Around a decade ago, Bill Watson told me the Jap whaling industry was controlled by the Yakuza. He was Sea Shepherd coordinator for Aotearoa at the time. Pete Bethune had just been imprisoned by the Japs. Bill was worried the Yakuza would kill him there.
I found myself realising, a day or two later, that he was probably right so I needed to be proactive. Not my business, but sometimes the conscience says do it anyway! So I wrote the necessary letter to the new PM, John Key, asking him to get Bethune out & back home. Was pleased when the PM did what I’d asked! Bethune bitched about it, JK told the media he was ungrateful & I agreed, eye-rolling, & commented to Bill that nobody was ever going to award Bethune a medal for diplomacy.
Sea Shepherd declared victory the other day, after Japan announced they were jumping the IWC ship, would resume whaling next year, but not in Antarctic waters. The crims need the money, they still control the politicians, the media are still clueless – but they’re trying to figure it out: “There is a view that the country’s whaling obsession is less about food, as whale meat is surprisingly unpopular in Japan, especially among younger people, than it is about politics and culture. Defying the world’s rules and resuming commercial whaling is a bold expression of national identity.”
“Japan is not alone in doing so. Norway and Iceland also claim histories of whaling and have defied the 1986 ban on commercial killing. But it seems that, as in Japan, consumer taste is at odds with national identity. A 2018 report found that while Norway had about 350 whaling ships in 1950, there were only 11 operating in 2017. In that year, Norwegian whalers took less than half their annual quota of 999 whales.”
“Icelandic whalers have killed more than 500 fin whales since 2006, with the meat exported to the declining whale market in Japan, due to the absence of local demand, according to the charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation.” So the trend is for barbarians to become more of an endangered species than whales. Barbaric practices still have the support of three pseudo-civilised govts though!
Do you think perhaps it may be perceived that way as a left-over from WW11? After all, we talk about Brits and Aussies without any concerns of this nature
Probably only if the Japs ever declare that they actually are a race rather than Japanese citizens. Obviously the technical nature of reality is usually too hard for pc-drones to grasp, of course.
How’d you like that James? Being called PC? Personally I don’t care for the term “Japs” or “PC” but meh, people can say what they like (& as per usual says more about them than they’d really like to share anyway).
You are not Japanese. You are an exposed serial liar and agitator on a left leaning blog site…your intent is to agitate…and possibly to get your jollies in the process….
Jap, is short for Japanese and is not racist at face value, so only Dennis Frank can advise you what his intent is behind use of the abbreviation….
Concentrate on improving yourself so you can set a good example to those grand children , eh ….
Either way, you can sit back down, put the fake virtue signalling back in the box …
And you may have missed the general warning yesterday by one of the mods te reo putake:
“So, a general warning that reference to any commenters background, known or not, should be clearly relevant to the discussion at hand.”
A quick check on the replies tab shows your last three replies to me are about or mention my grandkids. I don’t know what your obsession with young children but you seem to have an inappropriate fixation on them. That – and it has nothing to do with the discussion in hand.
A couple of points. Firstly, Jap is considered offensive by Japanese people, so let’s not use it.
Secondly, I re-iterate the point I made yesterday, which was that irrelevant references to a commenter’s personal details or family situations is poor form. If its clearly relevant to the immediate discussion, fine. By that I mean that if a commenter chooses to share some details in a thread and that engenders responses, that’s cool. What’s not cool is bringing up those details later as some form of point scoring exercise.
The Wiki link also has links to some other good reference tools. Have bookmarked them.
To te reo putake
Thanks for the good moderation and guidance on these issues over the last day or so. Perhaps the latter could be added to the About and Policy if other moderators etc agree.
Yes, James, it is about the intent….that is exactly what it is about…
The links you’ve posted to, nor your incorrect and faux outrage do nothing to change that… So, ask DF what his intent was….go ahead….even if DF says it was intended as derogatory, would not change the fact JAP is an abbreviation which can be used in a non derogatory manner…
Moving along to your fake playing ‘victim’….
Per my reply to TRP yesterday, you are not posting on this site in good faith, James. You are an agitator, a deliberate agitator which is to be one of the lowest forms of public tro*l behavior.
Part of your agitators ‘shtick’ includes manufacturing stories referencing your age, ethnicity, residential location, family members/dynamic including their age bracket, education, work and off-spring, as well as your dwellings , dining, sporting and nutritional preferences…
You have willingly used these details as part of the agitation process, and therefore not in good faith…not a single shred….
In recent times you appear to be utilizing a particularly ugly tactic, and having had your comments repeatedly exposed over a number of years as racist and misogynistic etc in the literal sense, not the fake version such as you are blatantly doing once again here with DF….you are now seeking to play the victim, pushing for bans and retribution against other commentators here, who from what I can tell are mostly posting in good faith….
Even handles such as naki man appear to be more honest that you…aggressive, angry and ignorant….but seemingly in an honest way, as much as his level will allow him…
You are beneath even that level!
================================
TRP – Per your repeated comment/position from yesterday. You have played directly into the desired response James was looking for. Per my response yesterday, you are also enabling and empowering this sites most odious agitator, and not in good faith commentator… my opinion….
In contrast to VV’s comment regarding your moderation. I do not agree that you have moderated this instance well at all, not at face value…
I would say that since you returned, your moderation style is more effective than it had previously been…
Thanks, vv. Adding it to the policy is a good idea. Mind you, it’s really obvious from looking at other blogs that TS commenters are way more thoughtful and considered in their postings, which is nice. it means that issues like this can be discussed rationally and without malice.
Yeah. Traditional language usage is only a problem for a few isolated individuals. It has been a common abbreviation used in this country my entire life. Never heard anyone use it in a derogatory sense that some pc-drone could spin as racist.
The princess who has attained a position of civil rights advocacy that James linked to may have impressed the HuffPost editorial team, but so what? Just because some folks think they can get away with language conformity doesn’t mean others will stop viewing them as sociopaths, right?
As you have noted previously, you and I are of a similar age, Dennis.
While I agree it is an abbreviation which has been used in this country, I personally have not heard it used for many years.
My recollection of it mainly goes back to my childhood when it seemed to be much more common and in fact used in many cases in a derogatory manner – particularly by a couple of uncles and their friends who had spent time in Japanese POW camps. (Another one of that era was the Yellow Peril.)
So in fact it actually jumped out at me when I saw you use it, but I felt that you personally were not necessarily using it in a derogatory manner. Nevertheless as te reo putake says, it is considered offensive by Japanese people, so let’s not use it.
However, as a woman, what I do find offensive is your:
“The princess who has attained a position of civil rights advocacy that James linked to may have impressed the HuffPost editorial team, but so what? Just because some folks think they can get away with language conformity doesn’t mean others will stop viewing them as sociopaths, right?
So you disagree with her opinion; but do you really need to be so derogatory in doing so?
Language more common to Kiwiblog – and very reminiscent of similar put down comments there and elsewhere about Jacinda Ardern, our PM …
No need to even read the links. They are simply the efforts of an agitator seeking to identify endorsement, for a position taken which is incorrect and disingenuous…
I have no idea what your intention was when using the abbreviation…that is only for you to know…
TRP states use of the abbreviation is ‘considered offensive’ to Japanese, which is potentially true in some instances…such is the generic wholesale statement he made…
What I can state, as I know this directly first hand, that there are Japanese who use the abbreviation to each other, and towards other Japanese, and in no way is it meant to be, nor is it taken as ‘offensive’…
Which makes attempts of language conformity little more than the subjective preference of someone(s ) who are highly unlikely to be ethnic Japanese, of any percentage…one who is openly acting in bad faith…
So, there is James and TRP , both non Japanese, seeking to advise/enforce which language that another non Japanese person (yourself Dennis , assumption) should/should not use when writing and commentating…
Understandable that those who fought them would feel that way, especially those who ended up in their prison camps with the torture & brutality endemic.
Just because TRP says Japanese have that view doesn’t mean he’s right. If he can produce evidence, I’ll consider it. I’ve seen none as yet. A statement of foreign policy by the Japanese govt would be authoritative. Even an official statement by one of their leaders, perhaps. Otherwise it’s all just a few people trying to get away with imposing their personal morality on others. Offensive behaviour!
And when a narcissist use a position of ngo advocacy to do it, why ought we to be impressed? She didn’t cite any agreed policy position by that group, did she? Her sense of entitlement apparently drove her to misrepresent them. Such disrespect for others is not appropriate political behaviour. Dunno why leftists think justifying such behaviour from leftists while condemning it from rightists is okay. Hypocrites, I reckon.
There we go again James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree.
A reading:
The comments he/she (James) stir are about as long and repetitious as the pome. Next year – can we have a resolution to allow one person to have a go back at him and leave it at that? That would be enough for him to know we really love him.
A little trick in such situations is to select a portion of the quote – eg
“Japan is not alone in doing so. Norway and Iceland also claim histories of whaling and have defied the 1986 ban on commercial killing. But it seems that, as in Japan, consumer taste is at odds with national identity.”
The left click (or if you have your mouse set up for left-handed – right click) and click “Search Google for ” Japan is not alone …”.
Dennis Frank’s post at 8:34 am is a fascinating one, full of detail, insider knowledge and revelation on a subject that is topical. He made considerable effort to present his ideas well and even praised John Key in the process! Despite all that value, James found a single word with which he could derail the topic and was unable to resist the temptation to be petty.
Losers get cemeteries, not monuments, and while the pricks continue to memorialise criminals and their crimes at Yasukuni, I doubt my attitude (a poor one) will improve.
The whole damn business is about budgets and pork barreling , rather than food or culture.
Still, there is some merit to the government’s argument.
A number of coastal communities in Japan have indeed hunted whales for centuries, and continue to do so. Taiji in Wakayama prefecture is well known, many would say infamous, for its annual dolphin hunts. There are other places, in Chiba Prefecture and in Ishinomaki in northern Japan, that also do coastal whaling.
[…]
Nothing about these Antarctic whaling expeditions is historic. Japan’s first whaling voyage to the Antarctic took place in the mid-1930s but the really huge hunts didn’t get going until after World War Two.
Japan lay in ruins, its population starving. With the encouragement of General Douglas MacArthur, Japan converted two huge US Navy tankers into factory ships and set sail for the Southern Ocean.
From the late 1940s to the mid-1960s whale meat was the single biggest source of meat in Japan. At its peak in 1964 Japan killed more than 24,000 whales in one year, most of them enormous fin whales and sperm whales.
[…]
But Junko Sakuma thinks the answer lies in the fact that Japan’s whaling is government-run, a large bureaucracy with research budgets, annual plans, promotions and pensions.
“If the number of staff in a bureaucrat’s office decreases while they are in charge, they feel tremendous shame,” she says.
“Which means most of the bureaucrats will fight to keep the whaling section in their ministry at all costs. And that is true with the politicians as well. If the issue is closely related to their constituency, they will promise to bring back commercial whaling. It is a way of keeping their seats.”
It may seem incredibly banal. But Japan’s determination to continue whaling may come down to a handful of MPs from whaling constituencies and a few hundred bureaucrats who don’t want to see their budgets cut.
“Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday, Giles York, the Chief Constable of Sussex Police said he could not rule out the possibility that some sightings of drones reported during the incident were of drones that Sussex Police had flown over the airport for surveillance purposes.
