Words like, monster, monstrous, largest, major, rare, hybrid, exceptional, severe, historic, life threatening, not typical, superstorm, megastorm, mass evacuations.
From the president down, not one mention of the two words at the back of everyone’s mind
Yes weather modification has been a stated goal by the DoD, and military dating back many decades now, and countries around the world make use of “weather control” in various ways.
Sad is not even having the stomach or mental strength to read what has been mainstream information about the subject for many years Bloke. There is plenty of details around, they were at it generations back, so like with all technologies, as time progresses, so do the techniques!
There is every chance that it has been, sure, because the technologies/techniques exist to do so.
Edit: Dude you are an unoriginal parrot! If you think its clever mocking something, which has been written about, published on and happening for decades, then thats your choice!
Just don’t go parroting your weakness back in my direction!
If you think your opinions are a reasonable summation of that “which has been written about, published on and happening for decades”, what does that say about me?
I think that’s a good possibility. The illuminati have grown too powerful for either to tolerate them after their use of an antimatter bomb to destroy London during the Olympics. Luckily TBTP managed to cover it up as a fireworks display.
“The lunatic is all idée fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars.”
― Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum
Right on election time, boom, a storm like never seen before, almost like someone was writing a script!
Oh ffs.
What’s the theory here?
I thought you believed that the elections themselves don’t matter, b/c TBTB win either way. So why would they be bothering with engineering a massive storm, in ways unnoticed by everyone, in order to achieve, what?
Who knows why TPTB do these things, Pb. The other day we had a massive downpour just as I was about to paint the shed, as if someone was writing a script. It’s amazing, the granular level these plans can get down to.
Elections don’t matter PB, not overall in any case, I’m sure you might be able to string that together, and think experimentation, as opposed to theory eh!
My contention is simply that there exists the technology, and the stated desire to “control weather”, “weather modify”, or whatever you prefer to call it, and has been going on a long time.
The fact that the “largest storm in US history” fantastically arrives in time for elections, may simply just be “the storm of a century”, but because technologies and stated desire exist, surely the question has to be asked, just what is this “franken-storm”!
Felix – Shame about your shed, if suns out today, perhaps get some exercise, and put some elbow into it!
The fact that the “largest storm in US history” fantastically arrives in time for elections, may simply just be “the storm of a century”, but because technologies and stated desire exist, surely the question has to be asked, just what is this “franken-storm”!
Maybe because the elections are always the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and late October / early November is a storm season?
This storm probably is the result of human intervention, though, TC, because climate change is going to make/is already making these events a regular occurence.
Totes agree re: the tinfoil hat brigade. Blaming everything on a worldwide conspiracy is a great excuse for both intellectual and physical laziness.
“This storm probably is the result of human intervention, though, TC, because climate change is going to make/is already making these events a regular occurence.”
Storms were already a regular occurence and this one is so dangerous because it is hitting to other fronts and it is hitting at high tide, neither of which have to do with climate change. Climate change probably does have a part to play but in this instance there are other factors which have nothing to do with AWG which make this a very dangerous storm.
I believe you are wrong, TC. The frequency and intensity of these storms are both increasing, as most climate change models predict.
The high tide thing is a red herring. Obviously the storm is going to last through the full daily cycle of tides and its effects will be worse at the high tide, but that’s not significant.
I think the weird thing about this situation is that Obama cannot say ‘sorry folks, if we want to live like pigs, then this is what happens’ because it allows the Republicans to use the climate change stick to hit him with and it changes the dynamic of the election. Obama has chosen to keep quiet on the possible link to climate change and he will ride out this storm, and will be trying to look as Presidential as possible as he tours the damaged suburbs tomorrow.
I am in no way claiming AWG has no place here but what makes this a super storm is meeting two other fronts which are part of a normal weather pattern.
I don’t dispute that AGW makes storms more intense.
Warmer air holds more moisture, therefore 100% of the weather is affected by AGW.
Moreover, Hansen and Sato’s Climate Dice are increasingly loaded.
Whether or not this particular (“Frankenstorm”) occurrence could not have happened without AGW, it’s clear from actual observations (not models) that extreme outliers are happening with increasing frequency.
Which, funnily enough, is pretty much what the models predicted. Blow me down with a feather.
In this case the problem was a cold jet stream that oscillated further south than usual and hitting a equatorial born hurricane. The reason for that happening is the increased energy in the system – especially the heightened arctic temperatures.
It has been pretty predictable for a few decades that if you increase arctic temperatures you will wind up with increased temperature gradients further south in the Atlantic. Measurements over the last decade have shown that is indeed what has been happening at a statistically significant level. Weather is powered by temperature gradients and moisture. So increasing the gradients by having polar and equatorial weather systems colliding and providing more moisture from warmer equatorial seas is going to give bigger and more powerful storms.
Storms were already a regular occurence and this one is so dangerous because it is hitting to other fronts and it is hitting at high tide, neither of which have to do with climate change.
It is hitting on several ‘fronts’ because it is a bloody big storm with a lot of energy (about 1600km’s or so in diameter from what I hear). It is several times bigger than the usual hurricanes because of the temperature gradient. This means that it hits a lot of coastline. Of course high tides happen several times per day and at different times in different locations over a few thousand kms of coastline. The probability of a big storm hitting somewhere at high tide is remarkably high – in fact damn near certain.
Are you really as much of a fool about basic science, geography and stats as you seem?
I’d expect to see several of this level of storm over the next decade and some nasty winter weather up north because of the rate at which the arctic is melting. Especially over the next few years because of el-nino and the solar max pushing more heat around. The north will get an increasing frequency of these types of storms and especially in the narrow Atlantic. The previous storm at this level was in the 30’s and I think you have to look deep into the 19th to see anything similar.
This type of storm and crazy winters will be pretty normal in a few decades in the north america and northern europe.
I wasn’t doing it as a moderator. That is usually pretty noticeable because it looks like
[lprent: notes ]
As well as being a moderator I frequently comment. I tend to get quite acidic on people misrepresenting on topics I know well.
I particularly like educating about basic earth sciences (my first degree) in a way that is memorable when people say something quite stupid. It helps to reduce my pain at seeing them mangling simple heat exchanges with meaningless explanations.
But you notice the fulsome explanation that I provided about exactly why you were making particularly idiotic and indefensible assertions?
Perhaps you should read it. It might help you in avoiding my irritation
I never denied AGW, I never denied AGW had a part to play in this storm, I accepted AGW makes storm more intense, I accepted the AGW caused this storm to move further North, I commented that the two fronts this system is to hit makes it more dangerous than other storms, I commented that both these cold fronts were part of normal weather patterns, I made note of the high tide which increases the danger of storm surges.
The bit that caught my eye was the section that I quoted.
The reason why the two “fronts”* were colliding was precisely because of the increased energy from melting in the Arctic is pushing cold jetstreams further south. The tropical hurricanes have probably been getting more energetic (not statistically significant yet) in the water borne heat that drives them from slightly warmer tropical seas. But that just increases the energy available and possibly slightly increases their range.
firstly: The shift in the arctic jetstreams has been proven to a statistically significant level over the last few years. Exceptional storms like this one are therefore increasingly more likely. If they hadn’t collided then all other factors (tides etc) are largely irrelevant because the hurricane would have been pretty normal and largely spent before hitting the US continental shores.
secondly: Large storms hit large amounts of shore over quite a long period of time. Statistically they will have high tides across a lot of those stores. It isn’t a coincidence that high tides coincide with large storms hitting shore. What would be more surprising if they did not.
Your statement was absurdly reductionist and tried to treat factors as seperate and coincidental. They aren’t. They are quite predictable to come together in this combination now that the Arctic jetstreams are moving further south. Read the links.
* Actually it is a high altitude dry cold oscillating jetstream and a lower altitude warm and water laden cyclonic storm extending into the jetstreams altitude causing condensation and a massive release of energy from water. It is not two “fronts”
[lprent: I’d hate to think what you are using that analogy. A burst appendix? Something else that is pretty damn pointless and appears to be an evolutionary dead end. ]
I never stated it was a coincidence, I stated that the hurricane is hitting at a high tide which makes the storm surge much greater…not too mention a full moon which is a bad coincidence because high tides are much higher (admittedly this was missed in the original comment but what I was meant to be implying).
Also there are these fronts hitting at same time as this hurricane which is also a bad news and makes the storm worse.
Those are the two points I made.
Neither of which deserved this response:
“Are you really as much of a fool about basic science, geography and stats as you seem?”
I made no denial of AGW or any denial AGW had any effect here but pointed out two factors that can happen outside of AGW therefore it isn’t a purely AGW causing this to be such a hectic storm.
Read my first reply carefully. I didn’t mention AGW at all.
I just talked about the consequences of increased Arctic temperatures. Something that you appear to either be diverting away from or too dumb to follow (in the latter case why are you bothering to speak?).
Your other points are simple trivia. There is nothing exceptional or surprising in any of them. All of them will happen in this combination many times per year and frequently many times per month.
What is exceptional is the energy in this storm, and that the northerners are likely to get more of them because the Arctic is warmer. Now I’m aware that that is caused by AGW, however that wasn’t what I was rapping you over the head for.
You were trying to say that the severity of this storm was exceptional because of trivial effects. That was (to put it mildly) complete crap….
So if you’re quite finished attempting moronic diversions from what is actually interesting to your simplistic and incorrect “explanations”… Just find something that is less able to be demolished.
Otherwise I’d better do some work and finish this transformation matrix.
“Read my first reply carefully. I didn’t mention AGW at all. I just talked about the consequences of increased Arctic temperatures. Something that you appear to either be diverting away from or too dumb to follow (in the latter case why are you bothering to speak?).”
Increased Arctic temperatures are not to do with AGW? Funny, I was sure they were. I am not diverting at all and your “too dumb” remark is just childish.
What a great example for a moderator you are.
“Your other points are simple trivia. There is nothing exceptional or surprising in any of them. All of them combine to happen in this combination many times per year and frequently many times per month.”
Really, a sizable Hurricane hitting a major coastline during a full-moon high-tide before careering into winter front’s from the South happens several times per month?
Fact remains I pointed to things which are making this bad storm worse, neither of which are trivial and nothing of which are factually incorrect.
You haven’t actually demolished anything except for any reason why anyone should hold any respect for you at all.
Increased Arctic temperatures are not to do with AGW? Funny, I was sure they were.
It isn’t relevant to the effects of elevated Arctic temperatures – which with it’s effect on Atlantic storms is of more immediate interest.
