A Swiss study says Forex traders are worse than Psychopaths. What you reckon? Nice, giving, loving people can make it to the top in that world? Neh, but lying, callous, destructive bullies can!! John Key anyone?
John Key didn’t care that he could have bankrupted NZ with his currency raiding. He doesn’t care that children are starving, that the elderly can’t afford to heat their homes. MONEY is all he cares about. YUCK YUCK YUCK.
This money trader’s warning is that the Stock Market is going, going, gone as is the Euro, and put that against John Key’s buoyant “she’ll be right” and “we have it under control”, who would you trust? Or as a money trader is John Key looking to make heaps out of the crash?
Lingerie store im Designer Bodywear lingerie in Grey St was contacted by rugby authorities last week and told to remove its “All black lingerie” sign, with warnings that it risked breaching the fair trading and trademark acts.
Manager Sue Moar said she felt bullied by the NZRU but had no intention of removing the sign.
“The whole thing’s just turned stupid.
“The guy said, ‘You take it down or you’ll be getting a letter.’ But I haven’t got any letter and the sign’s still up.”
ooooh a letter…bet she’s shittting herself
Ms Barnett said she was yet to be challenged about her display but defended her right to use references to the World Cup and the national team.
“Since when have they had ownership on black?
“Black’s been around ever since we’ve had nighttime.”
Of course, this guy is short everything so it’s highly likely he’s just talking his book. Got on the BBC and saw it as an opportunity to shatter the ‘illusions’ and, like he admits, make bank off a depression.
Why did the student protest group at Auckland University allow Omar Hamed to attend? and is his alleged treatment of woman (from various feminist groups) a concern?
I just looked at what the Santa Fe Institute, USA is doing at the moment. In education they are featuring their complexity studies. Our political leaders and economists would learn more that is relevant to doing the best job they can for us if they did not go to Harvard or Chicago, but studied at the inter-disciplinary Santa Fe.
This is part of their course explanation and provision text.
Take on our Complex World. Inspire Others.
Complexity Scholars trained at the Santa Fe Institute are working to understand the theoretical foundations and patterns underlying the systems most critical to our future — economies, ecosystems, conflict, disease, human social institutions, and the global condition.
To fully understand these complex adaptive systems, with their deep interdependencies and emergent behaviors at many scales, a new kind of science is needed. One that relies on the synthesis of many scientific perspectives. One that unravels todayâs most complex problems with revolutionary theories derived both from careful observation of real-world phenomena and proven scientific principles.
“The core problem is that our education and training systems were built for another era. We can get where we must go only by changing the system itself.”
â National Center on Education and the Economy 2007, Tough Choices for Tough Times
Education in NZ is splitting along the pipeline. The leading teachers bodies have been facing off against the School Trustees bunch and have accused them of adopting an attitude to differences of opinion as if it was a master and servant relationship. I think this is an inherent problem in Tomorrows Schools and I think it is a feature in some USA school areas, the USA being where we picked tomorrows schools policy from. If I am wrong somebody who can amend what I’ve stated can reply and put me right.
Stuff have got a very interesting interactive breakdown of their polls up on their site. You can break it down by different demographics such as age or who they voted for in 2008, and then which party they’ll vote or what issues concern them most (the most interesting figures I think).
The full stats aren’t available for their latest 28th September poll, but in 30th August we can see that people who voted National in 2008 considered Law & Order the most important issue, and people who Don’t Know or Undecided about their vote this year have Law & Order their second most important issue.
Preferred PM is another interesting one. 29% of labour voters want Phil Goff while 14% want ‘Other’ and 39% ‘Don’t know’.
Previous 2008 vote with intended 2011 vote:
89% of Nats stick with Nats, 5.3% go to Labour
79% of Labour stick with Labour, 7.8% go to Greens and 12% to National
84% of Greens stick with Greens, 9% go to Labour and 3.5% to National.
Mana picks up 1.7% from Greens and 1.6% from Other.
Be interested to see what other people can dig out of this.
Yes, that is a good link. September 28 seems to be there now.
Apparently, 52% of men and 56% of women in the sample intend voting National (though, 2.6% of men intend voting ACT and only 0.5% of women). Labour is 28% for each gender.
Those who are comfortable (22% Labour, 10% Green, 60% National); getting by ( 26%; 8.9%; 58%); struggling (43%; 14%; 37%).
Preferred PM for under 35 42% Key; 35-59 54% Key; over 60 58% Key.
This threat was recently sent to one of my employers:
” From: mattyroo@gmail.com
Do you think this is appropriate for one of your models to be publicly saying:
Campbell Larsen1619 September 2011 at 7:19 pm
I wish the mad butcher would hurry up and die.
Fuck Close Up for giving this National party cheerleader a free slot in primetime.
[link ommitted to reduce rehashing of old ground]
How do you think your clients would feel, if they were to find out what someone that they have engaged through you, has been saying about a Kiwi icon?
I’m sure Vodafone, whom you prominently advertise on your website as a client, would certainly be interested to know about this…. Especially considering Sir Peter Leitch has a longstanding relationship with them.
I’m interested to hear your response? ”
Seems Sir Peter and his mates are not above going after the little guy….
[I see that mattyroo once copped a lifetime ban for similar “real world” bully tactics. The ban was never enforced, but it is now. r0b]
Fuck I hate tories. I can’t say I agreed with your comment, but this sort of shit is why I use a pseudonym. It ain’t perfect, but it’s a disconnect from my personal and professional life.Â
Yep, that’s pretty low. The next time someone brings up the real name versus anonymous poster argument, I’ll remind them of this attack on your freedom of speech.
Aye another RWNJ feeding frenzy. They are great at picking up on the slightest comment and then turning it into an attack. They are oblivious to the criticism that they are hypocrites. It seems they have learned this technique off the slithery one.
Â
Â
Funny, as it happens I haven’t seen any of those you have mentioned granted a patsy interview on close up recently (actually not ever, but then I try an avoid close up, and campbell live as those shows are rubbish tv, certinly not news, not even info-tainment)
What I do remember is that Lucy Lawless and Robyn Malcom (the most memorable of those you mentioned) campaign on issues and policies – they encourage people to think when they vote.
On the other hand, minor celebrities like the butcher who gushingly make statements like I think so-and-so is the best man for the job contribute nothing useful to the voting process – I would even go a step further and call it a cynical attempt at manipulation.
If you require further clarification due to your memory and comprehension problems go back to the original thread and the discussions therein – Puddleglums contributions are especially eloquent and insightful.
I am finished with you sir – this topic is closed.
Breaking News Herald A New Zealand SAS soldier has died after being shot in the head in an ongoing assault on a group of insurgents in Afghanistan. The soldier was killed while supporting an assault on an insurgent team in the Afghan capitalâŠ
A sinking feeling of here we go again, “peace keeping, reconstruction AND if youread it leading the assault. Bring our boys home please!
