Time to change our relationships to our waterways.
“Fish & Game commissioned the nationwide poll which was conducted in early December by Colmar Brunton.
About 82 percent of respondents said they would support a move to introduce mandatory environmental standards for New Zealand’s waterways, even if it meant regulating intensive farming.
Support is stronger among people who are very concerned about the pollution of rivers and lakes, with nine out of ten supporting tougher rules.
Fish & Game chief executive Martin Taylor said local authorities had for too long allowed intensive farms to become established in unsuitable areas, and then protected them at the expense of the environment.”
7 billion people.
Enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world a thousand times.
Trillions of litres of chemicals in the air in the water in the land.
I wonder by the end of this century if living out doors will still be possible
or if the survivors will be in sealed in bubbles.
Many of those contributing to the degradation of rivers through their farming practices might be caring, unwitting, reluctant, unable to do otherwise. But those uncaring ones, they deserve a reckoning.
Most people live in the Cities so won’t be impacted by any tough new regulations. It is easy to call for this when it isn’t your livelihood that is directly impacted.
There are much tougher regulations in urban areas too.
Farmers have had it too easy too long.
Either comply or sell the land to someone who will comply.
I just heard Vernon Tava on Morning Report, interviewed about his initiative for a new green party. He said it has to be genuinely centrist. That’s reassuring. He didn’t use the bluegreen framing. In fact, he explained that he hadn’t canvassed the idea with any other National MPs.
That’s a puzzle! It suggests the Nats view their brand as captive and want to keep it in-house. It also suggests tacit thinking: their bluegreen MPs are dogs who need to be kept in their kennels, rather than be allowed to roam freely in public.
This all paints a picture in which establishment politics has successfully marginalised both political wings of the Green movement. Since the public, as revealed in the new poll, is 80% behind authentic environmentalism, the political arena is wide open for centrist political representation.
Vernon reckons the time is right. People seem to feel the same, but we ought not to discount the gate-keeper effect of MMP. Getting a new party through the gate already clogged up with other parties can only succeed if voters see it as a better option and switch their support. One leader can’t achieve that result: authenticity requires a genuine convergence of political activists from the margins. No sign of that yet.
Bit like searching for an oasis in the desert, eh? There, alright, but always real hard to find. If it was easy, environmental problems wouldn’t persist.
Robert G
As a non-market solution to trees needing water in a drought, I have a street tree with tap root apparently – liquidamber, with a lot of grass around it, and also a decorative plum prunus cerasifera nigra I think.
Now would it be good and useful to the tree to carry a 10 litre bucket of water and splash it round about 1 metre from the trunk each day? It’s been dry here for a while and the recent high winds have been getting warmer.
If I just did the above daily would that help the trees or would I be wasting my time?
Hi Greywarshark. How big/old are the trees? If they are young (1 or 2 years) then hand-watering is a good option. Often the grass will be affecting the availability of water and nutrient to the tree, so carefully (no weed-whackers, ever!) removing the live grass will help – lay it down as mulch. If the tree is well established and showing signs of stress from drought, the chances of saving it with buckets of water are reduced, but you’ll probably enjoy the activity anyway and it could help. Often, amenity trees are poorly planted and have distorted roots, so it’s difficult to really know what’s going on down there.
Why is that a Troll? That is a valid environmental question. If you have a scarce resource such as water you have to make decisions on the best use of it. In some circumstances giving it to a tree might not make sense.
Is Gosman breaking the Rules as set out in the “Policy” for TS?
Or is he actually within the Rules in putting up “dissenting views” and participating in “reasonably rational debate between dissenting viewpoints”?
IE “We encourage robust debate and we’re tolerant of dissenting views. But this site run for reasonably rational debate between dissenting viewpoints and we intend to keep it operating that way.”
Is Gosman making “pointless personal attacks”, or commenting in a “tone or language that has the effect of excluding others”?
IE “What we’re not prepared to accept are pointless personal attacks, or tone or language that has the effect of excluding others.”
Is Gosman continuing a flame war “where there is little discussion or debate”?
IE “We are intolerant of people starting or continuing flamewars where there is little discussion or debate.”
Is Gosman making assertions that he/she is unable to substantiate with some proof?
Is Gosman unable/refusing to argue when requested to do so?
IE “We are intolerant of people starting or continuing flamewars where there is little discussion or debate. This includes making assertions that you are unable to substantiate with some proof (and that doesn’t mean endless links to unsubstantial authorities) or even argue when requested to do so”
Hint – what about Gosman’s comment at 2.1.2.3 below.
Now I don’t often agree with Gosman’s comments, but my perceptions/opinion of his behaviour here is that, for the most part, Gosman actually complies with the TS rules above – much more so that the (many) commenters who have and continue to:
— Call for Gosman to be him banned ( “using language that has the effect of excluding others”)
— Make personal attacks, derogatory or snide personal remarks about him/her, attack the messenger not the message (“pointless personal attacks”).
Ta I’ll give it a try Robert. The amenity tree liquidamber, is large well established growing on a berm, swale-style. The prunus is old but lovely, so will take out the yarrow that I mistakenly planted, I don’t want more large roots to go with the bindweed, what a dope I am. That should give the old lady a bit of a boost.
“Case study: acid rain
Problem: Sulfur dioxide from coal-fired power plants was creating harmful acid rain several decades ago. Traditional regulation would have simply directed every plant owner to cut pollution by a specific amount in a specific way, an expensive and often ineffective solution.
Solution: Our experts proposed a cap-and-trade approach that required overall sulfur emissions be cut in half, but would let each company decide how to do it. Power plants that cut their pollution more than required could sell the extra allowances.
Outcome: Cap and trade was so effective and affordable that The Economist magazine called it the “greatest green success story of the decade.”
“
The Right loves talking about the so-called free market. While on paper this utopia of the free market system seems to make sense in the real world it does not.
A free market in order to work as they claim it should requires all those involved to deal fairly with each other and everyone to have equal negotiation power. However, in the real world, it falls over very fast as greedy people always find ways to manipulate the market in their favor.
Some business people who claim to be for the free market, for example, use their power to force workers to take crappy deals to keep their jobs and when they attempt to unionize to give them equal negotiating power to get their fair market share of the profits they are suddenly no longer for a free and fair market and try and break the unions.
The current non-free market cannot find a solution to solving environmental issues as it would require the greedy to spend a tiny bit of their profits to prevent pollution.
There are a lot of solutions out there right now that will work, but because they require extra money to be spent they choose to ignore them.
Fabulous: having no basis in reality; mythical.
“fabulous creatures”
synonyms: mythical, legendary, mythic, mythological, fabled, folkloric, fairy-tale, heroic, traditional; More
Have you listened to this Morrissey?
It’s an excellent interview with Laith Marouf by Eva Bartlett on the history and current state in the Middle East. Particularly how the Kurds got to be Syrian citizens.
Gosman don’t listen to this, it’s way beyond your intellect.
Yes but the Maori party sounded great at the time, but sadly hijacked for a “seat at the table” mentality. Now Maori seem worse off in terms of homelessness and wages and conditions post the near decade of support the Maori party gave to the Natz, which also destroyed and divided the Maori/party in reality as well.
The party The Maori party most served was the National party, it helped take down the Mana party which was a lot more focused on raising poverty standards and genuine treaty issues for Maori.
I’d say the Green Party are already too close to the National party, and it’s taking down their voter support along with their tenancy to go woke left as well as intentionally or unintentionally supporting the right, so I don’t necessarily think that another Green Party allied to the Natz is going to help the environment, more like have an outcome like the Maori party.
The biggest 3rd party can often play Queen maker
so well worth the Greens looking to add to it’s vote.
Green/Red, Green/Blue, Green/Old Fartz NZF, Green/Brown, or Green /young?
Do the research, get the stats find two photogenic articulate spin doctors
and hit the hustings I mean FB,Snap Chat and E-Mail.
Don’t forget to tick, share,and subscribe.
Idiot/Savant looks at the issue of an “astroturf” party.:
“National has no friends, leaving them with an obvious problem in the MMP coalition game next election. Their solution? To simply create one:
…
The problem: if they do, then its a clear signal that the party isn’t really green. Because National’s policies of supporting the dairy, oil and trucking industries, sucking the rivers dry, and dragging their feet on climate change in the name of “balance” with economic growth are inherently anti-environment, and any environmentally-minded voter can see that. Which makes their “BlueGreen” astroturf idea laughable – the only people it convinces are people who don’t understand environmental issues at all. But like Colin Craig, Kim Dotcom and Gareth Morgan, they probably think they can simply throw money at the problem and buy the votes they need, with a fallback of hoping to buy enough votes away from the actual Green Party to drive them out of Parliament – a deeply undemocratic goal. But unlike National, I think environmentally-minded voters are smart enough not to fall for it.”