Really, a sizable Hurricane hitting a major coastline during a full-moon high-tide before careering into winter front’s from the South happens several times per month?
That happens several times per year. You should read up on the frequency of hurricanes from their Caribbean generation points (or are you solely interested in their effects on the US and Canada?). They usually hit other weather fronts and they usually cross high tides on one or more of the islands before dissipating in the Atlantic .
Exceptional tides can happen several times per month depending on orbits. Hurricanes frequently coincide with them.
None of that is exceptional. You can expect combinations like that every year. Whereas what this storm’s energy level is something that occurs normally with many decades between instances.
Fact remains I pointed to things which are making this bad storm worse, neither of which are trivial and nothing of which are factually incorrect.
And none of them in anyway compare to the effects of having a cold jetstream hitting the upper levels of a warm cyclone. They are quite simply trivial by comparison. You do the maths. It is like adding tritium to a fission bomb for its effects.
Relying on “facts” rather than actually understanding what they mean is really kind of stupid. Of course it is how you can construct an argument that sounds good but is spurious and has no substance – as millions of weak essays by schoolchildren and undergrads well demonstrate. Confuses those who don’t know better and usually gets a C or even a B-. But it is a rather weak reed to cling to if you ever have to defend it.
You haven’t actually demolished anything except for any reason why anyone should hold any respect for you at all.
As I said before, diversions when you can’t argue really are kind of stupid.
I have no interest in being ‘respected’, liked, or anything else. I run and maintain the site. When I have time and I’m interested in something I do enjoy debate on subjects with substance – but that seldom happens due to lack of time.
But I also enjoy being a complete arsehole (as HS puts it with bad spelling) when I see someone feeding a line of bullshit on a subject I’m interested in. It allows me to keep in practice while educating the inexperienced about what can happen. I wouldn’t get too upset about it. And you really should look at your personal defenses. Getting that upset about an opinion on your comments really does make you look like easy meat.
Ummm. I’m a science grad, ex-army, ex-factory manager, a Otago MBA, a hell of a hardcore programmer, occasional CTO or lead programmer or team leader when I can’t get out of it, and I’ve been around the net and it’s predecessors since about 1980. Why should I not know exactly where the limits to my knowledge and understanding are?
I’m not some inexperienced poseur – but they are somewhat easy to recognize..
“Ummm. I’m a science grad, ex-army, ex-factory manager, a Otago MBA, a hell of a hardcore programmer, occasional CTO or lead programmer or team leader when I can’t get out of it, and I’ve been around the net and it’s predecessors since about 1980.”
You’re pretty cool, dude. I surprised you can even stand yourself, what with your complete misrepresentation of others and your seeming indifference to it because, hey. why should you care? After all you’re a ” science grad, ex-army, ex-factory manager, a Otago MBA, a hell of a hardcore programmer, occasional CTO or lead programmer or team leader when I can’t get out of it”
I also like the way you went “ummm” before detailing your inflated sense of authority as if I were to go “Oh shit, I didn’t realise what I was dealing with!”
The fact you even lay this down betrays a giant inferiority complex from someone who despite all this has achieved fuck all apart from being an asshole moderator who completely ignores his own rules while moderating because, in reality, his detailing this supposed experience is completely fucking meaningless to the comment at hand.
“I am ex-army therefore my comment is more important than yours!”
Get over yourself Princess…I’m sorry, Prentice. You’re a nobody. You’re a science grad? Big deal man, that doesn’t mean dick. John Key is a commerce grad, if he came here and said “Hey I am a commerce grad!” mean you’d give him credence? No, it wouldn’t. So your credential bashing is meaningless. Particularly when nothing I said was scientifically invalid and the circumstances of this storm including the fullmoon/high tides and coalescence with other storms have been roucdly considered as rather an extraordinary circumstances leading to the dubbing of Sandy as a “frankenstorm”.
Explain to me again how hurricane induced storm surges at the height of a highest tide during a full moon before hitting cold fronts happens several times a month?
I know what you mean CV, all I do is mention, like most of the weathermen and media were doing, that the full-moon high-tide and the convergence of winter cold fronts hitting this storm make it particularly dangerous and suddenly Prentice starts calling me names, questioning my intelligence, before asserting these conditions happen several times a month (without any evidence) and trying to bully me with his credentials all while telling me I am ‘easy meat’ for him to attack me based up something I said that was scientifically valid and something that, you know actually happened.
Just another right-winger trying to pull someone down
… before asserting these conditions happen several times a month (without any evidence)
You really are lacking in attention to detail. Reread what I wrote and what I was responding to rather than bawling your hurt…
What you said was
I stated that the hurricane is hitting at a high tide which makes the storm surge much greater…not too mention a full moon which is a bad coincidence because high tides are much higher (admittedly this was missed in the original comment but what I was meant to be implying).
What I said was that those conditions
All of them will happen in this combination many times per year and frequently many times per month.
High tides happen several times per day – read a chart of tides. Close moons* can happen several days per month – these give the peak tides you were trying to articulate about – look on the chart of tides for expected tide levels. In hurricane season there may be quite a few hurricanes per month – look at the list of hurricanes for the caribbean. You also mentioned cold fronts – which again are not uncommon during hurricane season – read any weather chart.
If you put it all together you will find that in most years there are hurricanes somewhere that get all those effects in some location. The combination you were specifying isn’t anything special. It is likely to happen several times during hurricane season – often in the same month. Just read ANY book about weather patterns in the Caribbean and eastern US seaboard.
* Full moons are not relevant – that is just reflection of light of the sun and really has little effect. However I suspected that with your usual level of inaccuracy, you were trying to articulate something about the effect on tides of the precession of the lunar orbit, or if you were somewhat more sophisticated (unlikely) and understood about solar tides.
The interesting things about Sandy were that it got pinned by a arctic jetstream and pushed into the New Jersey coast instead of dissipating out in the Atlantic. It had exceptional levels of rain/energy (in hurricanes they are somewhat synonymous) because of the warmer water conditions off the US coast and the interaction with the cold jetstream, and that it went so far north because of those exceptional energy levels.
My real point was that you have no real idea of what you were talking about. Consequently you were waffling about a whole pile of irrelevancies with regard to the storm that was Sandy and ignoring all of the exceptional bits. And you are somewhat sensitive about being called an idiot because you were being such a superficial waffler.
“Full moons are not relevant – that is just reflection of light of the sun and really has little effect.”
Not relevant? Just a reflection? Little effect?
Orly, science guy?
“When the moon is full or new, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun are combined. At these times, the high tides are very high and the low tides are very low. This is known as a spring high tide. Spring tides are especially strong tides (they do not have anything to do with the season Spring). They occur when the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon are in a line. The gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun both contribute to the tides. Spring tides occur during the full moon and the new moon.” http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moontides/
“In hurricane season there may be quite a few hurricanes per month – look at the list of hurricanes for the caribbean.”
It is an additive effect (and also happens on a new moon) and the solar tide is a LOT smaller than the lunar tide. Same site further down in the section on Proxigean Spring Tide :-
The Moon follows an elliptical path around the Earth which has a perigee distance of 356,400 kilometers, which is about 92.7 percent of its mean distance. Because tidal forces vary as the third power of distance, this little 8 percent change translates into 25 percent increase in the tide- producing ability of the Moon upon the Earth
The lunar inclination is also out of plane relative to the sun and the earth which also affects the tide levels more than the solar tide. And then of course there are the precession effects. – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon
They haven’t pointed out the relative levels of the effects, but it is pretty obvious if you ever look at the equations for gravitional attraction that he is referring to. While the sun is has immensely higher mass than the moon (and therefore has a much higher gravitational attraction), it is also immensely further away (so the tidal influence is only a fraction of the moon). So it’s tidal effects are only a fraction of those caused by the moon’s orbit or for that matter by something even more local like windspeed or shore geography.
Of course the solar tide can pull things higher. But it is a small additional effect compared to those from the moon’s orbit.
1) it is currently only simulated science theory
2) what possible reason would you have for creating a frankenstorm this size where the central path diverts around New York? Surely based on that theory you’d be looking for the biggest damage inducer.
I’d go as far to say that even if the ability to effect hurricanes existed today it is far more likely that it could only be used divert weather.
But regardless weather modification doesn’t really belong in that list above unless weaponised which is against the UN Charter, which tends to suggest it’s not so hocus-pocus that the UN saw fit to outlaw it in the 70’s.
Whereas chemtrails/haarp/nwo are pretty far-out theories not based in reality.
You need a subscription to Scientific American to read that. The full version is here.
It deals with theoretical computer simulations of “hurricane intervention” using as-yet non-existent technology and notes that “if meteorological control does turn out to work at some point in the future, it would raise serious political problems.”
It irks me that on one hand many commentators on here will complain about the lack of truthful reporting in media regarding politics, climate change, police reports. And then act like there is no possibility of technologies that exist in theory and the lab being tested.
Not to say there’s any correlation in this event as far as I would expect/hope/believe.
But I can atleast fathom the idea.
Why would you expect them to mention that in media but then expect the lies where Domestic politics is involved.
Let me remind you that geo-engineering was a “conspiracy” not more than a few years ago. Now canada is charging someone with seeding the coastline with iron (or what ever the compound was).
Weather modification would have huge benefits where food supply and agriculture was involved and in a peak oil century ofcourse it’ll be looked at. Look at the national geographic issue lately on colonising mars. We have people thinking of weather modification on completely foreign planets, but we wouldn’t be looking at it on our own??
In my mind I fully expect Military and big business to be looking at it. The tech has existed since the 70’s. It would be prudent security and business sense to experiment with it. I remember reading that one kind of modification was trialled in asia to divert radiation from Fukishima.
And I abhor people closing the book on scienctific theory. People like you thought it was impossible to put a man on the moon at one time.
Given that teleportation and wormholes also “exist in theory and the lab being tested”, should we then discuss the possibility that the military are also using those in some way?
Indeed. But there’s a major leap between the theory and putting forward as a rational suggestion that they have it up and running and are using it for nefarious purposes.
Damn you for getting in first and making have to spell it out, like an idiot. This deliberate obfuscation it is enough to make me want to scratch my eyes out with frustration.
Can’t you get it?
We are in a fight for the survival of our civilisation and probably for a good part of humanity as well, And you make a stupid tinfoil hat claim of a conspiracy to upset the US election.
We are in a fight for the survival of our civilisation and probably for a good part of humanity as well, And you make a stupid tinfoil hat claim of a conspiracy to upset the US election.