I wonder if our army are in the forefront of Afghanistan fighting as mentors, (is that what used to be called advisors?) to please the USofA so that we can progress the free market giveaway of the quality of our sovereignty, such as it is, and get a cardboard replica back covered no doubt in modern technologically advanced hologram material displaying and enhancing our shrinking taonga. ‘My kingdom for a free market deal’ said Jokey Hen and offered the sacrifice of some young people paid by New Zealand to die for the cause.
For anyone who wants a full overview of RWC I recommend Wikpedia. I was trying to get the playing points of teams and couldn’t find anything except the pools points on the other sites I went to. With all the information available I didn’t think a simple chart for all the games played would be so hard to find.
Thanks Lanthanide. The first one refers to fixtures and that seems to be the magic word. I wanted the individual country’s scores so I can talk about it sensibly when needed.
It isAuckland Mayor Len Brown who has effectively taken the flak for Mark Ford, Chair of the Auckland Transport Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) over the RWC transport debacle on 9 September 2011.
It is the Auckland Transport CCO – NOT Auckland Council which is supposed to be responsible for transport.
Following is the suggestion that I made directly to Auckland Transport when I addressed the (unelected) Board of Directors on 19 September:
The public effectively own the railway tracks through KiwiRail, and the public effectively own the trains and railway stations through Auckland Transport.
So – why don’t we just change the uniforms and business cards of those who actually DO the work, driving the trains and collecting the tickets etc to ‘AUCKLAND TRANPSORT’ and cut out French mutlinational private ‘piggy-in-the-middle’ Veolia Transport – who has the contract – (for private profit) to operate and manage Auckland rail services?
Why don’t we get rid of the unaccountable ‘Council Controlled Organisation’ model which we the public never voted for and the unelected CCO Boards of Directors while we’re at it?
It seems that the only ones who have benefitted from Council services being run in a more ‘business-like’ way are those businesses / businesspeople who have got the contracts?
And how exactly was it decided WHO got these contracts?
Who is checking for ‘conflicts of interests’ between those who are giving the contracts and those who are getting the contracts?
Where’s the publicly available ‘Registers of Interests’ for all local government elected representatives and their spouses, all CCO Board members, and all Council (and CCO) staff responsible for property and procurement?
Where are the publicly available central registers of contracts, and ‘devilish details’ available for public scrutiny – giving the name of the contractor / scope/ term and value of each contract?
Without this information – how is ‘line-by-line’ accounting possible?
Where is the ‘cost-benefit’ analysis, which proves that private provision of services formally provided ‘in-house’ at central and local government level, is a more ‘cost-effective’ use of public monies?
How come in NZ ‘perceived’ to be the least corrupt country in the world (along with Denmanrk and Singapore) according to the 2010 Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’ – we have so little genuine transparency when it comes to public expenditure on private sector contractors?
At both central and local government level?
Penny Bright
‘independent Public Watchdog’
Candidate for Epsom
John Key made a dick of himself again in an interview yesterday. I’m not just talking about the Prime Minster’s stupid joke about Australia gifting New Zealand a coalmine. I’m talking about one of the biggest lies that has ever been foisted on the New Zealand public. John Key said that National had created employment and that unemployment had fallen. This is such a blatant lie that I’m almost lost for words. Here’s what the moron saidâŠ
We can but hope it is short term – the one good thing about their slimey self-pleasuring is that it will turn to bile with a vengeance if national can’t scrape together 45% in november.
What, you mean after students – the only people affected by it – voted on it?
ACTiods lost the democratic vote, so ran to a fucking stupid old fossil (or whatever the phrase was) for help.
And the democratic elections held at each and every tertiary institution on the matter in 1999, and thereafter whenever 10% of students decided the issue needed revisiting. Idiot.
Yep, today is a great day BB. Almost as good as yesterday where my wife gets a 5 figure payout on behalf of the taxpayer that makes you choke on your own vomit. Cheers! Hic!!!
Is there any truth to the rumour currently going round, the outage on Slaters web site is tied to the major outage in the govts computer system, and he is funded via the a slush fund? smoke fire etc
Four weeks into the RWC, and construction is just starting â still, I suppose thatâs what you get for being obliged to bow and scrape to local iwi.
Fairfax Media-Research International poll results, out this morning, show the overriding concern is for the state of hospitals and education, followed by the economy.
But hang on, the country agreed in 1999 that they didn’t mind paying a few cents more tax to fix health and education – guess 9 years of Labour just wasn’t enough…. Now waiting for someone to tell me National have failed for not doing in 3 years what Labour couldn’t do in 9.
I have been listening today to a repeat interview from Nine To Noon on Tuesday 31 May 2011.
Dick Smith is more than just the founder an electronics retail empire, he is also the founder of Australian Geographic magazine, an adventurer, philanthropist, and now the author of a new book on unsustainable growth.
Dick Smith is very clued up about Australian business and economics. When I heard him speak on Tuesday 27/9 he had a lot of things to say relevant to nz.
He refers in the interview to the practice of buying food as cheaply as possible and finds it unsustainable as the food industry and farming in Australia will collapse if it continues. He gives an example of importing peaches from Swaziland.
I think one of the worrying signs about the food industry and farmers’ problems is the way that supermarkets have gone into competition with milk, using it as a loss leader. One farmer had Coles supermarket state that they were going to reneg on their contract with him by dropping prices 5 per cent and his agreement was necessary if he wanted to retain their business. He mentioned nz lower wages and Heinz closing beetroot processing there to bring it here at 20% lower wages.
From 31 May, 2011 (31âČ27âł)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/library?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=dick+smith+31+May+2011
Anyone else have problems trying to make an on-line submission on the Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill?
I couldn’t.
So – I tried Plan “B” ……………..
28 September 2011
Members of the Justice and Electoral Select Committee:
MP Name Party, Electorate
Justice and Electoral Member Adams, Amy National Party, Selwyn
Justice and Electoral Member Bakshi, Kanwaljit Singh National Party, List
Justice and Electoral Member Beaumont, Carol Labour Party, List
Justice and Electoral Chairperson Borrows, Chester National Party, Whanganui
Justice and Electoral Deputy-Chairperson Bridges, Simon National Party, Tauranga
Justice and Electoral Member Chauvel, Charles Labour Party, List
Justice and Electoral Member Graham, Kennedy Green Party, List
Justice and Electoral Member Quinn, Paul National Party, List
Justice and Electoral Member Sepuloni, Carmel Labour Party, List
It is now 11.30pm, Wednesday 28 September 2011.
Although it is stated:
“The closing date for submissions is Wednesday, 28 September 2011. Submissions will close at midnight.”