“We will have launched our own Sussex police drones at the time, with a view to investigate, engage and survey the area. So there could be some level of confusion there as well,” York said after being questioned about a previous report that there may have been no drone at all.”
Pity they couldn’t use them to kill possums mustilids and rats – imagine teams running drones going for records hunting in the bush with cameras – from anywhere. Battle Royale for pest control.
Drones have rather limited range and endurance, so are really just an addition to people on foot for direct control. We’re doing some experiments with mustering deer in rough blocks with a drone, very early days yet but some success but some huge limitations. They don’t have the presence of a helicopter which combined with most deer’s fear of helicopters from meathunting days generally means deer will go away and down easily from a helicopter. The cunning ones will try and hide in thick scrub. With the drone most deer will hide in the scrub (and wait for the battery to go flat) if they can and have to be flushed out on foot. But the drone is awesome for observation and moving them in the clear.
Graeme
I will put a copy of that for the Sunday How to get there post. It’s the sort of clever thing that may be another adaptation that helps the system to the future in a better way.
Satellites could do it, Marty; there’re enough of them flitting about overhead; some heat-detecting software, a lethal laser of some sort, what could go wrong?…hang on!!!
Hey, Marty – could you please describe “human nature” pithily (or exhaustively, I don’t mind 🙂 so that we can know what you mean?
(Genuine request, cheers)
Robert
Apparently refusing the giving away of large swathes of public land to leaseholders, for fractions of it’s real value, is “unfair” to those who haven’t managed to get their share, of the giveaway, yet!
No regard to fairness to the rest of us. Of course.
Where is the tax dodgers union when you need them?
Tenure review is now under a moratorium….David Parker is not impressed with the process at allso I can`t see this government signing off on any more shonky deals….thr Nats gave billions…yes billions…to their farmer mates under this awful process often supported by DOC and weak enviromentalists
The edit function is a wordpress plugin. It appears to have dropped of during the upgrade but no doubt LPrent will restore it when he gets a chance.
In the meantime, just re-read your comments before posting and self edit where needed. If there’s something really, really needs editing after you’ve posted a comment, leave a new comment asking for the moderators to tidy up the original.
Let’s call “pretty legal” for what it is – the baked in Tory sense of entitlement redolent with dishonesty.
National is in “pretty legal” territory after Otaki MP Nathan Guy used Facebook’s “thumb” icon in a Labour attack-ad billboard.
Despite Facebook not giving permission for the logo’s use – an icon it strictly enforces copyright of – Guy said the social media outfit “haven’t raised any issues with us”.
Not too sure when I will be posting again (more out of whether I can be bothered than anything else) so where are my 2019 predictions:
1) Labour and National to stay more or less neck and neck in the polls with either party from month to month leading by less than 3 points.
2) Simon Bridges remains as National leader, though he makes Judith Collins his spokesperson for finance. Paula Bennett announces she plans to step down at the 2020 election.
3) The government quietly sets up an SOE to deliver the Kiwibuild houses, as well as to build and maintain state and social houses. It also goes in partnership with the NZ Superfund to build more houses.
4) RNZ+ is dropped, but TVNZ brings back TVNZ 7 as a 24 hour news and current affairs channel jointly run with RNZ and Maori TV.
5) The Tomorrow’s Schools reforms are implemented, but the larger schools are given the freedom to opt out of being run by the Hubs.
6) Helen Clark is given a top state sector post by the current administration, but it will be something we least expect.
7) Phil Goff, Justin Lester and Lianne Dalzeil all win a second term as mayor in their respective cities.
8) Brexit is postponed a year.
9) Trump supporters start lynching people, with the current administration refusing to condemn them.
10) none of these things ever actually happen, and I may as well just say anything.
Oh no anything is possible, but working out the probable – I think you have supplied a good cover of our present and future dilemmas Millsy. Be a good scout, don’t drop out.
Where was the crude and racist stuff in his comment?
Jesus Christ, you’re ignorant.
He was responding to a crude and racist comments, if that’s your point.
He was lying and distorting her words, as you’d know if you bothered to do any further investigation of the matter.
Natz still in pain about losing the election it seems.
Now Nathan Guy is sticking up billboards on the roadside, creating visual pollution and unsafe distraction. And in typical Natz mode, breaching copyright (Facebook?), breaking the law, while pointing the dirty blue finger at Labour, using it’s ID logo!
Natz really needs to get over itself. Now!
edit: Oops, I see this has already been commented on. My bad.
No they are doing what oppositions do, how that’s been upset, suggest you spend some time understanding meaning of parliamentary opposition I suggest as Nats in government and in opposition are doing a far better job than Labour, Labour yesrs in opposition where hilarious but not good for our democracy, sadly we now have such incompetency in government
You don’t have to keep reminding people why you call yourself Bewildered. We already concede that the name is accurate, okay? Try explaining why the Nats continue to be so keen to breach copyright law. The penny may then drop, and you’ll end up less bewildered. Keep on with that positive stance, you’ll end up bewildered no longer. Maybe even end up then calling yourself Savvy…
Bewildered ((10.1) … and National was always competent in government was it?
What Nathan Guy is doing is demonstrating that National has become a pathetic sorry mess since losing the last election. It really does need to pull its finger out and act as a responsible Opposition, working for all NZers, offering up some constructive, workable policies, instead of petulant sniping all the time. Guy’s actions here are not making NZ a better, safer place by any means.
BTW why is a National MP bringing this issue up now in the way he has done, when it had nine years as government to focus on and address transport infrastructure?
Hmmm that’s what opposition do Mary, they are not thier to support the government constructively Labor 9 years in opposition was hardly constructive, point been there where not even a competent opposition tearing each other apart, no policy formulation barring voter signalling bs, hence the 100s of work committes we now have Unfortunatly we now have this incompetence in government Oy 3 more years though and labour are simply Ardern resignation away from destroying themselves from the inside National I turn a lot more stable as some of the miss steps and mps fling rogue has indicated, party support and unity holds up and party does not go full feral and our left mates do
Hmmm that’s what opposition do Mary, they are not there to support the government constructively Labor 9 years in opposition was hardly a constructive opposition point been there where not even a competent opposition tearing each other apart, no policy formulation barring virtue signalling bs, hence the 100s of work committes we now have Unfortunatly we now have this incompetence in government Only 2 more years though and similarly labour are simply Ardern resignation away from destroying themselves from the inside again National in turn is a lot more stable as some of the miss steps and mps going rogue has indicated, party support and unity still holds up and party does not go full retard as labour has a propensity to do
National stable? You jest of course Bewildered (10.1.2.2)!
At present I consider National is far from stable, given the doubt about its present leadership. Then there are the continuing leaks, the likelihood of Jami Lee Ross returning to Parliament next year as an Independent MP, ready to pass on some more damaging information relating to Simon Bridges and National, bringing about even more uncertainty within the Opposition.
Finally, I know I might not be the brightest star in the sky, but I’m sorry you have lost me re the rest of your post, so I can’t comment, because I haven’t a clue on what I’d be commenting on!
Nathan Guy was responsible for fauling to implement the stock identification system (because it cost his farmer mates a bit of money) that has resulted in the micro bovis $850m disaster.
The stock identification system is a scam. Like a tax that you get nothing in return for. It proved incompetent in tracking cattle in any reasonable time frame. The real reason this was introduced was to create animal registration, and in turn taxation of stock. Plus, nod, nod, wink, wink, some tidy fees to disappear into some fat salaries.
The old system of keeping the transport dockets is just as effective. Plus when you get a disease like Foot & Mouth you really have no choice but to put a compass on the map, draw a circle, then kill everything. Then look at the transport Dockets. The new system fails because the cows may be registered but the system doesn’t know where the animals actually are, or where they have been.
Nobody gamed the system. The disease had nothing to do with the system. It spread because nobody knew they had the disease, and once discovered the didn’t know what animals had gone where, or what animals may have got the infected sperm.
The system allowed Foreign sperm, just as all the disease outbreaks have occurred with something coming across the boarder. It is unusual practice to get high value sperm from overseas for normal farmers, but not the specialist breaders or those buying enough to undercut LICs prices.
The truck driver creates a docket, end of story.
Now you create the docket with the truck driver, plus the old owner must log in what’s happening, as well as the new owner. As shown the system didn’t know what was happening. The old system just had owner ID tags. Nothing’s really changed or improved. But it costs thousands more for each farmer.
It spread because nobody knew they had the disease, and once discovered the didn’t know what animals had gone where, or what animals may have got the infected sperm.
All of which would have been known if they had used the system as designed. Not using as designed is gaming the system.
The fault here falls fully upon the farmers.
The truck driver creates a docket, end of story.
/facepalm
Chances are the old system wasn’t used whenever some farmers felt it wasn’t in their interest to let the government know what they were doing.
It’s interesting. We drove through Levin heading south on Sunday 23 December and half the shops were closed! You would imagine retailers would be gagging for local business but no.
We continued south and hit some traffic at Otaki of course which is the core of the problem because there’s a roundabout where SH1 traffic gives way to local traffic. Now, google maps shows us what the new Peka Peka Otaki expressway will look like and this delivers 4 lanes from Wellington CBD to Otaki once transmission fully and the rest of the Kapiti expressways are complete. That’s 72.7km and Nathan Guy want a further 20km to a one street town of 21,000, with several sets if traffic lights, which is closed on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. No doubt Mr Guy will then want a Levin bypass.
Google maps also shows us the still to be completed Waikato expressway will deliver 4 lanes from Auckland to Hamilton a distance of 124.9km. Auckland is an international city of 1.7 million people and Hamilton about 170,000. These two still don’t have a four lane connection and don’t even have a rail commuter service.
To me the end of the expressway at Otaki is right because that’s where the problems occur. I can’t help thinking Nathan Guy and the National party have got their priorities all wrong. But I’m not surprised, they do tend to concentrate on the small stuff while the rest of us see the bigger picture.
The Wiakato Expressway has nothing to do with connecting Auckland to Hamilton. It actually bipasses it, compared to the past nightmare of having to drive through it, and the Huntly traffic jam will be gone as well.
The project is about modernising SH1 from Auckland to Wellington. Some parts of the Wiakato expressway were desperately in need of upgrading with one area being our deadliest road. The same need applies to the Auckland Southern Moterway upgrade to 6 lanes.
Your argument saying it services just 21000 people is wrong as most people using SH1 won’t just be from Levin but everybody from the rest of the North Island, and everybody traveling North from Wellington, or on the return trip. Maybe it should carry on until Foxton.
The Wiakato Expressway has nothing to do with connecting Auckland to Hamilton. It actually bipasses it, compared to the past nightmare of having to drive through it, and the Huntly traffic jam will be gone as well.
And you missed the bit that actually causes all the problems – drive.
Really, if you want to go from Auckland to Wellington – take the bloody train or a plane or even a boat.
The roads couldn’t cope with the people using it.
That’s people using there freedom to travel. Plus buisinesses trying to pay wages, and break even.
I drove to Wellinton for a visit a few years ago. I drove and slept in my car 2 nights. Couldn’t do that if I took the train, plus it was an unplanned visit. Bit hard if you wish to use your car during the stay. Must use far less fuel than a plane. Trains are painfully slow in NZ.