Are you stating that there are not Green voters who would be swayed by a political party willing to work across the political divide to solve environmental problems?
The trouble is you would think ANY political party willing to work with National is a puppet. Take off your ideological blinkers for one second and try and look at the situation with the minimal of bias.
The same can be stated for Labour. Where is the Alliance? Where is United Future (a Labour partner as much as National). NZ First disappeared from Parliament after the last time it was in coalition with Labour. Look what is happening to The Greens now.
I wonder how they’ll respond to challenges over any policies or principles they might profess. Environmentalists are well practiced at arguing these issues, centrists and right wingers, not so much, beyond their narrow range. “Off-setting” would be a good example.
A good example of the Right’s approach to conserving natural taonga. Turn it into money, wreck it, buy something somewhere else that fits your own model of what’s valuable.
You haven’t explained how “Off-setting” is bad beyond your emotive dislike of it. I have yet to see anybody argue that “Off-setting” should be used in all circumstances to deal with every environmental concern. It is merely one of multiple tools that could be employed. I am pretty sure you don’t have an issue with the principle behind it either.
Gosman – what is it about my explanation for the failings of the off-set model described at 10:14 don’t you understand to be bad? My dislike of it, is not based on emotion; I’ve had close associations with the process and weighed up the reality of it carefully. It’s typical of the Right’s approach to environmental management and it’s a fail, imo.
You have not explained why. You objection does seem to be based purely on your emotional dislike of the ideology behind it rather than whether it works or not. If it was based on some actual facts showing that it doesn’t work (i.e. it makes the overall environmental problem worse) then you have a valid argument against it.
My argument is, Gosman, that something like a pristine river can be damned/dammed if the dammers pay for the creation of a kiwi sanctuary elsewhere. That is, the river is lost. Gone. Environmental loss, right there. Not emotive, actual.
Where is this proposal to build a Kiwi sanctuary to enable a river to have a dam to be built on it? That generally is not how a proper “Off-setting” scheme works anyway.
“something like” was to indicate a theoretical example.
What is your understanding of “off setting” Gosman?
In any case, off setting, as proposed by Right wingers, is just one of many examples where the Right ideology (everything has a price!) exemplifies the narrow range the Right makes decisions from on environmental matters – my original claim.
Yes, that possibility is what will be deterring those in the know. If their market research has established the likelihood. From a design perspective, they have to ensure the split is more like 35:10.
That was implied in my suggestion re Bridges & Nat caucus endorsement. They ought to brainstorm the design then create consensus. Just enough front-people to pull the bluegreens over the threshold, up to a comfortable margin. At least two sitting MPs with centrist street cred and safe seats should suffice.
But Tava is not actually proclaiming the bluegreen brand. Leftist misrepresentation is a ruse to lead observers astray.
“Blue Greens will fail to get any electorate traction at all and I support National wasting energy on this bullshit as it will only eat into National’s voter base without any representation.” Bridges hasn’t endorsed use of the bluegreen brand, has he? Bradbury’s kool-aid intake must’ve gone over the limit.
“The only purpose for running Blue Greens is as a spoiler to the actual Greens who will face a strong challenge again from TOP and with the additional syphoning off by Blue Greens would see the Greens slip beneath 5%.”
Now there he actually makes a very good point. Splitting the centrist vote defeats the centrist cause, so both tribes within the GP could lose big.
And “global warming and the catastrophes it’s bringing will demand radical policy responses”. True. Does this mean the GP will go radical? Of course not. Democracy will always marginalise radicals. That’s why it’s a prescription for disaster.
I suspect there probably is room for a socially and economically centrist, environmentally focused party. I’m aware of more than a few voters that can relate to the likes of Kennedy Graham and David Clendon, but can’t swallow the idea of voting for a party whose public profile is as much about reclaiming the c-word or promoting the crap Sue Kedgley was into, as it is about environmental issues.
These are people that enjoy spending time in the outdoors, can see and are distressed by the damage currently being done and want to turn it around. Sneering comments like ” … don’t understand environmental issues at all” simply provokes a ‘fuck you very much’ in return.
“These are people that enjoy spending time in the outdoors, can see and are distressed by the damage currently being done and want to turn it around”
Farmers? Operators of earth moving machinery? Hunters?
Listening to Minister Mahuta on RNZ drone on about water industry and regulation reform, looks like the most she will achieve in a term is slightly stronger drinking water standards some time after the election – once she puts up her Cabinet paper mid this year.
In reality there will be nothing that gets the critical issues of
– water and wastewater pricing regulation,
– system amalgamation, state capex subsidy, or
– the kind of either regulatory approach to networks seen in the Electricity Authority over our electricity generators, or
– the full core+subsidy approach that extends over the New Zealand land transport network through NZTA.
Nothing from Mahuta this morning told us we will see effective action about water.
The weakness in this cabinet to regulate is pretty apparent in water.
“National leader Simon Bridges says he retains confidence in Invercargill MP Sarah Dowie and she won’t be stood down, despite a police investigation into a message sent from her phone to Jami-Lee Ross.
But he said he does not condone her behaviour, in relation to the text in question.”
Tells us two things:
Bridges is a weak leader who would have demanded a “stand down” at least, if it was the other way round.
That Dowie did send the message.
The engines are currently idling on an eco-friendly fuel mix of botulinum and ethanol produced from a load of rotting old spuds with a heavy dose of colagen in the sump to keep everything all greased up.
And the only problem they’ve yet to overcome is the potential for being charged with ‘sustained loss of traction’
“Bridges retains confidence”.
So when Dowie steps down in the near future
she can say “although I retained support of my colleagues
I believe it is best I step aside”.
This will make it easier for the Nat’s to win any by- election.
Spin spin spin.
NB.
News caster ends with
“Dowie does not rule out a return to politics
at some time in the future”
Blenheim 33 degrees at moment Cinny. As kids we used to revel in very hot summers but now not so much fun. The washing on the line dried almost instantly though.
Overhead sun doesn’t reach inside much but doors windows wide open and a stiff gutsy gusty norwester keeps the air moving. Refuse the use of an air conditioner.
Cinny in Australia one household I know of, puts 8 cool packs in the freezer to be used if a household member becomes heat stressed, wrapped, placed on head and back.
Also four milk bottles in freezer. Place two at at a time in front of a fan so air blows across them.
Make fruit juice and cordial iceblocks/popcicles
DRINK PLENTY, a pinch of salt and sugar help quickly replace lost sweat.
Fill the bath with cold water, sit in it for ten minutes before bed.
Wear pure cotton or lawn. Cheers. Not everyone has aircon, or even power goes down for a while sometimes
The so called “new” idea about a cooler using the simple evaporation of water works OK. We had a little porous concrete one 60 plus years ago to keep the butter cool.
A soaking wet towel near the breeze or a fan would work.
I would tell my kids to get the water off their swimming skins as the change of state water to gas, is what chills them.
Yes, Ian, did you hear about how our soldiers kept beer cool in the desert during WWII? Wrapped in a wet towel suspended from a line in blazing sunshine, apparently. Actually, did they really get a beer ration from the powers that be or was that an urban legend? Maybe it was water…
Bags of frozen vegetables (eg peas) can also be used in place of cool packs for heat stress – and of course, sprained ankles etc. Better in fact than solid style cool packs as they ‘wrap’.
Sssshhh – not PC these days, but Glad sell soft plastic ice block bags in packs of 8 (?) for just a couple of dollars where you fill a bag with tap water through a pocket which then self-seals and you end up with a wrapable ice pack for next to nothing. Not reuseable however, unless you use something else (peg?) to reseal the filling hole.
Not available in all supermarkets but if so, in the same part as sandwich bags etc.
patricia b
Something i remember from time in Oz – they tend to line bathroom and have on floor, ceramic tiles which tend to remain cold. Lying lightly clad on the floor, with damp towels over body, could be emergency cooling. Perhaps some soothing music to lower stress, and alleviate the discomfort, cold water for sipping.