– I cannot make a submission on-line.
The message which has come up on screen states:
” Alert. www,parliament.nz uses an invalid security certificate. the certificate is not trusted because no issuer chain was provided. (error code: sec_error_unknown_issuer)
This is a disgrace.
It is bad enough that this legislative change which is trying to retrospectively make lawful – unlawful Police action – is being railroaded through Parliament – but for it to prove impossible to make on-line submissions after being told this is possible – is simply appalling.
I therefore expect this submission to be included.
I have tried to follow your ‘process’ – but it is not working.
What sort of country is this New Zealand ‘perceived’ to be the least corrupt country in the world?
Select committees
Make a submission
Content provider
House of Representatives
Information
Date:
28 September 2011
Related documents
Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill
Business before the Justice and Electoral Committee
Making a submission to a Parliamentary select committee
Contact details
Committee Secretariat
Justice and Electoral
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
Bennetts Book Shop online legislation enquiry
Having trouble making an online submission?
Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill
Public submissions are now being invited on the Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill.You can make your submission online – scroll to the bottom of this page.
The closing date for submissions is Wednesday, 28 September 2011. Submissions will close at midnight.
This bill clarifies the use by the Police of video camera surveillance following a recent Supreme Court decision.
The bill is available for download from the `Related documentsÂŽ panel. Print copies can be ordered online from Bennetts Government Bookshops.
The committee requires 2 copies of each submission if made in writing. Those wishing to include any information of a private or personal nature in a submission should first discuss this with the clerk of the committee, as submissions are usually released to the public by the committee. Those wishing to appear before the committee to speak to their submissions should state this clearly and provide a daytime telephone contact number. To assist with administration please supply your postcode and an email address if you have one.
Further guidance on making a submission can be found from the Making a Submission to a Parliamentary Select Committee link in the `Related documentsÂŽ panel.
Hi Penny, It sounds like you might want to update firefox or go to this website for a fix. Not sure how it will work as I’ve never needed to use it.
You might be the victim of David Farrar’s insidious little LSO cookie that I have previously blogged about. As well as cleaning out your normal cookies, you might want to have a read of this post on how to get rid of their interference.
Although government websites have been having problems lately and it could be a number of issues, that’s where I would start.
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. ITâS 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 â…one of New Zealandâs COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the countryâ 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 âat least, we got rid of Muldoonâ, a response which tells us that then, and today, oneâs views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement:Â 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 ...
âTheyâre here already! Youâre next! Youâre next! Youâre next!âWHO 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: âTheyâre here already! Youâre next! Youâre next! Youâre next!âOstensibly 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-dĂ»r. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhowerâs inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been âleaders of the free worldâ. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to âdrain the swampâ 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 ...
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 cityâs 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 â 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 Trumpâs 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. Itâs 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 ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about todayâs 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 â the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONALâS Bill English who accurately described New Zealandâs prisons as âfiscal and moral failuresâ. On the same subject, Labourâs Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. Weâd studied Shakespeareâs King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President respectively for the US 2020 Election, may have dispensed with the erstwhile nemesis, Trump the candidate – but there are numerous critical openings through which much, much worse many out there may yet see fit to ...
I donât know TaupĆ well. Even though I stop off there from time to time, Iâm always on the way to somewhere else. Usually TaupĆ means making a hot water puddle in the gritty sand followed by a swim in the lake, noticing with bemusement and resignation the traffic, the ...
Frances Williams, King’s College LondonFor most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 â the virus that causes COVID-19 â leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection â this has been dubbed âlong COVIDâ. Scientists are ...
Last night, a British court ruled that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US. Unfortunately, its not because all he is "guilty" of is journalism, or because the offence the US wants to charge him with - espionage - is of an inherently political nature; instead the judge accepted ...
Is the Gender Identity Movement a movement for human liberation, or is it a regressive movement which undermines women’s liberation and promotes sexist stereotypes? Should biological males be allowed to play in women’s sport, use women-only spaces (public toilets, changing rooms, other facilities), be able to have access to everything ...
Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University of BirminghamSpace exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth. The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of ...
Michael Head, University of SouthamptonThe UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK â following the Pfizer vaccine. The British government ...
So, Boris Johnson has been footering about in hospitals again. We should be grateful, perhaps, that on this occasion the Clown-in-Chief is only (probably) getting in the way and causing distractions, rather than taking up a bed, vital equipment and resources and adding more strain and danger to exhausted staff.Look at ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to ZeroThat’s one of several recent ...
The situation in the UK is looking catastrophic.Cases: over *70,000* people who were tested in England on 29th December tested positive. This is *not* because there were more tests on that day. It *is* 4 days after Christmas though, around when people who caught Covid on Christmas Day might start ...
by Don Franks For five days over New Year weekend, sixteen prisoners in the archaic pre WW1 block of Waikeria Prison defied authorities by setting fires and occupying the building’s roof. They eventually agreed to surrender after intervention from Maori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi.  A message from the protesting men had stated: ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. Thereâs a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, hereâs a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
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. âFollowing confirmation of the Cook Islandsâ 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. âOur top priority continues ...
Todayâs deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. âThe 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. âABAC helps ensure that APECâs work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Governmentâs 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 Zealandâs 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. âGiven the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, itâs 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. âThe Battle at Te Ruapekapeka PÄ, 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. âThe new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has added her warm congratulations to the New Zealanders recognised for their contributions to their communities and the country in the New Year 2021 Honours List. âThe past year has been one that few of us could have imagined. In spite of all the things that ...
Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment David Parker has congratulated two retired judges who have had their contributions to the country and their communities recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. The Hon Tony Randerson QC has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the New Yearâs Honours List 2021 highlights again the outstanding contribution made by Pacific people across Aotearoa. âWe are acknowledging the work of 13 Pacific leaders in the New Yearâs Honours, representing a number of sectors including health, education, community, sports, the ...
The Governmentâs investment in digital literacy training for seniors has led to more than 250 people participating so far, helping them stay connected. âCOVID-19 has meant older New Zealanders are showing more interest in learning how to use technology like Zoom and Skype so they can to keep in touch ...
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk Human Rights Watch (HRW) has criticised the Indonesian government of President Joko âJokowiâ Widodo for its weak health response to covid-19 which has brought Indonesia to its knees since March 2020, reports CNN Indonesia. The assessment is based on Indonesiaâs poor rates of testing and tracing ...
By The National in Port Moresby An expatriate who tested positive for the covid-19 coronavirus last week has been admitted to a private hospital in the Papua New Guinea capital of Port Moresby, an official has confirmed. Pacific International Hospital (PIH) chief executive officer Colonel Sandeep Shaligram toldThe National the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nathan Bartlett, Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of Newcastle Reports of about 30 deaths among elderly nursing home residents who received the Pfizer vaccine have made international headlines. With Australiaâs Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) expected to approve the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Culum Brown, Professor, Macquarie University How do gills work? Tully, aged 7 Great question, Tully! Animals on land breathe air, which is made up of different gasses. Oxygen is one of these gases, and is made by plants (hug ...
