience a more extreme red alert last summer with a reading of 810 enterococci/100ml taken on New Year’s Day after heavy rainfall.
Apparently…
“Recent historical data for the water quality of our swimming beaches is not available for comparison.
North Shore City Council stopped routine monitoring in 2008 because it was confident of its ability to identify water quality issues after analysing the previous 10 years worth of data.
Auckland Council resumed water quality testing on the North Shore last November because it felt there was an inconsistent approach to water safety across the city.”
I think the shell fish has also been effected around Long Bay regional park area, but any media about the pollution is quickly pulled. The developer seems to be able to keep it out of the media, surprise surprise.
P>S> hope those that once believed that the new housing was necessary for affordable housing for Kiwis, are now able to comprehend that allowing new builds to be sold and speculated around the world, firmly puts a stop to that idea and they are instead a way to do a Natz and keep the lazy economy moving within the Ponzi, while making the Kiwis who are rate payers pay for it and the residents and future generations pay for it with increased pollution and loss of quality of life, and new charges being dreamed up, for anything from petrol to wastewater around the city .
If we use this new diversion drain (central interceptor), AND capture roof water for gardens, we might actually cope in Auckland. Road runoff could be diverted more creatively too. Some to wetlands, some to industry…
Took the girls to the Santa Parade over in Richmond yesterday.
What kind of flag is that mum? They asked as a ‘redneck’ float went past.
That’s the confederate flag, it’s a symbol of white people using black people for slaves in the USA.
Woah, why is it in the parade mum?
Because, it was on the roof of a popular ‘redneck’ race car in a 1980’s TV series, which made a whole generation relate that flag to nothing else but two men and a Chrysler.
Some might say people are going PC mad, others might say we need to learn about real history rather than the Dukes of Hazard.
Was wondering if anyone else noticed….. looks like they did…PS the beer cans were tacky as.
“Because, it was on the roof of a popular ‘redneck’ race car in a 1980’s TV series, which made a whole generation relate that flag to nothing else but two men and a Chrysler.”
I think you kind of nailed it on the head here
I would think there are quite a lot of people who just aren’t aware of the fairly recent controversy around it, as they just don’t take a huge amount of interest in current US cultural issues.
They do just associate it with TDoH and that is what they got brought up as to what the flag represents. Personally I don’t actually put any blame on them, US events can sometimes be exceedingly dull and have zero relevance to NZ
Slight side point
Pretty sure the car was a Dodge Charger. Chrysler was the Aussie version.
Chrysler was owned by Dodge and the Dodge shared some structure, but it was a different shape etc.
The parent company was Chrysler right from the beginning in the 1920s up until the merger/bailout/buyout by Fiat a few years ago. The Dodge name was acquired not long after startup, and a bunch of other brands like De Soto, Plymouth, Imperial etc were acquired/created, used for a while, then killed/sold. Chrysler also got involved in various games of Big Boy’s Monopoly in buying and selling other car companies around the the world, such as the Rooted Group that was responsible for atrocities such as the Hillman Scavenger …
mmmm @ Andre.
I saw you more in a black Super Snipe.
It had that really really huge bonnet ahead of its steering wheel and some serious straight in-line cylinders. It was mainly driven by those that had reason (such as a J Toebes – gone but not forgotten).
But then it had many others who could only pretend and tryhard jobbie jobbie to emulate
Chris T is correct, and to give some context to the Dukes Of Hazard the car was named the General Lee and the thing they were celebrating was Lee being a “rebel”, and so were the Dukes. There’s also Billy Idols song Rebel Yell which refers to the shouts of the confederate army when going into battle. Of course we know better now, I see trucks with the flag all the time, either that or a Jim Beam flag, I doubt they put much thought into it other than it “looks cool”. Watch the TV series Atlanta which cleverly takes the piss out of southern racists.
I don’t think there is a “fairly recent controversy” over it. There’s been negative connotations surrounding that flag for decades.
I also find it difficult to reconcile that a bunch of people would openly parade around with that flag looking nothing like DoH and not have a second thought about how they come across.
The USA is our default godfather don’t you know, just listen to the news from RadioNZ every day, what other country gets the same coverage? And their citizens are a dime a dozen around the country. Free to enter almost at will and probably easy residency though few would give up their own States citizenship. They like having the best of both worlds, maybe ‘to have their cake and eat it too’.
Ain’t that the truth @ Greywarshark.
They’re probably the lowest of the low on that demographic immigration spreadsheet – oops, I meant ‘best practiced risk analysis’ immigration criteria reference’, just next to mother Britain and slightly above a Canadian.
I’m not exactly sure of the weightings or where the Okkers rank.
As for giving up their own States citizenship, I have a close relative who has now lived far more of his life in NuZull than the Greatest Nation on Earth. He even has one of those ONZ or Merity trinkets. Trying to renounce US citizenship was like being placed on a charge of treason.
I’m saying yes, he wanted to renounce his US citizenship. He no longer felt any sort of affinity with the place and had become more than disillusioned with its policies overseas (not that he ever publicly stated them). Most of his US based relatives had already karked it.
I think he retains dual citizenship to this day – the threats of tax audits and various other hurdles meant renouncing it just wasn’t worth it.
Oh, and to clarify…..I meant that non-US, non-Canadian, non-Brit dontcha know immigrants figure on the best practice risk analysis reference crib sheet whilst, as you suggest, the US citizen is automatically an asset and due for a rubber stamp on the PR application.
Anyway if you want people not fly those flags then a start, is to get people of NZ to understand history.
Because at present there is a dumbing down the NZ education system for arts and reducing tertiary departments for the arts, discouraging people to study the arts in NZ (apart from Law of course when we have all manner of fascists operating because they have no understanding of history, let alone morals), removing resources for the arts aka libraries, undermining history of western and local history at government and council level in real terms apart from surface representation with no real deep understanding of history, art and culture from different view points.
No floats from Hawera, far out those ‘lions’ really did my head in.
Am pretty sure both of those float theme’s came from similar generations.
There is a lack of diversity in Richmond, which results in a lack of understanding especially when it comes to different cultures. Tunnel vision as. Spot the brown person. You get the picture.
I know at the local school here in Motueka, they do learn about many different cultures. This is in part due to such diversity within the students and families here. And it’s awesome. It makes a huge difference, it really does, one of the reasons this white girl moved her little family here.
Absolutely get where you are coming from SaveNZ re history/culture/arts knowledge of different view points etc.
Western MSM expose their own total lack of integrity and pretense of being institutions of fair and balanced reporting through their own deafening silence in the defense of the creator of the most effective whistle blower delivery system the world has ever seen..
ON CONTACT: CRUCIFYING JULIAN ASSANGE
Chris Hedges and Joe Lauria, journalist and editor-in-chief, Consortium, discuss efforts to force WikiLeaks publisher, Julian Assange, out of the Ecuador Embassy in London and extradite him to the USA to stand trial.
Yes it is a very sad indictment on western ‘liberial’ media including our own RNZ that nearly all the (now former) heroes of western reportage Robert Fisk, John Pilger, Seymour Hersh, Glenn Greenwald etc are all now effectively barred from having a voice on any of the outlets that used to champion them, we really are living is a Orwellian period of, half truths and out right lies.
love him or not, bomber bradbury being banned (alliteration!), from rnz the panel is another example.
i heard the segment when it was broadcast, and yes, twas bombastic.
i couldn’t disagree with him and found it refreshing to hear that attitude put so forthrightly.
Evidence-based public policy often uses science as basis, and science often uses stats. Don’t assume stats are reliable. Those commissioning research are inclined to try to leverage the outcome:
“A stunning report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine concludes that researchers often make “inappropriate requests” to statisticians. And by “inappropriate,” the authors aren’t referring to accidental requests for incorrect statistical analyses; instead, they’re referring to requests for unscrupulous data manipulation or even fraud.”
“The authors surveyed 522 consulting biostatisticians and received sufficient responses from 390. Then, they constructed a table (shown below) that ranks requests by level of inappropriateness. For instance, at the very top is “falsify the statistical significance to support a desired result,” which is outright fraud. At the bottom is “do not show plot because it did not show as strong an effect as you had hoped,” which is only slightly naughty.”
My supervisor was dead set against me removing data that could be dubious in case it also removed the result. I did it anyway as science idealistically is about getting to the truth of a thing, not a convenience. Had to argue black and blue to get things done ‘properly.’
This was UoA, 2016.
The result was that my result was that much stronger, even with a smaller data set. It really annoyed me when he tried to stifle my enthusiasm for getting to the crux of things. I’d prefer no result to a BS result, any day.
Yeah, me too. Doing college science in the sixties, we were taught never to eliminate anomalous data points, always put them on the graph even if miles away from the trend line makes them look wacky. Authenticity.
So you can imagine how I felt when reading the Climategate emails, seeing actual professors agreeing to remove outliers so they could defeat climate deniers more convincingly!! They say the end justifies the means. History shows that everyone slides down a slippery slope into evil if they use that attitude.
Sometimes outliers should be clearly taken out (a female in an all male dataset on muscle power) and some should be left in (Bill Gate’s income clearly belongs to a dataset about American incomes) … or not, depending on the point of the analysis.
Sometimes the answer is clear about what to do and sometimes it’s not clear which way to go (Does Peter Thiel’s income belong in a dataset about NZer’s incomes?). Usually, if you’re stuck not knowing what to do then analyse with and without outliers and see what difference it makes (and present both answers if there are clear differences).
Unfortunately, people want clear cut answers and sound nibbles – equivocation is taken as a weakness.
Reminds me of the Stanford prison experiment, which as far as I can see had no real concret ‘scientific’ results to speak of , but nonetheless was ( and probably still is) used as some sort of meaningful insight to human behaviour under certain conditions.
I just went to remind myself, and the wiki account has a bunch of interesting nuances. Critics make valid points, but I still agree with Zimbardo’s thesis. Human nature is indeed context-driven. Warping via context can be designed.
” but I still agree with Zimbardo’s thesis. Human nature is indeed context-driven. ”
I too agree completely with that thesis, this was the point I was trying to make with a producer from RNZ during an email exchange earlier in the year, her position was, we give people the stories they want to hear, so (according to her) people are more interested in peoples stories/lives from France or the USA than they are of people in Africa/Asia or the Middle East, to which I responded, people would be concerned or interested in other peoples lives and interests of any country in the World if those peoples lives were contextualised, given form and substance, a privilege that RNZ rarely gives to these ‘other’ people…so in fact the editorial decisions of RNZ becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
Russell was the first thinker I stumbled across and liked ( probably because of his support of Muhammad Ali ) when I was a angry young 14 or 15 yo punk, I somehow found an audio of his debate with Father Frederick C. Copleston, it was a pivotal moment for me, there was something about the way these two thinkers with completely opposing concepts of reality sparred with an intellectual grace that greatly impressed me at the time, and still does.
I think Grey’s point was that good manners and a bit of grace in a genuine debate between intellectually mature people is as rare as a flying Dodo and a flying Moa doing air-acrobatics in your backyard.
That remark wasn’t being sarcastic or pointed at you Adrian – it was a great phrase that I liked the sound of and would like to aspire to. So there is no problem at all. We have enough already without misunderstanding each other. Sorry about that.
And ianmac you have also expressed yourself well. Very funny. The blog has been very interesting lately.
The data are unreliable, the stats are unreliable, the scientists are unreliable and thus so-called evidence-based public policy is unreliable? Is that your message, Dennis? So, we might as well flick a coin to make important decisions? An almost 50% chance of getting it right?
Things aren’t that bad. Yet. I think it signals a trend that has serious implications for public policy formulation. Reliance on stats is no longer a good idea. There’s still quite a prevalent tendency for folks to have blind faith in scientists. Sceptical appraisal makes more sense now.
The other thing to learn from this study is the extent to which motivation is likely to warp the findings of scientists. Climate science has exposed that too, but admissions from so many researchers that they had been offered inducements to produce suitable results indicates the likelihood of a proportion of acceptance.
Since those who take the money are unlikely to admit doing so, we can only speculate on that proportion. The bottom line is that truth and reality are not the only factors incentivising scientific discoveries: we now have good reason to suspect that some such are fake news. Which is where the scientific discipline of replication comes in. Such discoveries become reliable when confirmed by other researchers operating independently. Initial discoveries ought to be regarded as provisional. Of course, the media will ignore that need for caution.
I do struggle a little with the ambiguous term “scientific discovery” but can’t formulate a decent argument for discussion right now except to say that provisional findings make for poor public policy or (better) not at all. Maybe another time.
White women are a conservative force in the USA: “white women voters overwhelmingly threw their support behind conservative Republican male candidates. Again. They did it for President Trump, who won an estimated 53 percent of the white female vote in 2016. And they did it with Roy Moore, accused of sexually predatory behavior, in Alabama’s special Senate election last year.” https://www.vogue.com/article/white-women-voters-conservative-trump-gop-problem
““Our perception that white women are going to vote the way ‘we’ think they should has been proven false over and over again,” Elizabeth Gillespie McRae, historian and author of Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy, tells Vogue. She points to white women’s historic role in upholding racial segregation, from campaigning against the United Nations (on the grounds that it would upend the racial divide) to rallying against school integration after Brown v. Board of Education, including leading the charge against busing black students to new districts. The Confederate monuments that have caused so much modern-day controversy, McRae adds, were often funded by white women’s organizations, prior to the 19th Amendment.”
“The latest gut punches, courtesy of CNN polling: In the Georgia governor’s race, an estimated 75 percent of white women—more even than white men!—voted for Republican Brian Kemp, who is passionately pro-life, over Stacey Abrams, a staunch protector of women’s reproductive rights, while 97 percent of black women supported her. In Texas, 60 percent of white women cast their ballots for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, a supporter of alleged assaulters President Trump and Brett Kavanaugh, over Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is dedicated to improving women’s health care. (Ninety-four percent of black women backed O’Rourke.)”