Then there are the novelty caps with reservoirs of water and tubes to suck on, silly but they could save extreme heat stress. Can’t find much on google for these which i remember from decades ago. But coca Cola has come up with a simple? version. I would recommend having plastic disposable gloves though. Bit stupid not including these in the demonstration as nothing is ever as simple as you expect.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q50UL5LpeEo
Greywarshark, my brother and family used to sleep in the dining room on the tiled floor with the fan going. It was a regular thing in summer if the temperature got above 35 deg. It had a cathedral ceiling
Google diy swamp cooler for a bunch of ideas (if an article from that blathering idiot The Hosk appears, don’t bother with that one).
Swamp coolers really work a treat in dry areas, but if it’s humid heat they don’t do anything useful.
Window coverings stopping the heat getting in are good. Something on the outside works better than a curtain on the inside if there’s an easy way to put something there.
Private enterprise will look after us better than slack government – so the mantra goes. It is much more efficient to employ people in a just-in-time scenario? This is very hard on anyone wanting to have a life.
Prime is a 24/7 emergency medical service which relies on local doctors and nurses, who also have day jobs, as on-call contractors. The medics who are signed-up with Prime drop everything to attend call outs as and when they arise.
For rural communities, it’s a lifeline.
Dr Creegan was a Prime doctor on isolated Great Barrier Island before moving to Waimate in South Canterbury, where she raised her family and established her practice while continuing her Prime work.
She’s one of three Prime responders in the practice covering the service.
“There’s a thing in the back of your mind all of the time that you’re on call. You just tuck it in and get on with it. But you go to sleep with that thought that you might be woken up in the night,” Dr Creegan said.
“You can’t go and have a swim without thinking that you’re away from your pager or your phone so you might need to ask someone to hold it for you and sing out to you, or you might just actually say ‘I’m going to go for a swim and I’m not going to worry about it for 20 minutes’. But then you’re going to look at your pager when you come back and if something’s come in that time, how are you going to feel?”
What planet are these people on if they think those paltry fines will act as a deterrent. Many of the migrants pay that just for the job in the first place! They should have a minimum $50k fine and increasing the more turnover the business has, then 10 times the amount undercharged paid back to the worker with a minimum of $25,000 and then be banned from employing migrant workers and defiantly not allowed to sponsor them permanantly! IF the employer is not a citizen they should be deported for illegal trading and not be allowed to become a resident here!
If businesses are still better off when they are caught underpaying or asking for money for the job, then what is the deterrent???
Probably costs more than that for the government to prosecute them, when you look at the lawyers fees and court costs! crazy!
Allan Nairn: “I think someone like Mr. Abrams would
be a fit subject for such a Nuremberg-style inquiry.”
In March 1995, journalist Allan Nairn exposed how Elliott Abrams organized death squads in Guatemala. and confronted him on television.
Twenty-four years later, Abrams has yet to serve a day in prison for his crimes. Donald Trump has just appointed this terrible criminal “Special U.S. Envoy to Venezuela.”
ROSE: Let me just ask you a hypothetical question. Would you as an
assistant secretary of State for Latin American affairs, if you found out that our government was paying a man in the Guatemalan military after it learned that he had been implicated in the assassination of an American or someone married to an American, would you be outraged?
ABRAMS: I would certainly be outraged in the Devine case which looked like the cold blooded murder of an innocent American. The notion that we would continue to employ such a person would give him and others in the Guatemalan military the sense that we just didn’t care about the killing of American citizens. The Bamaca case is a different case. That guy was a guerrilla and he was not an American.
ROSE: Yeah, but he wasn’t killed in battle, he was killed in prison.
ABRAMS: No, but it is a different case. And the responsibility we have is to protect above all American citizens, not Guatemalan guerrillas. So it is a different case, different kind of level of seriousness for the U.S. government.
NAIRN: Charlie, you asked a hypothetical: How would Mr. Abrams react? In fact we have the historical record. We can see how he and the other Reagan and Bush and Clinton officials have reacted.
ROSE: In the State Department, or in the CIA, or both?
NAIRN: Across the board. And in the face of this systematic policy of slaughter by the Guatemalan military, more than 110,000 civilians killed by that military since 1978, what Amnesty International has called a “government program of political murder,” the U.S. has continued to provide covert assistance to the G-2 and they have continued, especially during the time of Mr. Abrams, to provide political aid and comfort. For example. . .
ABRAMS: Uh, Charlie.
ROSE: One second.
NAIRN: …during the Northwest Highland massacres of the [early] ’80s when the Catholic Church said: “never in our history has it come to such grave extremes. It has reached the point of genocide,” President Reagan went down, embraced Rios Montt, the dictator who was staging these massacres, and said he was getting “a bum rap on human rights.” In ’85 when human rights leader Rosario Godoy was abducted by the army, raped, and mutilated, her baby had his fingernails torn out, the Guatemalan military said: “Oh, they died in a traffic accident.” Human rights groups contacted Mr. Abrams, asked him about it, he wrote back-this is his letter of reply-he said: yes, “there’s no evidence other than that they died in a traffic accident.” Now this is a woman raped and mutilated, a baby with his fingernails torn out. This is
long-standing policy.
ROSE: …these are specific points raised by Allan having to do with your public conduct.
ABRAMS: I’m not, I tell you, whatever Allan Nairn wants to do, Charlie, I’m not here to refight the Cold War. I’m glad we won, maybe he’s not. What I’m here to say is we’re talking not about U.S. policy in the world .
NAIRN: Won against who, won against those civilians the Guatemalan army was massacring?
ABRAMS: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. We’re not here to refight the Cold War.
“Mr Barclay was employed by MBIE from July to October 2018 when the KiwiBuild programme was transferred to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. During this period, there were no issues raised about his performance, management style or leadership,” the statement [from Barclay’s PR company] said.
“Within two weeks of the KiwiBuild programme moving to MHUD, he can confirm there were a small number of complaints from individuals who held a close relationship to the Chief Executive, Mr [Andrew] Crisp.”
The statement said the nature of the complaints related to Barclay’s direct management style and dealings with certain individuals.
“They were entirely linked to the implementation of the KiwiBuild programme which was Mr Barclay’s only remit. His commitment was to execute against the targets of the KiwiBuild programme, and he was attempting to do this at pace.”
I actually worked with/for Andrew briefly in his Department of Labour days back in the early 2000s and also had dealings with him when he was at Treasury. I always found him excellent (and easy) to work for and with. I consider him someone with integrity, very intelligent but down to earth, a good team player who worked to bring people along with him. Haven’t seen him for years but I doubt he has changed much over the yearsin those respects.
Probably from a quick read of the articles today. Crisp has previous ‘form’ in cleaning up similar messy CE situations. Exactly what he was doing when I worked under him. LOL. I mean “form” in the best of meanings . He was/ hopefully still is, top notch in that regard/role.
A New Zealander, Barclay was chief executive of the 2013 America’s Cup defence in San Francisco …
Barclay copped bitter criticism from both city politicians and media amid accusations the event had not delivered sufficiently for San Francisco, leading him to launch a parting broadside after the event had ended.
Nope nope nope. Rapist supporter Homophobic Lier Cheater Party switcher. Antisemitic Animal abuser. And front bums?! How embarrassing, no… revolting that’s all they could find and think is good enough for Auckland. https://t.co/DWSIh3g9R5
They deployed a trained killer. What could possibly go wrong?
New details in the case against a Navy SEAL charged with multiple war crimes emerged during a marathon hearing this week at Naval Base San Diego.
Friday’s hearing revealed that seven Navy SEALs have been granted immunity to testify for the prosecution during the upcoming trial of Edward R. Gallagher, a chief special warfare operator alleged to have murdered a wounded teenage Islamic State combatant by stabbing him in the neck.
[…]
Witnesses told investigators that Gallagher boasted of killing up to 200 people during the 2017 deployment. Another witness said Gallagher told him he killed “three a day” and to “do the math” for the total number he killed.
[…]
Prosecutors said the incident began May 3, 2017, with a drone strike and two Hellfire missiles hitting two sides of a home in Mosul. Witness statements conflict about whether the injured Islamic State fighter was inside the home when it was struck. The prosecution says he was, but the defense said their witnesses say he was injured by gunfire, not the drone strike. Both sides agree that Iraqi forces loaded the combatant onto the hood of a Humvee and delivered him to Gallagher’s team. Gallagher, a medic, began treating him.
Prosecutors say Gallagher stabbed the fighter, estimated to be between 15 and 17 years old. Gallagher also is accused of posing for photos with the corpse, operating a drone over it and, sometime later, celebrating his reenlistment next to it.
[…]
In unrelated incidents, Gallagher is charged with shooting two civilians — an old man and a little girl — and with shooting indiscriminately at civilians throughout his deployment.