Dairy prices increased by 3.9% across the board at the latest Fonterra global auction. The lift followed rises of 1.3% and 4.3% in the December auctions which took dairy prices to their highest level in 11 months, defying those analysts who believed Covid-19 had disrupted dairy markets. In the latest ...
America's Cup team American Magic has spoken publicly after their boat Patriot capsized when on its way to their first win of the Challenger Selection Series yesterday. Patriot dramatically capsized yesterday, becoming temporarily airborne before crashing back into the water and tipping. The boat, helmed by New Zealander Dean Barker, could not be ...
It’s a seemingly age old question: why do Auckland’s beaches become unswimmable after every single downpour? Stewart Sowman-Lund investigates.Ah, the beach. A staple of the New Zealand summer. Unless, of course, you’re based in Auckland and it’s raining. The start of 2021 has been a lot like every other New ...
We have opened a book, among members of the Point of Order team, on how long it will be before the PM offers to sort out the land dispute at Wellingtonâs Shelly Bay and (to win the double) how much the settlement will cost taxpayers. Just a few weeks ago ...
Breakfast TV news is back for 2021, and Tara Ward got up early to watch. “Thank god it’s almost Christmas,” John Campbell said during the opening minutes of Breakfast’s premiere episode of the year. “2021’s been rough so far. I’m buggered”. We’re all buggered, to be fair, but I’m worried that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Pearson, Professor of Journalism and Social Media, Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Griffith University The blame for the recent assault on the US Capitol and President Donald Trumpâs broader dismantling of democratic institutions and norms can be ...
Despite a popular and unifying leader of the governing party, divisions both in policy and culture will test the progressive movement, writes Peter McKenzie.‘I think we’re confused.” Marlon Drake is an organiser for the Living Wage Movement. His job takes him all over Wellington, trying to convince businesses to increase ...
Covid-19 Recovery Minister Chris Hipkins says vaccinations should be available to the public by the middle of the year, but other countries are prioritised. ...
It’s as true now as it ever has been: nowhere else offers an education experience like that of Dunedin. But rather than resting on their laurels, the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic have plans to make the city an even more inspiring place for students.From high in the summit ...
Haggis, neeps and tatties and whisky may not be a traditional spread for a summer gathering in NZ, but trust Auckland city councillor and Kiwi-Scot Cathy Casey on this one. Gie it laldy! Rule one: Hold it on (or near) January 25Robert Burns was born on January 25, 1759. Since the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University It could be argued artificial intelligence (AI) is already the indispensable tool of the 21st century. From helping doctors diagnose and treat patients to rapidly advancing new drug discoveries, itâs our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Professor, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University Through recent natural disasters, global upheavals and a pandemic, Australiaâs political centre has largely held. Australians may have disagreed at times, but they have also kept faith with governmental norms, eschewing the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Holly Seale, Associate professor, UNSW Health workers are at higher risk of COVID infection and illness. They can also act as extremely efficient transmitters of viruses to others in medical and aged care facilities. Thatâs why health workers have been prioritised to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jim Orchard, Adjunct Lecturer, Monash University Last week, somewhat overshadowed by the events in Washington, the Democrats took control of the US Senate. The Democrats now hold a small majority in both the House and the Senate until 2022, giving President-elect Joe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mittul Vahanvati, Lecturer, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University Heatwaves, floods, bushfires: disaster season is upon us again. We canât prevent hazards or climate change-related extreme weather events but we can prepare for them â not just as individuals ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mandie Shean, Lecturer, School of Education, Edith Cowan University Starting school is an important event for children and a positive experience can set the tone for the rest of their school experience. Some children are excited to attend school for the first ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Spark, Postdoctoral research fellow, Queensland University of Technology Leadership is a human universal. It can even be seen in other species, which suggests it may be an evolutionarily ancient process. A common personality trait of ânaturalâ leaders is a higher than ...
Some families in emergency housing are reporting their children are becoming emotionally distressed because of their living conditions. Demand for emergency accommodation has escalated this past year with the number of emergency housing grants increasing by half. Data showed nearly 10,000 people were given an Emergency Housing Special Needs Grant between ...
Summer reissue: Michèle A’Court, Alex Casey and Leonie Hayden are back for a second season of On the Rag, and where better to start than with the mysterious, exhausting world of wellness?First published June 23, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
With few Covid-19 infections and negiligible natural immunity, New Zealand faces being a victim of its own success when it is left till last to get the vaccines, argues Dr Parmjeet Parmar. ...
Steve Braunias reports on a literary cancelling. The Corrections department has refused to allow Jared Savage's best-selling book Gangland inside prison on the grounds that it "promotes violence and drug use". An inmate at Otago Corrections Facility in Dunedin was sent a copy of the book â but it was ...
New data from the CTUâs annual work life survey shows a snapshot of working peopleâs experiences and outlook heading out of 2020 and into the new year. Concerningly 42% of respondents cite workplace bullying as an issue in their workplace - a number ...
An international player, selector and self-confessed cricket stats nerd, Penny Kinsella has now played a hand in recording the rich history of the women's game in New Zealand. Penny Kinsellaâs cricketing career was perched on the cusp of change for the White Ferns. âMy first tour to Australia, we ...
The dramatic capsize of American Magic brought out the best in the America's Cup sailing fraternity. But, Suzanne McFadden asks, what does it mean to the crippled New York Yacht Club campaign and to the Prada Cup? It was a scene as unreal as it was calamitous. Right at the moment the ...
The current number of members of parliament is starting to get too low for the job we expect them to do, argues Alex Braae. As a general rule, with the possible exception of their families, nobody likes backbench MPs. But it’s nevertheless time we accepted that parliament should have more of ...
The experience in the Brazilian city of Manaus reveals how mistaken, and dangerous, the herd-immunity-by-infection theory really is. 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 ...
As New Zealand gears up to fight climate change, experts warn that we need to actually reduce emissions, not just plant trees to offset our greenhouse gases. ...
A nationwide poll has found majority support for the government to continue to closely monitor abortions in New Zealand and the reasons for it, despite the Ministry of Health recently suggesting that there is not a use for collecting much of this information. ...
The out-of-control growth in gangs, gun crime, and violent gang activity is exposing our communities to dangerous levels of violence that will inevitably end in tragedy, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. âThe recent incidents of people being shot and ...
Successive governments have paid lip service to our productivity challenge but have failed to deliver. It's time to establish a Productivity Council charged with prioritising efforts. ...