@ Dennis Frank. Interesting juxtaposition between your post on 6, showing how statistics are being manipulated with your post 7 suggesting that an estimated white women voted 53% in 2016 for Trump (also suggests that estimated 47% white women did not vote for Trump). Then add in voters who did not vote, any statistical error and based on who identifies as ‘white’ and who identifies as a ‘women’. Not sure what the point of your post of 7 is, actually? would be more interesting if you had the entire estimated voting gender/ethnicity.. otherwise what is the point of it especially as it seems like your selected demographic of ‘white women’ is actually pretty even between Trump and not voting for Trump (if that was the point of the statistic).
It actually shows that relying on identity politics in politics is probably not a good idea.. people are voting on their perception of who they think is the better candidate.. and going on about reproductive rights aka abortion, to christians might not be a good idea..
75% identified as Christian in US in 2015. But the number is dropping fast.
107:100 boys:girls, so close to half of them female.
> 60% white.
> 325 million Americans.
325 x 0.6 x 0.5 x 0.75 = approx 73 125 000 white christian women voters in US.
Churches with patriarchal bias = pretty much all of them.
1 Timothy 2:12 “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be silent.”
Or this gem
Ephesians 5:22 “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.”
Anyone with half a heart only has to read that cursed book to reject it.
Brainwashing in US however, runs very deep. All that patriotism doesn’t leave much room for grey matter. Republicans, like our own right w(h)ingers, love repugnant rhetoric espousing them as natural leaders. Here’s another pearl of wisdom from the ‘good book’.
1 Peter 2:18 “Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.”
Here’s some breakdown of beliefs and political affiliation. Actual proportions of each religion would be nice to have as well.
the scary one is “Sources of guidance on right and wrong”
Republicans use religion to guide them 44% of the time, science 6%. Religion to guide them in their sexist racist homophobic genocidal ways. Science because Space Force!
Thanks WtB. I thought you were green, but you come in many colours like Josephs coat I see. The saying religiously-related applying to me:
‘The Lord loves a tryer’. Thanks for the help with the maths.
I was just reporting the Vogue writer’s framing (women voting against their common interests) but I agree with you that identity politics is unreliable. Stats are equally so. One could likewise argue that the conservative women identify with their husbands, their class interests, their skin colour etc…
Next May’s European elections will be pretty interesting as a real stress test for anti-immigration populism.
Here comes Yanis Varoufakis for EU Parliament, proposing to represent …………. Germany.
Yesterday he accepted the nomination on behalf of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), which he launched in 2016 to “democratize” the continent. He calls it the European Spring, after the Arab Spring.
My son is leaving to work again in Germany so I will report to you what the mood is over there now as when Sam (my Son) was in Germany working last during 2005 to 2006 he said then that Arabs/Turks and others were coming in and locals were fearful then to walk the streets at night so interesting times indeed.
Not unusual or recent my wife and I took a stroll in Southern French city in early 90s and began to notice we were in an area of group’s of men standing about, a lady pulled over in her car and suggested we hop in as the area was not safe for us and as we were feeling intimidated by the looks we were recieving we did.
That’s interesting. A boy on a bicycle in some USA city suburb was stopped by a large man with the Orthodox Jew hat and curl on. He was refused entry.
He felt quite uneasy.
nd who were afraid? It can be important for women in any town and city to know they will be safe at night, and if they have fears, they may hesitate to try but the fear may be unjustified.
I can’t say who we we afraid of but the looks we recieved from these men was not of welcome and the feeling was not good. On the same trip we arrived early in the morning from an overnight train and found ourselves in the midst of many homeless and rough sleepers with smiles we felt quite comfortable to sit take coffee and a bun. As a traveller I find it’s best to trust your feelings. In Sth East Asia I poke my nose into most situations but found in Cambodia stepping outside the tourist areas was quite uncomfortable. But seeing the horror museums and reading that to survive meant being able to smash your mother’s skull with a hoe I understand how the locals might feel less socially inclusive.
comments from friends in the US, Mexico closed its side of the border, and the US are firing tear gas into Mexico?
still waiting for something official well at least more then twitter,
The Mexican federal police have shut down the border into Mexico – hundreds of riot police are lined up and no incoming cars are being allowed to enter from the US into Mexico pic.twitter.com/cNY0MZktAZ
“The European Union has called on Russia and Ukraine to “act with utmost restraint to de-escalate” the situation in the Black Sea.
Ukraine says that three of its ships have been seized by the Russian coast guard, including two that were fired upon, and two crew members were wounded. Russia has blamed Ukraine for preparing and orchestrating “provocations.”
The EU, in a statement from foreign affairs spokeswoman Maja Kocijanic, also said that it expected Russia to “restore freedom of passage” through the Kerch Strait after Moscow blockaded it.”
nothing happened, nothing to see, move along citizen
Hmmm
Interesting timing, just as Kiev launches a move occupying village in buffer area between the front lines in Eastern Ukraine. , and as Poroshenkos ratings hit an all time low(7.8%) with elections coming up and Yulia Tymoshenko looking set to win
Poroshenko now has the consent of his national defence and security council to declare martial law , which would suspend parliament and elections , can be used to ban protests and activities by political parties, and allows for media, TV stations and newspapers to be shut down.
Russia has called for an emergency meeting of theUN SC scheduled in about 9 hours.
Poroshenko has scheduled a meeting with Stoltenberg.
Basically a squabble over whether Ukraine gave advance notice of intention to move through that Kerch area, which they say they did. The Russian coastguard says they didn’t.
Previously Ukraine has obeyed that protocol
poor russia, so hard done buy the big angry heavily armed superpower Ukraine, who always goes walkabouts invading in Russia, seizing Russian ships n just. Luckily Russia is calling for the help of the UN. Cause what would Russia do otherwise. Cry a bucket?
A day after Russia’s massive PD-50 drydock suddenly sank underneath the country’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, as it was receiving a long-awaited overhaul in frigid Murmansk, just how big a deal this may end up being for the Russian Navy is becoming clearer. The dry dock, which is the largest of its kind in Russian hands, appears to have sunk at first on a steep incline before it disappeared totally beneath the water’s surface. Russian officials are now saying that it could be many months before it is raised from the seabed 160 feet below and that doing so would be a very tedious and delicate operation. That’s if they decide to salvage it at all.
Regardless, PD-50 services all types of vessels that make up Russia’s most powerful fleet, including its largest submarines. So leaving it out of action for years, or even losing it altogether, would be a major hit for the Northern Fleet and the Russian Navy’s overall readiness.
Ukraine is seen as in the USA oriented nations, and which country knows what they will do next. White the USA surrounds itself with defensive sites. Didn’t help with September 2001 though.
malcolm gladwell has a great podcast series.
one of the episodes was looking at the movement of people across the mexican/u.s. border over 40 or so years.
the surprising conclusion was that when movement was less stringently controlled (up till the last 10 years), mexicans were far more likely to return and stay home, (not be aliens/illegal), than when the border got tightly controlled.
i thoroughly recommend revisionist history podcast.
i am not sure what this episode was.
another goodie was looking at french fries and how much better they tasted when they were cooked in beef fat compared to vege oils.
vege oils that are not good for you…
there are whole familys that are almost nomadic, they travel the various states for the harvest seasons and once done go back home. Rinse repeat every year.
but hey, what ever gets one elected as the candidate not beholden to corporate interest, self funded, and only worried about the economic anxiety of the white male working class.
After all, all mexicans are rapists and drug peddler. So said the Orange Saviour in 2015. In front of a camera and people and everyone just nodded and said: It is good.
“I think it’s just PC gone – I don’t know if it’s mad, but too far. You guys this morning are telling me that man didn’t walk on the moon, now you’re telling me Santa’s a woman – I just want a few things I can believe in.”
“…….We’ve got discrimination rules and they’re absolutely right, you know, whether it’s gender, whether it’s ethnicity,” said Mr Bridges.
“But I think the truth is on Santa, this is a traditional thing. Mary Poppins is a woman, Santa Claus is a man. That’s how it should be……”
My point is that you begin by a personal attack on AM Brady, with the intention of diminishing her credibility, as a preamble to dismissing whatever she has to say.
It seems like a shabby way to argue.
A.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
No Antione. You don’t have a point. I was quite explicit in saying “some may”, and gave another possibility too before writing that I wasn’t offering an opinion on either or either way.
I listened to what she said. Have you? I put up opinion and thoughts you could have engaged with.
You’ve chosen not to engage and to splatter a post with bullshit. So your comment’s now over here on Open Mike.
If I say “some may say X is a swivel-eyed loon but I couldn’t possibly comment”, then everyone will understand this as a coy way of saying “X is a swivel-eyed loon”.
Well, comport yourself as you like but don’t expect the rest of us to be impressed.
Sure. My bias was stated. And then there was substantive opinion and thought to read and commented on in light of that bias.
You want to spend a day engaged in stirring up vacuous personal bullshit in lieu of engaging with substantive content? That’s what bullshit message boards and facebook are for.
Hospital Workers get rises of 24% to 40% on their hourly rate, some back dated 6 mths and this over 2 and a half years. A piece of good news in the Herald today.
Thousands of hospital service workers will get pay rises of up to 40 per cent over the next three years.
The pay rises, of between 24 and 40 per cent on workers’ current rates will affect 3500 service workers, including cleaners, laundry workers, orderlies, catering and security staff across the 20 District Health Boards.
The immediate increase could be as high as 10 per cent for some and is backdated till June 25 this year.
Christmas Customs: St. Nicholas – der Heilige Nikolaus
Wer ist Sankt Nikolaus?
– Who is Saint Nicholas?
For a long time in Austria and some regions of Germany, particularly in Bavaria, St. Nicholas was the main character in the Christmas celebration.
But he was not Santa Claus, and he arrived earlier – on the 6th of December. His usual, less friendly escort went by different names in different places: “Belsnickle,” “Niglo,” “Pelznickel,” and others. Santa Claus or Father Christmas is a more recent tradition. Since the Germans (and the Dutch) brought many of their customs to America directly or indirectly, we need to look first at Europe in order to understand the American and worldwide Christmas celebration of today.
I am german, i am bavarian. Thanks for the history lesson. We only have St. Nicolaus on the 6th of December, on the eve of the 24th we give pressies, go to midnight mess if so inclined, and that was that. No one crawling through the chimney or anything. 25th and 26th are Christmas Holidays without any importance other then visiting family and eating way to much food, and drinking way to much booze.
Santa Claus is if anything dutch in nature, and then co-opted by Coca Cola. The dutch would have called him Sinter Claas, and his helper is generally refered to as het swarte piet. The black pete.
Hence my comment in the first place about the gender and the reality of Saint Nicolaus, Bishop of Bari whom the legend says went out during a particular hard winter and left overings of food, clothes and toys for the children in front of the houses of the poor.
He should not be ‘played by a women’ cause he was a man, in saying that in the convent that i grew up and lived in for many years it was Nuns who played the part of St. Nicolaus and Kramperl (his helper) was also played by a Nun. They came with the book of good deeds and bad deeds, scared the small children witless and us older ones running down the halls of the convent screeching trying to figure out who played whom. However we never did. The Nuns always outsmarted us. Such are nuns, what can i say.
However, fat Coca Cola Santa can and should be played by whomever applies for hte role and is best suited.
That is what my comment relates too.
As for those that like this bit, St. Barbara is held on the fourth of December, Patron Saint of miners. I have her in mind, while the bodies of the pike river miners are recovered. She is often depicted with a lantern in her hand, surrounded by praying/crying women and children at the entrance of a mining shaft.
yeah, i am very bavarian, and i like my little customs. So light a candle on the 4th Dec, for all the miners everywhere. And give sweets to the kids on the 6th of december thanks to Saint Nicolaus.
I’m not so interested in who “Father Christmas” was . I like to think about who he can be, from this moment on. This year, courtesy of my now-convincingly festive white beard, I’m going to play “Father Christmas’s ” dad, Grandfather Christmas and give out to children, hope and encouragement along with packets of vegetable seeds 🙂
Natioal Party may be behind these sudden vehicle liciencing issues being stirred up tas both Davaville and westland are both Labour strongholds we now await to see if a “Garage in a National stronghold is also pulled up” as the whole NZTA handling of vehicle licieces debate hots up.
Seocond garage found is “Westland tyre and Autos” is clearly a laour strondhold whom the NZTA agency has targetted now who has had that garage in Westland WoF licience evoked.
Will NZTA now target the National strongholds of West and north Auckland,,hamiton, Tauranga, Otago, and Southland?
We await for this with interest.
National Party seems to be causing trouble and friction among communities, only in labour held areas. it seems to be the new game of National politics.
So watch their ‘dark ops’ of “dirty politics” as time goes by.
Quote;
“It’s a reasonable bet that when Simon Bridges took on the job as leader in February he didn’t expect it would mostly involve wall-to-wall disaster management of National’s problems that would overshadow his attempts to harass the coalition government for its failings.”
As my bolg suggested; – National is trying now quietly to find as your article says; –
“problems that would overshadow his attempts to harass the coalition government for its failings.”
The Wof issue is one of those I suggest, as we already had this over the truck trailer issue last wanter when a Nelson enginerering shop signed off many truck trailers with false certificates, so now Bridges is causing further unrest amost the private vehicle liciencing now too.
Watch for this slimy Bridges character as he is a very slippery character.
So we do womder if he can dinger a Garage in his seat of Tauranga now for licience breaches of Wof’s?
