Open mike 27/12/2024
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6:00 am, December 27th, 2024 - 27 comments
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- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #4 2025
Open access notables Managing and mitigating future public health risks: Planetary boundaries, global catastrophic risk, and inclusive wealth, McLaughlin & Beck, Risk Analysis [perspective]: There are two separate conceptualizations for assessing existential risks: Planetary Boundaries (PBs) and global catastrophic risks (GCRs). While these concepts are similar in principle, their underpinning ...57 minutes ago - Join us at 5pm for 2025’s first Hoon
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and ...5 hours ago - Fixing science?
Aotearoa's science sector is broken. For 35 years it has been run on a commercial, competitive model, while being systematically underfunded. Which means we have seven different crown research institutes and eight different universities - all publicly owned and nominally working for the public good - fighting over the same ...5 hours ago - Show us the money, Einsteins
One of the best speakers I ever saw was Sir Paul Callaghan.One of the most enthusiastic receptions I have ever, ever seen for a speaker was for Sir Paul Callaghan.His favourite topic was: Aotearoa and what we were doing with it.He did not come to bury tourism and agriculture but ...6 hours ago - Thursday 23 January
The Tertiary Education Union is predicting a “brutal year” for the tertiary sector as 240,000 students and teachers at Te Pūkenga face another year of uncertainty. The Labour Party are holding their caucus retreat, with Chris Hipkins still reflecting on their 2023 election loss and signalling to media that new ...6 hours ago - Luxon’s speech an exercise in smoke and mirrors
The Prime Minister’s State of the Nation speech is an exercise in smoke and mirrors which deflects from the reality that he has overseen the worst economic growth in 30 years, said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff. “Luxon wants to “go for growth” but since he and Nicola ...8 hours ago
- Standing for Decency
People get readyThere's a train a-comingYou don't need no baggageYou just get on boardAll you need is faithTo hear the diesels hummingDon't need no ticketYou just thank the LordSongwriter: Curtis MayfieldYou might have seen Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde's speech at the National Prayer Service in the US following Trump’s elevation ...10 hours ago - Luxon to lay out economic plan. Questions please.
Long stories short, the six things of interest in the political economy in Aotearoa around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday January 23 are:PM Christopher Luxon’s State of the Nation speech after midday today, which I’ll attend and ask questions at;Luxon is expected to announce “new changes to incentivise research ...14 hours ago - Join me for a live video chat Dawn Chorus of six things @ 6.30am
I’m trying a new way to do a more regular and timely daily Dawn Choruses for paying subscribers through a live video chat about the day’s key six things @ 6.30 am lasting about 10 minues. This email is the invite to that chat on the substack app on your ...16 hours ago - New Zealand First — No More
Yesterday, Trump pardoned the founder of Silk Road - a criminal website designed to anonymously trade illicit drugs, weapons and services. The individual had been jailed for life in 2015 after an FBI sting.But libertarian interest groups had lobbied Donald Trump, saying it was “government overreach” to imprison the man, ...16 hours ago - Nats call on Luxon to deliver
The Prime Minister will unveil more of his economic growth plan today as it becomes clear that the plan is central to National’s election pitch in 2026. Christopher Luxon will address an Auckland Chamber of Commerce meeting with what is being billed a “State of the Nation” speech. Ironically, after ...17 hours ago - Climate Adam: Will 2025 be the Hottest Year Ever Recorded?
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- Comments on MBIE/MFAT proposed long-term insights briefing: “New Zealand’s future productivity t...
The NZCTU’s view is that “New Zealand’s future productivity to 2050” is a worthwhile topic for the upcoming long-term insights briefing. It is important that Ministers, social partners, and the New Zealand public are aware of the current and potential productivity challenges and opportunities we face and the potential ...1 day ago
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- A way to begin
The maxim is as true as it ever was: give a small boy and a pig everything they want, and you will get a good pig and a terrible boy.Elon Musk the child was given everything he could ever want. He has more than any one person or for that ...1 day ago - Govt leaving food banks in funding limbo
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Leo Molloy's recent "shoplifting" smear against former MP Golriz Ghahraman has finally drawn public attention to Auror and its database. And from what's been disclosed so far, it does not look good: The massive privately-owned retail surveillance network which recorded the shopping incident involving former MP Golriz Ghahraman is ...1 day ago
- Not so qualified?