One witness told investigators Gallagher told him it was “OK to shoot at women.”
This could be the subject of an interesting fast paced scam novel. From 2016 but part of our interesting development as we tried to be the sleazy Switzerland or offshore haven for those with hot money, perhaps hot from being passed around so quickly; too much friction.
A foreign exchange business that looks and smells like a Ponzi scheme targeting Malaysians, a Nelson-based global stock exchange, a warning from the Czech Republic’s central bank, a fantasist, and curious French-Latvian connections all have one thing in common. New Zealand registered financial service providers.
While the NZ government looks, albeit unenthusiastically, at changing foreign trust laws in the wake of the Panama Papers, here’s a reminder the country’s international reputation is being degraded by more than just Mossack Fonseca and foreign trusts. This statement is based on our probe of just a handful of NZ registered financial service providers.
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This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Democrats now control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives for the first time in a decade, albeit with razor thin Congressional majorities. The last time, in the 111th Congress (2009-2011), House Democrats passed a carbon cap and trade bill, but it died ...
Session thirty-three was highly abbreviated, via having to move house in a short space of time. Oh well. The party decided to ignore the tree-monster and continue the attack on the Giant Troll. Tarsin – flying on a giant summoned bat – dumped some high-grade oil over the ...
Last night I stayed up till 3am just to see then-President Donald Trump leave the White House, get on a plane, and fly off to Florida, hopefully never to return. And when I woke up this morning, America was different. Not perfect, because it never was. Probably not even good, ...
Watching today’s inauguration of Joe Biden as the United States’ 46th president, there’s not a lot in common with the inauguration of Donald Trump just four destructive years ago. Where Trump warned of carnage, Biden dared to hope for unity and decency. But the one place they converge is that ...
Dan FalkBritons who switched on their TVs to “Good Morning Britain” on the morning of Sept. 15, 2020, were greeted by news not from our own troubled world, but from neighboring Venus. Piers Morgan, one of the hosts, was talking about a major science story that had surfaced the ...
Sara LutermanGrowing up autistic in a non-autistic world can be very isolating. We are often strange and out of sync with peers, despite our best efforts. Autistic adults have, until very recently, been largely absent from media and the public sphere. Finding role models is difficult. Finding useful advice ...
Doug JohnsonThe alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than ...
Getting to Browser Tab Zero so I can reboot the computer is awfully hard when the one open tab is a Table of Contents for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and every issue has more stuff I want to read. A few highlights: Gugler et al demonstrating ...
Timothy Ford, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Charles M. Schweik, University of Massachusetts AmherstTo mitigate health inequities and promote social justice, coronavirus vaccines need to get to underserved populations and hard-to-reach communities. There are few places in the U.S. that are unreachable by road, but other factors – many ...
Israel chose to pay a bit over the odds for the Pfizer vaccine to get earlier access. Here’s The Times of Israel from 16 November. American government will be charged $39 for each two-shot dose, and the European bloc even less, but Jerusalem said to agree to pay $56. Israel ...
Orla is a gender critical Marxist in Ireland. She gave a presentation on 15 January 2021 on the connection between postmodern/transgender identity politics and the current attacks on democratic and free speech rights. Orla has been active previously in the Irish Socialist Workers Party and the People Before Profit electoral ...
. . America: The Empire Strikes Back (at itself) Further to my comments in the first part of 2020: The History That Was, the following should be considered regarding the current state of the US. They most likely will be by future historians pondering the critical decades of ...
Nathaniel ScharpingIn March, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to shut down major cities in the U.S., researchers were thinking about blood. In particular, they were worried about the U.S. blood supply — the millions of donations every year that help keep hospital patients alive when they need a transfusion. ...
Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
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 ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
[Opening comments, welcome and thank you to Auckland University etc] It is a great pleasure to be here this afternoon to celebrate such an historic occasion - the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This is a moment many feared would never come, but ...
The Government is providing $3 million in one-off seed funding to help disabled people around New Zealand stay connected and access support in their communities, Minister for Disability Issues, Carmel Sepuloni announced today. The funding will allow disability service providers to develop digital and community-based solutions over the next two ...
Border workers in quarantine facilities will be offered voluntary daily COVID-19 saliva tests in addition to their regular weekly testing, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. This additional option will be rolled out at the Jet Park Quarantine facility in Auckland starting on Monday 25 January, and then to ...
The next steps in the Government’s ambitious firearms reform programme to include a three-month buy-back have been announced by Police Minister Poto Williams today. “The last buy-back and amnesty was unprecedented for New Zealand and was successful in collecting 60,297 firearms, modifying a further 5,630 firearms, and collecting 299,837 prohibited ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The 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 ...
Seventy-five years after the US detonated the first nuclear tests in the Pacific, New Zealand pledges its support to Joe Biden's first tentative step towards disarmament. Today, the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons comes into effect, making it illegal for New Zealand and the 50 other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Terry, Professor of Psychology, University of Southern Queensland The challenge of bringing the world’s best tennis players and support staff, about 1,200 people in all, from COVID-ravaged parts of the world to our almost pandemic-free shores was always going to be ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoffrey Browne, Research Fellow in International Urban Development, University of Melbourne The Victorian government has committed to removing 75 road/rail level crossings across Melbourne by 2025. That’s the fastest rate of removal in the city’s history. The scale of the investment — ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW In an age of hyperpartisan politics, the Biden presidency offers a welcome centrism that might help bridge the divides. But it is also Biden’s economic centrism that offers a chance to cut through what has become ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Stevens, Lecturer in History, University of Waikato In a year of surprises, one of the more pleasant was the recent runaway viral popularity of 19th century sea shanties on TikTok. A collaborative global response to pandemic isolation, it saw singers and ...
The sudden departure of Graine Moss from her Chief Executive role at Oranga Tamariki is a vital first step in a sequence of changes that must take place at the Ministry according to a group of wahine Māori leaders. Dame Naida Glavish, Dame Tariana Turia, ...
A new poem from Dunedin poet Jenny Powell.Her uncle’s eyeShe introduced us to her uncle’s eye floating in a jar.Lost in an accident, he hadn’t wanted to lose it again. He left it to her in his will.We must have looked shocked. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I turn him to ...
The chief executive of Oranga Tamariki is quitting, leaving behind an agency she’s admitted suffers from structural racism. Justin Giovannetti looks at the future of Oranga Tamariki.Grainne Moss’s tenure as head of Oranga Tamariki has been untenable since November when the government’s senior Māori minister wouldn’t express any confidence in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Sainsbury, Senior Lecturer Composition, Australian National University Despite having different cultural backgrounds and experiences — Indigenous composers with an Indigenous mentor, and a pianist descended from Anglo-colonial history — it is nevertheless possible to create a project that can serve as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Plank, Professor in Applied Mathematics, University of Canterbury With new, more infectious variants of COVID-19 detected around the world, and at New Zealand’s border, the risk of further level 3 or 4 lockdowns is increased if those viruses get into the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Hogg, Lecturer in Psychology, Charles Sturt University Horse racing is an ethical hotbed in Australia. The Melbourne Cup alone has seen seven horses die after racing since 2013, and animal cruelty protesters have become a common feature at carnivals. The latest ...
Right now, our most fiery national debate is over whether New Zealanders were nice to the singer Amanda Palmer in a café. Desperate to restore peace in our nation, Hayden Donnell went in search of the truth.Joe Biden had barely finished calling for unity when Amanda Palmer posted a tweet ...
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.AUCKLAND1 When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut (Pushkin Press, $37)Maths, cyanide, suicide, gardening; ye ...
Wellington artist Estère isn’t just breaking boundaries, she’s dissecting them. Maddi Rowe spoke to her about her new album, Archetypes.“That’s the story of pelicans, they’ll stab themselves in the heart to feed their young.”Despite the somewhat dark subject matter, Estère Dalton’s eyes sparkle with fascination. We’ve met to discuss Archetypes, ...
Cycling advocates are welcoming new advice from the Transport Agency on safe cycling. "Cyclists hate it when drivers pass too close. That's scary and dangerous," said Patrick Morgan from Cycling Action Network. "So it's encouraging to see ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tilman Ruff, Honorary Principal Fellow, School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne Today, many around the world will celebrate the first multilateral nuclear disarmament treaty to enter into force in 50 years. The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear ...
The Public Service Association welcomes the creation of a Chief Executive role to lead the public service’s pay equity work, and the appointment of Grainne Moss to this position. "Unions and public service employers are currently working ...