Border Patrol fired off shots at a group trying to go through the fence. We ran and hid under train. They sent in CS gas. Babies are scared and crying. pic.twitter.com/FCM1DcG2o8— WendyFry (@WendyFry_) November 25, 2018
Shocking. What is the international game plan as signed up with UN about this?
Or has USA lost every sense of appropriate behaviour, decency, respect for humanity? Time for a Billy Graham mass Christian campaign calling all the sinners back to the fold, and also making America great again in one package. At present there is an evil message being absorbed under a false flag.
I was short of anybody with that pulling power to ‘USA Christians’. So I picked the wrong guy did I. But is there a new, better sort of preacher that would turn this tide of negativity, racism, hate and bellicose scapegoating that mixed together looks nasty.
You came up with a doozy of a link. So interesting and relevant to the voting for the Republicans and the connection with religion.
Also this on North Korea. I didn’t know the history and see why they have ‘ambivalent’ attitudes to the USA.
Graham lent his imprimatur to this recommendation. Thus Graham was advocating a policy to the U.S. Commander-in-Chief that on Nixon’s own estimate would have killed a million people.
The German High Commissioner Seyss-Inquart was sentenced to death at Nuremberg for breaching dikes and other crimes in Holland in World War II.
(His execution did not deter the USAF from destroying the Toksan dam in North Korea, in 1953, thus deliberately wrecking the system that irrigated 75 percent of North Korea’s rice farms.)
You came up with a doozy of a link with that nypress one. So interesting and relevant to Republicans and voting and religion; this time anti-Jewish. And Billy Graham is very anti – doesn’t come across as a decent Christian for sure.
Also this on North Korea. I didn’t know the history and see why they have ‘ambivalent’ attitudes to the USA.
Graham lent his imprimatur to this recommendation. Thus Graham was advocating a policy to the U.S. Commander-in-Chief that on Nixon’s own estimate would have killed a million people.
The German High Commissioner Seyss-Inquart was sentenced to death at Nuremberg for breaching dikes and other crimes in Holland in World War II.
(His execution did not deter the USAF from destroying the Toksan dam in North Korea, in 1953, thus deliberately wrecking the system that irrigated 75 percent of North Korea’s rice farms.)
and a useless fat ugly man is feeling all powerful, probably sexually aroused by the fear he creates and while watching fox news, eating literal shit sandwiches from MacDo gets off every time another canister gets shot across the border.
Cause nothing says powerful man more then crying mothers and children.
And this is how it starts. And this is how it always started. Some useless sadistic piece of shit supported by people cause……economic anxiety. T’was thus in Germany, and now we get to watch the sequel.
Holy shit I just got all the way to the bottom of open mic. And not a single thread was a complete waste of time scrolling paste petty bullshit. . I don’t even think I read a single pointless slogan.
Take bow people. 😏
Can we step back from little comments that add nothing. I did one yesterday and I promise not to do it again for a while. Could we all step back and let it go, unless having a rare poke whn the time is appropriate.
Jacinda dismantled him at her post-cabinet presser today. He’s desperate. And National are trying to get their polling back above 40% before it becomes a downward spiral.
Quite like the idea of referendums being included in the election. Cheaper than doing them separately. And possibly will make for a greater turn out of voters.
I don’t mind a referendum but the binding bit sticks in the craw.
It all depends on the wording of the question.
E.g. marijuana. I am all for decriminilising the weed.
That would also go hand in hand with restrictions and decent education.
Not the DARE type, Mr Mackey “drugs are bad mmkay?”
I have no care for legalisation, i.e. handing pot over to big business a la alcohol.
Plus it might mean celebrity survivor fans have a large influence.
Kia ora Newshub These helicopter are crashing often.
The virus outbreak up In North Land condolences to anyone who has lost love ones.
It a big mystery around Whale stranding 145 stranded down South have died that’s sad. The worst thing one can do is give the issue publicity
The NZ CEO over half don’t use twitter ???????? Equality half Wahine CEO is needed to fix most of our problems.
I agree the addiction needs to be treated so the people doing dump things will be able to straighten up there act that’s a smart way to a positive solution to a bad problem.
I back welcoming Refugees they are people in need we can not ignore there suffering
and ha the west has cause most of these Refugee problems.
With the Smoking tax debate its a addiction tax’s don’t treat the addiction they just rake money from poor people who can’t beat the addiction billions should be invested to find better treatments for the smokers addiction not higher TAX.
Ka kite ano
Eco Maori encourages all the WORLDS CHILDREN to protest about the inaction of the
Worlds Governments to do everything in there POWER’S to mitigate Climate Change as it is there FUTURE we are poisoning and turning into hell for all as it is our children who have to clean up there MESS.
And if teachers really care about there children they will tau toko/support there STAND.
Scott Morrison has been labelled “out of touch” for angrily condemning a national student strike to protest government inaction on climate change.
The prime minister implored children to stay in class rather than protesting things that “can be dealt with outside of school”.
Everything you want to know about climate change in #MyClimateQuestions
Read more
“Each day I send my kids to school and I know other members’ kids should also go to school but we do not support our schools being turned into parliaments,” Morrison told parliament on Monday. Ka kite ano Links Below
When school started in August this year, I decided enough was enough. Sweden had just experienced its hottest summer ever. The election was coming up. No one was talking about climate change as a crisis.
Advertisement
So I decided to walk out of school and sit on the ground outside the Swedish parliament to demand our politicians treat climate change for what it is: the biggest issue we have ever faced.
Because if climate change has to stop, then we must stop it. It is black and white. There are no grey areas when it comes to survival. Either we continue as a civilisation or we don’t. One way or another, we have to change. Countries like mine and Australia must start reducing our emissions dramatically if we believe in equality and climate justice.Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coal, one of the leading cause of climate change. Your politicians want to help Adani build one of the biggest coal mines in the world. Right now, there are no policies to change this. There are no rules to keep coal in the ground. We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules because the rules have to be changed
Here you go he does not care about the billions of lives his ignorance is going to harm
donald trump has told reporters he doesn’t believe his own government’s climate change findings that the US economy will suffer substantially with continued warming from greenhouse gas pollution.
“I’ve seen it, I’ve read some of it, and it’s fine,” he said outside the White House on Monday. “I don’t believe it.”
From Facebook to climate change: how to bury bad news
Read more
The report, called the National Climate Assessment, was quietly released the day after Thanksgiving. Also last Friday, the government slipped out another environment internal report with bad news about emissions from oil and gas drilling on federal lands. Link below ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub Tova Bulling is not acceptable and should be stamped out of all organizations.
That virus in North Land is shocking and in a place with high Maori population this tell me that we are a second class people .
The closing off Queen’s st to all but the essential vehicles is a really good move there are quite a few city’s around the world doing this with big success clean air.
Our children always have there faces in there Ph not I . I just do a lot of research for my mission I will be doing Eco Maori influencing for a long time.
The health supplements is not regulated.
Condolences to all the people who lost there houses in the big fire in Australia .
Everyone is buying Tesla cars A with GM lay off and some ones trade war is hurting the poor.
I have a consumers complaint every time I go to buy some thing some how they have not got the product I want so they say they will ring back but know O that’s just the bulling sandfly being muppets trying there best to try and upset me but no they are just small fry in Eco Maoris Papatuanuku.
Ka kite ano P.S some people think they know my whapapa but there is one line no one knows about.
Kia ora The Crowd Goes Mulls James & Wairangi Wild fingers crossed for the Black Caps.
The League dramas that move will get the punters out.
Yes Its cool that Joe Schmidts is stepping aside for his whano .
At the Bowls guys the Crowd is growing thats the way Tau toko them not to much cups of teas tho A.
That Hand glider person was lucky he only broke his wrist he would have had to change his ——
That was a good UFC KO kick the ref in the teeth lol we no what’s really in the water bottle mulls Ka kite ano
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President respectively for the US 2020 Election, may have dispensed with the erstwhile nemesis, Trump the candidate – but there are numerous critical openings through which much, much worse many out there may yet see fit to ...
I don’t know Taupō well. Even though I stop off there from time to time, I’m always on the way to somewhere else. Usually Taupō means making a hot water puddle in the gritty sand followed by a swim in the lake, noticing with bemusement and resignation the traffic, the ...
Frances Williams, King’s College LondonFor most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection – this has been dubbed “long COVID”. Scientists are ...
Last night, a British court ruled that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US. Unfortunately, its not because all he is "guilty" of is journalism, or because the offence the US wants to charge him with - espionage - is of an inherently political nature; instead the judge accepted ...
Is the Gender Identity Movement a movement for human liberation, or is it a regressive movement which undermines women’s liberation and promotes sexist stereotypes? Should biological males be allowed to play in women’s sport, use women-only spaces (public toilets, changing rooms, other facilities), be able to have access to everything ...
Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University of BirminghamSpace exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth. The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of ...
Michael Head, University of SouthamptonThe UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK – following the Pfizer vaccine. The British government ...
So, Boris Johnson has been footering about in hospitals again. We should be grateful, perhaps, that on this occasion the Clown-in-Chief is only (probably) getting in the way and causing distractions, rather than taking up a bed, vital equipment and resources and adding more strain and danger to exhausted staff.Look at ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to ZeroThat’s one of several recent ...
The situation in the UK is looking catastrophic.Cases: over *70,000* people who were tested in England on 29th December tested positive. This is *not* because there were more tests on that day. It *is* 4 days after Christmas though, around when people who caught Covid on Christmas Day might start ...
by Don Franks For five days over New Year weekend, sixteen prisoners in the archaic pre WW1 block of Waikeria Prison defied authorities by setting fires and occupying the building’s roof. They eventually agreed to surrender after intervention from Maori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi. A message from the protesting men had stated: ...
Lost Opportunity: The powerful political metaphor of the Maori Party leading the despised and marginalised from danger to safety, is one Labour could have pre-empted by taking the uprising at Waikeria Prison much more seriously. AS WORD OF Rawiri Waititi’s successful intervention in the Waikeria Prison stand-off spreads, the Maori ...
Dear friends, it’s been a covidious year,A testing time for all of us here—Citizens of an island nationIn a state of managed isolation,A team (someone said) five million strong,Making it up as we went along:Somehow in typical Kiwi fashion,Without any wild excess ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Dec 27, 2020 through Sat, Jan 2, 2021Editor's Choice7 Graphics That Show Why the Arctic Is in Trouble Arctic Sea Ice: NSIDC It’s no secret that the Arctic is ...
One of the books I read in 2020 was She, by H. Rider Haggard (1887). I thoroughly enjoyed it, as being an exemplar of a good old-fashioned adventure story. I also noted with amusement ...
Scottish doctor Malcolm Kendrick looks at the pandemic and the responses to it 30th December 2020 I have not written much about COVID19 recently. What can be said? In my opinion the world has simply gone bonkers. The best description can be found in Dante’s Inferno, written many hundreds of ...
I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or the numbers seem very low please check this out. After correcting send me the URL for your ...
The deed is done, the doers undoneHad I been a Brit, I would have voted ‘Remain’ rather than Brexit (or ‘Leave’). Instead, I have been bemused by the comic theatre of British politics, fascinated by what the Brits actual think and professionally interested by the revelations of the complexity of ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. There’s a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, here’s a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has added her warm congratulations to the New Zealanders recognised for their contributions to their communities and the country in the New Year 2021 Honours List. “The past year has been one that few of us could have imagined. In spite of all the things that ...
Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment David Parker has congratulated two retired judges who have had their contributions to the country and their communities recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. The Hon Tony Randerson QC has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the New Year’s Honours List 2021 highlights again the outstanding contribution made by Pacific people across Aotearoa. “We are acknowledging the work of 13 Pacific leaders in the New Year’s Honours, representing a number of sectors including health, education, community, sports, the ...
The Government’s investment in digital literacy training for seniors has led to more than 250 people participating so far, helping them stay connected. “COVID-19 has meant older New Zealanders are showing more interest in learning how to use technology like Zoom and Skype so they can to keep in touch ...
New virus variants and ongoing high rates of diseases in some countries prompt additional border protections Extra (day zero or day one) test to be in place this week New ways of reducing risk before people embark on travel being investigated, including pre-departure testing for people leaving the United Kingdom ...
Pacific Media Watch correspondent The pro-independence conflict in West Papua with a missionary plane reportedly being shot down at Intan Jaya has stirred contrasting responses from the TNI/POLRI state sources, church leaders and an independence leader. A shooting caused a plane to catch fire on 6 January 2021 in the ...
“Last year ACT warned that rewarding protestors at Ihumātao with taxpayer money would promote further squatting. We just didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it is in Shelly Bay” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “The prosperity of all ...
Our kindly PM registered her return to work as leader of the nation with yet another statement on the Beehive website, the second in two days (following her appointment of Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council on Wednesday). It’s great to know we don’t have to check with ...
A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past.Content warning: This article contains racist language and images.On a pub wall in ...
Supermarket shoppers looking for citrus are seeing a sour trend at the moment – some stores are entirely tapped out of lemons. But why? Batches of homemade lemonade will be taking a hit this summer, with life not giving New Zealand shoppers lemons. Prices are high at supermarkets and grocers that ...
You’re born either a cheery soul or a gloomy one, reckons Linda Burgess – but what happens when gene pools from opposite ends of the spectrum collide?In our shoeboxes of photos that we have to sort out before we die or get demented – because who IS that kid on ...
Summer reissue: Prisoner voting rights are something that few in government seem particularly motivated to do anything about. Could a catchy charity single help draw attention to the issue?First published September 1, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its ...