What a good look for our Tourists traveling in Buses. Stuck in traffic on the nations main highway for hours.
People shouldn’t be using the roads. In fact, there’s probably a fairly good case for removing roads between cities.
That’s people using there freedom to travel.
Nobody’s suggesting taking their freedom to travel away.
I drove to Wellinton for a visit a few years ago. I drove and slept in my car 2 nights. Couldn’t do that if I took the train, plus it was an unplanned visit. Bit hard if you wish to use your car during the stay. Must use far less fuel than a plane. Trains are painfully slow in NZ.
Plan better.
If you’re really concerned about businesses paying wages then you should be using them.
But if members of the eco–jet set were to fly commercial—and join a few hundred other people sardined into coach—it might be a different story. It may seem counterintuitive, but a provocative study released earlier this year argues that in the U.S., flying from place to place actually consumes significantly less energy – and hence produces significantly fewer emissions—than driving does.
Public transport really is more efficient than cars.
And, yes, the trains need to be upgraded. Have you noticed that this didn’t happen due to the private owners followed by National running the trains down and building highly expensive, inefficient roads?
What a good look for our Tourists traveling in Buses. Stuck in traffic on the nations main highway for hours.
The only reason why buses are stuck in traffic is because of the morons driving cars.
It would also be interesting to know which side of the road this sign is on. If it’s heading south at Manakau then the soon to be completed Wellington to Otaki expressway will render this concern obsolete. A bit like Nathan Guy and the National Party really. 😆
How do you see the soon to be completed Wellington to Otaki expressway rendering the concern obsolete? Otaki to Levin is a completely different stretch of highway.
Having a 4 lane expressway going into a 2 lane highway will exacerbate congestion on that stretch of road.
If the sign is southbound then it’s two lanes going to four just north of Otaki. Not an issue.
And four lanes to two is not an issue either. It’s the conramination of SH1 traffic with local traffic which is the problem. How do you think four lanes stopping at a Levin traffic light is going to work?
Currently, there is a two lane highway and there are problems. While 4 lanes from Otaki to Wellington will help alleviate some of the build up from that point, it doesn’t address all the concerns back from that point.
4 lanes going into 2 is always an issue. Moreover, the new Otaki to Levin highway does bypass Levin’s CBD due to the congestion it currently causes, which will now be replaced with congestion from the 4 going into 2.
A decent freeway covering the whole of the country is long overdue.
This section of highway was to be a part (albeit small) of achieving that long held aspiration.
The stretch of road has a number of black spots and has been dubbed a “killing field” (marked like a battlefield with white crosses) by a former coroner.
Hence, as with a number of other areas around the country, a decent expressway has been long awaited.
While we are committed to only doing sections of highway at a time, new expressways will result in bottlenecks as traffic merges from 4 to 2. To help mitigate the resulting congestion, merging points should be placed in areas of low traffic volumes. With adjoining SH57 (which leads to Palmerston North) Levin to Otaki is a high volume traffic area.
Levin’s population is growing faster than expected and with housing costs rising in Palmerston North coupled with the high cost of housing in Wellington, more are expected to move there seeking a cheaper home. Add to that our aging population as it is a bit of a retirement location for Wellingtonians.
Nevertheless, it’s a part of state highway one, thus services far more than just Levin and adjoining SH57.
With our growing population and growing number of tourists, delaying vastly improving our roading will be costly.
Improving the public rail service in the area seems to have been also overlooked.
For instance, an extension to Auckland’s North West motorway is crucial. Earth is being turned up there big time and the population is expected to increase from Kumeu to Waimauku by several times the entire population of Levin.
Alcohol, obesity, flame retardants and pesticides are known to affect sperm and now cannabis.
“We know that there are effects of cannabis use on the regulatory mechanisms in sperm DNA, but we don’t know whether they can be transmitted to the next generation,” Murphy said.
“In the absence of a larger, definitive study, the best advice would be to assume these changes are going to be there,” Murphy said. “We don’t know whether they are going to be permanent. I would say, as a precaution, stop using cannabis for at least six months before trying to conceive.”
That’s an awful lot of don’t know’s to write an article about.
Funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Champion of free markets. Previous hit’s include Intelligent design and constantly trying to define the ‘science/religion boundary’.
Very deep pockets. Dodgy AF. Big business boys so big pharma called for this particular study for sure.
@ James, and a few others
Did I ever tell you how utterly (near), perfect I am.
Admittedly I’m not quite the specimen you are (yet) but I live in hope and I do all the right things.
Thanks to you, I’ve seen the light
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On a clear autumn afternoon, at the monolithic MediaWorks office overlooking the city, people are showing their invitations and entering. Finding places to sit at long tables with refreshments, loudly moving chairs across the polished concrete floor.The Minister for Broadcasting, Willie Jackson, a collection of marginal celebrities, and news media, ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 26, 2023 thru Sat, Apr 1, 2023. Story of the Week AI Can Spread Climate Misinformation ‘Much Cheaper and Faster,’ Study WarnsA new study suggests developers of artificial intelligence are failing ...
New Zealand has its general election scheduled this October. This means the various parties are currently selecting their candidates, and as of yesterday, we now know the two major party candidates for the seat where I live (Taieri) – Ingrid Leary (Labour) and Stephen Jack (National). Leary’s ...
..By now, Kelly-Jay Keen-Minshull (aka, Posie Parker) has come and gone. Her mission - to amplify a particularly pernicious form of transphobia (under the cloak of “women’s rights”) - an abject failure. As a marketing exercise to peddle her wares, it went well.A self-style "woman’s rights activist" Keen-Minshull/Parker has strident ...
Buzz from the Beehive We haven’t exhaustively put this proposition to the test, but we suspect there’s just one thing Nanaia Mahuta has mentioned more often than “sanctions” in her press statements. That would be “three waters”. Mahuta has popped up in the latest batch of Beehive press statements to ...
The UK activist has changed the election-year dynamic. Graham Adams writes – Chris Hipkins’ initial success as Labour’s fresh Messiah after Jacinda Ardern’s resignation in January has largely rested on the promise that his party’s focus henceforth would be on “bread-and-butter” issues such as the cost of ...
As the Stuart Nash email brouhaha has unfolded this week, and we’ve learnt more about how an email to donors was withheld from public view, I’ve kept being reminded of the classic example of faulty logic. You know the one: "All dogs have four legs, all dogs are animals, therefore ...
This week Simplicity CEO Sam Stubbs joined us to talk about Simplicity Living’s big house building plans, starting in Auckland, and banks receiving billions of subsidies from the Government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: This week’s news in geopolitics and Aotearoa’s political economy covered on The Kākā for paying ...
The NZ Herald reports: Leaked emails between senior officials at Auckland Light Rail, Waka Kotahi and Auckland Transport have revealed a surprising twist in the long-running saga of the Auckland Light Rail project. A stack of emails between Auckland Light Rail and an unnamed senior official at Waka Kotahi, who ...
Hi,I go between excitement about AI — and absolute terror. I’m terrified it will take our jobs — and also kill us. Not kill us on purpose… more in a gray-goo kinda way.And as I wrote about over two years ago, I’m excited it might be the only thing to ...
Completed reads for March: The Monk, by Matthew Lewis Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis The Golden Ass, by Lucius Apuleius The Castle, by Franz Kafka A Slip of the Tongue in Salutation, by Lucian of Samosata The Necrophiliac, by Gabrielle Wittkop The Song of Hiawatha (poem), ...
Photo by Aziz Acharki on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with special guests: from ...
Image Credit: Nord Stream operator decries ‘unprecedented’ damage to three pipelines The recent vote on the draft Security Council resolution seeking to establish an independent UN inquiry into the sabotage of the Russian-European-owned natural gas line, Nord Stream I and II, disappointed many observers. ...
Buzz from the Beehive The big bread-and-butter issue of pay packets and weekly incomes was at the core of three ministerial statements since Point of Order’s previous monitoring of the Beehive website. Andrew Little was earning his keep, meanwhile, by delivering a speech in which he discussed co-governance. He was ...
After yesterday's news that Stuart Nash deliberately and knowingly breached the OIA to cover up his corrupt disclosure of Cabinet information to his donors, the media now is focusing on the wider point: Nash's behaviour isn't isolated, but a symptom of the rot which has eaten away at transparency under ...
There was great disappointment following the just released poverty figures for the year ended to June 2022. Whatever your take, we are not facing up to the real child poverty problems.Some say the poverty figures show no significant change, some say there was a small improvement. Some say that the ...
Quiz1. Which is the most pleasing comment so far regarding this man’s indictment?a. He finally won a popular vote! b. “You can’t indicate me, I quit”c. Is this joy? It’s been so long since I’ve felt anything.2. “The boxset scandal that is Stuart Nash.”Who wrote this fine description? a. ...
It’s truly astonishing the way that the Government has been able to suppress evidence of business donors gaining special access to Cabinet information. Now that Stuart Nash has been fired from Cabinet for leaking sensitive information to individuals who funded his election campaign, the focus has shifted to why this ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Have you noticed the media’s propensity to label people and groups in a way that shows negative bias? People speaking up for women’s right to their own spaces and fairness in sport aren’t feminists or women’s rights activists, they’re anti-trans or transphobic. The Taxpayers’ Union is often prefaced with the label right ...
Photo by Magdalena Kula Manchee on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for an hour (I’ll be online for an hour from 12.30 so pile them up), including:The Government’s latest climate back-tracks on diesel cars and ...
All of the Government’s five options for improving Auckland’s links include or prioritise tunnels and bridges for cars, double-cab utes and trucks ahead of walking, cycling and rail. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Labour Government has brought forward plans to start building and/or drilling a second Waitematā harbour ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes: Green’s co-leader Marama Davidson just keeps digging the hole she is in deeper. First she showed her bitter antipathy towards white CIS (same gender as birth) men. Then she walked it back to all men. On Tuesday night on TV1 News she said, “…overwhelmingly it ...
as Auckland’s cantankerous mayor stumbles from one crisis to the next, the hope is not that Wayne Brown will learn on the job – that’s almost certainly a lost cause – but that Aucklanders will manage to come together and limit the damage that he threatens to inflict on the ...
Wow, it’s the end of March already. Here are a few of the smaller items that caught our attention over the last week. We need better trucks Newsroom reported on a Ministry of Transport report showing just how dirty our current truck fleet is. A heavy diesel truck costs ...
Listening to RNZ yesterday, I heard that the government was making a major announcement about a second crossing of the Waitematā. I was fairly surprised.I’d have thought with it being election year the last thing the government would want to be talking about was a massive Auckland transport project. Especially ...
I cracked open a fortune cookie with a family group after dinner. My loved ones got warm, inspiring messages such as my son’s: ‘You will be successful in business and society’. Nice. I got this one: “Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.” By coincidence, I had already drafted a ...
THOMAS CRANWELL: When ideology turns violent – the political and media backing behind the Posie Parker mob Thomas Cranwell writes – ——————————– Similar to other countries, the transgender movement in New Zealand is not a grassroots organisation but instead is an increasingly ...
It is a lovely autumn morning.The sun is shining. The birds in Kōwhai park are twittering.There is music playing on Today FM.You can hardly tell that the children at Kia Kaha primary school are being greenhouse gassed.It is not just happening at Kia Kaha Primary School.It is happening to all ...