The Council of Trade Unions is warning that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures out today illustrate that the cost of living is increasing disproportionately for those on lower incomes; resulting in the poor getting poorer. CTU Economist Craig ...
Why are there so many offensive comments on the New Zealand Police Facebook page and are they breaking the law? Janaye Henry investigates. New Zealand Police Facebook pages – there are a number of them, for different regional police districts around the country – are an interesting place to spend ...
Our guide to stopping procrastinating and actually (finally) getting on top of investing. Because there’s a good chance that if you’re reading this, you don’t know a single thing about it.In part one, we covered some of the basic things you need to know about investing – why do it? ...
Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft acknowledges the huge effort and commitment of departing Oranga Tamariki Chief Executive Grainne Moss and says her decision to resign today was principled. “The issues facing Oranga Tamariki are beyond individual ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Two Large Waves versus One Tsunami. Chart by Keith Rankin. Two Large Waves versus One Tsunami. Chart by Keith Rankin. With Covid19, Italy shows the classic European pattern, with its early outbreak, substantial recovery thanks to lockdowns and other public health measures, and resurgence thanks to complacency ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabrielle Appleby, Professor, UNSW Law School, UNSW This year has already seen significant progress in the government’s commitment to establish a body – a “Voice” – that would allow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to have a say when the government ...
Northland farmer Derek Robinson was sentenced earlier today by the District Court in Whangarei for two offences of ill-treating animals at rodeo events. Mr Robinson was found guilty in November last year, following a defended hearing. The charges ...
Under fire Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss has announced she will resign, effective February 28, Marc Daalder reports After four and a half years at the helm of child protection agency Oranga Tamariki, chief executive Grainne Moss has announced she will be leaving the position at the end of ...
The Department of Internal Affairs and New Zealand Police acknowledge the sentencing of 36-year-old Aaron Joseph Hutton on charges relating to the possession of child sexual exploitation material, and entering into a dealing involving the sexual exploitation ...
Ngā Tāngata Microfinance (NTM) is calling for tougher penalties for those caught promoting pyramid schemes. Such business models are illegal under the Fair Trading Act 1986. This call comes after the Commerce Commission issued a ‘stop now’ notice ...
British High Commissioner to New Zealand Laura Clarke is calling on young women aged 17 to 25 to apply for the annual ‘Be British High Commissioner for the Day’ competition. The winner will have the opportunity to become an ‘honorary High Commissioner’, ...
The Māori Party is welcoming the resignation of Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss after sustained pressure from leading figures within the Māori Party. This resignation is the result of the continued strong pressure of the Māori Party ...
In a historic corner of Dunedin, startup culture is thriving. Catherine McGregor visited the city’s Warehouse Precinct to meet the people driving the movement. When Jason and Kate Lindsey bought the four storey building now known as Petridish, it was an absolute wreck. Once home to a thriving hat and textiles ...
Summer reissue: The Fold’s very first guest is back to tell Duncan Greive how she pulled off the media deal of the year.The chaotic couple of weeks which finally saw the end of the Stuff-NZME saga were riveting and strange, replete with stock exchange announcements, legal challenges and finally the ...
Chris Liddell has dropped his candidacy to become director-general of the Paris-based OECD. Without support from the Ardern government and vilified in the media as somehow being involved in the encouragement by Donald Trump of the Washington riots, he plainly saw he had little chance of crowning his stellar career ...
Tara Ward hands out her first impression roses as she dives deep into the sea of single men vying to win The Bachelorette NZ’s heart. While the world burns in a searing fireball of unpredictability, we can take comfort in the fact that some things never change. The heart still yearns, ...
People from all around New Zealand will be converging on the super-secret Waihopai satellite interception spybase, in Marlborough, on Saturday January 30th. ...
In its Thursday editorial the NZ Herald speaks an important truth: “Investment important to stay on track”. This won’t have startled its more literate readers but in its text it notes the strong result in the latest Global Dairy Trade auction, which prompted Westpac to raise its forecast for dairy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Mark, Professor, Faculty of International Studies, Kyoritsu Women’s University With the spread of COVID-19 steadily worsening in Japan since the onset of winter — daily records for infections and deaths continue to be broken — the fate of the Tokyo Summer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Taylor, Early Career Research Leader, Emerging Viruses, Inflammation and Therapeutics Group, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University All eyes are on COVID-19 vaccines, with Australia’s first expected to be approved for use shortly. But their development in record time, without compromising ...
Yesterday’s government announcement on new state housing is a pathetic response to the biggest housing crisis in New Zealand since the 1940s. At a time when the country needs an industrial-scale state house building programme, the government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Obadiah Mulder, PhD Candidate in Computational Biology, University of Southern California Australia is in the midst of tropical cyclone season. As we write, a cyclone is forming off Western Australia’s Pilbara coast, and earlier in the week Queenslanders were bracing for a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lynette Vernon, School of Education – VC Research Fellow, Edith Cowan University When the holidays end, barring a fresh outbreak of COVID-19, teenagers across Australia will head back to school. Some will bounce out of bed well before the alarm goes off, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW In an age of hyperpartisan politics, the Biden presidency offers a welcome centrism that might help bridge the divides. But it is also Biden’s economic centrism that offers a chance to cut through what has become ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gary Mortimer, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Queensland University of Technology Twenty years ago, on January 25 2001, a virtually unknown German supermarket chain quietly opened its first stores in Australia. The two stores – one in Sydney’s inner-west suburb of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liz Giuffre, Senior Lecturer in Communication, University of Technology Sydney Bluey is easily the most successful Australian television show of the last decade. A record-breaking success for its local broadcaster the ABC, as well as production partners BBC Studios and Screen Australia, ...
*This article first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permissionIt will take $3 million to clean up 1 million litres of abandoned toxic waste from a property in Ruakaka - three times more than the last big chemical clean-up undertaken by government agencies A two-year mission to clean up 1 million ...
*This article first appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. The action Biden took on just his first afternoon in office demonstrates a radical shift in priority for the US when it comes to its efforts to combat the climate crisis. It could put more pressure on New Zealand to step up. ...
Ban Bomb Day event at the New Brighton Pier, 9am, on January 22nd, 2021 January 22nd, 2021, marks the first day the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) Enters into Force and becomes international law. Aotearoa NZ is one of the ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve BrauniasFICTION 1 Tell Me Lies by J.P. Pomare (Hachette, $29.99) Every January, there's a new best-selling crime thriller by the New Zealand-born author who lives in Melbourne. Pomare is ...
Our approach so far in trying to end what Dr Collin Tukuitonga describes as a 'racist' disease - rheumatic fever - has not worked. It's time we try something new, he writes. Acute rheumatic fever and the rheumatic heart disease it causes, long-known as a disease of poverty, is a blight on ...
New Zealand triple-code star, Anna Harrison, can't stop returning to the courts - whether it's netball or beach volleyball. She tells Ashley Stanley what keeps drawing her back. The day before Anna Harrison leaps back into netball, she will have one more hit-out at another of her favourite old sports ...
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Time to change our relationships to our waterways.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/381064/new-zealanders-want-tougher-protections-for-waterways
The day of reckoning is coming for uncaring polluters.
7 billion people.
Enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world a thousand times.
Trillions of litres of chemicals in the air in the water in the land.
I wonder by the end of this century if living out doors will still be possible
or if the survivors will be in sealed in bubbles.
Many of those contributing to the degradation of rivers through their farming practices might be caring, unwitting, reluctant, unable to do otherwise. But those uncaring ones, they deserve a reckoning.
Most people live in the Cities so won’t be impacted by any tough new regulations. It is easy to call for this when it isn’t your livelihood that is directly impacted.
There are much tougher regulations in urban areas too.
Farmers have had it too easy too long.
Either comply or sell the land to someone who will comply.
I just heard Vernon Tava on Morning Report, interviewed about his initiative for a new green party. He said it has to be genuinely centrist. That’s reassuring. He didn’t use the bluegreen framing. In fact, he explained that he hadn’t canvassed the idea with any other National MPs.
That’s a puzzle! It suggests the Nats view their brand as captive and want to keep it in-house. It also suggests tacit thinking: their bluegreen MPs are dogs who need to be kept in their kennels, rather than be allowed to roam freely in public.
This all paints a picture in which establishment politics has successfully marginalised both political wings of the Green movement. Since the public, as revealed in the new poll, is 80% behind authentic environmentalism, the political arena is wide open for centrist political representation.
