Open mike 29/08/2021

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 29th, 2021 - 32 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

32 comments on “Open mike 29/08/2021 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Patricia Bremner 1
    29 August 2021 at 8:00 am

    Congratulations to Lisa Adams on her gold medal. Very proud of Val and her sister originally from Rotorua.

  2. Anker 2
    29 August 2021 at 12:10 pm

    Indeed Patricia. Excellent, Lisa Adams

  4. lprent 4
    29 August 2021 at 1:10 pm

    Just binge watched the first series a 6 episode UK comedy series about a all-woman Muslim punk band and its startup. We are Lady Parts streaming on Neon, and probably on Sky for those who still use it.

    That was awesomely funny, and it even managed to be respectful as it provides its touches of satire. Best thing that I have seen during the lock-down. One of the few programs that my partner and I agree on when it comes to TV. Her tastes and mine have limited overlaps.

    I'm betting that that most people who watch it would feel the same about this one..

    mmm.. Rotten tomatoes

    Critics 100% with 39 reviews, and 77% with 100 reviews.
    Critics Consensus
    Infectious energy, great songs, and a magnetic cast come together to make We Are Lady Parts a rocking comedy that is as subversive as it is hilarious.

    Subversive is right. It has a sideswipe at damn near everyone from the pretensions and manipulations of arsehole influencers to the destructiveness of old romantic movies. Not to mention the gawkiness of young lust love, and their innate conservative nature.

    Oh joy – there will be some interesting mining into the comments. No idea if there will be a second season. But I will be looking for it.

  5. joe90 5
    29 August 2021 at 1:56 pm

    When you run out of people to screw.

    Accounting tricks and tech gimmickry don’t matter when the coffers are empty.

    In the meantime, they destroyed a number of taxicab companies in the libertarian quest of “creative destruction” (usually rendered more simply as “destruction”).

    Uber is a bezzle (“the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it”). Every bezzle ends.

    Uber’s time is up.

    Uber was never going to be profitable. Never. It lured drivers and riders into cars by subsidizing rides with billions and billions of dollars from the Saudi royal family, keeping up the con-artist’s ever-shifting patter about how all of this would some day stand on its own.

    Like the pretense that self-driving cars would eliminate all their labor costs. They knew this would never happen. They spent billions on a doomed effort, then had to bribe another company with a $400m “investment” to take its window-dressing away.

    pluralistic.net

    Uber didn’t need self-driving cars — it needed us to think it would have self-driving cars. That way the company’s Saudi owners could raise investment capital from subsequent “investors” (AKA “suckers”) all the way up to the IPO, cash out, and walk away, whistling innocently.

    That’s the bezzle at work — a dazzle op that keeps new money flowing in, convincing people that a pile of shit this big must have a pony beneath it. But as the years went by, the stories that Uber told us about its path to profitability got more and more fanciful.

    https://marker.medium.com/amp/p/901e3077bbbc

    • Adrian Thornton 5.1
      29 August 2021 at 3:08 pm

      Good article, though it looks a lot like that even if Uber is dead or dying it's unholy remains would stalk the planet, zombie like for a long time after…

      • arkie 5.1.1
        29 August 2021 at 3:22 pm

        Why use robots when you can use investor capital on a $200 million+ state ballot initiative campaign to lower those labour costs?

        One of the strategies gig companies used to sow confusion among voters and drivers was to tout benefits workers would receive in exchange for handing over their rights. Prop 22’s backers said drivers would be paid at least 120 percent of local minimums while actively driving. That “actively driving” is key: given how much of a driver’s shift consists of time in between rides or tasks, the pay is far lower than that. A UC Berkeley study estimates the effective average wage under Prop 22 is as low as $5.64.

        https://jacobinmag.com/2021/08/gig-companies-economy-california-prop-22-uber-lyft-doordash-drivers-benefits-wages-health-care

  6. Ross 6
    29 August 2021 at 2:28 pm

    Let's see if I've got this right.

    I said elimination is impossible, and you replied with: Is that a fact or your opinion?

    My uncontroversial and eminently sensible comment was based on the fact that Professor David Skegg has advised the Government that elimination "may fail" and that we "may find that we have to move to a suppression strategy". It was also based on the fact that the Israeli Government doesn't seem to think elimination is achievable, at least not without huge cost. It’s abandoned such a strategy.

    All of this information is publicly available. If you would like more info, please advise.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/08/national-mp-fears-massive-psychological-change-for-kiwis-after-epidemiologist-david-skegg-admits-covid-19-elimination-may-fail.html

    [No, you have not got this right.

    You stated it as fait accompli. Skegg stated it in terms of possibilities and hypotheticals; the current strategy is still an elimination strategy. Your denial is quaint but undermining the tremendous efforts by many.

    And you failed to back your claim of fact.

    And your wilful ignorance on vaccination strategy and related matters is unconstructive and thus hugely controversial and deliberately confusing. Given that your ‘ignorance’ is deliberate, none of your comments on this topic is “sensible”.