Poor old Mike Hosking! In today’s Herald, such is his visceral antipathy to our current government, that he is reduced to wrestling with himself in trying to understand how it is that despite its many failings – in his eyes at least – the Labour government is somehow ahead in ...
Air pollution kills, and dirty diesel vehicles are a major source of it. Cleaning them up has enormous social benefits in avoided deaths and hospitalisations. How much? Billions of dollars: A report quietly released by the Ministry of Transport in July shows tighter regulation of vehicle imports for air ...
Via one of my lovely Twitter sources, the sardonic and interesting @johubris … the following ‘poll question’ has been recently distributed: “Thinking about your life and your country now, what is the most important issue that you want to see the New Zealand Government addressing?” This qualifies as push-polling, which ...
On Tuesday night, former Forestry Minister Stuart Nash was sacked for corruption, after the Prime Minister discovered he had disclosed confidential cabinet discussions to his donors. Its since emerged that Jacinda Ardern's office knew of this disclosure, but didn't act on the obvious breach of the Cabinet manual, and didn't ...
Buzz from the Beehive Whoa, there – we can’t keep up! Suddenly, the PM’s ministerial team has unleashed a slew of press statements. Sixteen announcements have been posted on the Beehive website since our last check. This burst of activity (we wondered) might be the result of them responding positively ...
Big transport news today with the government beginning public engagement on options for the Waitemata Harbour Connections project. This project has had an incredibly long history, with previous versions somehow managing to be incredibly expensive, detrimental to most of the transport outcomes we are trying to achieve in Auckland, and ...
If ever there was an example of complacency about corruption and integrity in New Zealand politics it’s the fact that the Prime Minister’s Office knew back in 2021 that Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash was feeding privileged Cabinet information to business donors but did nothing about it. This is one of ...
Open access notables "Despite the potential for positive methane–climate feedbacks from global wetlands, most Earth System Models (ESMs) and Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) that informed the last Assessment Report of the IPCC do not directly incorporate this process."Publishing in Nature Climate Change, Zheng et al. unpack the implications of this ...
Among its ‘go slow’ on climate measures, the Government chose to delay tighter regulation of vehicle imports for air pollution for six years because it would have increased vehicle purchase costs. Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government continues to backtrack on moves to reduce emissions, with three news items ...
Stuart Nash’s downfall appears to have had its beginnings with one of the players from the “Dirty Politics” scandals of 2014. Simon Lusk, a close associate of Cameron “Whaleoil” Slater, one of the key figures in Nicky Hagar’s “Dirty Politics” expose, has been associated with Stuart Nash. Lusk has ...
Worried if this election will be shellacked by “the culture war”? That arrived ages ago. And, one side is definitely in panic mode, even if that’s not being admitted right now. Because of that, they’re reverting yet again to straight up… culture wars. Yes, fellow traveler, the Party who ...
All About Climate is a Youtube channel dedicated to communicating climate science and combating misinformation about global warming. It is run by Roshan Salgado D'Arcy - or 'Rosh' for short. He is a geology graduate with an MSc in climate change and is currently reading for a PhD in the communication of ...
ChatGPT is an interesting little beastie. I have only really started experimenting with it recently – not because I have any interest in using it for my own writing projects, but because I enjoy pushing and prodding the AI in strange directions. I have spent an inordinate amount of ...
The science of climate change is clear: we need to stop burning fossil fuels as quickly as possible, and we cannot burn even a fraction of those already discovered. So naturally, Labour is offering oil companies more exploration permits: The Government is offering companies another opportunity to search for ...
There are two keyboards in my office. I hammer at one a lot more than the other.But some days — today, for instance, after a few days of steeping myself in toxicity —that other keyboard can really come into its own.I learned to play the piano as a kid, went ...
Is the government imploding? Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has had to sack one of his more effective (and likeable) ministers, while another (from the Green Party) has insulted many of the adult population. For his part, Hipkins had appeared to be shaping up well since he took over the ...
Mobbed! As Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s (Posie Parker’s) opponents surged forward, her only protecters were a handful of burly security guards who surrounded their client and began forcing a path through what was now a howling mob. At least one video recording shows the diminutive Keen-Minshull, a terrified rag-doll, eyes dulled by ...
Buzz from the Beehive It looks like Marama Davidson must revile white sis males – or some other group of our population – three more times before she gets the heave-ho as one of Chris Hipkins’ ministers. That’s the conclusion to be drawn from the PM’s treatment of Stuart Nash, ...
For a serial offender like Stuart Nash, it was inevitable that another skeleton would emerge from his closet, and end his ministerial career. This one though, was a whopper. Previously, Nash had tried to tell the Police how to do their job. He had also tried to tell the courts ...
Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash was sacked last night for violating Cabinet Collective Responsibility rules, when it was revealed he disclosed sensitive Government information to business supporters who had donated money to him. The breach of the Cabinet Manual was enough to land him in trouble, but the fact that it ...
Some good news last week with the Council confirming that Te Hā Noa – Victoria St Linear Park will go ahead and with construction starting on 11 April – though with a few fishhooks. Te Hā Noa, a renewed Victoria Street, is the next big project in Auckland Council’s Midtown ...
Stuart Nash’s assurances to Prime Minister Chris Hipkins that there were no further examples of him breaching the Cabinet Manual became meaningless with the release of emails from Nash sharing Cabinet discussions with business people. The Prime Minister had no choice but to sack Nash as a Minister with immediate ...
Hi,Just a quick online-only update after yesterday’s newsletter, How Michael Organ Weaponised the Family Court... and Sean Plunket. First up — wow. Thanks for all the support, and to all those who shared their own personal stories in the comments. And welcome to any new Webworm readers.I just wanted ...
Let that sink in for a moment - Christopher Luxon, who has spent the last year demonising Māori, wants Marama Davidson to apologise to white men.You will likely have seen the video, or read about it. Marama Davidson rushing along Princes St on Saturday evening, the road that runs between ...
Stuart Nash, the great-grandson of former Prime Minister Sir Walter Nash, has lost his political career. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Stuart Nash was sacked for telling donors what happened in Cabinet. Wellington’s City and Regional Councils are going cold on light rail plans. Wayne Brown is under ...
NZ First Leader Winston Peters is sympathising with Stuart Nash and defending him but dodging questions on whether he would be welcome in New Zealand First. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins last night sacked Nash from the Cabinet after an email he had sent to two of his campaign donors ...
So, after interfering with the police, and then interfering with immigration decisions, Stuart Nash has finally been sacked: Stuart Nash has been sacked as a minister, after Stuff revealed he had emailed business figures, including donors, detailing private Cabinet discussions. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed the people Nash emailed ...
Nearly 25% of mortgages in Auckland are deemed at risk in a 1-in-100 year flood event. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Once a year, every year, from now on, in our not-so-slow-cooking climate crisis, there will be a moment when the most important number in Aotearoa’s own personal, national ...
Item One: About a confected crisis Please bear with me for a moment, readers outside Auckland, I wish to sound the klaxon. Auckland, we have until 11pm today to have our say. About what? About this, as copied and pasted from Pippa Coom’s Facebook page:The "austerity" budget is built on ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet again, the statement we were looking for could not be found on the Beehive website. Nor was it on the Scoop or Green Party websites. But – come to think of it – we are probably wasting our time by searching. Our quest is for the ...
The following is from a speech given by Arundhati Roy at the Swedish Academy on March 22, 2023, at a conference called Thought and Truth Under Pressure and reprinted from Literary Hub. I thank the Swedish Academy for inviting me to speak at this conference and for affording me the privilege ...
After almost two decades of racism, Australia is finally getting off its "stop the boats" bullshit. But don't worry, racists - Michael Wood has your back!The Government wants to increase the time it can detain without a warrant people seeking asylum en masse from four days to 28 ...
Last year, the Education and Workforce Committee recommended that the government legislate for pay transparency to prevent employers from secretly discriminating. This ought to be a bread and butter issue for Labour - discrimination sees women (and particularly Māori and Pasifika women) paid significantly less than men. But since then ...
Thomas Cranmer writes – ———— An unruly mob in Albert Park has catapulted New Zealand into the global headlines with ugly images that may become iconic in the debate about the dangers of transgenderism. ———— Bravo Kellie-Jay Keen. She did the job that needed to be done. For all the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global warming is melting the Arctic ice cap, and that’s having unforeseen effects on the world’s weather — even thousands of miles away from the North Pole. Some climate scientists have begun to link increasingly common heat waves in Europe to what is ...
Hot on the heels of the demotion of former police Minister Stuart Nash for breaching the Cabinet Manual, Radio New Zealand has revealed the close links between lobbyists and politicians- an area of New Zealand politics that is completely unregulated. The evidence in Guyon Espiner’s series Mate, Comrade, Brother, the ...
Over a million New Zealanders will receive a little extra to help with the cost of living as a result of our 1 April changes. Around the world, inflation is causing costs to rise and we’re feeling it here at home. In tough times, we need to support those who ...
With benefit changes coming into effect tomorrow, the Green Party is calling on the Government to lift benefits to liveable levels to make sure everyone has what they need to thrive. ...
Following decades of work by the Green Party alongside the organics sector, people will finally be able to be confident that products labelled organic have met standards. ...
The Green Party supports immediate Government action to close the pay gap as called for in an open letter released today by the Human Rights Commission and 50 other organisations. ...
The Green Party is today welcoming the release of the Government’s waste strategy, but says it has a big gap without action on the container return scheme for beverage containers. ...
The Government’s decision to introduce ‘mass arrivals’ legislation goes against the values we all share of Aotearoa as a place where all people are treated fairly, the Green Party says. ...
MINISTER DAVIDSON MUST RESIGN AFTER 'VIOLENCE' COMMENTS Marama Davidson should stand down as ‘Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence’ for the clear and outrageous statement she made at the Posie Parker protest that ‘white straight men’ are the cause of violence. Her offensive, racist, and sexist remarks ...
In response to Newshub and Amelia Wade’s obvious and ham-fisted attempt at a typical and predicted political hit job. As any politically aware reporter would know, any Cabinet subcommittee has a duty and obligation as a part of any government to respond to any UN declaration, in this case ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today and in your busy lives turning up to this meeting. Forty five years ago, in Howick, often described as racist, and where few Maori lived because it had been a ‘Fencible’ settlement at the time of the Anglo-Maori ...
The Green Party has marked the National Party’s new education policy and given it a fail, especially for its failure to address the underlying drivers of school performance. ...
“This is it; 2023 will be the last opportunity New Zealand has to get a government that will confront the climate emergency with the urgency it demands,” says the Green Party’s co-leader and climate change spokesperson, James Shaw. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta, departs for Europe today, where she will attend a session of the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting in Brussels and make a short bilateral visit to Sweden. “NATO is a long-standing and likeminded partner for Aotearoa New Zealand. It is valuable to join a session of ...
A secure facility that will house protected information for a broad range of government agencies is being constructed at RNZAF Base Auckland (Whenuapai), Public Service, Defence and GCSB Minister Andrew Little says. The facility will consolidate and expand the government’s current secure storage capacity and capability for at least another ...
From today, 1.8 million flu vaccines are available to help protect New Zealanders from winter illness, Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall has announced. “Vaccination against flu is safe and will be a first line of defence against severe illness this winter,” Dr Verrall said. “We can all play a part ...