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NZME plans to cut 38 jobs as it reorganises its news operations, including the NZ Herald, BusinessDesk, and Newstalk ZB. It said it planned to publish and produce fewer stories, to focus on those that engage audience. E tū are calling on the Government to step in and support the ...1 day ago
- Working people will pay for static inflation
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The old bastard left his ties and his suitA brown box, mothballs and bowling shoesAnd his opinion so you'd never have to choosePretty soon, you'll be an old bastard tooYou get smaller as the world gets bigThe more you know you know you don't know shit"The whiz man" will never ...5 days ago - Latest Poll- Nats in a slo-mo death spiral?
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The Numbers2024 could easily have been National’s “Annus Horribilis” and 2025 shows no signs of a reprieve for our Landlord PM Chris Luxon and his inept Finance Minister Nikki “Noboats” Willis.Several polls last year ...6 days ago - Clearing the Decks: Government replaces half of the Waitangi Tribunal
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So what becomes of you, my love?When they have finally stripped you ofThe handbags and the gladragsThat your poor old granddadHad to sweat to buy you, babySongwriter: Mike D'aboIn yesterday’s newsletter, I expressed sadness at seeing Golriz Ghahraman back on the front pages for shoplifting. As someone who is no ...7 days ago - Weekly Roundup 17-January-2025
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Hit the road Jack and don't you come backNo more, no more, no more, no moreHit the road Jack and don't you come back no moreWhat you say?Songwriters: Percy MayfieldMorena,I keep many of my posts, like this one, paywall-free so that everyone can read them.However, please consider supporting me as ...1 week ago - Review: The Narnia books, by C.S. Lewis (1950-1956) – Part One
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Kia Ora,I try to keep most my posts without a paywall for public interest journalism purposes. However, if you can afford to, please consider supporting me as a paid subscriber and/or supporting over at Ko-Fi. That will help me to continue, and to keep spending time on the work. Embarrassingly, ...1 week ago
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There was a time when Google was the best thing in my world. I was an early adopter of their AdWords program and boy did I like what it did for my business. It put rocket fuel in it, is what it did. For every dollar I spent, those ads ...1 week ago - The disinformation grift in NZ.
A while back I was engaged in an unpleasant exchange with a leader of the most well-known NZ anti-vax group and several like-minded trolls. I had responded to a racist meme on social media in which a rightwing podcaster in the US interviewed one of the leaders of the Proud ...1 week ago
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It's a long white cloud for you, baby; staying together alwaysSummertime in AotearoaWhere the sunshine kisses the water, we will find it alwaysSummertime in AotearoaYeah, it′s SummertimeIt's SummertimeWriters: Codi Wehi Ngatai, Moresby Kainuku, Pipiwharauroa Campbell, Taulutoa Michael Schuster, Rebekah Jane Brady, Te Naawe Jordan Muturangi Tupe, Thomas Edward Scrase.Many of ...1 week ago - 2024 sets some new road safety records
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Christopher Luxon’s State of the Nation speech today offered no real hope nor vision for a unified and prosperous Aotearoa New Zealand. ...8 hours ago - Govt’s sanctions regime fails us all
The Government’s newly released data paints a damning picture: the sanctions regime targeting beneficiaries is an abject failure. ...10 hours ago
- Release: Nicola Willis has a new job while she oversees New Zealanders losing theirs
There are still struggles ahead with rising rents, rates, insurance and high unemployment, despite today’s inflation data. ...1 day ago - Government spin won’t pay the rent
The latest Consumer Price Index figures show rents rising almost twice as fast as general inflation. ...1 day ago
- Aotearoa must step up as Trump plays with climate fire
The Green Party is calling on the Government to stand firm and work with allies to progress climate action as Donald Trump signals his intent to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords once again. ...2 days ago
- Release: Cabinet reshuffle a futile exercise from failing government
National's Cabinet reshuffle is a futile attempt to turn around a failing government. ...3 days ago
- Greens welcome Gaza ceasefire, but say more work to do
The Green Party has welcomed the provisional ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and reiterated its call for New Zealand to push for an end to the unlawful occupation of Palestine. ...1 week ago
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Ka kohukohu te awa o Whanganui!Ka tau te kākahu taratara ki runga I te maunga o Whānau Ora!Ka tangi hotuhotu tō iwi Māori! ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour acknowledges Lyn Fleming’s death
Labour expresses its shock and sadness at the death of widely respected Police Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming. ...2 weeks ago
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The Green Party welcomes the extension of the deadline for Treaty Principles Bill submissions but continues to call on the Government to abandon the Bill. ...2 weeks ago
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Complaints about disruptive behaviour now handled in around 13 days (down from around 60 days a year ago) 553 Section 55A notices issued by Kāinga Ora since July 2024, up from 41 issued during the same period in the previous year. Of that 553, first notices made up around 83 ...2 weeks ago - 80% reduction in building determination wait times
The time it takes to process building determinations has improved significantly over the last year which means fewer delays in homes being built, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “New Zealand has a persistent shortage of houses. Making it easier and quicker for new homes to be built will ...2 weeks ago
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Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is pleased to announce the annual list of New Zealand’s most popular baby names for 2024. “For the second consecutive year, Noah has claimed the top spot for boys with 250 babies sharing the name, while Isla has returned to the most popular ...2 weeks ago
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Analysis - At first glance the Prime Minister's fresh plan to inject growth in the economy is a hark back to pre-Covid days and the last National government. ...3 hours ago - The US intends to leave the World Health Organization. What happens next?