    If you want to contribute to the debate, you’ll have to lift your game and start paying more and better attention to replies to your comments and Moderation notes for you – Incognito]

    [TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]

  7. Adrian Thornton 7
    29 August 2021 at 2:56 pm

    As if the tragedy couldn't get any worse, new reports by the BBC state that eyewitnesses saw US forces gun down civilians in chaos after Kabul bombing….

    https://www.rt.com/news/533326-us-soldiers-shot-kabul-airport-attack/

    https://www.rt.com/news/533241-kabul-blast-witness/

  8. Jenny How to get there 8
    29 August 2021 at 3:03 pm

    No wonder they beat us.

    2-Qdb2.jpg (740×416) (istiklal.com.tr)

    https://www.bing.com/search?q=Dragon+Bridge&filters=sid:%22b8a22273-d518-5492-e28b-41a7f54a13e0%22&elv=AXXfrEiqqD9r3GuelwApulra78c4EPJlFHguEGwbZKh7Z7qTfGoK6RlNV8c4!qwLZ*KFYRvaFObr5i3xdbSN4TMOQmSZZxzyo2eFJihfvxQ0&FORM=IMGENT

    [lprent: Why would anyone want to click on these links? You haven’t said why anyone would or should click on these links. Nor have you said what the links relate to.

    If this was e-mail, then I would assume you were trying to seed a virus. I almost invalidated the links for exactly that reason. The only reason that I didn’t was because I think that you’re unlikely to to deliberately send people down a clickbait path full of malware. But I suggest that you think before doing this again.

    BTW: if anyone does want to look down these links, then please ensure that your virus protection is up to date.]

    • Shanreagh 8.1
      29 August 2021 at 7:30 pm

      Mods

      Just a thought…..Can you not just take down the links meantime until a response is received. They certainly look very suspect and perhaps the account has been hacked.

      • Incognito 8.1.1
        29 August 2021 at 7:42 pm

        Lprent left a very clear Moderation note in Jenny’s comment. Looks like Jenny dodged a bullet, this time.

    • roblogic 8.2
      30 August 2021 at 7:07 am

      Something about a new $100m bridge in Vietnam… I don't get it.

    • Jenny how to get there 8.3
      10 September 2021 at 5:03 pm

      Kia ora Lprent,

      My apologies for not putting any explaining commentary to these links.

      I hope you can accept this belated explanation, in the spirit in which it is made.

      A lot of monstrous things were done by both sides during the war in Afghanistan. The time for healing must begin. Yet even now the tit-for-tat revenge bombings and killing still continues. Just as I said they would if we indulged in a military response to getting out those we owe a debt of care to.
      Instead of negotiating with the victors, for safe passage out of the country for those we are resonsible for, Western forcces went all Rambo and sent a military mission. The result was as predictable as it was horrible.

      Even though I was expecting it, I was shocked to my core. I felt like I did when I heard of the erebus crash, and the Cave Creek disaster, or the Christchurch killings.

      I was left speechless. Words failed me. And then I saw this healing image on my laptop when I turned it on.

      It seemed to say, without words everything I wanted to say but couldn't express, in my grief and horror at the events around Kabul airport
      A bridge is supposed to bring people together, not drive them apart. That this bridge Vietnam did that in such beautiful, yet culturaly and completely alien way to Western cultural norms, felt like a remedy, and a healing to the emotions I experienced when I heard of the Kabul suicide bombing, and the drone strike reprisals, that ended up killing an innocent family.

      https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/afghanistan-kabul-taliban-us-news-08-29-21/h_2bd817e241b383fb2d746202ef5ed752

      II is just that I thought a symbol of beauty, and indeed love, in a piece of architecture from a people we had also hated and killed and feared for so long, might help break the cycle of hate we are still trapped in, in Afghanistan.

      That this was a bridge in Vietnam, a nation and a people that we demonised, and went to war against. A war in which we and our US and Australian allies killed an estimated 3 million Vietnamese men, women and children.

      I thought this bridge was stunningly beautiful, and a testiment to the triumph of the human spirit. It seemed to say what I couldn't put into words. I am sorry that I did not put any commentary in, as I thought the beauty and the symbolism contained in this bridge spoke for itself.

      Many are trying hard to dehumise the Afghan victors from our last latest war of choice.

      I thought it would be a good reminder that we are all human. That mass slaughter of human beings for any reason is abhorrent.

      Charlotte Bellis, said on Al Jazeera that after receiving assurances from the Taliban leadership that the rights of women and girls would be protected that she told them, "I am rooting for you. I hope you succeed".

      Charlotte Bellis could see the humanity in those who we had killled and hated and feared for twenty years.

      Charlotte Bellis, sees through the depiction of those we fought a genocidal war against, as inhuman monsters, only fit for mass destruction.