Associate Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage Willow-Jean Prime has congratulated Professor Rangi Mātāmua (Ngāi Tūhoe) who was last night named the prestigious Te Pou Whakarae o Aotearoa New Zealander of the Year. Professor Mātāmua, who is the government's Chief Adviser Mātauranga Matariki, was the winner of the New Zealander ...
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta has announced further sanctions on political and military figures from Russia and Belarus as part of the ongoing response to the war in Ukraine. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Alekseevna Lvova-Belova ...
A new public housing development planned for Whangārei will provide 95 warm and dry, modern homes for people in need, Housing Minister Megan Woods says. The Kauika Road development will replace a motel complex in the Avenues with 89 three-level walk up apartments, alongside six homes. “Whangārei has a rapidly ...
New Zealand welcomes the substantial conclusion of negotiations on the United Kingdom’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “Continuing to grow our export returns is a priority for the Government and part of our plan to ...
Ngā Iwi o Taranaki and the Crown initial Taranaki Maunga collective redress deed Ngā Iwi o Taranaki and the Crown have today initialled the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Deed, named Te Ruruku Pūtakerongo, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little says. “I am pleased to be here for this ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Barbara Edmonds has announced the 2023 Pacific Language week series, highlighting the need to revitalise and sustain languages for future generations. “Pacific languages are a cornerstone of our health, wellbeing and identity as Pacific peoples. When our languages are spoken, heard and celebrated, our communities thrive,” ...
880,000 pensioners to get a boost to Super, including 5000 veterans 52,000 students to see a bump in allowance or loan living costs Approximately 223,000 workers to receive a wage rise as a result of the minimum wage increasing to $22.70 8,000 community nurses to receive pay increase of up ...
Over 8000 community nurses will start receiving well-deserved pay rises of up to 15 percent over the next month as a Government initiative worth $200 million a year kicks in, says Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall. “The Government is committed to ensuring nurses are paid fairly and will receive ...
Tākiri mai ana te ata Ki runga o ngākau mārohirohi Kōrihi ana te manu kaupapa Ka ao, ka ao, ka awatea Tihei mauri ora Let the dawn break On the hearts and minds of those who stand resolute As the bird of action sings, it welcomes the dawn of a ...
The Government is introducing a scheme which will lift incomes for artists, support them beyond the current spike in cost of living and ensure they are properly recognised for their contribution to New Zealand’s economy and culture. “In line with New Zealand’s Free Trade Agreement with the UK, last ...
New Zealand is welcoming a decision by the United Nations General Assembly to ask the International Court of Justice to consider countries’ international legal obligations on climate change. The United Nations has voted unanimously to adopt a resolution led by Vanuatu to ask the ICJ for an advisory opinion on ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 59 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. “The graduation for recruit wing 364 was my first since becoming Police Minister last week,” Ginny Andersen said. “It was a real honour. I want to ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta met with Vanuatu Foreign Minister Jotham Napat in Port Vila, today, signing a new Statement of Partnership — Aotearoa New Zealand’s first with Vanuatu. “The Mauri Statement of Partnership is a joint expression of the values, priorities and principles that will guide the Aotearoa New Zealand–Vanuatu relationship into ...
The Government has passed new legislation amending the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) levy regime, ensuring the best balance between a fair and cost effective funding model. The Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Levy) Amendment Bill makes changes to the existing law to: charge the levy on contracts of ...
The Government has passed the Organic Products and Production Bill through its third reading today in Parliament helping New Zealand’s organic sector to grow and lift export revenue. “The Organic Products and Production Bill will introduce robust and practical regulation to give businesses the certainty they need to continue to ...
The Digital Identity Services Trust Framework Bill, which will make it easier for New Zealanders to safely prove who they are digitally has passed its third and final reading today. “We know New Zealanders want control over their identity information and how it’s used by the companies and services they ...
The full Cyclone Gabrielle Recovery Taskforce has met formally for the first time as work continues to help the regions recover and rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle. The Taskforce, which includes representatives from business, local government, iwi and unions, covers all regions affected by the January and February floods and cyclone. ...
Changes have been made to legislation to give subcontractors the confidence they will be paid the retention money they are owed should the head contractor’s business fail, Minister for Building and Construction Megan Woods announced today. “These changes passed in the Construction Contracts (Retention Money) Amendment Act safeguard subcontractors who ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has unveiled five scenarios for one of the most significant city-shaping projects for Tāmaki Makaurau in coming decades, the additional Waitematā Harbour crossing. “Aucklanders and businesses have made it clear that the biggest barriers to the success of Auckland is persistent congestion and after years of ...
The Government has passed new legislation that ensures New Zealand’s civil aviation rules are fit for purpose in the 21st century, Associate Transport Minister Kiri Allan says. The Civil Aviation Bill repeals and replaces the Civil Aviation Act 1990 and the Airport Authorities Act 1966 with a single modern law ...
A Bill aimed at helping to reduce delays in the coronial jurisdiction passed its third reading today. The Coroners Amendment Bill, amongst other things, will establish new coronial positions, known as Associate Coroners, who will be able to perform most of the functions, powers, and duties of Coroners. The new ...
The Prime Minister has asked the Cabinet Secretary to conduct a review into communications between Stuart Nash and his donors. The review will take place over the next two months. The review will look at whether there have been any other breaches of cabinet collective responsibility or confidentiality, or whether ...
The new Recovery Visa to help bring in additional migrant workers to support cyclone and flooding recovery has attracted over 600 successful applicants within its first month. “The Government is moving quickly to support businesses bring in the workers needed to recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland floods,” Michael ...
Bills to ensure non-teaching employees and contractors at schools, and unlicensed childcare services like mall crèches are vetted by police, and provide safeguards for school board appointments have passed their first reading today. The Education and Training Amendment Bill (No. 3) and the Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment Bill have now ...
Wānanga will gain increased flexibility and autonomy that recognises the unique role they fill in the tertiary education sector, Associate Minister of Education Kelvin Davis has announced. The Education and Training Amendment Bill (No.3), that had its first reading today, proposes a new Wānanga enabling framework for the three current ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will travel to Vanuatu today, announcing that Aotearoa New Zealand will provide further relief and recovery assistance there, following the recent destruction caused by Cyclones Judy and Kevin. While in Vanuatu, Minister Mahuta will meet with Vanuatu Acting Prime Minister Sato Kilman, Foreign Minister Jotham ...
The Government is backing Police and making communities safer with the roll-out of state-of-the-art tools and training to frontline staff, Police Minister Ginny Andersen said today. “Frontline staff face high-risk situations daily as they increasingly respond to sophisticated organised crime, gang-violence and the availability of illegal firearms,” Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government has provided Police with more tools to crack down on gang offending with the passing of new legislation today which will further improve public safety, Justice Minister Kiri Allan says. The Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Bill amends existing law to: create new targeted warrant and additional search powers ...
The Government today announced far-reaching changes to the way we make, use, recycle and dispose of waste, ushering in a new era for New Zealand’s waste system. The changes will ensure that where waste is recycled, for instance by households at the kerbside, it is less likely to be contaminated ...
New legislation passed by the Government today will make it harder for gangs and their leaders to benefit financially from crime that causes considerable harm in our communities, Minister of Justice Kiri Allan says. Since the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 came into effect police have been highly successful in ...
This evening I have advised the Governor-General to dismiss Stuart Nash from all his ministerial portfolios. Late this afternoon I was made aware by a news outlet of an email Stuart Nash sent in March 2020 to two contacts regarding a commercial rent relief package that Cabinet had considered. In ...
Legislation to enable more build-to-rent developments has passed its third reading in Parliament, so this type of rental will be able to claim interest deductibility in perpetuity where it meets the requirements. Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods, says the changes will help unlock the potential of the build-to-rent sector and ...
A law passed by Parliament today exempts employers from paying fringe benefit tax on certain low emission commuting options they provide or subsidise for their staff. “Many employers already subsidise the commuting costs of their staff, for instance by providing car parks,” Environment Minister David Parker said. “This move supports ...
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Closer Economic Relations (CER), our gold standard free trade agreement between New Zealand and Australia. “CER was a world-leading agreement in 1983, is still world-renowned today and is emblematic of both our countries’ commitment to free trade. The WTO has called it the world’s ...
The Government is making procedural changes to the Immigration Act to ensure that 2013 amendments operate as Parliament intended. The Government is also introducing a new community management approach for asylum seekers. “While it’s unlikely we’ll experience a mass arrival due to our remote positioning, there is no doubt New ...
The Government welcomes progress on public sector pay adjustment (PSPA) agreements, and the release of the updated public service pay guidance by the Public Service Commission today, Minister for the Public Service Andrew Little says. “More than a dozen collective agreements are now settled in the public service, Crown Agents, ...
The Government has introduced the Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill to further support the recovery and rebuild from the recent severe weather events in the North Island. “We know from our experiences following the Canterbury and Kaikōura earthquakes that it will take some time before we completely understand the ...
Tea drinkers of Aotearoa, your new favourite dunking bikkie is here. There are several things I love about this recipe. The first is that they make a delicious dunking biscuit, the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea shared with friends. The second is that the recipe is ...
Part two of writer Marty Smith’s reporting from her flood-damaged home.Read part one here. Sunday 12 March, 21 days after the floods.Google Maps shows a pale blue line for the flat-lined bridge between Taradale and Waiohiki and sends you instead over the Expressway to Merge Like A Zip, ...
Bard Billot on the booted out broadcasterSpartans, prepare for glory! The hardy army of Today FM Spartans Camps out on the harsh lands of talk radio. The long months of the campaign Have worn down their resolve, For though they have loyally broadcast Their snappy banter and hot ...
The danger of National's policy is that it undoes much of an informal pact with Labour to depoliticise education at a time of real struggleOpinion: The National Party’s recently released education policy narrowly channels nearly every tired and cliched right-wing approach to schooling. If you have been in education for ...
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Around a decade ago, Bill Watson told me the Jap whaling industry was controlled by the Yakuza. He was Sea Shepherd coordinator for Aotearoa at the time. Pete Bethune had just been imprisoned by the Japs. Bill was worried the Yakuza would kill him there.
I found myself realising, a day or two later, that he was probably right so I needed to be proactive. Not my business, but sometimes the conscience says do it anyway! So I wrote the necessary letter to the new PM, John Key, asking him to get Bethune out & back home. Was pleased when the PM did what I’d asked! Bethune bitched about it, JK told the media he was ungrateful & I agreed, eye-rolling, & commented to Bill that nobody was ever going to award Bethune a medal for diplomacy.
Sea Shepherd declared victory the other day, after Japan announced they were jumping the IWC ship, would resume whaling next year, but not in Antarctic waters. The crims need the money, they still control the politicians, the media are still clueless – but they’re trying to figure it out: “There is a view that the country’s whaling obsession is less about food, as whale meat is surprisingly unpopular in Japan, especially among younger people, than it is about politics and culture. Defying the world’s rules and resuming commercial whaling is a bold expression of national identity.”
“Japan is not alone in doing so. Norway and Iceland also claim histories of whaling and have defied the 1986 ban on commercial killing. But it seems that, as in Japan, consumer taste is at odds with national identity. A 2018 report found that while Norway had about 350 whaling ships in 1950, there were only 11 operating in 2017. In that year, Norwegian whalers took less than half their annual quota of 999 whales.”