Vernon reckons the time is right. People seem to feel the same, but we ought not to discount the gate-keeper effect of MMP. Getting a new party through the gate already clogged up with other parties can only succeed if voters see it as a better option and switch their support. One leader can’t achieve that result: authenticity requires a genuine convergence of political activists from the margins. No sign of that yet.
I would be tempted to support a Blue-Green party if they genuinely searched for market based solutions to environmental issues.
Bit like searching for an oasis in the desert, eh? There, alright, but always real hard to find. If it was easy, environmental problems wouldn’t persist.
“market based solutions to environmental issues.”
Can you give an example of one such solution, Gosman?
Gosman?
Robert G
As a non-market solution to trees needing water in a drought, I have a street tree with tap root apparently – liquidamber, with a lot of grass around it, and also a decorative plum prunus cerasifera nigra I think.
Now would it be good and useful to the tree to carry a 10 litre bucket of water and splash it round about 1 metre from the trunk each day? It’s been dry here for a while and the recent high winds have been getting warmer.
If I just did the above daily would that help the trees or would I be wasting my time?
Hi Greywarshark. How big/old are the trees? If they are young (1 or 2 years) then hand-watering is a good option. Often the grass will be affecting the availability of water and nutrient to the tree, so carefully (no weed-whackers, ever!) removing the live grass will help – lay it down as mulch. If the tree is well established and showing signs of stress from drought, the chances of saving it with buckets of water are reduced, but you’ll probably enjoy the activity anyway and it could help. Often, amenity trees are poorly planted and have distorted roots, so it’s difficult to really know what’s going on down there.
Or the tree should be left to die and the precious water used for something more appropriate. Not all tress are good in every location they exist.
And still the administrators of this blog allow gosman to continue to troll.
Why is that te reo putake, LPrent?
After all te reo putake, you set a precedent with banning Ed you know.
Why is that a Troll? That is a valid environmental question. If you have a scarce resource such as water you have to make decisions on the best use of it. In some circumstances giving it to a tree might not make sense.
+10000000 the market based Green Party comment is worth a year long ban…trolling par excellence
Why?
Is Gosman breaking the Rules as set out in the “Policy” for TS?
Or is he actually within the Rules in putting up “dissenting views” and participating in “reasonably rational debate between dissenting viewpoints”?
IE “We encourage robust debate and we’re tolerant of dissenting views. But this site run for reasonably rational debate between dissenting viewpoints and we intend to keep it operating that way.”
Is Gosman making “pointless personal attacks”, or commenting in a “tone or language that has the effect of excluding others”?
IE “What we’re not prepared to accept are pointless personal attacks, or tone or language that has the effect of excluding others.”
Is Gosman continuing a flame war “where there is little discussion or debate”?
IE “We are intolerant of people starting or continuing flamewars where there is little discussion or debate.”
Is Gosman making assertions that he/she is unable to substantiate with some proof?
Is Gosman unable/refusing to argue when requested to do so?
IE “We are intolerant of people starting or continuing flamewars where there is little discussion or debate. This includes making assertions that you are unable to substantiate with some proof (and that doesn’t mean endless links to unsubstantial authorities) or even argue when requested to do so”
Hint – what about Gosman’s comment at 2.1.2.3 below.
Now I don’t often agree with Gosman’s comments, but my perceptions/opinion of his behaviour here is that, for the most part, Gosman actually complies with the TS rules above – much more so that the (many) commenters who have and continue to:
— Call for Gosman to be him banned ( “using language that has the effect of excluding others”)
— Make personal attacks, derogatory or snide personal remarks about him/her, attack the messenger not the message (“pointless personal attacks”).
etc, etc.
‘
Ta I’ll give it a try Robert. The amenity tree liquidamber, is large well established growing on a berm, swale-style. The prunus is old but lovely, so will take out the yarrow that I mistakenly planted, I don’t want more large roots to go with the bindweed, what a dope I am. That should give the old lady a bit of a boost.
https://www.edf.org/approach/markets
“Case study: acid rain
Problem: Sulfur dioxide from coal-fired power plants was creating harmful acid rain several decades ago. Traditional regulation would have simply directed every plant owner to cut pollution by a specific amount in a specific way, an expensive and often ineffective solution.
Solution: Our experts proposed a cap-and-trade approach that required overall sulfur emissions be cut in half, but would let each company decide how to do it. Power plants that cut their pollution more than required could sell the extra allowances.
Outcome: Cap and trade was so effective and affordable that The Economist magazine called it the “greatest green success story of the decade.”
“
Meanwhile in the real world,it is not as simple ie it increased surface radiation.
http://www.iac.ethz.ch/group/climate-and-water-cycle/research/radiation-and-the-hydrological-cycle/global-dimming-and-brightening.html
and increased methane in the atmosphere.
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2005GL022544
The Right loves talking about the so-called free market. While on paper this utopia of the free market system seems to make sense in the real world it does not.
A free market in order to work as they claim it should requires all those involved to deal fairly with each other and everyone to have equal negotiation power. However, in the real world, it falls over very fast as greedy people always find ways to manipulate the market in their favor.
Some business people who claim to be for the free market, for example, use their power to force workers to take crappy deals to keep their jobs and when they attempt to unionize to give them equal negotiating power to get their fair market share of the profits they are suddenly no longer for a free and fair market and try and break the unions.
The current non-free market cannot find a solution to solving environmental issues as it would require the greedy to spend a tiny bit of their profits to prevent pollution.
There are a lot of solutions out there right now that will work, but because they require extra money to be spent they choose to ignore them.
That’s easy enough. Simply charge polluters for the cost of cleaning up just as was done with SOX/NOX emissions in the 1980s
Any political party genuinely interested in environmemtal sustainability would be fabulous,
Fabulous: having no basis in reality; mythical.
“fabulous creatures”
synonyms: mythical, legendary, mythic, mythological, fabled, folkloric, fairy-tale, heroic, traditional; More
He hasn’t a clue, Robert. You’re wasting your time trying to argue in good faith with him.
Have you listened to this Morrissey?
It’s an excellent interview with Laith Marouf by Eva Bartlett on the history and current state in the Middle East. Particularly how the Kurds got to be Syrian citizens.
Gosman don’t listen to this, it’s way beyond your intellect.
Thanks robert , looks like “fabulous” is the correct word then at this time. Altho i think i intended “welcome”
Yes but the Maori party sounded great at the time, but sadly hijacked for a “seat at the table” mentality. Now Maori seem worse off in terms of homelessness and wages and conditions post the near decade of support the Maori party gave to the Natz, which also destroyed and divided the Maori/party in reality as well.
The party The Maori party most served was the National party, it helped take down the Mana party which was a lot more focused on raising poverty standards and genuine treaty issues for Maori.
I’d say the Green Party are already too close to the National party, and it’s taking down their voter support along with their tenancy to go woke left as well as intentionally or unintentionally supporting the right, so I don’t necessarily think that another Green Party allied to the Natz is going to help the environment, more like have an outcome like the Maori party.
Well when you have an idiot as a leader (Fox) who supports screwing up the RMA what chance do u have?
The biggest 3rd party can often play Queen maker
so well worth the Greens looking to add to it’s vote.
Green/Red, Green/Blue, Green/Old Fartz NZF, Green/Brown, or Green /young?
Do the research, get the stats find two photogenic articulate spin doctors
and hit the hustings I mean FB,Snap Chat and E-Mail.
Don’t forget to tick, share,and subscribe.
Idiot/Savant looks at the issue of an “astroturf” party.:
“National has no friends, leaving them with an obvious problem in the MMP coalition game next election. Their solution? To simply create one:
…
The problem: if they do, then its a clear signal that the party isn’t really green. Because National’s policies of supporting the dairy, oil and trucking industries, sucking the rivers dry, and dragging their feet on climate change in the name of “balance” with economic growth are inherently anti-environment, and any environmentally-minded voter can see that. Which makes their “BlueGreen” astroturf idea laughable – the only people it convinces are people who don’t understand environmental issues at all. But like Colin Craig, Kim Dotcom and Gareth Morgan, they probably think they can simply throw money at the problem and buy the votes they need, with a fallback of hoping to buy enough votes away from the actual Green Party to drive them out of Parliament – a deeply undemocratic goal. But unlike National, I think environmentally-minded voters are smart enough not to fall for it.”
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2019/01/an-astroturf-party.html
I suspect it will mostly grab existing NAct voters – certainly won’t take many Green voters.
Plus maybe a few rightish Labour voters – this is probably the biggest risk to a left-side coalition.
Are you stating that there are not Green voters who would be swayed by a political party willing to work across the political divide to solve environmental problems?