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- A new wave of filmmakers are exploring motherhood’s discontents. Nightbitch makes this monstrous
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Williamson, Senior Tutor in English, University of Canterbury Disney+ “Motherhood,” the beleaguered stay-at-home mother of Nightbitch tells us in contemplative voice-over, “is probably the most violent experience a human can have aside from death itself”. Increasingly depicted as a ...5 hours ago
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lewis Ingram, Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of South Australia Undrey/Shutterstock Whether improving your flexibility was one of your new year’s resolutions, or you’ve been inspired watching certain tennis stars warming up at the Australian Open, maybe 2025 has you keen to ...6 hours ago
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The Coalition of cockups strikes again.
Making sure that snake oil salespersons, and sellers of fake medicines to the gullible, won't be restricted by the burdon of evidence or public safety.
Therapeutic Products Act Repeal Act 2024 No 55, Public Act – New Zealand Legislation
Well it would be a terrible burden on the makers and sellers of said products, and regulation is bad, didn't you know?
Master Hooton suggests that TINA to New Zealand adopting a small government limited first world public commons provision and handing over the economy to foreign corporations, by slashing company tax so they can extract more profit offshore to their shareholders.
https://archive.li/KBPpm#selection-3923.0-4191.176
He means those sorted, high incomes and inter-generational wealth to pass on (private schooling and health insurance etc) will find not be too badly impacted, so can still live here (enjoy CG untaxed) while they are healthy and then retire to Oz (still with first world health care and no estate tax).
Monsieur Hooton dreaming of La Belle Epoque again?
That golden age, when the working class did not vote and women secured their place via the approval of men of means.
Hooten is a pissant plan-free small-minded twerp.
If he had anything useful to add to NZ he'd be a multimillionaire businessman by mow.
Meow
Sounds like way too much hard work for hoots.
So much easier to sing for your supper by regurgitating endless neolib dogma to keep in sweet with the coalition.
Useful tool etc.
The gangster state hit a civil aircraft with a surface-to-air missile, denied pilot requests to attempt an emergency landing, allegedly interfered with the aircraft's navigation systems, and directed the crew to fly the damaged aircraft across the Caspian Sea towards Aktau in Kazakhstan.
https://x.com/agnosticsberlin/status/1872345281670561976
https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/azerbaijan-airlines-e190-crashes-near-aktau/
38 passengers were killed on Wednesday after Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8432 crashed as it attempted to make an emergency landing near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.
Azerbaijani government sources have exclusively confirmed to Euronews on Thursday that a Russian surface-to-air missile caused the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Aktau on Wednesday.
https://www.euronews.com/2024/12/26/exclusive-preliminary-investigation-confirms-russian-missile-over-grozny-caused-aktau-cras
Oh dear National's election promises for multiple RONS are falling apart. And the rumour is they are going way over budget.
"A big challenge is whether the RoNS can be delivered on budget. Leaked figures published by the Herald suggest they could come in at more than twice as much as National said they would, leaving a potential fiscal hole of $24b.
The Herald asked Brown if he had received the latest costings for each roading project. He did not respond."
We need to elect a government in 2026 that gets things done.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/nationals-first-wave-of-new-highways-and-how-existing-transport-projects-are-tracking-across-the-motu/TUNAPBZIDBGBZH4AXKL4ISI4TM/
We need to elect a new govt in 2025….!
Kay – it's a struggle to call this CoClowns a govt! They couldn't even manage their way out of a paper bag.