“Icelandic whalers have killed more than 500 fin whales since 2006, with the meat exported to the declining whale market in Japan, due to the absence of local demand, according to the charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation.” So the trend is for barbarians to become more of an endangered species than whales. Barbaric practices still have the support of three pseudo-civilised govts though!
The casual racism using terms like “Jap” is really unnecessary
Do you think perhaps it may be perceived that way as a left-over from WW11? After all, we talk about Brits and Aussies without any concerns of this nature
It’s certainly generational jargon. You won’t hear young people using ‘Brit’ either.
Or aussie that’s an abbreviation too.
Forgot and can’t edit – question mark after aussie missed sorry.
Probably only if the Japs ever declare that they actually are a race rather than Japanese citizens. Obviously the technical nature of reality is usually too hard for pc-drones to grasp, of course.
How’d you like that James? Being called PC? Personally I don’t care for the term “Japs” or “PC” but meh, people can say what they like (& as per usual says more about them than they’d really like to share anyway).
If it’s for calling out people for using racist or derogatory terms – I’m ok with that.
Still a derogatory terms pointed to a certain group of people.
Still not cool.
James is PC? Nah James is just a stirrer who doesn’t seem to be having many mates around for barbies lol and thus is bored.
And Marty is a little slow and can’t tell the difference between a derogatory term and an abbreviation.
Come on, boys. G’Mum says behave like adults, or tomorrow night to bed early and no celebrating seeing in the new year… You’re welcome.
Lol is “a little slow” a derog a tory term too James?
More apt than anything.
Are you cool with calling Japanese people japs? Would you use that term to Japanese people you just met?
I just use their name or mate.
That wasn’t the question
Can’t bring yourself to agree with me huh?
You would rather have people use racist terms. Says a lot about you.
Defending racism makes you a racist.
Yes you are James.
It is about the intent, James…
You are not Japanese. You are an exposed serial liar and agitator on a left leaning blog site…your intent is to agitate…and possibly to get your jollies in the process….
Jap, is short for Japanese and is not racist at face value, so only Dennis Frank can advise you what his intent is behind use of the abbreviation….
Concentrate on improving yourself so you can set a good example to those grand children , eh ….
Either way, you can sit back down, put the fake virtue signalling back in the box …
No it’s not.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/priscilla-ouchida/peter-king-jap-hate-speech_b_9995156.html
And you may have missed the general warning yesterday by one of the mods te reo putake:
“So, a general warning that reference to any commenters background, known or not, should be clearly relevant to the discussion at hand.”
A quick check on the replies tab shows your last three replies to me are about or mention my grandkids. I don’t know what your obsession with young children but you seem to have an inappropriate fixation on them. That – and it has nothing to do with the discussion in hand.
A couple of points. Firstly, Jap is considered offensive by Japanese people, so let’s not use it.
Secondly, I re-iterate the point I made yesterday, which was that irrelevant references to a commenter’s personal details or family situations is poor form. If its clearly relevant to the immediate discussion, fine. By that I mean that if a commenter chooses to share some details in a thread and that engenders responses, that’s cool. What’s not cool is bringing up those details later as some form of point scoring exercise.
Great reference links, James. Thanks.
The Wiki link also has links to some other good reference tools. Have bookmarked them.
To te reo putake
Thanks for the good moderation and guidance on these issues over the last day or so. Perhaps the latter could be added to the About and Policy if other moderators etc agree.
Yes, James, it is about the intent….that is exactly what it is about…
The links you’ve posted to, nor your incorrect and faux outrage do nothing to change that… So, ask DF what his intent was….go ahead….even if DF says it was intended as derogatory, would not change the fact JAP is an abbreviation which can be used in a non derogatory manner…
Moving along to your fake playing ‘victim’….
Per my reply to TRP yesterday, you are not posting on this site in good faith, James. You are an agitator, a deliberate agitator which is to be one of the lowest forms of public tro*l behavior.
Part of your agitators ‘shtick’ includes manufacturing stories referencing your age, ethnicity, residential location, family members/dynamic including their age bracket, education, work and off-spring, as well as your dwellings , dining, sporting and nutritional preferences…
You have willingly used these details as part of the agitation process, and therefore not in good faith…not a single shred….
In recent times you appear to be utilizing a particularly ugly tactic, and having had your comments repeatedly exposed over a number of years as racist and misogynistic etc in the literal sense, not the fake version such as you are blatantly doing once again here with DF….you are now seeking to play the victim, pushing for bans and retribution against other commentators here, who from what I can tell are mostly posting in good faith….
Even handles such as naki man appear to be more honest that you…aggressive, angry and ignorant….but seemingly in an honest way, as much as his level will allow him…
You are beneath even that level!
================================
TRP – Per your repeated comment/position from yesterday. You have played directly into the desired response James was looking for. Per my response yesterday, you are also enabling and empowering this sites most odious agitator, and not in good faith commentator… my opinion….
In contrast to VV’s comment regarding your moderation. I do not agree that you have moderated this instance well at all, not at face value…
I would say that since you returned, your moderation style is more effective than it had previously been…
Have a good weekend, everyone…
Thanks, vv. Adding it to the policy is a good idea. Mind you, it’s really obvious from looking at other blogs that TS commenters are way more thoughtful and considered in their postings, which is nice. it means that issues like this can be discussed rationally and without malice.
And now, here’s a song:
Veutoviper. You could call it, ‘the James rule’. I’m sure he’d like that😂
Yeah. Traditional language usage is only a problem for a few isolated individuals. It has been a common abbreviation used in this country my entire life. Never heard anyone use it in a derogatory sense that some pc-drone could spin as racist.
The princess who has attained a position of civil rights advocacy that James linked to may have impressed the HuffPost editorial team, but so what? Just because some folks think they can get away with language conformity doesn’t mean others will stop viewing them as sociopaths, right?
As you have noted previously, you and I are of a similar age, Dennis.
While I agree it is an abbreviation which has been used in this country, I personally have not heard it used for many years.
My recollection of it mainly goes back to my childhood when it seemed to be much more common and in fact used in many cases in a derogatory manner – particularly by a couple of uncles and their friends who had spent time in Japanese POW camps. (Another one of that era was the Yellow Peril.)
So in fact it actually jumped out at me when I saw you use it, but I felt that you personally were not necessarily using it in a derogatory manner. Nevertheless as te reo putake says, it is considered offensive by Japanese people, so let’s not use it.
However, as a woman, what I do find offensive is your:
“The princess who has attained a position of civil rights advocacy that James linked to may have impressed the HuffPost editorial team, but so what? Just because some folks think they can get away with language conformity doesn’t mean others will stop viewing them as sociopaths, right?
So you disagree with her opinion; but do you really need to be so derogatory in doing so?
Language more common to Kiwiblog – and very reminiscent of similar put down comments there and elsewhere about Jacinda Ardern, our PM …
No need to even read the links. They are simply the efforts of an agitator seeking to identify endorsement, for a position taken which is incorrect and disingenuous…
I have no idea what your intention was when using the abbreviation…that is only for you to know…
TRP states use of the abbreviation is ‘considered offensive’ to Japanese, which is potentially true in some instances…such is the generic wholesale statement he made…
What I can state, as I know this directly first hand, that there are Japanese who use the abbreviation to each other, and towards other Japanese, and in no way is it meant to be, nor is it taken as ‘offensive’…
Which makes attempts of language conformity little more than the subjective preference of someone(s ) who are highly unlikely to be ethnic Japanese, of any percentage…one who is openly acting in bad faith…
So, there is James and TRP , both non Japanese, seeking to advise/enforce which language that another non Japanese person (yourself Dennis , assumption) should/should not use when writing and commentating…
Understandable that those who fought them would feel that way, especially those who ended up in their prison camps with the torture & brutality endemic.
Just because TRP says Japanese have that view doesn’t mean he’s right. If he can produce evidence, I’ll consider it. I’ve seen none as yet. A statement of foreign policy by the Japanese govt would be authoritative. Even an official statement by one of their leaders, perhaps. Otherwise it’s all just a few people trying to get away with imposing their personal morality on others. Offensive behaviour!
And when a narcissist use a position of ngo advocacy to do it, why ought we to be impressed? She didn’t cite any agreed policy position by that group, did she? Her sense of entitlement apparently drove her to misrepresent them. Such disrespect for others is not appropriate political behaviour. Dunno why leftists think justifying such behaviour from leftists while condemning it from rightists is okay. Hypocrites, I reckon.
There we go again James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree.
A reading:
The comments he/she (James) stir are about as long and repetitious as the pome. Next year – can we have a resolution to allow one person to have a go back at him and leave it at that? That would be enough for him to know we really love him.
James is as much a product of this environment as trump was for the US imo. It is part of the dance.
He could be Lord of the Dance.
Dubliners version –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRmRMbBM4Bc
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEAIJV6CmtA
He’s certainly got a few dancing like marionettes to his tune lol
Not like you (James) 😉
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejmE-F3EJyQ&w=547&h=410%5D
The Standard needs tougher moderation to shut dowm troll debates that detract from the matter at issue.
When it is all wayne says james says I just move on to another site.
Come on, boys. G’Mum says behave like adults, or tomorrow night to bed early and no celebrating seeing in the new year… You’re welcome.
Good stuff veutoviper
Please provide a link when you quote from somewhere.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/
Thanks, but that is a whole section of their site rather than the specific article.
Here you are Dennis, as I am feeling generous at the moment (it won’t last long!)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/109638513/editorial-japans-whaling-is-no-longer-about-science
A little trick in such situations is to select a portion of the quote – eg
“Japan is not alone in doing so. Norway and Iceland also claim histories of whaling and have defied the 1986 ban on commercial killing. But it seems that, as in Japan, consumer taste is at odds with national identity.”
The left click (or if you have your mouse set up for left-handed – right click) and click “Search Google for ” Japan is not alone …”.
Then voila! – the link will hopefully come up.
“The left click” should read “Then left click”.
There are also lots of other interesting related articles which came up doing that Google search so might as well as give the Google search link:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Japan+is+not+alone+in+doing+so.+Norway+and+Iceland+also+claim+histories+of+whaling+and+have+defied+the+1986+ban+on+commercial+killing.&rlz=1C1LDJZ_enNZ499&oq=Japan+is+not+alone+in+doing+so.+Norway+and+Iceland+also+claim+histories+of+whaling+and+have+defied+the+1986+ban+on+commercial+killing.&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Also if you are just looking for very recent articles, here is a time limited one by clicking Tools and selecting ‘Last month”.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Japan+is+not+alone+in+doing+so.+Norway+and+Iceland+also+claim+histories+of+whaling+and+have+defied+the+1986+ban+on+commercial+killing.&rlz=1C1LDJZ_enNZ499&source=lnt&tbs=qdr:m&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjhroHB-sXfAhUDiLwKHer-CWMQpwUIJg&biw=1024&bih=724
Dennis Frank’s post at 8:34 am is a fascinating one, full of detail, insider knowledge and revelation on a subject that is topical. He made considerable effort to present his ideas well and even praised John Key in the process! Despite all that value, James found a single word with which he could derail the topic and was unable to resist the temptation to be petty.