Jenny, civilizations come and go, thats just the way it is. Humanity has been under attack much longer than those of you on the CC bandwagon have been banging on about, and planet earth will most likely continue on, despite the best efforts of those to try and control our little part of the universe.
Interesting to read some comments go from mocking, to conceding that there technologies have existed for decades to modify weather, but oh its a big leap to go from theory to practicle, as if those running such experiementation are going to broadcast it to the world, more than they already do!
Perhaps instead of trying to cover so many bases, and not making the best case in most of them, try focussing on something, e.g the PoAL situation, which you put some really good comments and information up on!
Edit: If you think I’m right wing, it only serves to show how your compass, while morally well set, it pointing you in the wrong direction!
Don’t fall into the the trap others here do by closing off yourself too much, as in this world, there is so much which we can’t/won’t see, and don’t understanding. Letting don’t understand become won’t/can’t understand, is to admit defeat!
Well, if you must know, I noticed it listed by Alternet as one of the “Five Crazy Right Wing Conspiracy Theories About Hurricane Sandy”. The timing seemed perfect, almost as though someone were working to a script.
What a patronising. ignorant git you are, muzza. Jenny has a proud history of activism, a lifetime of learning and has pretty direct experience of how the world really works. You, on the other hand, appear to be channelling Rick from the Young Ones.
I don’t know anything about Jennys background, and made no comment about it.
Looks like you were not able to avoid that school boy error!
Edit: Gosman, it sounds like the real you is back today.
And yes the weather can/has been controlled, engineered, and modified, long ago, the fact the UN “outlawed” it as not to be weaponised” was frankly laughable whoever made that statement. The UN says cluster bombs and DU are illegal too!
Yup, but overall the universe will ultimately do what it wants, spot on!
I get very frustrated by these arguments. On one hand Gosman and TRP annoy the crap out of me with their obdurate refusal to even think the conventional, mocking anything that isn’t within their view of the world.
At the same time you piss me by failing to apply some elementary logic and sceptical reasoning to your ideas. Like you I’m pretty clear that there is lot going on ‘behind the curtain’ as it were that us ordinary people are not privvy to. It’s good to be aware of that.
But at the same time we are NOT privvy to the details or the evidence. Just because something is possible does NOT make it certain. You only make a fool of yourself and discredit the fundamental case you are making by pretending otherwise. You don’t have to uncover the wizard’s trick in order to know he is magician, and trying to outsmart the magician on his own turf is always a blunder.
Otherwise you fall into the elementary trap that Shearer did a few weeks ago when he claimed there was a video of John Key talking to the GCSB about Dotcom. Now everyone knows that the video was almost certainly made …. but Shearer’s inability to produce it when challenged to do so allowed Key to turn a potential win into a loss.
At the same time you piss me by failing to apply some elementary logic and sceptical reasoning to your ideas..
Why do you get emotional about it Red? Can you elaborate where you feel I fail to apply logic and sceptical reasoning to, what are not my ideas at all, they are only my opinions based on readings, and personal experiences!
You only make a fool of yourself and discredit the fundamental case you are making by pretending otherwise.
Did you read my posts RL? – Where is it I have categorically pretended that I know otherwise?
What rubbish, Muzza. Your comprehension problems are probably what leads you to make such weird comments here. Garbage in, garbage out. The point I was making is that Jenny walks the walk. You talk the talk, but when you move your lips, all we hear is gibberish. Maybe when you leave your teenage years behind, you’ll start making sense. But I have my doubts.
Why on earth would you pretend to know what I do, its just assumption error after school-boy error with you, followed by transferance of “comprehension problems”, which given how this conversation is headed again, seems to be a repeated failing of yours!
Assumption Lesson 101: If you don’t know someone personally, never assume you know what that person, does, or does not do!
There is so much water in the oceans, which cover so much of the word at an average depth of 12,000 feet, he told the committee, that the deepest parts are extremely well insulated from any transient temperature changes at the surface. As decades and even in some cases more than 100 years of data show, water temperature does not usually vary much in the deepest parts of the ocean.
Over the past ten years, however, the average temperature of even this deepest water has started to rise. Given that the deep ocean is so well protected from the kinds of measuring problems that can confound temperature results on land, the deep water trend provides some of the best evidence to date that average temperatures on the Earth are climbing.
“There is no debate that the earth’s temperature is increasing,” McCarthy concluded. “Over the last half century the atmosphere, land surface, ocean surface and deep ocean and ice loss in polar regions have all confirmed this. And they can only be explained by the increase in greenhouse gases. There is no scientific evidence that refutes this conclusion.”
Testimony to the Senate committee hearing on climate change
No doubt further evidence of this unfolding climate disaster will be greeted with deafening silence by both the leading political parties in this country as well, and even the Greens will mute their response so as not to appear to radical.
At least be bitter in the right direction Jenny – Like with the Syria situation, you are again, on the wrong track.
muzza
muzza, no amount of mass murder from the air will save the Assad regime. In the eyes of the people it’s legitimacy is gone.
Despite the regime’s savage bombardment of rebel-held areas in Damascus, residents take to the streets of the capital’s Rukn el-Din neighbourhood to sing their opposition to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.
Hey muzza, give up the misdirection, drop the left humanist pose, I can see through your act. You are just another cynical, run of the mill, right wing misanthrope.
UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi expressed his regret yesterday at the failure of the four-day Eid truce in Syria as regime warplanes launched the most intense air raids since the uprising began 19 months ago.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the Syrian military was trying to compensate for recent losses on the ground with air strikes.
“Today has seen the most intense air raids across Syria since the start of the uprising,” he said.
“More than 100 buildings have been destroyed, some levelled to the ground,” said opposition activist Moaz Al Shami, who said he had witnessed three air raids in the northeastern suburb of Harasta alone. “Whole neighbourhoods are deserted … There is no food, water, electricity or telephones.”
The Damascus air raids followed what residents said were failed attempts by troops to storm eastern parts of the city.
“Tanks are deployed around Harat Al Shwam but they haven’t been able to go in. They tried a week ago,” said an activist who lives near the area…..
Ah shit you’re right I meant to say Syrian civil war, sorry.
Oh look, yet another news article saying that the Syrian rebels are accepting help from foreign fighters and foreign Al Qaeda, even though they know that some of them are religious extremists.
Jabhat al-Nusra is the largest grouping of foreign jihadis in Syria, and the rebels say they number about 300 fighters in Aleppo, as well as branches in neighboring Idlib province, the city of Homs and the capital Damascus. Any direct links to al-Qaida are unclear, although U.S. and Iraqi officials have said they believe members of al-Qaida’s branch in Iraq have crossed the border to join the fight against Assad.
There are no reliable figures for the number of foreign fighters in Syria, although available estimates put the number in the hundreds, rather than the thousands.
Sandy is an argument for continual voting where you can change your vote every say three months, and if for three months the governing party doesn’t have a majority it loses power to those who do.
But not all at once. In fact, as I recall, that’s why the registration system was changed from cars having the same registration date to a floating date. There was, quite simply, far too much administration taking place on one day of the year for no appreciable gain.
It sounds terrible. It means everything the government does must be absolutely populist or they’ll be voted out and replaced. With such short time frames it’d be impossible to implement new policies.
Now, continual voting whereby come election day the votes are crystalised, that’d be fine. But I don’t think that’s what aero is suggesting.
In the US they almost have continuous voting with the cycles of senate and representative elections. In the presidential elections they have been voting in some places for over a month – 15m votes already – but the results are not allowed to be reported. http://elections.gmu.edu/early_vote_2012.html
Lanth, your definition of “populist” applies equally well to all democratic representation and renders our entire system of government essentially meaningless.
Nothing wrong with holding that point of view, but don’t pretend it only applies to this one specific idea of how representative democracy might be practised.
The government’s announcements on improving housing affordability are useless….
1. Freeing up a widdle bit more land will do nothing to relevant land values in Auckland. ha ha ha.
2. Improving resource consent timeframes will do nothing. You don’t even need a resource consent to build a house ffs. And if you cannot get a resource consent through in 6 months for a subdivision then the applicant has done a useless job.
3. What was the other thing?
That has to be the most useless package I have ever seen.
Watched “that girl’ on TV last night, seems anywhere by NZ you can live in a renovated warehouse in the inner city, not in NZ. National predilection for more sprawl isn’t the answer.
“2. Improving resource consent timeframes will do nothing. You don’t even need a resource consent to build a house ffs. And if you cannot get a resource consent through in 6 months for a subdivision then the applicant has done a useless job.”
They had a developer on the news saying that basically when you’re doing a subdivision, you end up waiting for the consents etc. This means you end up borrowing money from the bank to cover this downtime and keep the project afloat, which results in more interest costs that are passed on to the final sale price. Also it just makes the whole exercise more difficult and costly trying to deal with shifting time frames.
Well I guess that would be an expected response. My time on the planet has taken me into this sphere many many times and there has never been any serious problem with Council timeframes. And that is in over 20 years.
The problems arise when a poorly structured application is put to Council. This industry attracts cowboys and secondhand car dealers. They put in bad applications that are incomplete and cause the Council grief. Good operators do not have this particular problem. It is a myth that English is playing politics with.
As for holding costs while going through consent – those operators need to factor it in. What do they expect? That they can fill out an A4-sized form and get consent the next day? Or some such similarity? They need to do their research and do the job properly.
Really, wonder where you get that from
The real issues to me at these:
Banks and their liberal loaning policies.
Extremely poor town planners who prepare crap plan changes that do not reflect the nature of the land, developers operate under council guidelines.
Immigration that central govt allows then walks away from the issues that this increase in pop. causes.
Poor planning in linking work, home, school, recreation etc
(Apologies for the length – but don’t yet have this anywhere where you could click on a link.)
WELLINGTON! LEARN FROM THE AUCKLAND $UPERCITY!
“CORRUPTION AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS”!
This presentation was filmed, and can be viewed, (after registering – costs nothing to register) at http://www.allaboutauckland.com/
“CORRUPTION AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS” 25 October 2012
________________________________________________________________________________
AUCKLAND COUNCIL GOVERNING BODY
25 OCTOBER 2012 PUBLIC FORUM
– “CORRUPTION AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS”
Penny Bright (Transcript)
“I hate to be the one to pop the hot air balloon, but New Zealand is actually a corrupt, polluted tax haven.
Although we are ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt country in the world’, the Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’ is actually based upon the subjective opinions of anonymous business people.
If NZ is ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ – arguably we should be the most transparent.
So – how come the ‘books’ of Auckland Council and Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) are NOT open?
How come we are not given the ‘devilish detail’ – the NAMES of the consultants/contractors; the SCOPE, the TERM and VALUE of the contracts?