Understanding the connection between chronic fatigue syndrome and ‘long Covid’ might be helpful in treating symptoms that doctors will find all too easy to dismiss.When people began to report signs of “long Covid”, characterised by a lack of full recovery from the virus and debilitating fatigue, I recognised their stories. ...
Nadine Anne Hura, who never considered herself an artist, reflects on what art and making has taught her.I couldn’t clean or cook or wash the clothes, but I could sew. That’s a lie, I’m a terrible sewer, but I left work early to fossick around in the $1 bin of ...
Summer reissue: In the final episode of this season of Bad News, Alice is joined by Billy T award winner Kura Forrester to look at how well we’re honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 2020.First published September 3, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The ...
Lucy Revill’s The Residents is a blog about daily life in Wellington that has morphed into a stylish, low-key coffee-table book featuring interviews and photographic portraits of 38 Wellingtonians. In this extract, Revill profiles Eboni Waitere, owner and executive director of Huia Publishers. The Residents features names like Monique Fiso ...
Pacific Media Watch correspondent The pro-independence conflict in West Papua with a missionary plane reportedly being shot down at Intan Jaya has stirred contrasting responses from the TNI/POLRI state sources, church leaders and an independence leader. A shooting caused a plane to catch fire on 6 January 2021 in the ...
âLast year ACT warned that rewarding protestors at IhumÄtao with taxpayer money would promote further squatting. We just didnât think it would happen as quickly as it is in Shelly Bayâ says ACT Leader David Seymour. âThe prosperity of all ...
Our kindly PM registered her return to work as leader of the nation with yet another statement on the Beehive website, the second in two days (following her appointment of Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council on Wednesday). It’s great to know we don’t have to check with ...
A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past.Content warning: This article contains racist language and images.On a pub wall in ...
Supermarket shoppers looking for citrus are seeing a sour trend at the moment – some stores are entirely tapped out of lemons. But why? Batches of homemade lemonade will be taking a hit this summer, with life not giving New Zealand shoppers lemons. Prices are high at supermarkets and grocers that ...
You’re born either a cheery soul or a gloomy one, reckons Linda Burgess – but what happens when gene pools from opposite ends of the spectrum collide?In our shoeboxes of photos that we have to sort out before we die or get demented – because who IS that kid on ...
Summer reissue: Prisoner voting rights are something that few in government seem particularly motivated to do anything about. Could a catchy charity single help draw attention to the issue?First published September 1, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its ...
Hundreds more Cook Islanders are expected to begin criss-crossing the Pacific, Air NZ will triple the number of flights to Rarotonga next week, and about 300 managed isolation places will be freed up for Kiwis returning from other parts of the world. When Thomas Tarurongo Wynne took a job in Wellington at ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ena Manuireva in Auckland It seems a long time ago â some 124 days â since MÄâohi Nui deplored its first covid-19 related deaths of an elderly woman on 11 September 2020 followed by her husband just hours later, both over the age of 80. The local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral research associate, UNSW A global coalition of more than 50 countries have this week pledged to protect over 30% of the planetâs lands and seas by the end of this decade. Their reasoning is clear: we need greater protection ...
The Reserve Bank Governorâs apology and claim he will âown the issueâ is laughable given the lack of answers and timing of its release. Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayersâ Union said: âItâs been five days since they came clean, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olga Kokshagina, Researcher – Innovation & Entrepreneurship, RMIT University Are too many online meetings and notifications getting you down? Online communication tools â from email to virtual chat and video-conferencing â have transformed the way we work. In many respects theyâve made ...
The Reserve Bank acknowledges information about some of its stakeholders may have been breached in a malicious data hack. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has commissioned an independent inquiry into how stakeholders' information was compromised when hackers breached a file sharing service used by the bank. âWe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland This story contains spoilers for Ammonite Palaeontologist Mary Anning is known for discovering a multitude of Jurassic fossils from Lyme Regis on Englandâs Dorset Coast from the age of ten in 1809. ...
A tribute to the sitcoms of old? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Yup. Sam Brooks reviews the audacious WandaVision.Nothing sends a chill up my spine like the phrase “Marvel Cinematic Universe”. Since launching in 2008 with Iron Man, the MCU has become a shambling behemoth, with over 23 films (not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University The alt-right, QAnon, paramilitary and Donald Trump-supporting mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6 claimed they were only doing what the so-called âfounding fathersâ of the US had done in ...
The Point of Order Ministerial Workload Watchdog and our ever-vigilant Trough Monitor were both triggered yesterday by an item of news from the office of Conservation Minister Kititapu Allan. The minister was drawing attention to new opportunities to dip into the Jobs for Nature programme (and her statement was the ...
The first Friday Poem for 2021 is by Wellington poet Rebecca Hawkes.While you were partying I studied the bladeI your ever-loving edgelord God-emperorof the bot army & bitcoin mine subsistingon an IV drip of gamer girl bathwaterfinally my lonelinessis your responsibility………. you seeI need a girlfriend assigned to me by the ...
The arming of police officers in Canterbury was inevitable with the growing numbers and brazenness of the gangs across the country â this should be a permanent step, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. âIt is unfortunate that we have come to the point ...
Celebrations in Aotearoa New Zealand to mark the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will begin on Thursday 21 January with ICAN Aotearoa New Zealandâs Wellington and online event, and continue on Friday ...
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change.As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer ...
On the East Coast, a group of Māori-owned enterprises is innovating to create new revenue streams while doing what they love.New Zealand’s remote and sparsely populated regions are typically not the best places to create thriving brick-and-mortar businesses. In small communities miles away from any major centres, there are so ...
As we reach the height of summer, itâs not too late to do a safety check on your gas bottle. The Environmental Protection Authorityâs Safer Homes programme has some tips and tricks to keep in mind before you fire up the grill. "If youâve ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)If you’re in any way unsure about ...
âWe may as well knock on the gang headquarters around this country and tell them we all give up," says Darroch Ball co-leader of Sensible Sentencing Trust. âIt is simply outrageous that violent offender, James Tuwhangai, has been released from ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Ireland, Israel, and Lebanon. Chart by Keith Rankin. The countries with the most recent large outbreaks of Covid19 are those with large numbers of recent recorded cases, but yet to record the deaths that most likely will result. In this camp, this time, are Ireland, Israel ...
RuPaul is in Aotearoa, kicking back in managed isolation to await the filming of an Australasian version of her hugely popular reality show Drag Race. But not everyone is happy about, explains Eli Matthewson. The world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, is in New Zealand, the government confirmed earlier this week ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong What can we make of Clive Palmer? This week, he announced his United Australia Party (UAP) would not contest the upcoming West Australian state election on March 13. After a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England Have you ever seenmagpies play-fighting with one another, or rolling around in high spirits? Or an apostlebird running at full speed with a stick in its beak, chased by a ...