Hundreds more Cook Islanders are expected to begin criss-crossing the Pacific, Air NZ will triple the number of flights to Rarotonga next week, and about 300 managed isolation places will be freed up for Kiwis returning from other parts of the world. When Thomas Tarurongo Wynne took a job in Wellington at ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ena Manuireva in Auckland It seems a long time ago – some 124 days – since Mā’ohi Nui deplored its first covid-19 related deaths of an elderly woman on 11 September 2020 followed by her husband just hours later, both over the age of 80. The local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral research associate, UNSW A global coalition of more than 50 countries have this week pledged to protect over 30% of the planet’s lands and seas by the end of this decade. Their reasoning is clear: we need greater protection ...
The Reserve Bank Governor’s apology and claim he will ‘own the issue’ is laughable given the lack of answers and timing of its release. Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union said: “It’s been five days since they came clean, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olga Kokshagina, Researcher – Innovation & Entrepreneurship, RMIT University Are too many online meetings and notifications getting you down? Online communication tools – from email to virtual chat and video-conferencing – have transformed the way we work. In many respects they’ve made ...
The Reserve Bank acknowledges information about some of its stakeholders may have been breached in a malicious data hack. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has commissioned an independent inquiry into how stakeholders' information was compromised when hackers breached a file sharing service used by the bank. “We ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland This story contains spoilers for Ammonite Palaeontologist Mary Anning is known for discovering a multitude of Jurassic fossils from Lyme Regis on England’s Dorset Coast from the age of ten in 1809. ...
A tribute to the sitcoms of old? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Yup. Sam Brooks reviews the audacious WandaVision.Nothing sends a chill up my spine like the phrase “Marvel Cinematic Universe”. Since launching in 2008 with Iron Man, the MCU has become a shambling behemoth, with over 23 films (not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University The alt-right, QAnon, paramilitary and Donald Trump-supporting mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6 claimed they were only doing what the so-called “founding fathers” of the US had done in ...
The Point of Order Ministerial Workload Watchdog and our ever-vigilant Trough Monitor were both triggered yesterday by an item of news from the office of Conservation Minister Kititapu Allan. The minister was drawing attention to new opportunities to dip into the Jobs for Nature programme (and her statement was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Kupz, Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University In July 1921, a French infant became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), after the mother had died from the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is ...
The first Friday Poem for 2021 is by Wellington poet Rebecca Hawkes.While you were partying I studied the bladeI your ever-loving edgelord God-emperorof the bot army & bitcoin mine subsistingon an IV drip of gamer girl bathwaterfinally my lonelinessis your responsibility………. you seeI need a girlfriend assigned to me by the ...
The arming of police officers in Canterbury was inevitable with the growing numbers and brazenness of the gangs across the country – this should be a permanent step, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is unfortunate that we have come to the point ...
Celebrations in Aotearoa New Zealand to mark the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will begin on Thursday 21 January with ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand’s Wellington and online event, and continue on Friday ...
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change.As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer ...
On the East Coast, a group of Māori-owned enterprises is innovating to create new revenue streams while doing what they love.New Zealand’s remote and sparsely populated regions are typically not the best places to create thriving brick-and-mortar businesses. In small communities miles away from any major centres, there are so ...
As we reach the height of summer, it’s not too late to do a safety check on your gas bottle. The Environmental Protection Authority’s Safer Homes programme has some tips and tricks to keep in mind before you fire up the grill. "If you’ve ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)If you’re in any way unsure about ...
“We may as well knock on the gang headquarters around this country and tell them we all give up," says Darroch Ball co-leader of Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is simply outrageous that violent offender, James Tuwhangai, has been released from ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Ireland, Israel, and Lebanon. Chart by Keith Rankin. The countries with the most recent large outbreaks of Covid19 are those with large numbers of recent recorded cases, but yet to record the deaths that most likely will result. In this camp, this time, are Ireland, Israel ...
RuPaul is in Aotearoa, kicking back in managed isolation to await the filming of an Australasian version of her hugely popular reality show Drag Race. But not everyone is happy about, explains Eli Matthewson. The world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, is in New Zealand, the government confirmed earlier this week ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong What can we make of Clive Palmer? This week, he announced his United Australia Party (UAP) would not contest the upcoming West Australian state election on March 13. After a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England Have you ever seenmagpies play-fighting with one another, or rolling around in high spirits? Or an apostlebird running at full speed with a stick in its beak, chased by a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Jackson, Program Director, Centre for Policy Development, and Associate Professor of Education, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Childcare centres across Australia are suffering staff shortages, which have been exacerbated by the COVID crisis. Many childcare workers across Australia left when parents started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Rhetoric plays an important role in tax debate and therefore tax policy. If your side manages to gain traction in the public imagination with labels such as “death ...
*This article was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission* Whoever leads the Republican Party post-Trump will need to consider how they will maintain the rabid support of his “base”, while working to regain more moderate voters who defected from the party in the 2020 election. In a historic ...
Covid-19 fears accelerated banks’ moves towards cashless transactions. But the Reserve Bank is fighting to protect cash, and those who still use it. ...
Good morning and welcome to this one-off edition of The Bulletin, covering major stories from the last few weeks.A quick preamble to this: Today’s special edition of The Bulletin is all about filling you in on some of the stories you might have missed over the summer period. Perhaps you had ...
Summer reissue: In this episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden is forced to confront her own mortality before hosting a very special dinner party to get to grips with the euthanasia debate.First published August 27, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
The contrast between the words of John F Kennedy and today’s anti-democratic demagogue is inescapable, writes Dolores Janiewski I still remember three eloquent speeches by an American president. One happened in January 1961 and spoke about a “torch being passed to a new generation”. Two years later and one day apart, ...
The debate over cutting down a large macrocarpa to make way for a new residential development has highlighted a wider agreement between developers and protesters: that we also need to be planting far more trees. At the corner of Great North Road and Ash Street in Avondale, a 150-year-old macrocarpa stands its ground ...
More infectious variants of Covid-19 are increasingly being intercepted at the country’s borders, but the minister running New Zealand’s response is resisting pressure to accelerate vaccination plans despite demands from health experts as well as political friends and foes, Justin Giovannetti reports.New Zealand’s first Covid-19 jabs will be administered in ...
As CEO of her iwi rūnanga, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was on the frontline protecting her community during the first outbreak of Covid-19. Now that more virulent strains threaten to breach our borders, the Māori Party co-leader calls on the government to introduce much stricter measures.As we enter the New Year I ...
The Prada Cup challenger series starts today. Suzanne McFadden goes behind the scenes of the world's only live yachting regatta to see what's in store for the next five weeks. At 6am on race days, Iain Murray wakes up and immediately checks the weather outside his Auckland window. “It’s all ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Raquel Peel, Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland This story contains spoilers for Bridgerton The first season of Bridgerton, Netflix’s new hit show based on Julia Quinn’s novels, premiered on December 25 last year. The show is set in London, during the ...
The New Zealand government believes its own negotiations with Rio Tinto will be resolved "fairly quickly" now there is certainty about the future of the Tiwai Point smelter. ...
Amanda Thompson and her family are attempting to cut back on the meat, so they gave all the vego sausies the local supermarket had to offer a hoon on the barbie. Here are the results.I was a vegetarian once. Even the best of us take a well-meaning wrong turn on ...
The Taxpayers’ Union welcomes the call by Wellington City Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons for a shift to land value based rates charges. Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, "Local government leaders across the country should join in Fitzsimons’s call ...
It’s been described as ‘pointless revenge’, but impeaching the president has a firm moral purpose, argues Michael Blake – setting a limit to what sorts of action a society will accept.A House majority, including 10 Republicans, voted today to impeach President Trump for “incitement of insurrection”. The vote will initiate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bryan Cranston, Lead Academic Teacher – Politics & Social Science (Swinburne Online), Swinburne University of Technology In a historic vote today, Donald Trump became the only US president to be impeached twice. By a margin of 232–197, the Democrat-controlled US House of ...
Hurrah. The PM is back to posting her announcements on the government’s official website, her deputy is back in the business of self-congratulation, Rio Tinto is back in the business of sucking up cheap electricity to produce aluminium at Tiwai Point, near Bluff. And overseas students (some, anyway) can come ...
The electricity sector, Government and people of Southland are rejoicing after Tiwai Point aluminium smelter owner Rio Tinto announced the major industrial would be open until the end of 2024, Marc Daalder reports Stakeholders in the electricity sector and across Southland are celebrating the extension of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter's ...
If you’ve been on social media this week, you may well have come across a surge in interest in sea shanties. We asked a veteran of the style why. In case you missed it, soon may the Wellerman come, to bring us sugar and tea and rum. If that sentence is even ...
“It is basic human decency to speak up and protect any vulnerable child from harm, so withholding information in child abuse cases and allowing the abuse to happen by not speaking up is, put simply, a cowardly move,” says Jess McVicar Co-Leader ...
Allowing 1,000 returning international students back to New Zealand is the right move by the Government, and hopefully we will be able to welcome more, says ExportNZ Executive Director Catherine Beard. "International education has contributed ...
A majority of the House of Representatives have voted to make Donald Trump the first US president ever to be impeached twice, formally charging him in his waning days in power with inciting an insurrection just a week after a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol. Follow the ...
The Youth of NZ will be standing up for climate action once again on January 26th outside of Parliament for School Strike 4 Climate NZ’s 100 Days 4 Action campaign rally. “We believe it is vital to hold our new Labour-led government to account ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Rotorua Lakes District Council to urgently release the engineering report on the public safety and structural integrity of the visible foundation-misalignment and lean of the City’s Hemo Gorge monument to government ...
Changes in income and movement in and out of poverty over time are only weakly associated with higher rates of child hospitalisation in New Zealand, according to a new University of Auckland study. Published today in PLOS ONE, the collaborative study led by Dr ...
With a long, hot summer upon us, pet owners are urged to be extra mindful of their pet’s health and safety. Unusually warm weather can quickly take its toll on furry family members, who aren’t well equipped for dealing with blazing heat. The National ...
The Council for Civil Liberties is challenging a claim by former National Party leader Simon Bridges that people should have total freedom of expression on Twitter. ...
A century of sexual abuse of women in New Zealand is analysed in a University of Auckland study. The newly-published research looks back as far as 1922 by analysing interviews with thousands of women about their lifetime experiences. The study indicates ...
62,686 more native trees will be planted in New Zealand in 2021 thanks to generous Kiwis who chose to go green for Christmas gifting. <img src="https://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/2101/cf409712f141732a8543.jpeg" width="720" height="540"> Trees That Count, a programme ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By Arturo López-LevyOakland, CaliforniaUnfortunately, the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, encouraged by the Inciter-in-Chief, will not be the last act of mischief. Trump is insisting on causing as much damage as possible to the interests and values ...
The threatened Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will keep operating through to the end of December 2024, in a new deal just announced to the New Zealand stock exchange. Mining conglomerate Rio Tinto announced last year it was closing Tiwai due to high energy and transmission costs. Meridian Energy said that ...
The lack of Māori language or symbolism on the SuperGold Card isn’t just a design issue – it’s emblematic of the overwhelming whiteness of Aotearoa’s superannuant population, writes former race relations commissioner Joris de Bres.I’ve enjoyed the SuperGold Card since I retired eight years ago. I appreciate the free public ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Brumm, Professor, Griffith University The dating of an exceptionally old cave painting of animals that was found recently on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is reported in our paper out today. The painting portrays images of the Sulawesi warty pig (Sus ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Garrick, University Fellow in Law, Charles Darwin University Just over a year has gone by since the novel coronavirus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan and the world still has many questions about where and how it originated. The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Young, Lecturer, Deakin University Medievalist references littered the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6th. Rudy Giuliani called for a “trial by combat”; the “Q Shaman”, Jacob Chansley (also known as Jake Angeli), was covered in Norse tattoos; rioters brandished ...
A Whakatāne therapist says the Whakaari eruption and Christchurch mosque shooting reveal a health system unable to deal with mass casualty events. Whakaari after its eruption in 2019. Photo: Supplied/Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust This comes amid calls for millions of dollars of promised mental health funding to be urgently re-routed to Canterbury ...
Time for New Zealand to assert its independence from foreign superpowers.
“Twenty-nine academics, researchers and human rights advocates have written an open letter to Jacinda Ardern in support of China critic and Canterbury University politics professor Anne-Marie Brady.
“We have been shocked and disturbed by the reports of intimidation and harassment suffered by Professor Anne-Marie Brady,” the letter said.
“Attempts to intimidate and harass one academic in New Zealand have implications for freedoms of all the others – and indeed, for the freedoms of all who live here.”
The group also urged the prime minister to “make a clear statement in defence of academic freedom” in light of the case and to be “very clear that any intimidation and threats aimed at silencing academic voices in this country will not be tolerated”.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/376782/shocked-and-disturbed-by-alleged-chinese-govt-intimidaiton
Damn right. Prof Brady: “The Education Act requires all political leaders and government agencies to protect and defend our academic freedom and uphold the critic and conscience role of the academic. So I do my job, and I expect the government to do their job.”
A spokesperson for the prime minister said she supported and defended the legal right to academic freedom, as set out in law. “The matters contained in this letter are under investigation by the police and it is not appropriate to comment on them before the investigation is finished.” But Prof Brady said the investigation was over, and the issue was now in the government’s hands. [RNZ]
So another Schrodinger’s Cat situation. The police investigation is over and is not over simultaneously. Truth lies somewhere between the two? Could be the PM’s spokesperson is misrepresenting the situation?
Perhaps someone will open the box and report whether the Cat is really alive or dead. And if the truth is that a police report must be written and obtained by the PM before the truth can be ascertained by her, the slowly-grinding wheels of public service bureaucracy will probably ensure that she goes to the xmas break none the wiser. Her relief at not having to do her job will probably be considerable! Will Chinese agents successfully eliminate Professor Brady while we wait?