      When I suggested that we should end our military mission and instead engage in diplomacy to get the release of those Afghans who worked for us. Ad accused me of "feeding them" to the taliban. As if the Taliban are not human, are savage dogs, or hyenas.
      Unlike Bellis, Ad can not see the common humanity in our enemy, and so continues to see them as dangerous animals, that must be put down, instead of talked and negotiated with.

      A lot of monstrous things were done by both sides during this war. The time for healing must begin. Yet the tit-for-tat bombings still continues. Just as I said they would, if we indulged in a military response to getting out those we owe a debt of care to.
      Instead of negotiating with the victors, for safe passage out of the country for those we are resonsible for, Western Forces went all Rambo and sent a military mission. The result was as predictable as it was horrible.

      P.S. The Prime Minister has 'pledged' that the government will continue to try and get out those we owe debt of service to. I hope that the government can now begin negotiations with the Taliban government of Afghanistan.

      The first domestic flight into Kabul has landed. Diplomats from a number of nations including from the US were on board. New Zealand diplomats were not among them this time.
      Hopefully we will not be too far behind.

      https://www.editorji.com/story/first-civilian-flight-from-kabul-since-u-s-exit-lands-in-doha-1631240853871

  9. Anne 9
    29 August 2021 at 4:23 pm

    Saw a news item earlier (can't find it now) about a woman who has been arrested by the police for failing to wear a mask and for providing a medical exemption which proved to be a forgery. Oh, how I hope it is this woman:

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-delta-outbreak-anti-maskers-rant-caught-on-video/FVDAM5SYEJZ76SVARVA26QEUYA/

    If it is her, what a dill she must be to think she could get away with a forged certificate.

  10. McFlock 10
    29 August 2021 at 11:51 pm

    BOPDHB was telling Pasifika they needed their passports to get vaccinated.

    Because what we really need in a pandemic is racism. /sarc

    • dv 10.1
      30 August 2021 at 7:58 am

      They said they got it wrong.

      I would like to know who/why it was introduced in the first place.

      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300394303/bay-of-plenty-dhb-apologises-for-requesting-passports-at-vaccine-appointments

      "This is not our policy, nor a requirement, and we are deeply disappointed that this has happened.

      "Our commitment is to ensure that we address the issues that led to this failure and ensure it absolutely does not happen again."

      • Anne 10.1.1
        30 August 2021 at 10:49 am

        I would like to know who/why it was introduced in the first place.

        I am certainly not trying to defend the DHB or the staffer who made the request but as a member of Group 3, I received an email early July instructing me that I needed to bring ID with me to the vaccination clinic. The suggestion was a drivers license or your passport.

        Now that everybody can get vaccinated the instruction no longer applies but it would seem a few staffers might have been confused and continued to request ID. It was unfortunate that it was a group of Pacifica people who were affected.

        In short, it was a requirement at a time when vaccination was by invitation only.

    • pat 10.2
      30 August 2021 at 10:56 am

      I suspect it was a misunderstanding of intent….the vaccinators need to record the vaccine against a NHI number

      • McFlock 10.2.1
        30 August 2021 at 4:20 pm

        Yeah nah:

        TVNZ reported on Sunday that a provider who tried to register Pasifika families for vaccinations on Friday was told by the Bay of Plenty DHB it wanted to see their passports to check if they were seasonal workers.

        Because the only seasonal workers in BoP are Pasifika? Or vice versa?

        • pat 10.2.1.1
          30 August 2021 at 6:30 pm

          Yeah nah..because if you are a seasonal worker you arnt likely to have a NHI number which will cause a problem for recording where the vaccine has gone…..the system isnt infinitely flexible.

          • McFlock 10.2.1.1.1
            30 August 2021 at 7:29 pm

            Thing is, it wasn't saying to everyone "bring your passport if you're a seasonal worker". It wasn't even saying to everyone "if you're from overseas, bring your passport". Nor was it "bring some form of id, like DL or passport".

            It was telling Pasifika people to bring their passports. Only them. That's why the apology was directed at that community.

            Also, if someone doesn't have an NHI there are procedures for that, just like hospital admissions if someone turns up without knowing their NHI and is from out of the DHB catchment: they take the big 3 (name, address, date of birth), assign a provider health index number, and then that gets matched after the fact to either the person's existing NHI or a new NHI is generated for that person.

            • pat 10.2.1.1.1.1
              30 August 2021 at 7:41 pm

              It is a system subject to personal interpretation…I expect someone was fixated upon the need to record a vaccine against a NHI number and consequently made unreasonable demands upon certain individuals who couldnt easily provide such information….advertising in my DHB has stated that the process is easier for all concerned if you can provide your NHI number.

  11. Anker 11
    30 August 2021 at 7:41 pm

    Hey McFlock different issue. I recall seeing someone saying you have posted a link with information about damage done by conversion therapy.

    I have searched the archives but can't seem to find the link.

    If you have time and are able, any chance you could send me the link or even the names of the study authors?

    Thanks,

    Anker

  12. Anker 12
    30 August 2021 at 11:09 pm
    • Cheers McFlock

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.