A Swiss study says Forex traders are worse than Psychopaths. What you reckon? Nice, giving, loving people can make it to the top in that world? Neh, but lying, callous, destructive bullies can!! John Key anyone?
This trader admits Goldman Sachs runs the world and that recessions are just another opportunity to make money, in this BBC interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqN3amj6AcE&feature=player_embedded
Yep , and Goldman Sachs owns part of Mediaworks a virtual monopoly created by and recently handed 30 odd million bucks by Steven Joyce.
John Key didn’t care that he could have bankrupted NZ with his currency raiding. He doesn’t care that children are starving, that the elderly can’t afford to heat their homes. MONEY is all he cares about. YUCK YUCK YUCK.
This money trader’s warning is that the Stock Market is going, going, gone as is the Euro, and put that against John Key’s buoyant “she’ll be right” and “we have it under control”, who would you trust? Or as a money trader is John Key looking to make heaps out of the crash?
You got there before I did đ
Random thought: I always wondered how on earth Americans could vote a second term for George W. Bush. As we head to an election, I now know.
Retailers running foul of All Blacks ad ban
Lingerie store im Designer Bodywear lingerie in Grey St was contacted by rugby authorities last week and told to remove its “All black lingerie” sign, with warnings that it risked breaching the fair trading and trademark acts.
Manager Sue Moar said she felt bullied by the NZRU but had no intention of removing the sign.
“The whole thing’s just turned stupid.
“The guy said, ‘You take it down or you’ll be getting a letter.’ But I haven’t got any letter and the sign’s still up.”
ooooh a letter…bet she’s shittting herself
Ms Barnett said she was yet to be challenged about her display but defended her right to use references to the World Cup and the national team.
“Since when have they had ownership on black?
“Black’s been around ever since we’ve had nighttime.”
hahaha…fuck you NZRU!!!
Rodney Hide last night gave the best Parliamentary Speech of this term.
[Feck did I just say that?]Â
Oh rite, he gives such speeches before he gets into government and when he is pissing off. He is a useless dildo.
An HONEST market trader talks about the coming Eurozone collapse
“Like most traders, we don’t care that much about having a fixed economy…”
He’ll never be invited back to the BBC.
And people have tried to paint it as a hoax.
The Yes men congratulate him on his honesty
http://www.yeslab.org/rastani
And the Guardian does some investigation and finds he’s legit.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/27/trader-goldman-sachs-bbc-hoax
There would be a lot of people in the business sector especially, who would be nodding their heads in agreement.
Of course, this guy is short everything so it’s highly likely he’s just talking his book. Got on the BBC and saw it as an opportunity to shatter the ‘illusions’ and, like he admits, make bank off a depression.
Its not just this one trader who is short everything. Longs (except PM longs) are about to be crushed, and they know it.
Interesting article on the pitfalls of “bigness”
http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/25/crisis-bigness-leopold-kohr?cat=commentisfree&type=article
Why did the student protest group at Auckland University allow Omar Hamed to attend? and is his alleged treatment of woman (from various feminist groups) a concern?
Why is Brett Dale superficially pretending to be concerned about the treatment of women?
I just looked at what the Santa Fe Institute, USA is doing at the moment. In education they are featuring their complexity studies. Our political leaders and economists would learn more that is relevant to doing the best job they can for us if they did not go to Harvard or Chicago, but studied at the inter-disciplinary Santa Fe.
This is part of their course explanation and provision text.
Education in NZ is splitting along the pipeline. The leading teachers bodies have been facing off against the School Trustees bunch and have accused them of adopting an attitude to differences of opinion as if it was a master and servant relationship. I think this is an inherent problem in Tomorrows Schools and I think it is a feature in some USA school areas, the USA being where we picked tomorrows schools policy from. If I am wrong somebody who can amend what I’ve stated can reply and put me right.
PM planning his next party political purposes photo op http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/5695613/PM-wants-to-visit-ailing-Lomu
PM conducting focus groups to see whether he will get more votes supporting or opposing Coronation Street’s new viewing time.
Stuff have got a very interesting interactive breakdown of their polls up on their site. You can break it down by different demographics such as age or who they voted for in 2008, and then which party they’ll vote or what issues concern them most (the most interesting figures I think).
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/polls/election-poll
The full stats aren’t available for their latest 28th September poll, but in 30th August we can see that people who voted National in 2008 considered Law & Order the most important issue, and people who Don’t Know or Undecided about their vote this year have Law & Order their second most important issue.
Preferred PM is another interesting one. 29% of labour voters want Phil Goff while 14% want ‘Other’ and 39% ‘Don’t know’.
Previous 2008 vote with intended 2011 vote:
89% of Nats stick with Nats, 5.3% go to Labour
79% of Labour stick with Labour, 7.8% go to Greens and 12% to National
84% of Greens stick with Greens, 9% go to Labour and 3.5% to National.
Mana picks up 1.7% from Greens and 1.6% from Other.
Be interested to see what other people can dig out of this.
Yes, that is a good link. September 28 seems to be there now.
Apparently, 52% of men and 56% of women in the sample intend voting National (though, 2.6% of men intend voting ACT and only 0.5% of women). Labour is 28% for each gender.
Those who are comfortable (22% Labour, 10% Green, 60% National); getting by ( 26%; 8.9%; 58%); struggling (43%; 14%; 37%).
Preferred PM for under 35 42% Key; 35-59 54% Key; over 60 58% Key.
Â
Just heard on the radio another SAS soildier shot and killed in Kabul.
Starting to drop like flies now – but smiley wavey guy will make it all OK.
This threat was recently sent to one of my employers:
” From: mattyroo@gmail.com
Do you think this is appropriate for one of your models to be publicly saying:
Campbell Larsen1619 September 2011 at 7:19 pm
I wish the mad butcher would hurry up and die.
Fuck Close Up for giving this National party cheerleader a free slot in primetime.
[link ommitted to reduce rehashing of old ground]
How do you think your clients would feel, if they were to find out what someone that they have engaged through you, has been saying about a Kiwi icon?
I’m sure Vodafone, whom you prominently advertise on your website as a client, would certainly be interested to know about this…. Especially considering Sir Peter Leitch has a longstanding relationship with them.
I’m interested to hear your response? ”
Seems Sir Peter and his mates are not above going after the little guy….
[I see that mattyroo once copped a lifetime ban for similar “real world” bully tactics. The ban was never enforced, but it is now. r0b]
Fuck I hate tories. I can’t say I agreed with your comment, but this sort of shit is why I use a pseudonym. It ain’t perfect, but it’s a disconnect from my personal and professional life.Â
Nasty, vindictive and petty. I don’t agree with wishing people dead but this is just venal. Wonder who the little slime is?