Yes I agree Parliament needs to be cleanned up pronto!!!!!
Fix the beehive and get rid of the National party clingon’s Jacinda Ardern firstly please.
These “anti-Government sypathisers are stopping your voters from communication with your Government ministers.
This we have discovered during our research.
So if you want “inclusion” in your Government please remove all National Party sympathizers from being in MP,s offices and in Government agencies.
Great to see Labor absolutely creaming the Liberals in Victoria on the weekend.
Not long before they clean them out in next years Federal elections.
Good news Ad.
Andrews actually went into the campaign beset by a number of controversies in his Victorian Labor Party but voters seem to have responded to his plans for major infrastructure spending across the state. And of course, all those Labor campaign billboards of state Liberal leader Guy hanging out with Peter Dutton, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison helped.
Wastewater being dumped in the ocean is still an issue, and now AK’s richer tenants are making noise, something might get done.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12165591
There is a new game in town. Well, in America. Combining both waste and storm water for treatment, treated waters are redirected to spreading basins where they can percolate into the land and recharge aquifers.
https://phys.org/news/2017-08-tool-parched-regions-replenish-aquifers.html
While these methods are land intensive, they bring up some points worth noting.
We have done nothing towards recharging aquifers, despite corporate entities showing it is liquid gold.
2. We have significant wastewater resources in both rural and urban settings that contain revenue streams, we have not tapped these, namely: water for irrigation, composts for agriculture, biogas for power.
The resources are right there waiting for some government body to wake up. NZ water revenue should be returned, 100%, to NZ. The revenue generated can pay for improvements to water treatment and storm water diversion. Here we need to think big, but on a catchment by catchment basis.
In 2017 391 billion litres of bottled water were sold.
Billions, that’s what we are giving away. Take it back and get NZ on track.
There is an aquifer-recharge project being “scoped” in Southland, at Five Rivers, where it is proposed river water be “directed” into a depleted aquifer. In theory, the water will be taken at high flow, but I’ve concerns about the mixing of previously seperate “waters”, especially in light of their bacterial (and nitrogenous) make-up; natural filtering and time can clean surface water before it gets into an aquifer and this “direct injection” through reverse bore, will result in an “unnatural” introduction of pathogens, potentially. Of course, it may be that there’s no problem, but if successful there, other farming operations might see potential to fill their own aquifers with flood water, say, and be able to irrigate at a greater rate and thereby, intensify their farming operations. Mike Joy wouldn’t be a supporter, I’m guessing. I know there’s a lot of natural river/aquifer interaction in many cases, but it seems to me these geo-engineering jobs don’t always pan out well (if ever). All in my opinion, naturally 🙂
Seems like insanity to me Robert.
Aquifers are generally pristine for the very reason that it takes a very long time for water to filter down to them.
“Spreading basins” could be elegant…or revolting. The American feed lots for cattle show how appalling some of their “great ideas” can be.
Wetlands are spreading basins. They could also be for tourism, aquaculture, ornithology, duck season, boating, walking, education…
The idea of topping aquifers from river flow is insane. We get our highly polluted shit and run it into our pristine sources. Then our potential for $ per litre goes down to parts of a cent per litre for shitty irrigation. How is that a good thing?
We need to stop falling over ourselves to accommodate farmers. Why build such an obviously shitty system? Farmers… that’s all.
Farmers should be playing a large part in recharging groundwater, but no, they merely take it. Imagine if we were to do something as simple as put floodgates at storm culverts letting the drainage systems of the country fill before overflowing (same flow capacity as it is governed by diameter of pipes under roads). All of a sudden the entire countryside is holding and percolating water after storm events. And that’s just getting started. Add swales and ponds…
Those stormwater drains, it makes no difference if they’re full or empty, except, when full they replenish the land, and are vast potential aquaculture infrastructure.
Who is it ‘scoping’ five rivers? They need a boot up the ass.
Well now, I couldn’t have said it like that, could I 🙂
Because there was such a hue and cry about “visible” dammed/damned water storage proposed by farmers in, especially North Canterbury, the industry has looked for hidden opportunities and aquifer recharge occurred to them. Have you done any work on the biology of aquifers? There’s living creatures down in them cold, dark waters! They probably won’t enjoy a dose of what their surface-dwelling cousins have to put up with .
A subterranean cave was explored by Charles Mitchell and some peers. They discovered sixty year old kokopu that had no food source. They’d lived purely through minerals ingested from water. Blind, albino kokopu.
One ‘silly idea’ I’ve had for Canterbury is to follow the Hawaiian example and run a tunnel through the mountain range taking west coast excess water to Canterbury.
Who was opposed to water bodies in Canterbury? Was it a large dam, or on farm ponds? I reckon turning the region into a monoculture desert is ugly enough, and ponds and plantings would improve the place. But what do I know.
Ponds and plantings, yes, but the driver was increased intensification of dairying. Jaded greenies kicked up a stink 🙂
You have pretty much covered the solution.
Years ago “think big style” with electricity it was decided to redirect high flow water going into other waterway systems into the Taupo water system. So it’s gravitational potential energy could best be utilised.
There is no reason why your idea, that has been proposed for many rears, cannot be a reality.
Tunnel boring machines in the 1meter diameter range are cheap and you could create a little team of people running a site, creating a tube from one side to the other. The rock waste can be used in civil engineering.
If a big earthquake happens and the tube gets ruined, you accept it as part of reality, you then go in and fix it.
Making farms more productive because of water supply, because they become more drought resistant, or crops get water at the correct time of their life cycle. When farmland produces more from increasing the efficient use of sunlight everything is a benifit.
They absorb more CO2.
The farms Eco systems benifit.
If the farm is more efficient, profitable, it can invest in projects were fence to drain distances increase, a small area of trees and a wetland can be added, etc.
They can invest in environmental solutions. A farm of 100Ha doing mainstream farming can decide to try a few Ha in some radical new way, with the intent of lowering urea use, or improving production due to animal health benifits rather than off farm inputs. Diets creating less methane, plants that result in less nitrate leaching, etc etc.
The no to everything for farming is the wrong approach, and bringing water from the west coast as part of solving water issues should have happened decades ago.
Auckland city steals the Wiakato systems water for example. That happened because it was a good idea.
Are you on the turn @DJ?
Not too many days/weeks ago, you were coming in here as just another pompous trolling git.
These days……reading your thoughts and contributions is worthwhile
I saw something interesting by DJ the other day. Looked like real thought and not knee jerk stuff. Mmmm. You can’t be sure about anything these days. Grizzle.
That’s too far-fetched for me to believe 🙂
That said, we discovered a dog who’d been trapped in a glasshouse for 6 weeks over winter (hail and snow) without food, seemingly, who lived, though very thin (she went in plump). Curiously, there was no dog poo on the ground 🙂
6 weeks and nobody noticed? Bloody hell.
100% WeTheBleeple
Labour promised to stop water bottling before the election remember that!
How quickly people forget?
Labour need to review their broken promises and explain why these promises have not been kept here before the end of this year.
As a careful thought review of their performance in their first year of service to the community.
Those promises all need to be kept.
Obscene profits being made (taken off NZ for private concerns).
A rich asshole I know was jizzing over these profits a decade ago as National came in. The Nats and their donors were in there like a shark feeding frenzy.
Yes wethebleeple
“Money talks truth walks” is these rich lazy pricks only thought.
No care for well being of the community.
Toxic Leeches they all are.
Yes wethebleeple
“Money talks truth walks” is these rich lazy pricks only thought.
No care for well being of the community.
Toxic Leeches they all are.
Labour had better send them away in a leaky boat.
Nope.
I do remember a policy to do a commercial water levy. NZ1 scotched that.
We have the Central Inceptor at a cost of $1.2b
Yet in a time of where “user Pays” still exists where greenfield developments have to provide infrastructure at the cost of the new locals and when these developments will have additional rates applied to pay for their infrastructure https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12159099
https://www.watercare.co.nz/About-us/News-media/Central-Interceptor-one-step-closer-to-start-date
Why do these wealthy inner city areas expect the rest of Auckland to pay for solutions to THEIR waste water issues ?
They already have the best public transport service available, subsidised by all rate payers. And as they are increasingly serviced e.g. new rail link, the value of their properties increase, yet they make no additional contributions for this.
Thanks for that heads up.
“During wet weather the central wastewater network currently overflows to local waterways and the Waitematā Harbour at more than 100 locations and to the north-eastern Manukau Harbour at 14 locations. The Central Interceptor is expected to reduce the volume of overflows by over 80 per cent.”
Sounds really good. Not comprehensive but it is a large improvement.
I’m guessing actinobacteria are still the major issue in biological treatment (clumping), however, am very pleased they’ve not gone the silly chemical sanitation route, which produces treated yet unusable water. The clumping could be used for solids removal and processing as solid compost making the water treatment a lot easier. I’ve seen similar on a farm where solids were taken out before effluent ponding, the solids becoming compost. The Farmer could not get enough of the compost though it sat for a year and let the worms have at it to finish.
The composts from these processes can then feed non-edible crops to make them removed from human consumption/western sensibilities e.g. timber crops.
Exactly Herodotus, are the developers in particular those that are contributing the most to wastewater pollution with large high rises, are not being charged a new levy for ‘user pays’ with new builds for pollution and wastewater, as because as you rightly say, they are also getting the cream of public transport money too.
And often the inner city apartments are not good options for Kiwi families who sound like they are one of the poorest demographics now. But new builds and in particular apartments are open to be speculated on by the world’s wealthy as they are exempt from the OIA.
Meanwhile the poor on the outer city limits with no or few public transport options are forced to pay the petrol tax that the mostly inner/central city folks are largely exempted from for commuting to work or university.
Of course getting to the airport is a priority for work and holidays which is why that is PRIORITY number one for public transport. We can’t let the politicians get stuck in traffic going to Wellington or Phil Goff’s trip to China or expect them to pay an airline levy for the public transport link that Auckland ratepayers are expected to pay for.
Rampant development around beaches and more and more run off from roads are having a horrible effect.
Long Bay (rampant development) was the only beach to experience a more extreme red alert last summer with a reading of 810 enterococci/100ml taken on New Year’s Day after heavy rainfall.
Apparently…
“Recent historical data for the water quality of our swimming beaches is not available for comparison.
North Shore City Council stopped routine monitoring in 2008 because it was confident of its ability to identify water quality issues after analysing the previous 10 years worth of data.
Auckland Council resumed water quality testing on the North Shore last November because it felt there was an inconsistent approach to water safety across the city.”
I think the shell fish has also been effected around Long Bay regional park area, but any media about the pollution is quickly pulled. The developer seems to be able to keep it out of the media, surprise surprise.
Dirty water: Raw sewage flowing into Auckland Harbour will increase with new housing projects
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11785299
P>S> hope those that once believed that the new housing was necessary for affordable housing for Kiwis, are now able to comprehend that allowing new builds to be sold and speculated around the world, firmly puts a stop to that idea and they are instead a way to do a Natz and keep the lazy economy moving within the Ponzi, while making the Kiwis who are rate payers pay for it and the residents and future generations pay for it with increased pollution and loss of quality of life, and new charges being dreamed up, for anything from petrol to wastewater around the city .
I can affirm that (Long Bay) having heard it directly from a marine biologist investigating the site.
If we use this new diversion drain (central interceptor), AND capture roof water for gardens, we might actually cope in Auckland. Road runoff could be diverted more creatively too. Some to wetlands, some to industry…
Took the girls to the Santa Parade over in Richmond yesterday.
What kind of flag is that mum? They asked as a ‘redneck’ float went past.
That’s the confederate flag, it’s a symbol of white people using black people for slaves in the USA.
Woah, why is it in the parade mum?
Because, it was on the roof of a popular ‘redneck’ race car in a 1980’s TV series, which made a whole generation relate that flag to nothing else but two men and a Chrysler.
Some might say people are going PC mad, others might say we need to learn about real history rather than the Dukes of Hazard.
Was wondering if anyone else noticed….. looks like they did…PS the beer cans were tacky as.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/108856953/richmond-santa-parade-features-redneck-xmas-float-sporting-confederate-flag
That is so bad, its supposed to be about the kids!
What idiot would think, I know let’s advertise alcohol and bring in some racist overtones for the kids this year.
“Because, it was on the roof of a popular ‘redneck’ race car in a 1980’s TV series, which made a whole generation relate that flag to nothing else but two men and a Chrysler.”
I think you kind of nailed it on the head here
I would think there are quite a lot of people who just aren’t aware of the fairly recent controversy around it, as they just don’t take a huge amount of interest in current US cultural issues.
They do just associate it with TDoH and that is what they got brought up as to what the flag represents. Personally I don’t actually put any blame on them, US events can sometimes be exceedingly dull and have zero relevance to NZ
Slight side point
Pretty sure the car was a Dodge Charger. Chrysler was the Aussie version.
Chrysler was owned by Dodge and the Dodge shared some structure, but it was a different shape etc.
Yes that’s the one, a Dodge Charger, you are correct, Chrysler was the Aussie version. Is Mopar the umbrella for all of them?
I think you are correct in saying that many don’t pay much attention to current events in the USA, and as a result may not know any better.
The parent company was Chrysler right from the beginning in the 1920s up until the merger/bailout/buyout by Fiat a few years ago. The Dodge name was acquired not long after startup, and a bunch of other brands like De Soto, Plymouth, Imperial etc were acquired/created, used for a while, then killed/sold. Chrysler also got involved in various games of Big Boy’s Monopoly in buying and selling other car companies around the the world, such as the Rooted Group that was responsible for atrocities such as the Hillman Scavenger …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler
Thanks Andre 🙂
The Hillman Scavenger?