Agree, but they were elected by one means or another…to be a govt….they have failed in such a catastrophic way in such a short time…12 months……for our survival they need to be voted out……in 2025…..otherwise I fear the worst…..
IREX is looking the best plan of the lot, as time goes by.
Yes about time winston got put on the spot here having signed the contracts Nicola cancelled.
What evidence can he produce that keeps unsigned contracts with unchosen providers within their 'fiscal envelope’ is a start.
They can't do approximate costings until they get a design done to 50% level.
The question is how high the tolls will have to be to attract the likes of Macquarrie and Blackrock.
These Ministers just don't have infrastructure deal experience at all. At least Twyford got close.
Then they have to persuade someone they will go thru with it this time!!!!
the 3 RONs that might start this term alone are $1.5 to $3 billion more than Simeon Brown costed vefore the election, 12 months ago. Inflation isn't running at 50% is it Simeon. Either he fudged the numbers, has no clue or Nicola Willis did the numbers.
I see that the Victorian Liberal Party has bounced John Pesutto and re-admitted Moira Deeming to the Party. Repeating and making up lies about people speaking up for women's rights is not a good look.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-27/vic-libs-john-pesutto-moira-deeming-brad-battin-jess-wilson/104764726
"Mr Pesutto's leadership had been under immense pressure since exiled MP Moira Deeming won a high-stakes defamation case against him.
A special party meeting at state parliament readmitted Ms Deeming and spilled the leadership."
wow. I haven't been following recently, so had missed this. I really wish the left would start paying attention and listening to GCFs, because this stuff is going to harm us, badly.
NZ pol seems to be relying on the current govt being clowns who will be out at the next election, but that won't solve the drift towards populism and away from lw values.
Maybe they should pay attention to some of the stats following the US election (see Pew research)
"Nearly two-thirds of registered voters (65%) say whether a person is a man or woman is determined by the sex assigned to them at birth. About a third (34%) say whether someone is a man or woman can be different from the sex at birth.
Nine-in-ten Trump supporters and about four-in-ten Biden supporters (39%) say sex at birth determines if someone is a man or a woman."
And the percentage of people saying sex is "assigned at birth" has increased in recent years in spite of a significant amount of transgender activism/propaganda in recent years.
Anecdotally, several 'gender critical' women said they were either voting for Trump because of the gender identity issue, or were voting for neither Trump or Biden, if they voted at all.
There was an intense conflict on social media between GC women who were voting Biden and those voting Trump, with Biden supporters saying Trump was no friend to women in the wider scheme of things.
I don't know how anyone GC who is a feminist could vote right rather than left in NZ or the US. But, the amount of people choosing to vote Trump, NZF etc, may be enough to swing the final outcome of an election in the future.
Locally NACT and L/G/TPM MP's voted for self ID (NZF not in parliament at the time), which makes change difficult.
One pathway for this is to have (biological) sex and gender as distinct categories in Human Rights legislation. My submission was on this aspect.
Then focus on safety, as per a requirement of consent for those identifying by gender to access women's spaces.
I agree that sex and gender needs to be clearly distinct in NZ law. At the moment there is no clear definition of 'gender' or 'gender identity' in NZ law.
Past law and case law has assumed sex is innate, determined prior to birth, and immutable.
The sex self ID amendment to the BDMRR Act has a clause that sex can be determined by other means than a birth certificate. The HRA states that (sex is a protected characteristic.
There also needs to continue to be provisions for single sex provisions and rights in NZ law and social practice, as well as providing adequate unisex provisions and protections against discrimination against trans identified and other gender IDed people.
There is an important case in process brought by LAVA (Lesbian Action for Visibility in Aotearoa) before the Human Rights Tribunal concerning LAVA being excluded from a Pride event in Wellington because they were considered to be "trans exclusionary".
I'm hearing ships of larger length and beam are more stable:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/vehicles-damaged-one-injured-on-rolling-interislander-ferry-sailing/D2M6E447VZDQXCLMTLT6OYD3LY/
From the moment we pass the delivery date of the cancelled ferries willis is 100% responsible for any and all mishaps.
I love this from R(WNJ)NZ. An article about high profile court cases places a terrorist, murderers, a child murderer, a meth-addicted probable murderer and a suicide next to shoplifter Golriz Gharaman.
Guess who leads the story…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/537680/year-in-review-a-look-back-at-the-most-high-profile-court-cases-of-2024
*no byline. No-one wrote this article.
rnz is state owned, and the Tories being the Tory arseholes would shut them down if not lead story.