As of 21 November last year, there were 5000 contracts to 12,500 suppliers.
Please be reminded Councillors, of your statutory duties under the Local Government Act :
s.14 Principles relating to local authorities
(1 )In performing its role, a local authority must act in accordance with the following principles:
(a)a local authority should—
(i) conduct its business in an open, transparent, and democratically accountable manner; and
(g)a local authority should ensure prudent stewardship and the efficient and effective use of its resources in the interests of its district or region;
You swear an Oath to the public:
“I, declare that I will faithfully and impartially, and according to the best of my skill and judgment, execute and perform, in the best interests of Auckland, the powers, authorities, and duties vested in or imposed upon me as a member of the Auckland Council by virtue of the Local Government Act 2002, the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, or any other Act.”
So, how come you are not carrying out your statutory duties?
How come you are not enforcing s.42 of the Local Government Act which makes it encumbent upon the CEO to ensure:
(2)A chief executive appointed under subsection (1) is responsible to his or her local authority for—
(e)maintaining systems to enable effective planning and accurate reporting of the financial and service performance of the local authority;
This is not the first time that I’ve raised these issues with you.
What channel that I could have gone down, have I not gone down?
I have made a formal complaint to the National Archives Office because under s.17 of the Public Records Act 2005:
17 Requirement to create and maintain records
(1)Every public office and local authority must create and maintain full and accurate records of its affairs, in accordance with normal, prudent business practice, including the records of any matter that is contracted out to an independent contractor.
You are not doing that.
And – who is holding you to account?
That’s why a formal complaint has been lodged with the Office of the Auditor-General and they ‘look at it before they look at it’ – but what this complaint is requesting is to investigate allegedly corrupt ‘conflicts of interest’ of Auckland Council CEO Doug McKay who is also a member of the extremely powerful private lobby group – the Committee for Auckland.
How many contracts have been awarded by Auckland Council and any of the following CCOs to member companies of the Committee for Auckland?
Watercare Services Ltd
Auckland Transport
ATEED (Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development Ltd)
ACIL (Auckland Council Investment Ltd)
AWDA (Auckland Waterfront Development Agency Ltd)
RFA (Regional Facilities Auckland)
ACPL (Auckland Council Property Ltd)
Also – we want an investigation – why has Auckland Council not ensured CEO Doug McKay has carried out his statutory duties?
Since 2006 – people such as myself organized opposition to the ‘Supercity’ because we said
the ‘Supercity’ was not to benefit the majority of citizens and ratepayers.
The purpose of the ‘Supercity’ was to set up a bigger public trough, for fewer, but bigger private snouts.
Now we have the evidence to support this.
The fact of the matter is that the ‘Supercity’ was a corrupt corporate coup – the organizational mechanism for the corporate takeover being the CCO model, which has never been subject to any ‘cost-benefit’ analysis by the Office of the Auditor-General; the Department of Internal Affairs; Treasury or any Council.
To finish – I believe there should be NO TAXATION without TRANSPARENCY or ACCOUNTABILITY. That’s why I have not paid my rates since 2008, and I refuse to do so.
I believe that the people of Auckland must make a stand to take back our region from corporate control, and I call on people to take that action. NO SAY – NO PAY!
QUESTION FROM COUNCILLOR CATHY CASEY:
“What response have you had from Council when you have asked for the list of contractors that you named – the 5000 and 12,500 suppliers.
What reason have you been given for withholding this information?”
MY REPLY:
Reasons given on 21 November 2011 from Darrell Griffin (Manager for Democracy Services):
When I asked:
” 1) Is the Auckland Council, in a truly ‘open, transparent and democratically-accountable’ way,
going to ensure that citizens and ratepayers of the Auckland region are going to be given the ‘devilish’ detail,
so we can see exactly where our rates monies are being spent on private sector consultants and contractors?
a) Are the names of the consultants/ contractors; the scope, term and value of these contracts going to be
published in the Auckland Council annual Report so that they are available for public scrutiny?
b) If not – why not?
(ANSWER) Not at this stage. there are 500 contracts related to 12,500 suppliers. To collate and publish these
would be a major exercise logistically and cost-wise. ”
That is the answer – the books are not open – they are still not open.
I checked on the website this morning in the forlorn hope that there might have been some development.
You put ‘contracts’ in the Council website – you find nothing.
But – on the front page of the Auckland Council website – ‘Investment in Auckland’.
If you are an investor – Auckland Council is very keen to help you and give you information.
If you are a ratepayer wanting to know where your monies are being spent – sorry – BAD LUCK.
Just one final point.
This book to which I was referring contains ten new ‘Items of Evidence’ that High Court Judge Ellis allowed
me to adduce in the Occupy Auckland vs Auckland Council case at which I was an Appellant.
So – it’s not only the Office of the Auditor-General looking at these issues – also a High Court Judge.
________________________________________________________________________________
The SIS told the Immigration NZ in October last year that Kim Dotcom posed no threat to the security of NZ.
So, why the Hollywood style raid at his Coatesville residence in January of this year? If he was no security risk then all they needed to do was knock on his front door.
And that leads to another question. Why was John Key happy for them to carry out the raid on Dotcom’s property? Yes, we know he claims he never knew about it, but we all know now that he did – from October of last year!
So, why the Hollywood style raid at his Coatesville residence in January of this year? If he was no security risk then all they needed to do was knock on his front door.
Yep. Two constables turning up in a Holden would have done the trick.
Anne in Hollywood, woops I mean America, if you put on a huge production when arresting someone for say, running/owning a raw foods store, or arrest the armish for selling raw foods/ milk, or arrest someone who is growing fresh produce in their own garden, then you set the stage for the public to assume guilt, because hey, if they sent in SWAT/FBI so that person must have done something really bad right!
Its all for show, there is no other reason for it!
The SIS have said they were not involved in the surveillance of Dotcom, but did pass on a request in October last year from the FBI to New Zealand police about carrying out a joint investigation into his activities.
And Key claims he never knew anything? Just how gullible does he think we are?
Top Auckland schools that offer the system have been asked to a meeting by Auckland University tomorrow, amid concerns that younger students pushed through Cambridge are struggling with higher education.
Schools including Kings College say the Cambridge exams are a better system than NCEA.
So, the students that go through the ‘better’ system are struggling…
Right, that would indicate that it’s not actually the better system.
Cambridge suits cramming and practising exams as Auckland Grammar prides itself.
But it does not result in absence of planning/research skills/independent study/ and thus struggling at University level. This is the same problem faced by students at traditional private schools who are highly organised but ignoring self motivation self organisation.
Oops “But it does not result in absence of planning/research skills/independent study…..”
“But it does result in absence of planning/research skills/independent study……
Exactly. My experience with “gifted” kids from the “elite” schools at the university level is that many of them do not know how to self-motivate. They also think in a very linear fashion and are hopeless at open ended problems. Where they excel is at paint by numbers type stuff.
On the other hand, kids from normal schools who make it to university are often glad to have the opportunity to learn and make the most of it. They do not suffer from any sense of entitlement concerning the degree or diploma they think they deserve once a few tasks have been completed.
Note that this is a total generalisation from my own experiences and I have not done any scientific study of the matter. Somebody probably has.
I disagree. Its your job, you are the expert educationist, and sure people from different backgrounds come incumbered with different problems. But worse, its not your job to turn out work ready, hungry capitalists, or any particular type. It is certainly true though that people desperate for success are likely to be fawning over themselves to feed narcissists. If a student is not engaging in your course, then it could be your course is boring, you teaching style doesn’t work for them, or the student is depressed for some personal reason, etc, etc, i.e. its an opportunity to learn, which is why you work in a learning establishment. The concern I have is how saturated our society has become with the needs of business, like every good idea, ideal, social good, can only come about if someone is profiting from their exploitation.
One point – it is talking about students who are going to university straight from year 12, so they should be having another year at school. It does not say that students who complete year 13 are having any issues.
Sounds like the major issue is it is too easy to get UE in year 12 for Cambridge rather than either system being better.
There’s nothing wrong with school, I had a great time…played sport, ate my lunch, fired a few spit balls.
Although, I was lucky in that I didn’t bother doing any school work. That meant that I didn’t have to unlearn all that rubbish when I started life, and I also had nothing to unlearn when I got to uni.
There’s no doubt that Nationals environmentally naïve policy direction will not only be detrimental to our clean and green branding, but our Kiwi way of life as well.
And only you knows what that is, alone against the forces of evil; brave, noble Muzza, sticking it to the man, revealing all the secret plans and weapons. If only they could figure out how to keep you from hacking the innermost working of their minds, but you are too smart for them, with your keyboard in one hand and your tool in the other.
Good, you do understand what being a tool is, self awareness is important!
The other option is that you think the IMF exist for the good of “man kind”, and you can’t be that clueless!
Its not possible to be inside the minds of others (although yours is rather tranparent), but when you pay attention, over a long enough period of time, and spend a little time trying to piece things togther, it is possible to form opinions, many of which might not add up to those who don’t bother!
Does it make me right, no, does it make me more likely to be nearer understanding than those who categorically rule out possibilities that the world has more doing on than can see seen, of course it does!
We built sprawl, sprawl that had no environmental costing because oil was cheap, energy was assumed always to be cheap. We built our tower of ?Babel? inside out, instead of a multitude of different language being the fault, it was the one ruling ring of power, aka neo-liberalists never make mistakes because the market never fails.
Do you think there is any worth in attaching a poll function for article authors to chose to add to their posts?
With the high volume of traffic here, yet fewer number of regular commenters, would this be a way to measure trends of opinion as accurately as any other online polling system, such as MSM news sources? Some visitors may be interested in articles, but may not have the confidence or time to articulate their point of view – or need to repeat comments already made. Since subjects here often amount to a simple either/or/alternative conclusion, would a poll shorten, but increase, wider community participation?
For example, the article on plain packaging on cigarettes has good arguments and eventually a reader is left to ask themselves, do I support this or not? Today, another author asks, does anyone support the mindset of Anyone But Cunliffe anymore? Another author asks, is government intervention the answer to an affordable housing crisis? There are other questions posed in these articles too, which the authors may want to promote instead of the obvious.
It would be as flawed as any other unofficial survey, but the polls, tied to the subjects and perspectives of the authors, would at least create varied poll questions instead of a single point of view from a single editorial office.