I’ve heard of a Hillman Avenger and Hillman Hunter, but not a Hillman Scavenger.
And what about the Hillman Shrimp?
I learned to drive in a Humbug 80 (along with a left hand drive series2 Landy that I took my license test in).
But I always figured the Hillman Minx couldn’t become a bigger object of derision no matter what you did to the name.
Yep, Minx is hard to ‘upgrade’..
mmmm @ Andre.
I saw you more in a black Super Snipe.
It had that really really huge bonnet ahead of its steering wheel and some serious straight in-line cylinders. It was mainly driven by those that had reason (such as a J Toebes – gone but not forgotten).
But then it had many others who could only pretend and tryhard jobbie jobbie to emulate
Aah
Wrong way round, sorry
Cheers for that info’
Chris T is correct, and to give some context to the Dukes Of Hazard the car was named the General Lee and the thing they were celebrating was Lee being a “rebel”, and so were the Dukes. There’s also Billy Idols song Rebel Yell which refers to the shouts of the confederate army when going into battle. Of course we know better now, I see trucks with the flag all the time, either that or a Jim Beam flag, I doubt they put much thought into it other than it “looks cool”. Watch the TV series Atlanta which cleverly takes the piss out of southern racists.
I don’t think there is a “fairly recent controversy” over it. There’s been negative connotations surrounding that flag for decades.
I also find it difficult to reconcile that a bunch of people would openly parade around with that flag looking nothing like DoH and not have a second thought about how they come across.
Yes there have been connections to slavery etc for decades, but the flag was largely put up with.
They even had it on the car in that dire movie version in 2005 with no controversy
It has only really got as massive as it is now since Charleston in 2015.
It fact they actually removed production and sales of their General Lee toys straight after because of this.
https://ew.com/article/2015/06/24/dukes-hazzard-general-lee-confederate-flag/
Maybe there was little controversy because the movie makers saw it as a significant issue back in 2005, and they had to address it within the script.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us7v8vQpmZg
The trailer also does it’s best to show the car lots and lots and obscure the flag.
It wasn’t just the flag. Within months after Charleston the flag was banned from most shops, was being removed from display every where.
As I say, before the Charleston event it was largely just put up with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_display_of_the_Confederate_flag#Reactions_to_2015_Charleston_church_shooting
It is also what kicked off the demolition and/or removal of statues and monuments.
The USA is our default godfather don’t you know, just listen to the news from RadioNZ every day, what other country gets the same coverage? And their citizens are a dime a dozen around the country. Free to enter almost at will and probably easy residency though few would give up their own States citizenship. They like having the best of both worlds, maybe ‘to have their cake and eat it too’.
Ain’t that the truth @ Greywarshark.
They’re probably the lowest of the low on that demographic immigration spreadsheet – oops, I meant ‘best practiced risk analysis’ immigration criteria reference’, just next to mother Britain and slightly above a Canadian.
I’m not exactly sure of the weightings or where the Okkers rank.
As for giving up their own States citizenship, I have a close relative who has now lived far more of his life in NuZull than the Greatest Nation on Earth. He even has one of those ONZ or Merity trinkets. Trying to renounce US citizenship was like being placed on a charge of treason.
Are you saying he wanted to give up USA citizenship, or can you become dual under NZ law? And they didn’t like him wanting to be in Godzone??
I’m saying yes, he wanted to renounce his US citizenship. He no longer felt any sort of affinity with the place and had become more than disillusioned with its policies overseas (not that he ever publicly stated them). Most of his US based relatives had already karked it.
I think he retains dual citizenship to this day – the threats of tax audits and various other hurdles meant renouncing it just wasn’t worth it.
Oh, and to clarify…..I meant that non-US, non-Canadian, non-Brit dontcha know immigrants figure on the best practice risk analysis reference crib sheet whilst, as you suggest, the US citizen is automatically an asset and due for a rubber stamp on the PR application.
Were their any float’s from Hawera?
Anyway if you want people not fly those flags then a start, is to get people of NZ to understand history.
Because at present there is a dumbing down the NZ education system for arts and reducing tertiary departments for the arts, discouraging people to study the arts in NZ (apart from Law of course when we have all manner of fascists operating because they have no understanding of history, let alone morals), removing resources for the arts aka libraries, undermining history of western and local history at government and council level in real terms apart from surface representation with no real deep understanding of history, art and culture from different view points.
If this is the standard https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/11/students-launch-petition-after-confusion-by-word-trivial-in-nzqa-exam.html we might have a lot more flags flying whether confederate or CCP or who know who else we can sell out to or start a race war over.
No floats from Hawera, far out those ‘lions’ really did my head in.
Am pretty sure both of those float theme’s came from similar generations.
There is a lack of diversity in Richmond, which results in a lack of understanding especially when it comes to different cultures. Tunnel vision as. Spot the brown person. You get the picture.
I know at the local school here in Motueka, they do learn about many different cultures. This is in part due to such diversity within the students and families here. And it’s awesome. It makes a huge difference, it really does, one of the reasons this white girl moved her little family here.
Absolutely get where you are coming from SaveNZ re history/culture/arts knowledge of different view points etc.
Western MSM expose their own total lack of integrity and pretense of being institutions of fair and balanced reporting through their own deafening silence in the defense of the creator of the most effective whistle blower delivery system the world has ever seen..
ON CONTACT: CRUCIFYING JULIAN ASSANGE
Chris Hedges and Joe Lauria, journalist and editor-in-chief, Consortium, discuss efforts to force WikiLeaks publisher, Julian Assange, out of the Ecuador Embassy in London and extradite him to the USA to stand trial.
Chris Hedges discussed the Death of the Liberal Class back in 2011.
Very prescient of him as it is only now that most commentators have noticed this.
Yes it is a very sad indictment on western ‘liberial’ media including our own RNZ that nearly all the (now former) heroes of western reportage Robert Fisk, John Pilger, Seymour Hersh, Glenn Greenwald etc are all now effectively barred from having a voice on any of the outlets that used to champion them, we really are living is a Orwellian period of, half truths and out right lies.
love him or not, bomber bradbury being banned (alliteration!), from rnz the panel is another example.
i heard the segment when it was broadcast, and yes, twas bombastic.
i couldn’t disagree with him and found it refreshing to hear that attitude put so forthrightly.
Evidence-based public policy often uses science as basis, and science often uses stats. Don’t assume stats are reliable. Those commissioning research are inclined to try to leverage the outcome:
“A stunning report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine concludes that researchers often make “inappropriate requests” to statisticians. And by “inappropriate,” the authors aren’t referring to accidental requests for incorrect statistical analyses; instead, they’re referring to requests for unscrupulous data manipulation or even fraud.”
“The authors surveyed 522 consulting biostatisticians and received sufficient responses from 390. Then, they constructed a table (shown below) that ranks requests by level of inappropriateness. For instance, at the very top is “falsify the statistical significance to support a desired result,” which is outright fraud. At the bottom is “do not show plot because it did not show as strong an effect as you had hoped,” which is only slightly naughty.”
How prevalent is the coercion? Quite prevalent: “a whopping 24% — nearly 1 in 4 — said they were asked to remove or alter data. Unequivocally, that is a request to commit scientific fraud.” https://www.acsh.org/news/2018/10/30/1-4-statisticians-say-they-were-asked-commit-scientific-fraud-13554?fbclid=IwAR2K2vQwDeiso_lEA5U3Z_G3b3nh7E2mI62n-LcTlk5_ouSVikR9tqjpm0Y
My supervisor was dead set against me removing data that could be dubious in case it also removed the result. I did it anyway as science idealistically is about getting to the truth of a thing, not a convenience. Had to argue black and blue to get things done ‘properly.’
This was UoA, 2016.
The result was that my result was that much stronger, even with a smaller data set. It really annoyed me when he tried to stifle my enthusiasm for getting to the crux of things. I’d prefer no result to a BS result, any day.
Yeah, me too. Doing college science in the sixties, we were taught never to eliminate anomalous data points, always put them on the graph even if miles away from the trend line makes them look wacky. Authenticity.
So you can imagine how I felt when reading the Climategate emails, seeing actual professors agreeing to remove outliers so they could defeat climate deniers more convincingly!! They say the end justifies the means. History shows that everyone slides down a slippery slope into evil if they use that attitude.
The most interesting discoveries are often the outliers.
One salt tolerant species of Taro – do not report Taro are not salt tolerant – cultivate that superstar!
Sometimes outliers should be clearly taken out (a female in an all male dataset on muscle power) and some should be left in (Bill Gate’s income clearly belongs to a dataset about American incomes) … or not, depending on the point of the analysis.
Sometimes the answer is clear about what to do and sometimes it’s not clear which way to go (Does Peter Thiel’s income belong in a dataset about NZer’s incomes?). Usually, if you’re stuck not knowing what to do then analyse with and without outliers and see what difference it makes (and present both answers if there are clear differences).
Unfortunately, people want clear cut answers and sound nibbles – equivocation is taken as a weakness.
Very pleased to hear/see you stood your ground!
Reminds me of the Stanford prison experiment, which as far as I can see had no real concret ‘scientific’ results to speak of , but nonetheless was ( and probably still is) used as some sort of meaningful insight to human behaviour under certain conditions.
That was a doozy, indeed. They even made a movie about it: “The 2015 film The Stanford Prison Experiment is based on the experiment.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
I just went to remind myself, and the wiki account has a bunch of interesting nuances. Critics make valid points, but I still agree with Zimbardo’s thesis. Human nature is indeed context-driven. Warping via context can be designed.
” but I still agree with Zimbardo’s thesis. Human nature is indeed context-driven. ”
I too agree completely with that thesis, this was the point I was trying to make with a producer from RNZ during an email exchange earlier in the year, her position was, we give people the stories they want to hear, so (according to her) people are more interested in peoples stories/lives from France or the USA than they are of people in Africa/Asia or the Middle East, to which I responded, people would be concerned or interested in other peoples lives and interests of any country in the World if those peoples lives were contextualised, given form and substance, a privilege that RNZ rarely gives to these ‘other’ people…so in fact the editorial decisions of RNZ becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
Stanford been debunked according to a report I heard recently.
And Bertrand Russell (I think) comes to mind on fools being quick in decision making while wisdom takes longer.
Russell was the first thinker I stumbled across and liked ( probably because of his support of Muhammad Ali ) when I was a angry young 14 or 15 yo punk, I somehow found an audio of his debate with Father Frederick C. Copleston, it was a pivotal moment for me, there was something about the way these two thinkers with completely opposing concepts of reality sparred with an intellectual grace that greatly impressed me at the time, and still does.
Oh for intellectual grace Oh Lord.
not quite sure what the problem with good manners and a bit of grace in a debate is…
I think Grey’s point was that good manners and a bit of grace in a genuine debate between intellectually mature people is as rare as a flying Dodo and a flying Moa doing air-acrobatics in your backyard.
That remark wasn’t being sarcastic or pointed at you Adrian – it was a great phrase that I liked the sound of and would like to aspire to. So there is no problem at all. We have enough already without misunderstanding each other. Sorry about that.
And ianmac you have also expressed yourself well. Very funny. The blog has been very interesting lately.
The data are unreliable, the stats are unreliable, the scientists are unreliable and thus so-called evidence-based public policy is unreliable? Is that your message, Dennis? So, we might as well flick a coin to make important decisions? An almost 50% chance of getting it right?
Things aren’t that bad. Yet. I think it signals a trend that has serious implications for public policy formulation. Reliance on stats is no longer a good idea. There’s still quite a prevalent tendency for folks to have blind faith in scientists. Sceptical appraisal makes more sense now.
The other thing to learn from this study is the extent to which motivation is likely to warp the findings of scientists. Climate science has exposed that too, but admissions from so many researchers that they had been offered inducements to produce suitable results indicates the likelihood of a proportion of acceptance.
Since those who take the money are unlikely to admit doing so, we can only speculate on that proportion. The bottom line is that truth and reality are not the only factors incentivising scientific discoveries: we now have good reason to suspect that some such are fake news. Which is where the scientific discipline of replication comes in. Such discoveries become reliable when confirmed by other researchers operating independently. Initial discoveries ought to be regarded as provisional. Of course, the media will ignore that need for caution.
Good reply, thanks.
I do struggle a little with the ambiguous term “scientific discovery” but can’t formulate a decent argument for discussion right now except to say that provisional findings make for poor public policy or (better) not at all. Maybe another time.
White women are a conservative force in the USA: “white women voters overwhelmingly threw their support behind conservative Republican male candidates. Again. They did it for President Trump, who won an estimated 53 percent of the white female vote in 2016. And they did it with Roy Moore, accused of sexually predatory behavior, in Alabama’s special Senate election last year.” https://www.vogue.com/article/white-women-voters-conservative-trump-gop-problem
““Our perception that white women are going to vote the way ‘we’ think they should has been proven false over and over again,” Elizabeth Gillespie McRae, historian and author of Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy, tells Vogue. She points to white women’s historic role in upholding racial segregation, from campaigning against the United Nations (on the grounds that it would upend the racial divide) to rallying against school integration after Brown v. Board of Education, including leading the charge against busing black students to new districts. The Confederate monuments that have caused so much modern-day controversy, McRae adds, were often funded by white women’s organizations, prior to the 19th Amendment.”
“The latest gut punches, courtesy of CNN polling: In the Georgia governor’s race, an estimated 75 percent of white women—more even than white men!—voted for Republican Brian Kemp, who is passionately pro-life, over Stacey Abrams, a staunch protector of women’s reproductive rights, while 97 percent of black women supported her. In Texas, 60 percent of white women cast their ballots for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, a supporter of alleged assaulters President Trump and Brett Kavanaugh, over Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is dedicated to improving women’s health care. (Ninety-four percent of black women backed O’Rourke.)”