There are very few Green voters who won’t be able to see straight through a green-painted puppet of the National Party.
The trouble is you would think ANY political party willing to work with National is a puppet. Take off your ideological blinkers for one second and try and look at the situation with the minimal of bias.
How many parties that worked with National are still alive and kicking?
so like a child the National party uses others for play time and when broken goes to find a new toy.
So yeah, generally speaking any Party willing to work with National, especially one created to work with National, is a Puppet.
The same can be stated for Labour. Where is the Alliance? Where is United Future (a Labour partner as much as National). NZ First disappeared from Parliament after the last time it was in coalition with Labour. Look what is happening to The Greens now.
troll
See my reply to your other similar (unnumbered) comment further up thread a couple under 2.1.2.2.1.
I wonder how they’ll respond to challenges over any policies or principles they might profess. Environmentalists are well practiced at arguing these issues, centrists and right wingers, not so much, beyond their narrow range. “Off-setting” would be a good example.
How is “Off-setting” a good example?
A good example of the Right’s approach to conserving natural taonga. Turn it into money, wreck it, buy something somewhere else that fits your own model of what’s valuable.
You haven’t explained how “Off-setting” is bad beyond your emotive dislike of it. I have yet to see anybody argue that “Off-setting” should be used in all circumstances to deal with every environmental concern. It is merely one of multiple tools that could be employed. I am pretty sure you don’t have an issue with the principle behind it either.
Gosman – what is it about my explanation for the failings of the off-set model described at 10:14 don’t you understand to be bad? My dislike of it, is not based on emotion; I’ve had close associations with the process and weighed up the reality of it carefully. It’s typical of the Right’s approach to environmental management and it’s a fail, imo.
You have not explained why. You objection does seem to be based purely on your emotional dislike of the ideology behind it rather than whether it works or not. If it was based on some actual facts showing that it doesn’t work (i.e. it makes the overall environmental problem worse) then you have a valid argument against it.
My argument is, Gosman, that something like a pristine river can be damned/dammed if the dammers pay for the creation of a kiwi sanctuary elsewhere. That is, the river is lost. Gone. Environmental loss, right there. Not emotive, actual.
Where is this proposal to build a Kiwi sanctuary to enable a river to have a dam to be built on it? That generally is not how a proper “Off-setting” scheme works anyway.
“something like” was to indicate a theoretical example.
What is your understanding of “off setting” Gosman?
In any case, off setting, as proposed by Right wingers, is just one of many examples where the Right ideology (everything has a price!) exemplifies the narrow range the Right makes decisions from on environmental matters – my original claim.
troll
You could be very wrong there.
You wont get the far left nutters, but you will get some of the more rational people who like to vote for the enviornment.
When you are just hovering above 5% you wouldn’t want to lose many.
esp with NZ first under 5%.
Hell – Labour could lose all their friends after just one term.
And national could split itself apart into two ~20% parties.
Two can play “coulds”.
Yes, that possibility is what will be deterring those in the know. If their market research has established the likelihood. From a design perspective, they have to ensure the split is more like 35:10.
That was implied in my suggestion re Bridges & Nat caucus endorsement. They ought to brainstorm the design then create consensus. Just enough front-people to pull the bluegreens over the threshold, up to a comfortable margin. At least two sitting MPs with centrist street cred and safe seats should suffice.
He’s not the only one to get it wrong. Here’s what the bomber thinks: “There’s no actual electorate here for Blue Greens so getting to 5% is a total pipe dream.” https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/01/27/vernon-tava-blue-green-fantasy-shows-how-desperate-national-are-becoming/
But Tava is not actually proclaiming the bluegreen brand. Leftist misrepresentation is a ruse to lead observers astray.
“Blue Greens will fail to get any electorate traction at all and I support National wasting energy on this bullshit as it will only eat into National’s voter base without any representation.” Bridges hasn’t endorsed use of the bluegreen brand, has he? Bradbury’s kool-aid intake must’ve gone over the limit.
“The only purpose for running Blue Greens is as a spoiler to the actual Greens who will face a strong challenge again from TOP and with the additional syphoning off by Blue Greens would see the Greens slip beneath 5%.”
Now there he actually makes a very good point. Splitting the centrist vote defeats the centrist cause, so both tribes within the GP could lose big.
And “global warming and the catastrophes it’s bringing will demand radical policy responses”. True. Does this mean the GP will go radical? Of course not. Democracy will always marginalise radicals. That’s why it’s a prescription for disaster.
I suspect there probably is room for a socially and economically centrist, environmentally focused party. I’m aware of more than a few voters that can relate to the likes of Kennedy Graham and David Clendon, but can’t swallow the idea of voting for a party whose public profile is as much about reclaiming the c-word or promoting the crap Sue Kedgley was into, as it is about environmental issues.
These are people that enjoy spending time in the outdoors, can see and are distressed by the damage currently being done and want to turn it around. Sneering comments like ” … don’t understand environmental issues at all” simply provokes a ‘fuck you very much’ in return.
“These are people that enjoy spending time in the outdoors, can see and are distressed by the damage currently being done and want to turn it around”
Farmers? Operators of earth moving machinery? Hunters?
Listening to Minister Mahuta on RNZ drone on about water industry and regulation reform, looks like the most she will achieve in a term is slightly stronger drinking water standards some time after the election – once she puts up her Cabinet paper mid this year.
In reality there will be nothing that gets the critical issues of
– water and wastewater pricing regulation,
– system amalgamation, state capex subsidy, or
– the kind of either regulatory approach to networks seen in the Electricity Authority over our electricity generators, or
– the full core+subsidy approach that extends over the New Zealand land transport network through NZTA.
Nothing from Mahuta this morning told us we will see effective action about water.
The weakness in this cabinet to regulate is pretty apparent in water.
“National leader Simon Bridges says he retains confidence in Invercargill MP Sarah Dowie and she won’t be stood down, despite a police investigation into a message sent from her phone to Jami-Lee Ross.
But he said he does not condone her behaviour, in relation to the text in question.”
Tells us two things:
Bridges is a weak leader who would have demanded a “stand down” at least, if it was the other way round.
That Dowie did send the message.
Bridges is an appaling poitical operator imo. He is wrecking the gnats, just him. Funny as hell.
Paula’s warming up her engines as we speak.
The engines are currently idling on an eco-friendly fuel mix of botulinum and ethanol produced from a load of rotting old spuds with a heavy dose of colagen in the sump to keep everything all greased up.
And the only problem they’ve yet to overcome is the potential for being charged with ‘sustained loss of traction’
“Bridges retains confidence”.
So when Dowie steps down in the near future
she can say “although I retained support of my colleagues
I believe it is best I step aside”.
This will make it easier for the Nat’s to win any by- election.
Spin spin spin.
NB.
News caster ends with
“Dowie does not rule out a return to politics
at some time in the future”
Heatwave, it’s been warm in Motueka.
What are your tips for keeping cool in the heat?
Have been opening up the house at night, then getting up before the sun and closing all the windows, curtains etc to keep out the sun.
Blenheim 33 degrees at moment Cinny. As kids we used to revel in very hot summers but now not so much fun. The washing on the line dried almost instantly though.
Overhead sun doesn’t reach inside much but doors windows wide open and a stiff gutsy gusty norwester keeps the air moving. Refuse the use of an air conditioner.
Whanganui 37c degrees here today
Cinny in Australia one household I know of, puts 8 cool packs in the freezer to be used if a household member becomes heat stressed, wrapped, placed on head and back.
Also four milk bottles in freezer. Place two at at a time in front of a fan so air blows across them.
Make fruit juice and cordial iceblocks/popcicles
DRINK PLENTY, a pinch of salt and sugar help quickly replace lost sweat.
Fill the bath with cold water, sit in it for ten minutes before bed.
Wear pure cotton or lawn. Cheers. Not everyone has aircon, or even power goes down for a while sometimes
The so called “new” idea about a cooler using the simple evaporation of water works OK. We had a little porous concrete one 60 plus years ago to keep the butter cool.
A soaking wet towel near the breeze or a fan would work.
I would tell my kids to get the water off their swimming skins as the change of state water to gas, is what chills them.
Yes, Ian, did you hear about how our soldiers kept beer cool in the desert during WWII? Wrapped in a wet towel suspended from a line in blazing sunshine, apparently. Actually, did they really get a beer ration from the powers that be or was that an urban legend? Maybe it was water…
Bags of frozen vegetables (eg peas) can also be used in place of cool packs for heat stress – and of course, sprained ankles etc. Better in fact than solid style cool packs as they ‘wrap’.