From The Standard’s point of view, it wins a collection of collated opinion, framed in it’s own language, from a sympathetic perspective, that could be made into a monthly review/summary of trends. The trends/opinions, of course, reflecting the views of the community, rather than The Standard, its authors or administration. Since TS contributors are often refered to as extremists (to put it politely) would their collated views be a portion of the public opinion market not yet recognised and measured? Reviews need not be strictly scientific. Depending on the manner of the poll question, a conclusion that Minister X is a Genius/Nutbox could be as valid as a report that a specific policy has a certain percentage of support from TS readers.
Could a poll feature combine a bit of fun, a bit of science, an option for silent readers to be heard and possibly become a point of reference and media influence?
I think we’ve talked about polls in the past and decided they were a waste of time because the results are meaningless, even if they weren’t rigged by one side or the other.
Suicide is about loss of control over ones life, the ability to make choices, to gain status, to solve problems, in my opinion, and the prospect that nothing is going to change.
Government is oppressive, it creeps into every aspect of our lives, selecting winners (like those who have money and are given the incentive of free untaxed capital gains). And then government fails to address the problem. Then a utlra conservative leader, John Key, does nothing to change matters. So asking Key about Suicide, is like asking someone who had the choices, who has great status, who feels the need to help the winners not the also rans, and has time after time done nothing to change the status quo.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10842385
It seems that Auckland does not have 18,000
Sections available this is the land that is Zoned is 18,000,there are about 3000 available or being developed the other 15000 have impediments like water care not having in its construction program for 4+ years to deliver water or find for storm water management. Other issues are awaiting for council to construct or improve its road network to service these developments even though council has been receiving contributions and levies for these.
Unfortunately some of Les’s advisors have been misleading him and making him look silly
One final point on land availability is that even if there was adequate zoned land available, there still is a reluctance for those Australian banks to fund the development. I am aware of quite a few large developments (200-1500 lot developments) that are hamstrung by the financial constraints that limits pace of development. As banks are still land adverse and are wanting the debt reduced and any “surplus” can go towards future development and capitalising of interest is not an option so must be financed from existing cash flows or additional capital. I had heard that these banks were wishing to divest out of development in NZ, wishing to use these funds to invest in Australia where the banks hierarchy is better acquainted with and developments like those in Queenstown Nigel McKenna (Kawerau Falls), http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/518956/Queenstown-edgy-as-finance-companies-fail.
It is somewhat a paradoxical the banks are falling over themselves in refueling the property boom but are reluctant to fund the development.
Yet not a mention of this issue in regard to the creation of new residential land.
I was expecting to see David Shearer rip into Kate Wilkinson on the 6pm news about their latest attack on vulnerable workers.
I’ve been waiting all day because everyone knew it was coming.
Did anyone see the news? Was there a response to this? There is nothing on the usual websites.
Please don’t tell me Fozzie Bear was asleep at the wheel again.
In Brazil the newspapers are very closely linked to particular political parties. It doesn’t surprise me at all that the likes of Rede Globo and Editora Abril would put this effort into exposing the corruption of what they see as a socialist government. As a comparison, imagine the lengths our media would go to if we had a Mana/Greens government.
john72 …
Today’s Quote:- 1 Corinthians 13:11 “When I was a child I spoke as a child…”
The limited vocabulary of some authors is sad because, not only does it destroy the author’s credibility, something they deserve, but it lowers the level of “Open Mike” as a whole. It raises the question, “Is it worth reading Open Mike ?” I do not want to waste my time watching people abuse each other.
However, there still seem to be some interesting contributors. It is a pity that the children have such an adverse effect.
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TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
Today marks a tragic milestone for New Zealanders as the Coalition Government side with big tobacco to repeal the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins and Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
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Speaking the words might mean – having to address them
Latest report on Hurricane Sandy from stuff.co.nz
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/7875891/Monster-Hurricane-Sandy-gathers-strength
Scattered through the report;
Words like, monster, monstrous, largest, major, rare, hybrid, exceptional, severe, historic, life threatening, not typical, superstorm, megastorm, mass evacuations.
From the president down, not one mention of the two words at the back of everyone’s mind
Talk about self censorship
Weather Modification
Agreed Jenny, its most likely not something they are not too keen to bring attention to, in case people start asking tough questions!
Right on election time, boom, a storm like never seen before, almost like someone was writing a script!
Is this what you mean ?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/oct/01/china-cloud-seeding-parade
Nope, he means that the weather is a massive global conspiracy, perpetrated by Bill Gates and the US military.
Sad but true.
Yes weather modification has been a stated goal by the DoD, and military dating back many decades now, and countries around the world make use of “weather control” in various ways.
Sad is not even having the stomach or mental strength to read what has been mainstream information about the subject for many years Bloke. There is plenty of details around, they were at it generations back, so like with all technologies, as time progresses, so do the techniques!
Which means that the storm currently affecting New York has been created deliberately, or that you are delusional.
PS: finding your delusions ridiculous ≠ a measure of my “stomach or mental strength”. That’s simply your ego lashing out 😀
There is every chance that it has been, sure, because the technologies/techniques exist to do so.
Edit: Dude you are an unoriginal parrot! If you think its clever mocking something, which has been written about, published on and happening for decades, then thats your choice!
Just don’t go parroting your weakness back in my direction!
If you think your opinions are a reasonable summation of that “which has been written about, published on and happening for decades”, what does that say about me?
PS: “A reasonable chance”???? ROFLMAO
Oh come one oth, HAARP has obviously been hijacked by aliens in revenge for their spaceship that was shot down in 1947 outside Roswell…
Shit! I’d forgotten them. Where do you suppose the Buzz Aldrin cabal fit in? Will they form an uneasy alliance with HAARP to repel the common enemy?
I think that’s a good possibility. The illuminati have grown too powerful for either to tolerate them after their use of an antimatter bomb to destroy London during the Olympics. Luckily TBTP managed to cover it up as a fireworks display.
“The lunatic is all idée fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars.”
― Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum
Right on election time, boom, a storm like never seen before, almost like someone was writing a script!
Oh ffs.
What’s the theory here?
I thought you believed that the elections themselves don’t matter, b/c TBTB win either way. So why would they be bothering with engineering a massive storm, in ways unnoticed by everyone, in order to achieve, what?
You’re a parody of yourself muzza.
Who knows why TPTB do these things, Pb. The other day we had a massive downpour just as I was about to paint the shed, as if someone was writing a script. It’s amazing, the granular level these plans can get down to.
It’s not all bad, though – I needed to get some washing dry and it was sunny! Thanks TPTB!
I thought I’d lost my wallet, but TPTB had just put it in my other coat. Bastards.
I think you’ll find that was the Underpants Gnomes. Credit where it’s due.
1. Put McFlock’s wallet in other coat.
2. ???
3. Profit!!!
Elections don’t matter PB, not overall in any case, I’m sure you might be able to string that together, and think experimentation, as opposed to theory eh!
My contention is simply that there exists the technology, and the stated desire to “control weather”, “weather modify”, or whatever you prefer to call it, and has been going on a long time.
The fact that the “largest storm in US history” fantastically arrives in time for elections, may simply just be “the storm of a century”, but because technologies and stated desire exist, surely the question has to be asked, just what is this “franken-storm”!
Felix – Shame about your shed, if suns out today, perhaps get some exercise, and put some elbow into it!
Don’t feed the Tar Baby.
The fact that the “largest storm in US history” fantastically arrives in time for elections, may simply just be “the storm of a century”, but because technologies and stated desire exist, surely the question has to be asked, just what is this “franken-storm”!
Maybe because the elections are always the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and late October / early November is a storm season?
http://www.weather.com/news/fall-expectations-20120915?pageno=8
That explains the timing of the elections: to give TPTB cover for their weaponised storms 😉
It’s a dumb theory anyway. If they wanted to disrupt the elections, it should be arriving next Tuesday, not this Tuesday.
I guess weather modification is more art than science at the moment.
Really? Weather modification?
Every fucking time there is an earthquake or a storm the conspiracy theorists scream:
CHEMTRAILS/HAARP/WEATHERMODIFICATION/TINHFOILHAT/NWO!
Storms and earthquakes can happen without human intervention
This storm probably is the result of human intervention, though, TC, because climate change is going to make/is already making these events a regular occurence.
Totes agree re: the tinfoil hat brigade. Blaming everything on a worldwide conspiracy is a great excuse for both intellectual and physical laziness.
“This storm probably is the result of human intervention, though, TC, because climate change is going to make/is already making these events a regular occurence.”
Storms were already a regular occurence and this one is so dangerous because it is hitting to other fronts and it is hitting at high tide, neither of which have to do with climate change. Climate change probably does have a part to play but in this instance there are other factors which have nothing to do with AWG which make this a very dangerous storm.
I believe you are wrong, TC. The frequency and intensity of these storms are both increasing, as most climate change models predict.
The high tide thing is a red herring. Obviously the storm is going to last through the full daily cycle of tides and its effects will be worse at the high tide, but that’s not significant.
I think the weird thing about this situation is that Obama cannot say ‘sorry folks, if we want to live like pigs, then this is what happens’ because it allows the Republicans to use the climate change stick to hit him with and it changes the dynamic of the election. Obama has chosen to keep quiet on the possible link to climate change and he will ride out this storm, and will be trying to look as Presidential as possible as he tours the damaged suburbs tomorrow.
I am in no way claiming AWG has no place here but what makes this a super storm is meeting two other fronts which are part of a normal weather pattern.
I don’t dispute that AGW makes storms more intense.
High tides are very significant when it comes to storm surges:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2012/10/29/sandy-full-moon-tide/1666479/
Warmer air holds more moisture, therefore 100% of the weather is affected by AGW.
Moreover, Hansen and Sato’s Climate Dice are increasingly loaded.
Whether or not this particular (“Frankenstorm”) occurrence could not have happened without AGW, it’s clear from actual observations (not models) that extreme outliers are happening with increasing frequency.
Which, funnily enough, is pretty much what the models predicted. Blow me down with a feather.
Yeah I was reading that it is due to AGW that this storm got so far north
Well exactly. It went looking for drowning polar bears.
In this case the problem was a cold jet stream that oscillated further south than usual and hitting a equatorial born hurricane. The reason for that happening is the increased energy in the system – especially the heightened arctic temperatures.
It has been pretty predictable for a few decades that if you increase arctic temperatures you will wind up with increased temperature gradients further south in the Atlantic. Measurements over the last decade have shown that is indeed what has been happening at a statistically significant level. Weather is powered by temperature gradients and moisture. So increasing the gradients by having polar and equatorial weather systems colliding and providing more moisture from warmer equatorial seas is going to give bigger and more powerful storms.