Unfortunately half of Dennis’ post is a quote from an author he has not properly linked to or named.
Doesn’t mean James isnt right on this rare occasion though does it . Maybe DF should have agreed quickly then the post could have moved on .
Indeed. People would rather double down using derogatory terms than agree that they may be out of line.
Others will support the casual racism as they would rather support that than agree with me.
Says a lot about people.
Actually says a lot about what people think of your opinion.
Hi James
The left are such masters at faux outrage that they can’t recognise genuine concern at word usage when they see it.
Have a good day.
So casual racism is ok if it’s in a post you like ?
And it’s not a single word _ it shows an attitude (a poor one) towards the Japanese people.
Losers get cemeteries, not monuments, and while the pricks continue to memorialise criminals and their crimes at Yasukuni, I doubt my attitude (a poor one) will improve.
So what’s your attitude to the “Brits” and the “Yanks”, who do all those things, and worse?
Yanks and poms.
Sorry. There’s just one four letter word for me, I guess: dick.
Oh Morrissey you are so funny. Especially when you go off on little self righteous rants.
Thanks Mr. Shark. I’ll take that and process it.
It was a positive comment, right?
Morrissey
You are trying, very trying sometimes, but then so many of us are. That is a positive comment about us all, right!
So at least you admit you are racist against the Japanese
Ambivalent, I don’t give rats about who calls them what.
Yes James it’s all about you!! If not, It Should Be.
The whole damn business is about budgets and pork barreling , rather than food or culture.
Still, there is some merit to the government’s argument.
A number of coastal communities in Japan have indeed hunted whales for centuries, and continue to do so. Taiji in Wakayama prefecture is well known, many would say infamous, for its annual dolphin hunts. There are other places, in Chiba Prefecture and in Ishinomaki in northern Japan, that also do coastal whaling.
[…]
Nothing about these Antarctic whaling expeditions is historic. Japan’s first whaling voyage to the Antarctic took place in the mid-1930s but the really huge hunts didn’t get going until after World War Two.
Japan lay in ruins, its population starving. With the encouragement of General Douglas MacArthur, Japan converted two huge US Navy tankers into factory ships and set sail for the Southern Ocean.
From the late 1940s to the mid-1960s whale meat was the single biggest source of meat in Japan. At its peak in 1964 Japan killed more than 24,000 whales in one year, most of them enormous fin whales and sperm whales.
[…]
But Junko Sakuma thinks the answer lies in the fact that Japan’s whaling is government-run, a large bureaucracy with research budgets, annual plans, promotions and pensions.
“If the number of staff in a bureaucrat’s office decreases while they are in charge, they feel tremendous shame,” she says.
“Which means most of the bureaucrats will fight to keep the whaling section in their ministry at all costs. And that is true with the politicians as well. If the issue is closely related to their constituency, they will promise to bring back commercial whaling. It is a way of keeping their seats.”
It may seem incredibly banal. But Japan’s determination to continue whaling may come down to a handful of MPs from whaling constituencies and a few hundred bureaucrats who don’t want to see their budgets cut.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35397749
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2018/dec/29/2019-a-grim-year-in-prospect-cartoon
Superb! A must view. Thanks for posting it.
And TS moderators – wonderful for use in related blog post introductions???
[Thanks will definitely use it – MS]
lol…thought the same thing when i saw it
Grim but true.
“Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday, Giles York, the Chief Constable of Sussex Police said he could not rule out the possibility that some sightings of drones reported during the incident were of drones that Sussex Police had flown over the airport for surveillance purposes.
“We will have launched our own Sussex police drones at the time, with a view to investigate, engage and survey the area. So there could be some level of confusion there as well,” York said after being questioned about a previous report that there may have been no drone at all.”
https://i.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-troubles/109661602/police-drones-may-have-added-to-gatwick-airport-shutdown-police-admit
Bugger, no edit function.
I wonder how many police forces use drones to ‘investigate, engage and survey’?
Cheaper than a chopper
Pity they couldn’t use them to kill possums mustilids and rats – imagine teams running drones going for records hunting in the bush with cameras – from anywhere. Battle Royale for pest control.
Drones have rather limited range and endurance, so are really just an addition to people on foot for direct control. We’re doing some experiments with mustering deer in rough blocks with a drone, very early days yet but some success but some huge limitations. They don’t have the presence of a helicopter which combined with most deer’s fear of helicopters from meathunting days generally means deer will go away and down easily from a helicopter. The cunning ones will try and hide in thick scrub. With the drone most deer will hide in the scrub (and wait for the battery to go flat) if they can and have to be flushed out on foot. But the drone is awesome for observation and moving them in the clear.
Thanks Graeme interesting stuff.
Graeme
I will put a copy of that for the Sunday How to get there post. It’s the sort of clever thing that may be another adaptation that helps the system to the future in a better way.
Be a good job for the thumb gifted couch dwellers
Satellites could do it, Marty; there’re enough of them flitting about overhead; some heat-detecting software, a lethal laser of some sort, what could go wrong?…hang on!!!
It’s going wrong now.
We need to align with human nature not fight it and then wonder why nothing changes.
Hey, Marty – could you please describe “human nature” pithily (or exhaustively, I don’t mind 🙂 so that we can know what you mean?
(Genuine request, cheers)
Robert
“imagine teams running drones going for records hunting in the bush with cameras – from anywhere. Battle Royale for pest control.”
From anywhere is all around the world.
Human nature by marty
collaborative, competitive, compassionate
Lprent
No edit function. (Just for noting for when you finish latest iteration?)
“Tenure review*” down South continues.
A broken promise by Labour.
Apparently refusing the giving away of large swathes of public land to leaseholders, for fractions of it’s real value, is “unfair” to those who haven’t managed to get their share, of the giveaway, yet!
No regard to fairness to the rest of us. Of course.
Where is the tax dodgers union when you need them?
*https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/91935035/ann-brower-for-the-sake-of-our-high-country-stop-tenure-review
If you remove the * the link will work.
Edit test
Edit function is not working at the moment so KJT cannot remove it.
Hope this works –
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/91935035/ann-brower-for-the-sake-of-our-high-country-stop-tenure-review
Edit working fine now (on iPad at least)
Not on my PC …
Murphy’s law means it will now work …
No. Not working on my PC.
iPad Pro?
what does that have to do with anything?
I know you like to let people know you have the best of everything. It’s your form of virtue signalling.
Actually a good brief history of tenure review in NZ ….
Tenure review is now under a moratorium….David Parker is not impressed with the process at allso I can`t see this government signing off on any more shonky deals….thr Nats gave billions…yes billions…to their farmer mates under this awful process often supported by DOC and weak enviromentalists
The edit function is a wordpress plugin. It appears to have dropped of during the upgrade but no doubt LPrent will restore it when he gets a chance.
In the meantime, just re-read your comments before posting and self edit where needed. If there’s something really, really needs editing after you’ve posted a comment, leave a new comment asking for the moderators to tidy up the original.
Let’s call “pretty legal” for what it is – the baked in Tory sense of entitlement redolent with dishonesty.
National is in “pretty legal” territory after Otaki MP Nathan Guy used Facebook’s “thumb” icon in a Labour attack-ad billboard.
Despite Facebook not giving permission for the logo’s use – an icon it strictly enforces copyright of – Guy said the social media outfit “haven’t raised any issues with us”.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/109618534/thumbs-down-experts-warn-national-for-use-of-facebooks-most-famous-blue-symbol
I roared with laughter when I read that in the earlier hours of the morning – then forgot to post it!
So thanks for bringing it to notice. Not a Facebook fan but the ‘b.t.h’ in me really hopes that they do respond …
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503462&objectid=12182956
These recyclers have been going since 1993 and still have to request people to wash out milk bottles, rinse and flatten cans (stand on them at least).
Not too sure when I will be posting again (more out of whether I can be bothered than anything else) so where are my 2019 predictions:
1) Labour and National to stay more or less neck and neck in the polls with either party from month to month leading by less than 3 points.
2) Simon Bridges remains as National leader, though he makes Judith Collins his spokesperson for finance. Paula Bennett announces she plans to step down at the 2020 election.
3) The government quietly sets up an SOE to deliver the Kiwibuild houses, as well as to build and maintain state and social houses. It also goes in partnership with the NZ Superfund to build more houses.
4) RNZ+ is dropped, but TVNZ brings back TVNZ 7 as a 24 hour news and current affairs channel jointly run with RNZ and Maori TV.
5) The Tomorrow’s Schools reforms are implemented, but the larger schools are given the freedom to opt out of being run by the Hubs.
6) Helen Clark is given a top state sector post by the current administration, but it will be something we least expect.
7) Phil Goff, Justin Lester and Lianne Dalzeil all win a second term as mayor in their respective cities.
8) Brexit is postponed a year.
9) Trump supporters start lynching people, with the current administration refusing to condemn them.
10) none of these things ever actually happen, and I may as well just say anything.
Oh no anything is possible, but working out the probable – I think you have supplied a good cover of our present and future dilemmas Millsy. Be a good scout, don’t drop out.
9) Trump supporters start lynching people, with the current administration refusing to condemn them.
That’s not a prediction. It’s already happened, many times. Horrifyingly, the lynch mobs are actually the police.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/trump-supporter-53-is-charged-after-making-threats-to-kill-democrat-senators-and-weak-republicans-if-they-vote-against-brett-kavanaugh/ar-BBNXYog
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/07/31/631897758/a-look-back-at-trayvon-martins-death-and-the-movement-it-inspired
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6468991/White-cop-Eric-Garner-breathe-chokehold-death-face-NYPD-disciplinary-2019.html
Crude and racist politicking did not start with Trump
Clinton is a polished version of Trump.
I didn’t get your point. Where was the crude and racist stuff in his comment.
He was responding to a crude and racist comments, if that’s your point.
Clinton’s rhetoric was/is similar to Trump. Just he is a bit more softer in his wording.
I didn’t get your point.
?????
Where was the crude and racist stuff in his comment?
Jesus Christ, you’re ignorant.
He was responding to a crude and racist comments, if that’s your point.
He was lying and distorting her words, as you’d know if you bothered to do any further investigation of the matter.
Natz still in pain about losing the election it seems.
Now Nathan Guy is sticking up billboards on the roadside, creating visual pollution and unsafe distraction. And in typical Natz mode, breaching copyright (Facebook?), breaking the law, while pointing the dirty blue finger at Labour, using it’s ID logo!
Natz really needs to get over itself. Now!
edit: Oops, I see this has already been commented on. My bad.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/109618534/thumbs-down-experts-warn-national-for-use-of-facebooks-most-famous-blue-symbol
No they are doing what oppositions do, how that’s been upset, suggest you spend some time understanding meaning of parliamentary opposition I suggest as Nats in government and in opposition are doing a far better job than Labour, Labour yesrs in opposition where hilarious but not good for our democracy, sadly we now have such incompetency in government
You don’t have to keep reminding people why you call yourself Bewildered. We already concede that the name is accurate, okay? Try explaining why the Nats continue to be so keen to breach copyright law. The penny may then drop, and you’ll end up less bewildered. Keep on with that positive stance, you’ll end up bewildered no longer. Maybe even end up then calling yourself Savvy…
Bewildered ((10.1) … and National was always competent in government was it?