@ Dennis Frank. Interesting juxtaposition between your post on 6, showing how statistics are being manipulated with your post 7 suggesting that an estimated white women voted 53% in 2016 for Trump (also suggests that estimated 47% white women did not vote for Trump). Then add in voters who did not vote, any statistical error and based on who identifies as ‘white’ and who identifies as a ‘women’. Not sure what the point of your post of 7 is, actually? would be more interesting if you had the entire estimated voting gender/ethnicity.. otherwise what is the point of it especially as it seems like your selected demographic of ‘white women’ is actually pretty even between Trump and not voting for Trump (if that was the point of the statistic).
It actually shows that relying on identity politics in politics is probably not a good idea.. people are voting on their perception of who they think is the better candidate.. and going on about reproductive rights aka abortion, to christians might not be a good idea..
Is there a correlation between white women’s numbers who are linked to religious groups and churches with a patriarchal bias, and Republican voting?
75% identified as Christian in US in 2015. But the number is dropping fast.
107:100 boys:girls, so close to half of them female.
> 60% white.
> 325 million Americans.
325 x 0.6 x 0.5 x 0.75 = approx 73 125 000 white christian women voters in US.
Churches with patriarchal bias = pretty much all of them.
1 Timothy 2:12 “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, she must be silent.”
Or this gem
Ephesians 5:22 “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.”
Anyone with half a heart only has to read that cursed book to reject it.
Brainwashing in US however, runs very deep. All that patriotism doesn’t leave much room for grey matter. Republicans, like our own right w(h)ingers, love repugnant rhetoric espousing them as natural leaders. Here’s another pearl of wisdom from the ‘good book’.
1 Peter 2:18 “Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.”
Here’s some breakdown of beliefs and political affiliation. Actual proportions of each religion would be nice to have as well.
http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/party-affiliation/
the scary one is “Sources of guidance on right and wrong”
Republicans use religion to guide them 44% of the time, science 6%. Religion to guide them in their sexist racist homophobic genocidal ways. Science because Space Force!
Thanks WtB. I thought you were green, but you come in many colours like Josephs coat I see. The saying religiously-related applying to me:
‘The Lord loves a tryer’. Thanks for the help with the maths.
I was just reporting the Vogue writer’s framing (women voting against their common interests) but I agree with you that identity politics is unreliable. Stats are equally so. One could likewise argue that the conservative women identify with their husbands, their class interests, their skin colour etc…
Nice poem by poet Essa May Ranapiri
HOW COULD I MISS YOU WITH KUMARA IN THE OVEN
started reading the book backwards
to get through the 25 minutes
from notes to final section
to the middle to first line of first
poem to
acknowledgements to
isbn
every last word so brand new
i don’t need to be afraid of what comes next
if i’ve already looked at where the monster ends up
splotching plate with aioli
spearing each chip with the fork
i rinsed clean in the sink
after it lay in the sink
for about a week
i’m reminded our people travelled so far
and how far we’ve come coz
i’m scared to leave the couch
https://www.maoriart.org.nz/blog/how-could-i-miss-you-with-kumara-in-the-oven-a-poem-by-essa-may-ranapiri?fbclid=IwAR2KuVmSxqtrMzvrFLWzLHNM39i9XsOoxxRLYXMqwcMPQnqPOtKph2L_rI4
Very good poem. Thank you.
Next May’s European elections will be pretty interesting as a real stress test for anti-immigration populism.
Here comes Yanis Varoufakis for EU Parliament, proposing to represent …………. Germany.
Yesterday he accepted the nomination on behalf of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), which he launched in 2016 to “democratize” the continent. He calls it the European Spring, after the Arab Spring.
Ha, that’s funny, wonder what those gangsters at Deutsche Bank make of that?
Ad,
My son is leaving to work again in Germany so I will report to you what the mood is over there now as when Sam (my Son) was in Germany working last during 2005 to 2006 he said then that Arabs/Turks and others were coming in and locals were fearful then to walk the streets at night so interesting times indeed.
BTW @ CG – what happened with that visa situation you mentioned a few days ago?
Not unusual or recent my wife and I took a stroll in Southern French city in early 90s and began to notice we were in an area of group’s of men standing about, a lady pulled over in her car and suggested we hop in as the area was not safe for us and as we were feeling intimidated by the looks we were recieving we did.
That’s interesting. A boy on a bicycle in some USA city suburb was stopped by a large man with the Orthodox Jew hat and curl on. He was refused entry.
He felt quite uneasy.
nd who were afraid? It can be important for women in any town and city to know they will be safe at night, and if they have fears, they may hesitate to try but the fear may be unjustified.
I can’t say who we we afraid of but the looks we recieved from these men was not of welcome and the feeling was not good. On the same trip we arrived early in the morning from an overnight train and found ourselves in the midst of many homeless and rough sleepers with smiles we felt quite comfortable to sit take coffee and a bun. As a traveller I find it’s best to trust your feelings. In Sth East Asia I poke my nose into most situations but found in Cambodia stepping outside the tourist areas was quite uncomfortable. But seeing the horror museums and reading that to survive meant being able to smash your mother’s skull with a hoe I understand how the locals might feel less socially inclusive.
comments from friends in the US, Mexico closed its side of the border, and the US are firing tear gas into Mexico?
still waiting for something official well at least more then twitter,
oh well, surely he is gonna make America great again, and bring freedoms and peace to some if not many, or something something something,
totally unrelated of course,
https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/world/the-latest-ukraine-russia-opens-fire-on-ukrainian-vessels/878291999
“The European Union has called on Russia and Ukraine to “act with utmost restraint to de-escalate” the situation in the Black Sea.
Ukraine says that three of its ships have been seized by the Russian coast guard, including two that were fired upon, and two crew members were wounded. Russia has blamed Ukraine for preparing and orchestrating “provocations.”
The EU, in a statement from foreign affairs spokeswoman Maja Kocijanic, also said that it expected Russia to “restore freedom of passage” through the Kerch Strait after Moscow blockaded it.”
nothing happened, nothing to see, move along citizen
Hmmm
Interesting timing, just as Kiev launches a move occupying village in buffer area between the front lines in Eastern Ukraine. , and as Poroshenkos ratings hit an all time low(7.8%) with elections coming up and Yulia Tymoshenko looking set to win
Poroshenko now has the consent of his national defence and security council to declare martial law , which would suspend parliament and elections , can be used to ban protests and activities by political parties, and allows for media, TV stations and newspapers to be shut down.
Russia has called for an emergency meeting of theUN SC scheduled in about 9 hours.
Poroshenko has scheduled a meeting with Stoltenberg.
Basically a squabble over whether Ukraine gave advance notice of intention to move through that Kerch area, which they say they did. The Russian coastguard says they didn’t.
Previously Ukraine has obeyed that protocol
poor russia, so hard done buy the big angry heavily armed superpower Ukraine, who always goes walkabouts invading in Russia, seizing Russian ships n just. Luckily Russia is calling for the help of the UN. Cause what would Russia do otherwise. Cry a bucket?
TBF, poor Russia has a few problems of her own.
A day after Russia’s massive PD-50 drydock suddenly sank underneath the country’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, as it was receiving a long-awaited overhaul in frigid Murmansk, just how big a deal this may end up being for the Russian Navy is becoming clearer. The dry dock, which is the largest of its kind in Russian hands, appears to have sunk at first on a steep incline before it disappeared totally beneath the water’s surface. Russian officials are now saying that it could be many months before it is raised from the seabed 160 feet below and that doing so would be a very tedious and delicate operation. That’s if they decide to salvage it at all.
Regardless, PD-50 services all types of vessels that make up Russia’s most powerful fleet, including its largest submarines. So leaving it out of action for years, or even losing it altogether, would be a major hit for the Northern Fleet and the Russian Navy’s overall readiness.
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/24572/russias-dry-dock-accident-could-have-far-larger-repercussions-than-a-damaged-carrier
I wonder if that is connected to climate change. Less ice in Murmansk, was it set on an ice plateau?
Whooosh!
Such malice Sabine and Joe90, aint good for your liver.
Ukraine is seen as in the USA oriented nations, and which country knows what they will do next. White the USA surrounds itself with defensive sites. Didn’t help with September 2001 though.
malcolm gladwell has a great podcast series.
one of the episodes was looking at the movement of people across the mexican/u.s. border over 40 or so years.
the surprising conclusion was that when movement was less stringently controlled (up till the last 10 years), mexicans were far more likely to return and stay home, (not be aliens/illegal), than when the border got tightly controlled.
i thoroughly recommend revisionist history podcast.
i am not sure what this episode was.
another goodie was looking at french fries and how much better they tasted when they were cooked in beef fat compared to vege oils.
vege oils that are not good for you…
there are whole familys that are almost nomadic, they travel the various states for the harvest seasons and once done go back home. Rinse repeat every year.
but hey, what ever gets one elected as the candidate not beholden to corporate interest, self funded, and only worried about the economic anxiety of the white male working class.
After all, all mexicans are rapists and drug peddler. So said the Orange Saviour in 2015. In front of a camera and people and everyone just nodded and said: It is good.
This happens in Queensland too. I met a few Thai couples who came over each year to pick tomatoes then went back.
Bridges weighs in on the great 2018 Santagate controversy.
Good to see him talking about the “important” issues
https://en.brinkwire.com/news/santa-claus-is-a-man-and-thats-how-it-should-be-simon-bridges/
“I think it’s just PC gone – I don’t know if it’s mad, but too far. You guys this morning are telling me that man didn’t walk on the moon, now you’re telling me Santa’s a woman – I just want a few things I can believe in.”
“…….We’ve got discrimination rules and they’re absolutely right, you know, whether it’s gender, whether it’s ethnicity,” said Mr Bridges.
“But I think the truth is on Santa, this is a traditional thing. Mary Poppins is a woman, Santa Claus is a man. That’s how it should be……”
Saint Nicolaus was a man, Santa Claus is a fat made up american bloke in costume created to sell coca cola.
gosh that man is tedious.
My point is that you begin by a personal attack on AM Brady, with the intention of diminishing her credibility, as a preamble to dismissing whatever she has to say.
It seems like a shabby way to argue.
A.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
No Antione. You don’t have a point. I was quite explicit in saying “some may”, and gave another possibility too before writing that I wasn’t offering an opinion on either or either way.
I listened to what she said. Have you? I put up opinion and thoughts you could have engaged with.
You’ve chosen not to engage and to splatter a post with bullshit. So your comment’s now over here on Open Mike.
Oh, come on.
If I say “some may say X is a swivel-eyed loon but I couldn’t possibly comment”, then everyone will understand this as a coy way of saying “X is a swivel-eyed loon”.
Well, comport yourself as you like but don’t expect the rest of us to be impressed.
A.
Sure. My bias was stated. And then there was substantive opinion and thought to read and commented on in light of that bias.
You want to spend a day engaged in stirring up vacuous personal bullshit in lieu of engaging with substantive content? That’s what bullshit message boards and facebook are for.
I don’t have a response to the remainder of your comment. Don’t know enough about the case and wouldn’t comment on here if I did.
A.
Hospital Workers get rises of 24% to 40% on their hourly rate, some back dated 6 mths and this over 2 and a half years. A piece of good news in the Herald today.
Which ‘hospital workers’ if I may ask? Everyone??
A.
Antoine, good point. Orderlies, laundry workers, cleaners, kitchen workers and attendants. Cheers.
Thank you, and good news. (It was nationwide?)
A.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/108861000/pay-rise-of-up-to-40-per-cent-for-thousands-of-hospital-services-workers
Very surprising that this didn’t get more attention here today …
Antione, yes MECA Multi Employer Collective Agreement.
Sabine at 11.1
“Saint Nicolaus was a man,Santa Claus is a fat made up american bloke in costume”
He was a man; – yes – and Saint Nicholas was not Santa Claus either!
According to this German historical record of the two men, known as “Santa Claus and Saint Nicholas.. – No mention of Coca cola though, sarc’.
https://www.german-way.com/history-and-culture/holidays-and-celebrations/christmas/saint-nicholas/
Christmas Customs: St. Nicholas – der Heilige Nikolaus
Wer ist Sankt Nikolaus?
– Who is Saint Nicholas?
For a long time in Austria and some regions of Germany, particularly in Bavaria, St. Nicholas was the main character in the Christmas celebration.
But he was not Santa Claus, and he arrived earlier – on the 6th of December. His usual, less friendly escort went by different names in different places: “Belsnickle,” “Niglo,” “Pelznickel,” and others. Santa Claus or Father Christmas is a more recent tradition. Since the Germans (and the Dutch) brought many of their customs to America directly or indirectly, we need to look first at Europe in order to understand the American and worldwide Christmas celebration of today.
I am german, i am bavarian. Thanks for the history lesson. We only have St. Nicolaus on the 6th of December, on the eve of the 24th we give pressies, go to midnight mess if so inclined, and that was that. No one crawling through the chimney or anything. 25th and 26th are Christmas Holidays without any importance other then visiting family and eating way to much food, and drinking way to much booze.
Santa Claus is if anything dutch in nature, and then co-opted by Coca Cola. The dutch would have called him Sinter Claas, and his helper is generally refered to as het swarte piet. The black pete.
Hence my comment in the first place about the gender and the reality of Saint Nicolaus, Bishop of Bari whom the legend says went out during a particular hard winter and left overings of food, clothes and toys for the children in front of the houses of the poor.