This is what earth scientists mean when they say that increased retention of energy causes an increase in the frequency of ‘extreme’ weather events.
It is hitting on several ‘fronts’ because it is a bloody big storm with a lot of energy (about 1600km’s or so in diameter from what I hear). It is several times bigger than the usual hurricanes because of the temperature gradient. This means that it hits a lot of coastline. Of course high tides happen several times per day and at different times in different locations over a few thousand kms of coastline. The probability of a big storm hitting somewhere at high tide is remarkably high – in fact damn near certain.
Are you really as much of a fool about basic science, geography and stats as you seem?
I’d expect to see several of this level of storm over the next decade and some nasty winter weather up north because of the rate at which the arctic is melting. Especially over the next few years because of el-nino and the solar max pushing more heat around. The north will get an increasing frequency of these types of storms and especially in the narrow Atlantic. The previous storm at this level was in the 30’s and I think you have to look deep into the 19th to see anything similar.
This type of storm and crazy winters will be pretty normal in a few decades in the north america and northern europe.
“Are you really as much of a fool about basic science, geography and stats as you seem?”
you fucking nitwit. It’s good to see moderators laying down totally out of blue insults on others for no apparent reason.
Asshole.
I wasn’t doing it as a moderator. That is usually pretty noticeable because it looks like
[lprent: notes ]
As well as being a moderator I frequently comment. I tend to get quite acidic on people misrepresenting on topics I know well.
I particularly like educating about basic earth sciences (my first degree) in a way that is memorable when people say something quite stupid. It helps to reduce my pain at seeing them mangling simple heat exchanges with meaningless explanations.
But you notice the fulsome explanation that I provided about exactly why you were making particularly idiotic and indefensible assertions?
Perhaps you should read it. It might help you in avoiding my irritation
So what was it I said that was stupid?
I never denied AGW, I never denied AGW had a part to play in this storm, I accepted AGW makes storm more intense, I accepted the AGW caused this storm to move further North, I commented that the two fronts this system is to hit makes it more dangerous than other storms, I commented that both these cold fronts were part of normal weather patterns, I made note of the high tide which increases the danger of storm surges.
Come on, old wolf.
Show me where my misrepresentation is
The bit that caught my eye was the section that I quoted.
The reason why the two “fronts”* were colliding was precisely because of the increased energy from melting in the Arctic is pushing cold jetstreams further south. The tropical hurricanes have probably been getting more energetic (not statistically significant yet) in the water borne heat that drives them from slightly warmer tropical seas. But that just increases the energy available and possibly slightly increases their range.
firstly: The shift in the arctic jetstreams has been proven to a statistically significant level over the last few years. Exceptional storms like this one are therefore increasingly more likely. If they hadn’t collided then all other factors (tides etc) are largely irrelevant because the hurricane would have been pretty normal and largely spent before hitting the US continental shores.
secondly: Large storms hit large amounts of shore over quite a long period of time. Statistically they will have high tides across a lot of those stores. It isn’t a coincidence that high tides coincide with large storms hitting shore. What would be more surprising if they did not.
Your statement was absurdly reductionist and tried to treat factors as seperate and coincidental. They aren’t. They are quite predictable to come together in this combination now that the Arctic jetstreams are moving further south. Read the links.
* Actually it is a high altitude dry cold oscillating jetstream and a lower altitude warm and water laden cyclonic storm extending into the jetstreams altitude causing condensation and a massive release of energy from water. It is not two “fronts”
Lynn is not an asshole.
He is a cunt.
[lprent: I’d hate to think what you are using that analogy. A burst appendix? Something else that is pretty damn pointless and appears to be an evolutionary dead end. ]
I never stated it was a coincidence, I stated that the hurricane is hitting at a high tide which makes the storm surge much greater…not too mention a full moon which is a bad coincidence because high tides are much higher (admittedly this was missed in the original comment but what I was meant to be implying).
Also there are these fronts hitting at same time as this hurricane which is also a bad news and makes the storm worse.
Those are the two points I made.
Neither of which deserved this response:
“Are you really as much of a fool about basic science, geography and stats as you seem?”
I made no denial of AGW or any denial AGW had any effect here but pointed out two factors that can happen outside of AGW therefore it isn’t a purely AGW causing this to be such a hectic storm.
Read my first reply carefully. I didn’t mention AGW at all.
I just talked about the consequences of increased Arctic temperatures. Something that you appear to either be diverting away from or too dumb to follow (in the latter case why are you bothering to speak?).
Your other points are simple trivia. There is nothing exceptional or surprising in any of them. All of them will happen in this combination many times per year and frequently many times per month.
What is exceptional is the energy in this storm, and that the northerners are likely to get more of them because the Arctic is warmer. Now I’m aware that that is caused by AGW, however that wasn’t what I was rapping you over the head for.
You were trying to say that the severity of this storm was exceptional because of trivial effects. That was (to put it mildly) complete crap….
So if you’re quite finished attempting moronic diversions from what is actually interesting to your simplistic and incorrect “explanations”… Just find something that is less able to be demolished.
Otherwise I’d better do some work and finish this transformation matrix.
“Read my first reply carefully. I didn’t mention AGW at all. I just talked about the consequences of increased Arctic temperatures. Something that you appear to either be diverting away from or too dumb to follow (in the latter case why are you bothering to speak?).”
Increased Arctic temperatures are not to do with AGW? Funny, I was sure they were. I am not diverting at all and your “too dumb” remark is just childish.
What a great example for a moderator you are.
“Your other points are simple trivia. There is nothing exceptional or surprising in any of them. All of them combine to happen in this combination many times per year and frequently many times per month.”
Really, a sizable Hurricane hitting a major coastline during a full-moon high-tide before careering into winter front’s from the South happens several times per month?
Fact remains I pointed to things which are making this bad storm worse, neither of which are trivial and nothing of which are factually incorrect.
You haven’t actually demolished anything except for any reason why anyone should hold any respect for you at all.
It isn’t relevant to the effects of elevated Arctic temperatures – which with it’s effect on Atlantic storms is of more immediate interest.
That happens several times per year. You should read up on the frequency of hurricanes from their Caribbean generation points (or are you solely interested in their effects on the US and Canada?). They usually hit other weather fronts and they usually cross high tides on one or more of the islands before dissipating in the Atlantic .
Exceptional tides can happen several times per month depending on orbits. Hurricanes frequently coincide with them.
None of that is exceptional. You can expect combinations like that every year. Whereas what this storm’s energy level is something that occurs normally with many decades between instances.
And none of them in anyway compare to the effects of having a cold jetstream hitting the upper levels of a warm cyclone. They are quite simply trivial by comparison. You do the maths. It is like adding tritium to a fission bomb for its effects.
Relying on “facts” rather than actually understanding what they mean is really kind of stupid. Of course it is how you can construct an argument that sounds good but is spurious and has no substance – as millions of weak essays by schoolchildren and undergrads well demonstrate. Confuses those who don’t know better and usually gets a C or even a B-. But it is a rather weak reed to cling to if you ever have to defend it.
As I said before, diversions when you can’t argue really are kind of stupid.
I have no interest in being ‘respected’, liked, or anything else. I run and maintain the site. When I have time and I’m interested in something I do enjoy debate on subjects with substance – but that seldom happens due to lack of time.
But I also enjoy being a complete arsehole (as HS puts it with bad spelling) when I see someone feeding a line of bullshit on a subject I’m interested in. It allows me to keep in practice while educating the inexperienced about what can happen. I wouldn’t get too upset about it. And you really should look at your personal defenses. Getting that upset about an opinion on your comments really does make you look like easy meat.
Wow, not only an asshole but an arrogant cock too.
Ummm. I’m a science grad, ex-army, ex-factory manager, a Otago MBA, a hell of a hardcore programmer, occasional CTO or lead programmer or team leader when I can’t get out of it, and I’ve been around the net and it’s predecessors since about 1980. Why should I not know exactly where the limits to my knowledge and understanding are?
I’m not some inexperienced poseur – but they are somewhat easy to recognize..
“He is a cunt.”
… You fail basic biology forever.
“Ummm. I’m a science grad, ex-army, ex-factory manager, a Otago MBA, a hell of a hardcore programmer, occasional CTO or lead programmer or team leader when I can’t get out of it, and I’ve been around the net and it’s predecessors since about 1980.”
You’re pretty cool, dude. I surprised you can even stand yourself, what with your complete misrepresentation of others and your seeming indifference to it because, hey. why should you care? After all you’re a ” science grad, ex-army, ex-factory manager, a Otago MBA, a hell of a hardcore programmer, occasional CTO or lead programmer or team leader when I can’t get out of it”
I also like the way you went “ummm” before detailing your inflated sense of authority as if I were to go “Oh shit, I didn’t realise what I was dealing with!”
The fact you even lay this down betrays a giant inferiority complex from someone who despite all this has achieved fuck all apart from being an asshole moderator who completely ignores his own rules while moderating because, in reality, his detailing this supposed experience is completely fucking meaningless to the comment at hand.
“I am ex-army therefore my comment is more important than yours!”
Get over yourself Princess…I’m sorry, Prentice. You’re a nobody. You’re a science grad? Big deal man, that doesn’t mean dick. John Key is a commerce grad, if he came here and said “Hey I am a commerce grad!” mean you’d give him credence? No, it wouldn’t. So your credential bashing is meaningless. Particularly when nothing I said was scientifically invalid and the circumstances of this storm including the fullmoon/high tides and coalescence with other storms have been roucdly considered as rather an extraordinary circumstances leading to the dubbing of Sandy as a “frankenstorm”.
Explain to me again how hurricane induced storm surges at the height of a highest tide during a full moon before hitting cold fronts happens several times a month?
Diversion. Boring – no new arguments. Reread my comments..
I thought these Right Wingers were all about achievement and taking personal responsibility in life.
Turns out they’re actually just a bunch of envious pull’m down, uh, cherubs.
I know what you mean CV, all I do is mention, like most of the weathermen and media were doing, that the full-moon high-tide and the convergence of winter cold fronts hitting this storm make it particularly dangerous and suddenly Prentice starts calling me names, questioning my intelligence, before asserting these conditions happen several times a month (without any evidence) and trying to bully me with his credentials all while telling me I am ‘easy meat’ for him to attack me based up something I said that was scientifically valid and something that, you know actually happened.