Would only take a couple of grand to find out – if that.
Money better spend somewhere else. The little turd will run into trouble elsewhere. His kind always does. Karma and all that. đ
Yep, that’s pretty low. The next time someone brings up the real name versus anonymous poster argument, I’ll remind them of this attack on your freedom of speech.
…..you’re a model??????
That explains it then.
Dickhead!
Â
Aye another RWNJ feeding frenzy. They are great at picking up on the slightest comment and then turning it into an attack. They are oblivious to the criticism that they are hypocrites. It seems they have learned this technique off the slithery one.
Â
Â
two questions for the legal fraternity…
how do you justify calling Larsen’s post “the slightest comment”?
what is the substantive difference between Darien Fenton calling for a boycott of Mad Butcher shops and Mattyroo calling for a boycott of Larsen?
“Seems Sir Peter and his mates are not above going after the little guyâŠ.”
How is Peter and his mates going after the little guy ?
As you’ve outed yourself as an actor do you also take umbrage to Robyn Malcolm and Lucy Lawless using their fame for influencing politics ?
How about Michael Jones and Inga ?
What about Pio and Oscar Keightly ?
Are you going to object to all of them having their right to free speech as well and wish they all hurry up and die ?
Funny, as it happens I haven’t seen any of those you have mentioned granted a patsy interview on close up recently (actually not ever, but then I try an avoid close up, and campbell live as those shows are rubbish tv, certinly not news, not even info-tainment)
What I do remember is that Lucy Lawless and Robyn Malcom (the most memorable of those you mentioned) campaign on issues and policies – they encourage people to think when they vote.
On the other hand, minor celebrities like the butcher who gushingly make statements like I think so-and-so is the best man for the job contribute nothing useful to the voting process – I would even go a step further and call it a cynical attempt at manipulation.
If you require further clarification due to your memory and comprehension problems go back to the original thread and the discussions therein – Puddleglums contributions are especially eloquent and insightful.
I am finished with you sir – this topic is closed.
Ah, so you’re a hypocrite as well as an arse.
And I see you’re still avoiding a response in relation to your other comment
“Seems Sir Peter and his mates are not above going after the little guyâŠ.”
How is it that Peter and his mates are going after the little guy ?
Breaking News Herald A New Zealand SAS soldier has died after being shot in the head in an ongoing assault on a group of insurgents in Afghanistan. The soldier was killed while supporting an assault on an insurgent team in the Afghan capitalâŠ
A sinking feeling of here we go again, “peace keeping, reconstruction AND if youread it leading the assault. Bring our boys home please!
Soo sad! Wonder when people are going to wonder why NZ soldiers have to die in other peoples wars?
I wonder if our army are in the forefront of Afghanistan fighting as mentors, (is that what used to be called advisors?) to please the USofA so that we can progress the free market giveaway of the quality of our sovereignty, such as it is, and get a cardboard replica back covered no doubt in modern technologically advanced hologram material displaying and enhancing our shrinking taonga. ‘My kingdom for a free market deal’ said Jokey Hen and offered the sacrifice of some young people paid by New Zealand to die for the cause.
For anyone who wants a full overview of RWC I recommend Wikpedia. I was trying to get the playing points of teams and couldn’t find anything except the pools points on the other sites I went to. With all the information available I didn’t think a simple chart for all the games played would be so hard to find.
The official site seems like it probably has what you want on these two pages:
http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/fixtures/poolstage.html
http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/home/standings/index.html
Thanks Lanthanide. The first one refers to fixtures and that seems to be the magic word. I wanted the individual country’s scores so I can talk about it sensibly when needed.
It isAuckland Mayor Len Brown who has effectively taken the flak for Mark Ford, Chair of the Auckland Transport Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) over the RWC transport debacle on 9 September 2011.
It is the Auckland Transport CCO – NOT Auckland Council which is supposed to be responsible for transport.
Following is the suggestion that I made directly to Auckland Transport when I addressed the (unelected) Board of Directors on 19 September:
The public effectively own the railway tracks through KiwiRail, and the public effectively own the trains and railway stations through Auckland Transport.
So – why don’t we just change the uniforms and business cards of those who actually DO the work, driving the trains and collecting the tickets etc to ‘AUCKLAND TRANPSORT’ and cut out French mutlinational private ‘piggy-in-the-middle’ Veolia Transport – who has the contract – (for private profit) to operate and manage Auckland rail services?
_____________________________________________________________________
Why don’t we get rid of the unaccountable ‘Council Controlled Organisation’ model which we the public never voted for and the unelected CCO Boards of Directors while we’re at it?
It seems that the only ones who have benefitted from Council services being run in a more ‘business-like’ way are those businesses / businesspeople who have got the contracts?
And how exactly was it decided WHO got these contracts?
Who is checking for ‘conflicts of interests’ between those who are giving the contracts and those who are getting the contracts?
Where’s the publicly available ‘Registers of Interests’ for all local government elected representatives and their spouses, all CCO Board members, and all Council (and CCO) staff responsible for property and procurement?
Where are the publicly available central registers of contracts, and ‘devilish details’ available for public scrutiny – giving the name of the contractor / scope/ term and value of each contract?
Without this information – how is ‘line-by-line’ accounting possible?
Where is the ‘cost-benefit’ analysis, which proves that private provision of services formally provided ‘in-house’ at central and local government level, is a more ‘cost-effective’ use of public monies?
How come in NZ ‘perceived’ to be the least corrupt country in the world (along with Denmanrk and Singapore) according to the 2010 Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’ – we have so little genuine transparency when it comes to public expenditure on private sector contractors?
At both central and local government level?
Penny Bright
‘independent Public Watchdog’
Candidate for Epsom
Prime Minister Material?
John Key made a dick of himself again in an interview yesterday. I’m not just talking about the Prime Minster’s stupid joke about Australia gifting New Zealand a coalmine. I’m talking about one of the biggest lies that has ever been foisted on the New Zealand public. John Key said that National had created employment and that unemployment had fallen. This is such a blatant lie that I’m almost lost for words. Here’s what the moron saidâŠ
And so it starts…..VSM is being read for the third time.
All students will now be free.
What a great day!
They’ll be much less free.
Less free because they’ll still be paying the same amount in compulsory fees to University administrations instead of their own organisations.
You lot have sold student freedom down the river.
Well said. I couldn’t get past a string of expletives.
Expletives work too. Perfectly appropriate for this situation.
We can but hope it is short term – the one good thing about their slimey self-pleasuring is that it will turn to bile with a vengeance if national can’t scrape together 45% in november.
ironic how anti-democratic some leftie ideologues can be.
As for students complaining about the erosion of democracy by demanding compulsory unionism, words fail…
JB That would be a change.