He should not be ‘played by a women’ cause he was a man, in saying that in the convent that i grew up and lived in for many years it was Nuns who played the part of St. Nicolaus and Kramperl (his helper) was also played by a Nun. They came with the book of good deeds and bad deeds, scared the small children witless and us older ones running down the halls of the convent screeching trying to figure out who played whom. However we never did. The Nuns always outsmarted us. Such are nuns, what can i say.
However, fat Coca Cola Santa can and should be played by whomever applies for hte role and is best suited.
That is what my comment relates too.
As for those that like this bit, St. Barbara is held on the fourth of December, Patron Saint of miners. I have her in mind, while the bodies of the pike river miners are recovered. She is often depicted with a lantern in her hand, surrounded by praying/crying women and children at the entrance of a mining shaft.
yeah, i am very bavarian, and i like my little customs. So light a candle on the 4th Dec, for all the miners everywhere. And give sweets to the kids on the 6th of december thanks to Saint Nicolaus.
I’m not so interested in who “Father Christmas” was . I like to think about who he can be, from this moment on. This year, courtesy of my now-convincingly festive white beard, I’m going to play “Father Christmas’s ” dad, Grandfather Christmas and give out to children, hope and encouragement along with packets of vegetable seeds 🙂
I found an educational video on Santa that might give you some ideas
Mihingarangi Forbes had a good idea on RNZ this arvo.
Having a kiwi character be the equivalent.
I think her suggestion was Rongo Ma Tane, God of cultivated plants and food.
How to make Auckland a city of the future? Give it back to the artists
https://www.noted.co.nz/culture/arts/how-to-make-auckland-city-of-the-future-give-it-back-to-artists/?fbclid=IwAR1PAjjOSuzW2bEys2T–1zb7PgQfkAppDMf6rZiEafZUHSstTi01Mgx8iI
Natioal Party may be behind these sudden vehicle liciencing issues being stirred up tas both Davaville and westland are both Labour strongholds we now await to see if a “Garage in a National stronghold is also pulled up” as the whole NZTA handling of vehicle licieces debate hots up.
Seocond garage found is “Westland tyre and Autos” is clearly a laour strondhold whom the NZTA agency has targetted now who has had that garage in Westland WoF licience evoked.
Will NZTA now target the National strongholds of West and north Auckland,,hamiton, Tauranga, Otago, and Southland?
We await for this with interest.
National Party seems to be causing trouble and friction among communities, only in labour held areas. it seems to be the new game of National politics.
So watch their ‘dark ops’ of “dirty politics” as time goes by.
Yes SaveNZ
you hit the mark there with the ‘Bridges issue’ here in your article see this statement made in the article https://www.noted.co.nz/culture/arts/how-to-make-auckland-city-of-the-future-give-it-back-to-artists/?fbclid=IwAR1PAjjOSuzW2bEys2T–1zb7PgQfkAppDMf6rZiEafZUHSstTi01Mgx8iI
Go to this site inside your article,
https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/politics/simon-bridges-9-months-of-disaster-management/
Quote;
“It’s a reasonable bet that when Simon Bridges took on the job as leader in February he didn’t expect it would mostly involve wall-to-wall disaster management of National’s problems that would overshadow his attempts to harass the coalition government for its failings.”
As my bolg suggested; – National is trying now quietly to find as your article says; –
“problems that would overshadow his attempts to harass the coalition government for its failings.”
The Wof issue is one of those I suggest, as we already had this over the truck trailer issue last wanter when a Nelson enginerering shop signed off many truck trailers with false certificates, so now Bridges is causing further unrest amost the private vehicle liciencing now too.
Watch for this slimy Bridges character as he is a very slippery character.
So we do womder if he can dinger a Garage in his seat of Tauranga now for licience breaches of Wof’s?
The United States of America is firing chemical agents at women and children.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ds4MbkzU4AENr_m.jpg
Shocking. What is the international game plan as signed up with UN about this?
Or has USA lost every sense of appropriate behaviour, decency, respect for humanity? Time for a Billy Graham mass Christian campaign calling all the sinners back to the fold, and also making America great again in one package. At present there is an evil message being absorbed under a false flag.
The warmongering, anti-Semitic piece of shit’s memory should be rendered damnatio memoriae.
http://www.nypress.com/billy-graham-war-criminal/
I was short of anybody with that pulling power to ‘USA Christians’. So I picked the wrong guy did I. But is there a new, better sort of preacher that would turn this tide of negativity, racism, hate and bellicose scapegoating that mixed together looks nasty.
Anyone, as long as they take their damn fool book seriously.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+14%3A13-21&version=NIV
You came up with a doozy of a link. So interesting and relevant to the voting for the Republicans and the connection with religion.
Also this on North Korea. I didn’t know the history and see why they have ‘ambivalent’ attitudes to the USA.
Graham lent his imprimatur to this recommendation. Thus Graham was advocating a policy to the U.S. Commander-in-Chief that on Nixon’s own estimate would have killed a million people.
The German High Commissioner Seyss-Inquart was sentenced to death at Nuremberg for breaching dikes and other crimes in Holland in World War II.
(His execution did not deter the USAF from destroying the Toksan dam in North Korea, in 1953, thus deliberately wrecking the system that irrigated 75 percent of North Korea’s rice farms.)
You came up with a doozy of a link with that nypress one. So interesting and relevant to Republicans and voting and religion; this time anti-Jewish. And Billy Graham is very anti – doesn’t come across as a decent Christian for sure.
Also this on North Korea. I didn’t know the history and see why they have ‘ambivalent’ attitudes to the USA.
Graham lent his imprimatur to this recommendation. Thus Graham was advocating a policy to the U.S. Commander-in-Chief that on Nixon’s own estimate would have killed a million people.
The German High Commissioner Seyss-Inquart was sentenced to death at Nuremberg for breaching dikes and other crimes in Holland in World War II.
(His execution did not deter the USAF from destroying the Toksan dam in North Korea, in 1953, thus deliberately wrecking the system that irrigated 75 percent of North Korea’s rice farms.)
and a useless fat ugly man is feeling all powerful, probably sexually aroused by the fear he creates and while watching fox news, eating literal shit sandwiches from MacDo gets off every time another canister gets shot across the border.
Cause nothing says powerful man more then crying mothers and children.
And this is how it starts. And this is how it always started. Some useless sadistic piece of shit supported by people cause……economic anxiety. T’was thus in Germany, and now we get to watch the sequel.
Seems good coverage of the Russian Ukraine matter with good accessabile map.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/russia-closes-water-route-in-fresh-confrontation-with-ukraine/2018/11/25/a57adc3e-f0c1-11e8-99c2-cfca6fcf610c_story.html?utm_term=.c23cd49b3969
A Daily Mail version of the Russia Ukraine interaction.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6427285/Russian-Navy-opens-fire-Ukrainian-navy-boat-blocking-key-shipping-route-Crimea.html
Holy shit I just got all the way to the bottom of open mic. And not a single thread was a complete waste of time scrolling paste petty bullshit. . I don’t even think I read a single pointless slogan.
Take bow people. 😏
and you came along, and said nothing much of importance.
Take a bow. 🙂
Can we step back from little comments that add nothing. I did one yesterday and I promise not to do it again for a while. Could we all step back and let it go, unless having a rare poke whn the time is appropriate.
True
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has started trolling Fox News in Spanish…
https://mashable.com/article/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-fox-news-shoes/#pnwtiu3sCqqf
Anyone else splitting their sides laughing with simon bridges and nationals…. no new taxes announcement?
Was simon asleep during the johnkey years of government?
I’m pretty sure key promised the same then nek minute….. it’s a levy, it’s a fee, it’s not a tax, don’t forget raising gst.
No new taxes…. dosen’t mean we can’t increase the current ones.
Oh and if a CGT is introduced he is going to get rid of it, to help the poor (sarc)
Jacinda dismantled him at her post-cabinet presser today. He’s desperate. And National are trying to get their polling back above 40% before it becomes a downward spiral.
Hehehe nice.
Simon must be having a panic attack. I count 10 separate tweets and 2 retweets today.
https://mobile.twitter.com/simonjbridges?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
lmao the comments on his twitter.
It’s almost like he sends a tweet, bums out re the response, then decides to try again in desperation that someone, anyone will show him some support.
Freaking funny as, cheers for that Fireblade.
Possibly as many as 3 binding referendums at the next election? Our ballot papers will look like those enormous long ones they have in America.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/11/triple-header-referendum-looms-for-2020.html
Quite like the idea of referendums being included in the election. Cheaper than doing them separately. And possibly will make for a greater turn out of voters.
Agreed Cinny
I don’t mind a referendum but the binding bit sticks in the craw.
It all depends on the wording of the question.
E.g. marijuana. I am all for decriminilising the weed.
That would also go hand in hand with restrictions and decent education.
Not the DARE type, Mr Mackey “drugs are bad mmkay?”
I have no care for legalisation, i.e. handing pot over to big business a la alcohol.
Plus it might mean celebrity survivor fans have a large influence.
Kia ora Newshub These helicopter are crashing often.
The virus outbreak up In North Land condolences to anyone who has lost love ones.
It a big mystery around Whale stranding 145 stranded down South have died that’s sad. The worst thing one can do is give the issue publicity
The NZ CEO over half don’t use twitter ???????? Equality half Wahine CEO is needed to fix most of our problems.
I agree the addiction needs to be treated so the people doing dump things will be able to straighten up there act that’s a smart way to a positive solution to a bad problem.
I back welcoming Refugees they are people in need we can not ignore there suffering
and ha the west has cause most of these Refugee problems.
With the Smoking tax debate its a addiction tax’s don’t treat the addiction they just rake money from poor people who can’t beat the addiction billions should be invested to find better treatments for the smokers addiction not higher TAX.
Ka kite ano
Eco Maori encourages all the WORLDS CHILDREN to protest about the inaction of the
Worlds Governments to do everything in there POWER’S to mitigate Climate Change as it is there FUTURE we are poisoning and turning into hell for all as it is our children who have to clean up there MESS.
And if teachers really care about there children they will tau toko/support there STAND.
Scott Morrison has been labelled “out of touch” for angrily condemning a national student strike to protest government inaction on climate change.
The prime minister implored children to stay in class rather than protesting things that “can be dealt with outside of school”.
Everything you want to know about climate change in #MyClimateQuestions
Read more
“Each day I send my kids to school and I know other members’ kids should also go to school but we do not support our schools being turned into parliaments,” Morrison told parliament on Monday. Ka kite ano Links Below
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/26/scott-morrison-tells-students-striking-over-climate-change-to-be-less-activist
This Swedish girl is protesting about the MESS the WORLD GOVERNMENTS are making of her future KA PAI /GOOD
When school started in August this year, I decided enough was enough. Sweden had just experienced its hottest summer ever. The election was coming up. No one was talking about climate change as a crisis.
Advertisement
So I decided to walk out of school and sit on the ground outside the Swedish parliament to demand our politicians treat climate change for what it is: the biggest issue we have ever faced.
Because if climate change has to stop, then we must stop it. It is black and white. There are no grey areas when it comes to survival. Either we continue as a civilisation or we don’t. One way or another, we have to change. Countries like mine and Australia must start reducing our emissions dramatically if we believe in equality and climate justice.Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coal, one of the leading cause of climate change. Your politicians want to help Adani build one of the biggest coal mines in the world. Right now, there are no policies to change this. There are no rules to keep coal in the ground. We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules because the rules have to be changed
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/26/im-striking-from-school-for-climate-change-too-save-the-world-australians-students-should-too
P.S I was just thinking that I did not see Paddy on the show Maui Dolphins are my favorites Tangaroa Mammal
Video for the above post
Some Eco Maori Music For The Minute
Here you go he does not care about the billions of lives his ignorance is going to harm
donald trump has told reporters he doesn’t believe his own government’s climate change findings that the US economy will suffer substantially with continued warming from greenhouse gas pollution.
“I’ve seen it, I’ve read some of it, and it’s fine,” he said outside the White House on Monday. “I don’t believe it.”
From Facebook to climate change: how to bury bad news
Read more
The report, called the National Climate Assessment, was quietly released the day after Thanksgiving. Also last Friday, the government slipped out another environment internal report with bad news about emissions from oil and gas drilling on federal lands. Link below ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/26/trump-national-climate-assessment-dont-believe
Eco Maori music
Kia ora Newshub Tova Bulling is not acceptable and should be stamped out of all organizations.
That virus in North Land is shocking and in a place with high Maori population this tell me that we are a second class people .
The closing off Queen’s st to all but the essential vehicles is a really good move there are quite a few city’s around the world doing this with big success clean air.
Our children always have there faces in there Ph not I . I just do a lot of research for my mission I will be doing Eco Maori influencing for a long time.
The health supplements is not regulated.
Condolences to all the people who lost there houses in the big fire in Australia .
Everyone is buying Tesla cars A with GM lay off and some ones trade war is hurting the poor.
I have a consumers complaint every time I go to buy some thing some how they have not got the product I want so they say they will ring back but know O that’s just the bulling sandfly being muppets trying there best to try and upset me but no they are just small fry in Eco Maoris Papatuanuku.
Ka kite ano P.S some people think they know my whapapa but there is one line no one knows about.
Kia ora The Crowd Goes Mulls James & Wairangi Wild fingers crossed for the Black Caps.
The League dramas that move will get the punters out.
Yes Its cool that Joe Schmidts is stepping aside for his whano .
At the Bowls guys the Crowd is growing thats the way Tau toko them not to much cups of teas tho A.
That Hand glider person was lucky he only broke his wrist he would have had to change his ——
That was a good UFC KO kick the ref in the teeth lol we no what’s really in the water bottle mulls Ka kite ano