Just another right-winger trying to pull someone down
… before asserting these conditions happen several times a month (without any evidence)
You really are lacking in attention to detail. Reread what I wrote and what I was responding to rather than bawling your hurt…
What you said was
What I said was that those conditions
High tides happen several times per day – read a chart of tides. Close moons* can happen several days per month – these give the peak tides you were trying to articulate about – look on the chart of tides for expected tide levels. In hurricane season there may be quite a few hurricanes per month – look at the list of hurricanes for the caribbean. You also mentioned cold fronts – which again are not uncommon during hurricane season – read any weather chart.
If you put it all together you will find that in most years there are hurricanes somewhere that get all those effects in some location. The combination you were specifying isn’t anything special. It is likely to happen several times during hurricane season – often in the same month. Just read ANY book about weather patterns in the Caribbean and eastern US seaboard.
* Full moons are not relevant – that is just reflection of light of the sun and really has little effect. However I suspected that with your usual level of inaccuracy, you were trying to articulate something about the effect on tides of the precession of the lunar orbit, or if you were somewhat more sophisticated (unlikely) and understood about solar tides.
The interesting things about Sandy were that it got pinned by a arctic jetstream and pushed into the New Jersey coast instead of dissipating out in the Atlantic. It had exceptional levels of rain/energy (in hurricanes they are somewhat synonymous) because of the warmer water conditions off the US coast and the interaction with the cold jetstream, and that it went so far north because of those exceptional energy levels.
My real point was that you have no real idea of what you were talking about. Consequently you were waffling about a whole pile of irrelevancies with regard to the storm that was Sandy and ignoring all of the exceptional bits. And you are somewhat sensitive about being called an idiot because you were being such a superficial waffler.
Get over it and do better.
“Full moons are not relevant – that is just reflection of light of the sun and really has little effect.”
Not relevant? Just a reflection? Little effect?
Orly, science guy?
“When the moon is full or new, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun are combined. At these times, the high tides are very high and the low tides are very low. This is known as a spring high tide. Spring tides are especially strong tides (they do not have anything to do with the season Spring). They occur when the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon are in a line. The gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun both contribute to the tides. Spring tides occur during the full moon and the new moon.”
http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moontides/
“In hurricane season there may be quite a few hurricanes per month – look at the list of hurricanes for the caribbean.”
Orly?
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/E17.html
So, any stats on how many hit cold front’s while making land fall in the mid-Atlantic states?
It is an additive effect (and also happens on a new moon) and the solar tide is a LOT smaller than the lunar tide. Same site further down in the section on Proxigean Spring Tide :-
The lunar inclination is also out of plane relative to the sun and the earth which also affects the tide levels more than the solar tide. And then of course there are the precession effects. – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon
They haven’t pointed out the relative levels of the effects, but it is pretty obvious if you ever look at the equations for gravitional attraction that he is referring to. While the sun is has immensely higher mass than the moon (and therefore has a much higher gravitational attraction), it is also immensely further away (so the tidal influence is only a fraction of the moon). So it’s tidal effects are only a fraction of those caused by the moon’s orbit or for that matter by something even more local like windspeed or shore geography.
Of course the solar tide can pull things higher. But it is a small additional effect compared to those from the moon’s orbit.
Better let National Geographic know it isn’t really relevant
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/121029-hurricane-sandy-path-storm-surge-full-moon-nation-weather-science/
and these guys:
http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/3690-hurricane-sandy-full-moon-storm-surge.html
Can I clarify, are you questioning it’s existence
I only ask because it does:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=controlling-hurricanes
1) it is currently only simulated science theory
2) what possible reason would you have for creating a frankenstorm this size where the central path diverts around New York? Surely based on that theory you’d be looking for the biggest damage inducer.
I’d go as far to say that even if the ability to effect hurricanes existed today it is far more likely that it could only be used divert weather.
But regardless weather modification doesn’t really belong in that list above unless weaponised which is against the UN Charter, which tends to suggest it’s not so hocus-pocus that the UN saw fit to outlaw it in the 70’s.
Whereas chemtrails/haarp/nwo are pretty far-out theories not based in reality.
You need a subscription to Scientific American to read that. The full version is here.
It deals with theoretical computer simulations of “hurricane intervention” using as-yet non-existent technology and notes that “if meteorological control does turn out to work at some point in the future, it would raise serious political problems.”
My emphasis.
I suggest you go and calculate how much energy it would take to create that storm.
the flapping of a butterfly’s wings 🙂
Heh.
that’s correct 😉
😛
Yeh most of the energy required was naturally stored in warm water around the Caribbean.
Indeed quite a few “A” bombs required for that one
It irks me that on one hand many commentators on here will complain about the lack of truthful reporting in media regarding politics, climate change, police reports. And then act like there is no possibility of technologies that exist in theory and the lab being tested.
Not to say there’s any correlation in this event as far as I would expect/hope/believe.
But I can atleast fathom the idea.
Why would you expect them to mention that in media but then expect the lies where Domestic politics is involved.
Let me remind you that geo-engineering was a “conspiracy” not more than a few years ago. Now canada is charging someone with seeding the coastline with iron (or what ever the compound was).
Weather modification would have huge benefits where food supply and agriculture was involved and in a peak oil century ofcourse it’ll be looked at. Look at the national geographic issue lately on colonising mars. We have people thinking of weather modification on completely foreign planets, but we wouldn’t be looking at it on our own??
In my mind I fully expect Military and big business to be looking at it. The tech has existed since the 70’s. It would be prudent security and business sense to experiment with it. I remember reading that one kind of modification was trialled in asia to divert radiation from Fukishima.
And I abhor people closing the book on scienctific theory. People like you thought it was impossible to put a man on the moon at one time.
Given that teleportation and wormholes also “exist in theory and the lab being tested”, should we then discuss the possibility that the military are also using those in some way?
They’re actively conducting such experiments in attempts to create “un-interceptable” communications systems, and who knows what else.
Indeed. But there’s a major leap between the theory and putting forward as a rational suggestion that they have it up and running and are using it for nefarious purposes.
But no words like Climate change, Global Warming, These storms need warm water to breed.
The two words are CLIMATE CHANGE
Nice misdirection though, muzza
Damn you for getting in first and making have to spell it out, like an idiot. This deliberate obfuscation it is enough to make me want to scratch my eyes out with frustration.
Can’t you get it?
We are in a fight for the survival of our civilisation and probably for a good part of humanity as well, And you make a stupid tinfoil hat claim of a conspiracy to upset the US election.
Get a life.
Jenny, civilizations come and go, thats just the way it is. Humanity has been under attack much longer than those of you on the CC bandwagon have been banging on about, and planet earth will most likely continue on, despite the best efforts of those to try and control our little part of the universe.
Interesting to read some comments go from mocking, to conceding that there technologies have existed for decades to modify weather, but oh its a big leap to go from theory to practicle, as if those running such experiementation are going to broadcast it to the world, more than they already do!
Perhaps instead of trying to cover so many bases, and not making the best case in most of them, try focussing on something, e.g the PoAL situation, which you put some really good comments and information up on!
Edit: If you think I’m right wing, it only serves to show how your compass, while morally well set, it pointing you in the wrong direction!
Don’t fall into the the trap others here do by closing off yourself too much, as in this world, there is so much which we can’t/won’t see, and don’t understanding. Letting don’t understand become won’t/can’t understand, is to admit defeat!
Right wing? What else do you call someone who thinks he’s entitled to his own facts?
If the cap fits…
Don’t try and give him to us. You can keep him and Travellerev. We’ll keep Redbaiter and the other nutty Birthers.
Sorry Gossie: he’s all yours.
Who is alex jones, and what is info wars?
More over, how long have you spent looking sites which I have never referenced?
Seems like you’re trying very hard to convince yourself, into, or out of something!
Well, if you must know, I noticed it listed by Alternet as one of the “Five Crazy Right Wing Conspiracy Theories About Hurricane Sandy”. The timing seemed perfect, almost as though someone were working to a script.
What a patronising. ignorant git you are, muzza. Jenny has a proud history of activism, a lifetime of learning and has pretty direct experience of how the world really works. You, on the other hand, appear to be channelling Rick from the Young Ones.
I don’t know anything about Jennys background, and made no comment about it.
Looks like you were not able to avoid that school boy error!
Edit: Gosman, it sounds like the real you is back today.
And yes the weather can/has been controlled, engineered, and modified, long ago, the fact the UN “outlawed” it as not to be weaponised” was frankly laughable whoever made that statement. The UN says cluster bombs and DU are illegal too!
Yup, but overall the universe will ultimately do what it wants, spot on!
muzza,
I get very frustrated by these arguments. On one hand Gosman and TRP annoy the crap out of me with their obdurate refusal to even think the conventional, mocking anything that isn’t within their view of the world.
At the same time you piss me by failing to apply some elementary logic and sceptical reasoning to your ideas. Like you I’m pretty clear that there is lot going on ‘behind the curtain’ as it were that us ordinary people are not privvy to. It’s good to be aware of that.
But at the same time we are NOT privvy to the details or the evidence. Just because something is possible does NOT make it certain. You only make a fool of yourself and discredit the fundamental case you are making by pretending otherwise. You don’t have to uncover the wizard’s trick in order to know he is magician, and trying to outsmart the magician on his own turf is always a blunder.
Otherwise you fall into the elementary trap that Shearer did a few weeks ago when he claimed there was a video of John Key talking to the GCSB about Dotcom. Now everyone knows that the video was almost certainly made …. but Shearer’s inability to produce it when challenged to do so allowed Key to turn a potential win into a loss.
Why do you get emotional about it Red? Can you elaborate where you feel I fail to apply logic and sceptical reasoning to, what are not my ideas at all, they are only my opinions based on readings, and personal experiences!
Did you read my posts RL? – Where is it I have categorically pretended that I know otherwise?
Your comparison to Shearer is poorly used!
Brave, noble, wise, intelligent and infallible.
What rubbish, Muzza. Your comprehension problems are probably what leads you to make such weird comments here. Garbage in, garbage out. The point I was making is that Jenny walks the walk. You talk the talk, but when you move your lips, all we hear is gibberish. Maybe when you leave your teenage years behind, you’ll start making sense. But I have my doubts.
You really keep falling in the same holes you do!
Why on earth would you pretend to know what I do, its just assumption error after school-boy error with you, followed by transferance of “comprehension problems”, which given how this conversation is headed again, seems to be a repeated failing of yours!
Assumption Lesson 101: If you don’t know someone personally, never assume you know what that person, does, or does not do!
Simple enough for you!
In this case, assumption just made an ass out of you, Muzza. You’re all mouth, no trousers. Live a little, empty vessel, you stand to learn a lot.
“…despite the best efforts of those to try and control our little part of the universe.”
But apparently they can control the weather. Go figure.