Sssshhh – not PC these days, but Glad sell soft plastic ice block bags in packs of 8 (?) for just a couple of dollars where you fill a bag with tap water through a pocket which then self-seals and you end up with a wrapable ice pack for next to nothing. Not reuseable however, unless you use something else (peg?) to reseal the filling hole.
Not available in all supermarkets but if so, in the same part as sandwich bags etc.
VeutoviperThe cool packs are a gel and can be pushed around an ankle. yes frozen pea pks are a good old stand by.
patricia b
Something i remember from time in Oz – they tend to line bathroom and have on floor, ceramic tiles which tend to remain cold. Lying lightly clad on the floor, with damp towels over body, could be emergency cooling. Perhaps some soothing music to lower stress, and alleviate the discomfort, cold water for sipping.
Then there are the novelty caps with reservoirs of water and tubes to suck on, silly but they could save extreme heat stress. Can’t find much on google for these which i remember from decades ago. But coca Cola has come up with a simple? version. I would recommend having plastic disposable gloves though. Bit stupid not including these in the demonstration as nothing is ever as simple as you expect.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q50UL5LpeEo
Beer hats
(https://www.amazon.com/Bazaar-Hands-Beverage-Tubularis-Drinking/dp/B06X9FJ2J3
(https://www.ebay.com.au/b/Beer-Hat/155078/bn_72173313
Greywarshark, my brother and family used to sleep in the dining room on the tiled floor with the fan going. It was a regular thing in summer if the temperature got above 35 deg. It had a cathedral ceiling
Awesome tips everyone thanks for the advice and tips, much appreciated.
No air-con at ours, so this kind of info being shared is gold.
Thanks again.
Google diy swamp cooler for a bunch of ideas (if an article from that blathering idiot The Hosk appears, don’t bother with that one).
Swamp coolers really work a treat in dry areas, but if it’s humid heat they don’t do anything useful.
Window coverings stopping the heat getting in are good. Something on the outside works better than a curtain on the inside if there’s an easy way to put something there.
Private enterprise will look after us better than slack government – so the mantra goes. It is much more efficient to employ people in a just-in-time scenario? This is very hard on anyone wanting to have a life.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/2018679697/survival-mode-why-some-rural-emergency-services-are-under-threat
Prime is a 24/7 emergency medical service which relies on local doctors and nurses, who also have day jobs, as on-call contractors. The medics who are signed-up with Prime drop everything to attend call outs as and when they arise.
For rural communities, it’s a lifeline.
Dr Creegan was a Prime doctor on isolated Great Barrier Island before moving to Waimate in South Canterbury, where she raised her family and established her practice while continuing her Prime work.
She’s one of three Prime responders in the practice covering the service.
“There’s a thing in the back of your mind all of the time that you’re on call. You just tuck it in and get on with it. But you go to sleep with that thought that you might be woken up in the night,” Dr Creegan said.
“You can’t go and have a swim without thinking that you’re away from your pager or your phone so you might need to ask someone to hold it for you and sing out to you, or you might just actually say ‘I’m going to go for a swim and I’m not going to worry about it for 20 minutes’. But then you’re going to look at your pager when you come back and if something’s come in that time, how are you going to feel?”
What planet are these people on if they think those paltry fines will act as a deterrent. Many of the migrants pay that just for the job in the first place! They should have a minimum $50k fine and increasing the more turnover the business has, then 10 times the amount undercharged paid back to the worker with a minimum of $25,000 and then be banned from employing migrant workers and defiantly not allowed to sponsor them permanantly! IF the employer is not a citizen they should be deported for illegal trading and not be allowed to become a resident here!
If businesses are still better off when they are caught underpaying or asking for money for the job, then what is the deterrent???
Probably costs more than that for the government to prosecute them, when you look at the lawyers fees and court costs! crazy!
Restaurant owner fined for poor treatment of migrant workers
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/381115/restaurant-owner-fined-for-poor-treatment-of-migrant-workers
No wonder places like Hawkes bay have high unemployment of local people and they have a rental crisis!
Allan Nairn: “I think someone like Mr. Abrams would
be a fit subject for such a Nuremberg-style inquiry.”
In March 1995, journalist Allan Nairn exposed how Elliott Abrams organized death squads in Guatemala. and confronted him on television.
Twenty-four years later, Abrams has yet to serve a day in prison for his crimes. Donald Trump has just appointed this terrible criminal “Special U.S. Envoy to Venezuela.”
He sounds like a real peach of a guy morry. Maybe the Venezuelans should apply for his extradition.
Sounds like the KiwiBuild boss who resigned had trouble with the inertia of the Housing department team he was transferred to – and his previous strong record across multiple jobs supports that: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12197474
What’s Crispy’s track record like.
Looks OK on paper as well. Someone may know.
Here is an article from Dec 2018 with a short bio for Andrew Crisp and the SSC press release on which it is based:
https://www.interest.co.nz/property/97196/andrew-crisp-appointed-ceo-new-ministry-housing-and-urban-development-responsible
http://www.ssc.govt.nz/chief-executive-ministry-housing-and-urban-development-appointed
And here is a 2016 one which gives a little more about his earlier Public Service career.
https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/andrew-crisp-appointed-linz-chief-executive-195920
I actually worked with/for Andrew briefly in his Department of Labour days back in the early 2000s and also had dealings with him when he was at Treasury. I always found him excellent (and easy) to work for and with. I consider him someone with integrity, very intelligent but down to earth, a good team player who worked to bring people along with him. Haven’t seen him for years but I doubt he has changed much over the yearsin those respects.
Thank you. Must have been quite the clash in styles then.
Probably from a quick read of the articles today. Crisp has previous ‘form’ in cleaning up similar messy CE situations. Exactly what he was doing when I worked under him. LOL. I mean “form” in the best of meanings . He was/ hopefully still is, top notch in that regard/role.
And Barclay has form for badmouthing after leaving a role:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1901/S00241/housing-ministry-head-hints-he-acted-against-barclay.htm
‘Nuff said.
They deployed a trained killer. What could possibly go wrong?
New details in the case against a Navy SEAL charged with multiple war crimes emerged during a marathon hearing this week at Naval Base San Diego.
Friday’s hearing revealed that seven Navy SEALs have been granted immunity to testify for the prosecution during the upcoming trial of Edward R. Gallagher, a chief special warfare operator alleged to have murdered a wounded teenage Islamic State combatant by stabbing him in the neck.
[…]
Witnesses told investigators that Gallagher boasted of killing up to 200 people during the 2017 deployment. Another witness said Gallagher told him he killed “three a day” and to “do the math” for the total number he killed.
[…]
Prosecutors said the incident began May 3, 2017, with a drone strike and two Hellfire missiles hitting two sides of a home in Mosul. Witness statements conflict about whether the injured Islamic State fighter was inside the home when it was struck. The prosecution says he was, but the defense said their witnesses say he was injured by gunfire, not the drone strike. Both sides agree that Iraqi forces loaded the combatant onto the hood of a Humvee and delivered him to Gallagher’s team. Gallagher, a medic, began treating him.
Prosecutors say Gallagher stabbed the fighter, estimated to be between 15 and 17 years old. Gallagher also is accused of posing for photos with the corpse, operating a drone over it and, sometime later, celebrating his reenlistment next to it.
[…]
In unrelated incidents, Gallagher is charged with shooting two civilians — an old man and a little girl — and with shooting indiscriminately at civilians throughout his deployment.
One witness told investigators Gallagher told him it was “OK to shoot at women.”
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-seals-granted-immunity-in-murder-trial-20190126-story.html
This could be the subject of an interesting fast paced scam novel. From 2016 but part of our interesting development as we tried to be the sleazy Switzerland or offshore haven for those with hot money, perhaps hot from being passed around so quickly; too much friction.
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/81725/nelsons-stock-exchange-big-ponzi-scheme-and-other-tales-john-keys-offshore-financial
A foreign exchange business that looks and smells like a Ponzi scheme targeting Malaysians, a Nelson-based global stock exchange, a warning from the Czech Republic’s central bank, a fantasist, and curious French-Latvian connections all have one thing in common. New Zealand registered financial service providers.
While the NZ government looks, albeit unenthusiastically, at changing foreign trust laws in the wake of the Panama Papers, here’s a reminder the country’s international reputation is being degraded by more than just Mossack Fonseca and foreign trusts. This statement is based on our probe of just a handful of NZ registered financial service providers.