What Nathan Guy is doing is demonstrating that National has become a pathetic sorry mess since losing the last election. It really does need to pull its finger out and act as a responsible Opposition, working for all NZers, offering up some constructive, workable policies, instead of petulant sniping all the time. Guy’s actions here are not making NZ a better, safer place by any means.
BTW why is a National MP bringing this issue up now in the way he has done, when it had nine years as government to focus on and address transport infrastructure?
Hmmm that’s what opposition do Mary, they are not thier to support the government constructively Labor 9 years in opposition was hardly constructive, point been there where not even a competent opposition tearing each other apart, no policy formulation barring voter signalling bs, hence the 100s of work committes we now have Unfortunatly we now have this incompetence in government Oy 3 more years though and labour are simply Ardern resignation away from destroying themselves from the inside National I turn a lot more stable as some of the miss steps and mps fling rogue has indicated, party support and unity holds up and party does not go full feral and our left mates do
Hmmm that’s what opposition do Mary, they are not there to support the government constructively Labor 9 years in opposition was hardly a constructive opposition point been there where not even a competent opposition tearing each other apart, no policy formulation barring virtue signalling bs, hence the 100s of work committes we now have Unfortunatly we now have this incompetence in government Only 2 more years though and similarly labour are simply Ardern resignation away from destroying themselves from the inside again National in turn is a lot more stable as some of the miss steps and mps going rogue has indicated, party support and unity still holds up and party does not go full retard as labour has a propensity to do
National stable? You jest of course Bewildered (10.1.2.2)!
At present I consider National is far from stable, given the doubt about its present leadership. Then there are the continuing leaks, the likelihood of Jami Lee Ross returning to Parliament next year as an Independent MP, ready to pass on some more damaging information relating to Simon Bridges and National, bringing about even more uncertainty within the Opposition.
Finally, I know I might not be the brightest star in the sky, but I’m sorry you have lost me re the rest of your post, so I can’t comment, because I haven’t a clue on what I’d be commenting on!
Nathan Guy was responsible for fauling to implement the stock identification system (because it cost his farmer mates a bit of money) that has resulted in the micro bovis $850m disaster.
The stock identification system is a scam. Like a tax that you get nothing in return for. It proved incompetent in tracking cattle in any reasonable time frame. The real reason this was introduced was to create animal registration, and in turn taxation of stock. Plus, nod, nod, wink, wink, some tidy fees to disappear into some fat salaries.
The old system of keeping the transport dockets is just as effective. Plus when you get a disease like Foot & Mouth you really have no choice but to put a compass on the map, draw a circle, then kill everything. Then look at the transport Dockets. The new system fails because the cows may be registered but the system doesn’t know where the animals actually are, or where they have been.
It was never fit for purpose, but a good scam.
Highly doubtful, costs more to run and a digitised system is always faster.
The only problem with the new system is that the farmers gamed the system resulting in a major disease outbreak.
Nobody gamed the system. The disease had nothing to do with the system. It spread because nobody knew they had the disease, and once discovered the didn’t know what animals had gone where, or what animals may have got the infected sperm.
The system allowed Foreign sperm, just as all the disease outbreaks have occurred with something coming across the boarder. It is unusual practice to get high value sperm from overseas for normal farmers, but not the specialist breaders or those buying enough to undercut LICs prices.
The truck driver creates a docket, end of story.
Now you create the docket with the truck driver, plus the old owner must log in what’s happening, as well as the new owner. As shown the system didn’t know what was happening. The old system just had owner ID tags. Nothing’s really changed or improved. But it costs thousands more for each farmer.
All of which would have been known if they had used the system as designed. Not using as designed is gaming the system.
The fault here falls fully upon the farmers.
/facepalm
Chances are the old system wasn’t used whenever some farmers felt it wasn’t in their interest to let the government know what they were doing.
So, what you saying is that National fucked up the country on purpose?
It’s interesting. We drove through Levin heading south on Sunday 23 December and half the shops were closed! You would imagine retailers would be gagging for local business but no.
We continued south and hit some traffic at Otaki of course which is the core of the problem because there’s a roundabout where SH1 traffic gives way to local traffic. Now, google maps shows us what the new Peka Peka Otaki expressway will look like and this delivers 4 lanes from Wellington CBD to Otaki once transmission fully and the rest of the Kapiti expressways are complete. That’s 72.7km and Nathan Guy want a further 20km to a one street town of 21,000, with several sets if traffic lights, which is closed on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. No doubt Mr Guy will then want a Levin bypass.
Google maps also shows us the still to be completed Waikato expressway will deliver 4 lanes from Auckland to Hamilton a distance of 124.9km. Auckland is an international city of 1.7 million people and Hamilton about 170,000. These two still don’t have a four lane connection and don’t even have a rail commuter service.
To me the end of the expressway at Otaki is right because that’s where the problems occur. I can’t help thinking Nathan Guy and the National party have got their priorities all wrong. But I’m not surprised, they do tend to concentrate on the small stuff while the rest of us see the bigger picture.
The Wiakato Expressway has nothing to do with connecting Auckland to Hamilton. It actually bipasses it, compared to the past nightmare of having to drive through it, and the Huntly traffic jam will be gone as well.
The project is about modernising SH1 from Auckland to Wellington. Some parts of the Wiakato expressway were desperately in need of upgrading with one area being our deadliest road. The same need applies to the Auckland Southern Moterway upgrade to 6 lanes.
Your argument saying it services just 21000 people is wrong as most people using SH1 won’t just be from Levin but everybody from the rest of the North Island, and everybody traveling North from Wellington, or on the return trip. Maybe it should carry on until Foxton.
And you missed the bit that actually causes all the problems – drive.
Really, if you want to go from Auckland to Wellington – take the bloody train or a plane or even a boat.
The roads couldn’t cope with the people using it.
That’s people using there freedom to travel. Plus buisinesses trying to pay wages, and break even.
I drove to Wellinton for a visit a few years ago. I drove and slept in my car 2 nights. Couldn’t do that if I took the train, plus it was an unplanned visit. Bit hard if you wish to use your car during the stay. Must use far less fuel than a plane. Trains are painfully slow in NZ.
What a good look for our Tourists traveling in Buses. Stuck in traffic on the nations main highway for hours.
People shouldn’t be using the roads. In fact, there’s probably a fairly good case for removing roads between cities.
Nobody’s suggesting taking their freedom to travel away.
Plan better.
If you’re really concerned about businesses paying wages then you should be using them.
Public transport really is more efficient than cars.
And, yes, the trains need to be upgraded. Have you noticed that this didn’t happen due to the private owners followed by National running the trains down and building highly expensive, inefficient roads?
The only reason why buses are stuck in traffic is because of the morons driving cars.
Why does Mr Bovis’ sign say, “Our community deserves a 4 lane highway”, if it’s all about people north of Levin?
And this is possibly the stupidest thing I’ve read on this forum today.
Wikipedia provides the goods fast – [Nathan] Guy is a farmer from near Levin.
If farmers had a quota for seats, and lawyers also, I wonder who would get elected and give us the experience of a real diverse government.
I think he wants a dedicated tractor lane!
It would also be interesting to know which side of the road this sign is on. If it’s heading south at Manakau then the soon to be completed Wellington to Otaki expressway will render this concern obsolete. A bit like Nathan Guy and the National Party really. 😆
How do you see the soon to be completed Wellington to Otaki expressway rendering the concern obsolete? Otaki to Levin is a completely different stretch of highway.
Having a 4 lane expressway going into a 2 lane highway will exacerbate congestion on that stretch of road.
If the sign is southbound then it’s two lanes going to four just north of Otaki. Not an issue.
And four lanes to two is not an issue either. It’s the conramination of SH1 traffic with local traffic which is the problem. How do you think four lanes stopping at a Levin traffic light is going to work?
Currently, there is a two lane highway and there are problems. While 4 lanes from Otaki to Wellington will help alleviate some of the build up from that point, it doesn’t address all the concerns back from that point.
4 lanes going into 2 is always an issue. Moreover, the new Otaki to Levin highway does bypass Levin’s CBD due to the congestion it currently causes, which will now be replaced with congestion from the 4 going into 2.
It’s eventually going to go from 4 to 2 unless you want dual carriageways the length of the North island. Why is Otaki to Levin so special?
A decent freeway covering the whole of the country is long overdue.
This section of highway was to be a part (albeit small) of achieving that long held aspiration.
The stretch of road has a number of black spots and has been dubbed a “killing field” (marked like a battlefield with white crosses) by a former coroner.
Hence, as with a number of other areas around the country, a decent expressway has been long awaited.
While we are committed to only doing sections of highway at a time, new expressways will result in bottlenecks as traffic merges from 4 to 2. To help mitigate the resulting congestion, merging points should be placed in areas of low traffic volumes. With adjoining SH57 (which leads to Palmerston North) Levin to Otaki is a high volume traffic area.
Levin’s population is growing faster than expected and with housing costs rising in Palmerston North coupled with the high cost of housing in Wellington, more are expected to move there seeking a cheaper home. Add to that our aging population as it is a bit of a retirement location for Wellingtonians.
Nevertheless, it’s a part of state highway one, thus services far more than just Levin and adjoining SH57.
With our growing population and growing number of tourists, delaying vastly improving our roading will be costly.
Improving the public rail service in the area seems to have been also overlooked.
For instance, an extension to Auckland’s North West motorway is crucial. Earth is being turned up there big time and the population is expected to increase from Kumeu to Waimauku by several times the entire population of Levin.
Alcohol, obesity, flame retardants and pesticides are known to affect sperm and now cannabis.
“We know that there are effects of cannabis use on the regulatory mechanisms in sperm DNA, but we don’t know whether they can be transmitted to the next generation,” Murphy said.
“In the absence of a larger, definitive study, the best advice would be to assume these changes are going to be there,” Murphy said. “We don’t know whether they are going to be permanent. I would say, as a precaution, stop using cannabis for at least six months before trying to conceive.”
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181219075846.htm
That’s an awful lot of don’t know’s to write an article about.
Funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Champion of free markets. Previous hit’s include Intelligent design and constantly trying to define the ‘science/religion boundary’.
Very deep pockets. Dodgy AF. Big business boys so big pharma called for this particular study for sure.
Al’s making a comeback.
https://ew.com/tv/2018/12/19/deadwood-movie-story-interview/
GG nails it yet again. Wonderful… and New Zealand even gets a mention.
The Russian propaganda outfit’s infowars level of trolling is truly disgusting.
https://www.itv.com/news/2018-12-28/state-funded-media-outlet-russia-today-sends-chocolate-models-of-salisbury-cathedral-as-festive-gift/
“TV Rain thanked RT for the gift and replied on Twitter: “Come for tea, we’re afraid to eat it alone.””
I bloody bet they were – probably had vlads bloody paw prints all over it on the inside.
No doubt the libs will see it as another sign of guilt to go along with the 7 troll factory trolls, pokemon go, and book of the face puppy videos.
No doubt clueless tankies like yourself will continue selling out marginalised people in your efforts to exchange liberalism for something far worse.
@ James, and a few others
Did I ever tell you how utterly (near), perfect I am.
Admittedly I’m not quite the specimen you are (yet) but I live in hope and I do all the right things.
Thanks to you, I’ve seen the light