What, you mean after students – the only people affected by it – voted on it?
ACTiods lost the democratic vote, so ran to a fucking stupid old fossil (or whatever the phrase was) for help.
Scoff…
The only scientific poll done amongst students (during the last VSM bill) on this issue showed a majority support voluntary membership.
And the democratic elections held at each and every tertiary institution on the matter in 1999, and thereafter whenever 10% of students decided the issue needed revisiting. Idiot.
Still got the blinders on but, then, that’s a normal part of being a RWNJ.
NAct removed democracy from:
ECAN
Auckland
Parliament through massive abuse of urgency
It’s the right who are ideologically opposed to democracy.
Yep, today is a great day BB. Almost as good as yesterday where my wife gets a 5 figure payout on behalf of the taxpayer that makes you choke on your own vomit. Cheers! Hic!!!
Is there any truth to the rumour currently going round, the outage on Slaters web site is tied to the major outage in the govts computer system, and he is funded via the a slush fund? smoke fire etc
.
As for the TupperWaka – what a bilious and pathetic sop to Maoridom that’s turned out to be.
Four weeks into the RWC, and construction is just starting – still, I suppose that’s what you get for being obliged to bow and scrape to local iwi.
Bad government, bad coalition, bad outcomes.
Former NYT journalist joins and is interviewed at #occupywallstreet
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/chris_hedges_occupies_wall_street_20110926/
Stuff: Asset sales, Christchurch rebuild on voters’ minds
But hang on, the country agreed in 1999 that they didn’t mind paying a few cents more tax to fix health and education – guess 9 years of Labour just wasn’t enough…. Now waiting for someone to tell me National have failed for not doing in 3 years what Labour couldn’t do in 9.
2.5yrs of NACT wrecks 9 years of labour
I have been listening today to a repeat interview from Nine To Noon on Tuesday 31 May 2011.
Dick Smith is more than just the founder an electronics retail empire, he is also the founder of Australian Geographic magazine, an adventurer, philanthropist, and now the author of a new book on unsustainable growth.
Dick Smith is very clued up about Australian business and economics. When I heard him speak on Tuesday 27/9 he had a lot of things to say relevant to nz.
He refers in the interview to the practice of buying food as cheaply as possible and finds it unsustainable as the food industry and farming in Australia will collapse if it continues. He gives an example of importing peaches from Swaziland.
I think one of the worrying signs about the food industry and farmers’ problems is the way that supermarkets have gone into competition with milk, using it as a loss leader. One farmer had Coles supermarket state that they were going to reneg on their contract with him by dropping prices 5 per cent and his agreement was necessary if he wanted to retain their business. He mentioned nz lower wages and Heinz closing beetroot processing there to bring it here at 20% lower wages.
From 31 May, 2011 (31âČ27âł)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/library?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=dick+smith+31+May+2011
Anyone else have problems trying to make an on-line submission on the Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill?
I couldn’t.
So – I tried Plan “B” ……………..
28 September 2011
Members of the Justice and Electoral Select Committee:
MP Name Party, Electorate
Justice and Electoral Member Adams, Amy National Party, Selwyn
Justice and Electoral Member Bakshi, Kanwaljit Singh National Party, List
Justice and Electoral Member Beaumont, Carol Labour Party, List
Justice and Electoral Chairperson Borrows, Chester National Party, Whanganui
Justice and Electoral Deputy-Chairperson Bridges, Simon National Party, Tauranga
Justice and Electoral Member Chauvel, Charles Labour Party, List
Justice and Electoral Member Graham, Kennedy Green Party, List
Justice and Electoral Member Quinn, Paul National Party, List
Justice and Electoral Member Sepuloni, Carmel Labour Party, List
It is now 11.30pm, Wednesday 28 September 2011.
Although it is stated:
“The closing date for submissions is Wednesday, 28 September 2011. Submissions will close at midnight.”
– I cannot make a submission on-line.
The message which has come up on screen states:
” Alert. www,parliament.nz uses an invalid security certificate. the certificate is not trusted because no issuer chain was provided. (error code: sec_error_unknown_issuer)
This is a disgrace.
It is bad enough that this legislative change which is trying to retrospectively make lawful – unlawful Police action – is being railroaded through Parliament – but for it to prove impossible to make on-line submissions after being told this is possible – is simply appalling.
I therefore expect this submission to be included.
I have tried to follow your ‘process’ – but it is not working.
What sort of country is this New Zealand ‘perceived’ to be the least corrupt country in the world?
Penny Bright.
WHAT WAS STATED ON THE PARLIAMENTARY WEBSITE:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/SC/MakeSub/5/0/e/49SCJE_SCF_00DBHOH_BILL11056_1-Video-Camera-Surveillance-Temporary.htm#captcha
Select committees
Make a submission
Content provider
House of Representatives
Information
Date:
28 September 2011
Related documents
Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill
Business before the Justice and Electoral Committee
Making a submission to a Parliamentary select committee
Contact details
Committee Secretariat
Justice and Electoral
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
Phone: +64 4 817 9508
Fax: +64 4 499 0486
Email contacts
Committee Secretariat
Related links
Bennetts Book Shop online legislation enquiry
Having trouble making an online submission?
Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill
Public submissions are now being invited on the Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill.You can make your submission online – scroll to the bottom of this page.
The closing date for submissions is Wednesday, 28 September 2011. Submissions will close at midnight.
This bill clarifies the use by the Police of video camera surveillance following a recent Supreme Court decision.
The bill is available for download from the `Related documentsÂŽ panel. Print copies can be ordered online from Bennetts Government Bookshops.
The committee requires 2 copies of each submission if made in writing. Those wishing to include any information of a private or personal nature in a submission should first discuss this with the clerk of the committee, as submissions are usually released to the public by the committee. Those wishing to appear before the committee to speak to their submissions should state this clearly and provide a daytime telephone contact number. To assist with administration please supply your postcode and an email address if you have one.
Further guidance on making a submission can be found from the Making a Submission to a Parliamentary Select Committee link in the `Related documentsÂŽ panel.
_______________________________________________________________________
What follows is my URGENT submission on the
Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill
___________________________________________
Surely ‘ignorance of the law’ is NO excuse and NZ Police must lead by example and follow the ‘Rule of Law’?
………………………….
Penny Bright
Independent Public Watchdog
Candidate for Epsom
Hi Penny, It sounds like you might want to update firefox or go to
this website for a fix. Not sure how it will work as I’ve never needed to use it.
You might be the victim of David Farrar’s insidious little LSO cookie that I have previously blogged about. As well as cleaning out your normal cookies, you might want to have a read of this post on how to get rid of their interference.
Although government websites have been having problems lately and it could be a number of issues, that’s where I would start.