‘
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-global-warming-happening-faster-than-expected
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/08/03/senators-fiddle-while-deep-ocean-temperatures-rise/
No doubt further evidence of this unfolding climate disaster will be greeted with deafening silence by both the leading political parties in this country as well, and even the Greens will mute their response so as not to appear to radical.
Am I bitter?
As our world is flushed down the toilet.
Yes I am.
The only hope for this country is if the public turn away from NACT and Labour in droves, otherwise the same old crooks will do the same old thing.
+1
At least be bitter in the right direction Jenny – Like with the Syria situation, you are again, on the wrong track.
This planet will continue on, with or without the human experiment..
There is little to nothing which will alter that fact, the universe will do, exactly what it wants!
…exactly what it wants, except where the weather is concerned. Bill Gates decides on that. Wheeee!
More misdirection, dressed up in misanthropic drivel.
If this is really your opinion. I don’t buy it.
This world won’t be the same place without human beings to admire it.
muzza, no amount of mass murder from the air will save the Assad regime. In the eyes of the people it’s legitimacy is gone.
http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/syrian-air-raids-end-truce-that-never-was/
Hey muzza, give up the misdirection, drop the left humanist pose, I can see through your act. You are just another cynical, run of the mill, right wing misanthrope.
http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/syrian-air-raids-end-truce-that-never-was/
Best of luck to all the foreign Saudi, Bahrani, Iraqi and Qatari fighters participating in the Libyan “civil war”!!!
More misdirection. Getting a little cautious in praising your bloodthirsty dictator Bashar Assad. Eh CV.
As I warned you, your whole credibility is at stake.
Ah shit you’re right I meant to say Syrian civil war, sorry.
Oh look, yet another news article saying that the Syrian rebels are accepting help from foreign fighters and foreign Al Qaeda, even though they know that some of them are religious extremists.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/foreign-fighters-worry-boost-syrian-rebels-17557191
Hurray a great and fair outcome from the employment court.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/7879174/Employment-pay-out-after-telling-boss-to-stick-job
If they insist on freeing up land for housing,
just don’t give it to property developers, because they will not produce “low cost” housing at all. (Take a look at Hobsonville).
Exactly. Should consider freeing it up to families. At least then it wouldn’t have an extra hundred thousand on top of each section.
I wonder if US election turnout is even going to make it to 50% this time around.
Their ‘democracy’ is on it’s last legs.
Apparently people have to vote at the election booth closest to their home. Changing that in itself could lift turnout quite a bit.
Sandy is an argument for continual voting where you can change your vote every say three months, and if for three months the governing party doesn’t have a majority it loses power to those who do.
Hey, isn’t sandy a Squirrel?
Continual voting…holy shit I have never heard of that concept before…and I like it!
You’d have to take voting online to make it viable. Now, I’m in favour of that but you’re not.
The problem with manual systems is that they’re too damn clunky for near real time voting.
No, I don’t think you have to do it online. People register their car by post every 6-12 months for instance.
But not all at once. In fact, as I recall, that’s why the registration system was changed from cars having the same registration date to a floating date. There was, quite simply, far too much administration taking place on one day of the year for no appreciable gain.
It sounds terrible. It means everything the government does must be absolutely populist or they’ll be voted out and replaced. With such short time frames it’d be impossible to implement new policies.
Now, continual voting whereby come election day the votes are crystalised, that’d be fine. But I don’t think that’s what aero is suggesting.
In the US they almost have continuous voting with the cycles of senate and representative elections. In the presidential elections they have been voting in some places for over a month – 15m votes already – but the results are not allowed to be reported. http://elections.gmu.edu/early_vote_2012.html
“With such short time frames it’d be impossible to implement new policies that weren’t supported by a majority of voters.”
FIFY.
See: populist.
And if the voters are voting from having the full information and months of open discussion before hand would it still be populist?
Lanth, your definition of “populist” applies equally well to all democratic representation and renders our entire system of government essentially meaningless.
Nothing wrong with holding that point of view, but don’t pretend it only applies to this one specific idea of how representative democracy might be practised.
You mean like partial sale of state assets would never have been…
The government’s announcements on improving housing affordability are useless….
1. Freeing up a widdle bit more land will do nothing to relevant land values in Auckland. ha ha ha.
2. Improving resource consent timeframes will do nothing. You don’t even need a resource consent to build a house ffs. And if you cannot get a resource consent through in 6 months for a subdivision then the applicant has done a useless job.
3. What was the other thing?
That has to be the most useless package I have ever seen.
Yes but allows them to get their greedy hands on such areas as the Waitakere ranges which Hide tried and failed in his hamfisted supershity acts.
Not so useless if you’re a developer with mates.
Watched “that girl’ on TV last night, seems anywhere by NZ you can live in a renovated warehouse in the inner city, not in NZ. National predilection for more sprawl isn’t the answer.
“2. Improving resource consent timeframes will do nothing. You don’t even need a resource consent to build a house ffs. And if you cannot get a resource consent through in 6 months for a subdivision then the applicant has done a useless job.”
They had a developer on the news saying that basically when you’re doing a subdivision, you end up waiting for the consents etc. This means you end up borrowing money from the bank to cover this downtime and keep the project afloat, which results in more interest costs that are passed on to the final sale price. Also it just makes the whole exercise more difficult and costly trying to deal with shifting time frames.
Well I guess that would be an expected response. My time on the planet has taken me into this sphere many many times and there has never been any serious problem with Council timeframes. And that is in over 20 years.
The problems arise when a poorly structured application is put to Council. This industry attracts cowboys and secondhand car dealers. They put in bad applications that are incomplete and cause the Council grief. Good operators do not have this particular problem. It is a myth that English is playing politics with.
As for holding costs while going through consent – those operators need to factor it in. What do they expect? That they can fill out an A4-sized form and get consent the next day? Or some such similarity? They need to do their research and do the job properly.
Seriously, this problem is a myth.
It’s not that the problem is a myth but the source of the problem that’s the myth. It’s not council but useless developers.
Really, wonder where you get that from
The real issues to me at these:
Banks and their liberal loaning policies.
Extremely poor town planners who prepare crap plan changes that do not reflect the nature of the land, developers operate under council guidelines.
Immigration that central govt allows then walks away from the issues that this increase in pop. causes.
Poor planning in linking work, home, school, recreation etc
(Apologies for the length – but don’t yet have this anywhere where you could click on a link.)
WELLINGTON! LEARN FROM THE AUCKLAND $UPERCITY!
“CORRUPTION AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS”!
This presentation was filmed, and can be viewed, (after registering – costs nothing to register) at http://www.allaboutauckland.com/
“CORRUPTION AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS” 25 October 2012
________________________________________________________________________________
AUCKLAND COUNCIL GOVERNING BODY
25 OCTOBER 2012 PUBLIC FORUM
– “CORRUPTION AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS”
Penny Bright (Transcript)
“I hate to be the one to pop the hot air balloon, but New Zealand is actually a corrupt, polluted tax haven.
Although we are ‘perceived’ to be the ‘least corrupt country in the world’, the Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’ is actually based upon the subjective opinions of anonymous business people.
If NZ is ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ – arguably we should be the most transparent.
So – how come the ‘books’ of Auckland Council and Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) are NOT open?
How come we are not given the ‘devilish detail’ – the NAMES of the consultants/contractors; the SCOPE, the TERM and VALUE of the contracts?
As of 21 November last year, there were 5000 contracts to 12,500 suppliers.
Please be reminded Councillors, of your statutory duties under the Local Government Act :
s.14 Principles relating to local authorities
(1 )In performing its role, a local authority must act in accordance with the following principles:
(a)a local authority should—
(i) conduct its business in an open, transparent, and democratically accountable manner; and
(g)a local authority should ensure prudent stewardship and the efficient and effective use of its resources in the interests of its district or region;
You swear an Oath to the public:
“I, declare that I will faithfully and impartially, and according to the best of my skill and judgment, execute and perform, in the best interests of Auckland, the powers, authorities, and duties vested in or imposed upon me as a member of the Auckland Council by virtue of the Local Government Act 2002, the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, or any other Act.”
So, how come you are not carrying out your statutory duties?
How come you are not enforcing s.42 of the Local Government Act which makes it encumbent upon the CEO to ensure:
(2)A chief executive appointed under subsection (1) is responsible to his or her local authority for—
(e)maintaining systems to enable effective planning and accurate reporting of the financial and service performance of the local authority;
This is not the first time that I’ve raised these issues with you.
What channel that I could have gone down, have I not gone down?
I have made a formal complaint to the National Archives Office because under s.17 of the Public Records Act 2005:
17 Requirement to create and maintain records
(1)Every public office and local authority must create and maintain full and accurate records of its affairs, in accordance with normal, prudent business practice, including the records of any matter that is contracted out to an independent contractor.
You are not doing that.
And – who is holding you to account?
That’s why a formal complaint has been lodged with the Office of the Auditor-General and they ‘look at it before they look at it’ – but what this complaint is requesting is to investigate allegedly corrupt ‘conflicts of interest’ of Auckland Council CEO Doug McKay who is also a member of the extremely powerful private lobby group – the Committee for Auckland.
How many contracts have been awarded by Auckland Council and any of the following CCOs to member companies of the Committee for Auckland?
Watercare Services Ltd
Auckland Transport
ATEED (Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development Ltd)
ACIL (Auckland Council Investment Ltd)
AWDA (Auckland Waterfront Development Agency Ltd)
RFA (Regional Facilities Auckland)
ACPL (Auckland Council Property Ltd)
Also – we want an investigation – why has Auckland Council not ensured CEO Doug McKay has carried out his statutory duties?
Since 2006 – people such as myself organized opposition to the ‘Supercity’ because we said
the ‘Supercity’ was not to benefit the majority of citizens and ratepayers.
The purpose of the ‘Supercity’ was to set up a bigger public trough, for fewer, but bigger private snouts.
Now we have the evidence to support this.
The fact of the matter is that the ‘Supercity’ was a corrupt corporate coup – the organizational mechanism for the corporate takeover being the CCO model, which has never been subject to any ‘cost-benefit’ analysis by the Office of the Auditor-General; the Department of Internal Affairs; Treasury or any Council.
To finish – I believe there should be NO TAXATION without TRANSPARENCY or ACCOUNTABILITY. That’s why I have not paid my rates since 2008, and I refuse to do so.
I believe that the people of Auckland must make a stand to take back our region from corporate control, and I call on people to take that action. NO SAY – NO PAY!
QUESTION FROM COUNCILLOR CATHY CASEY:
“What response have you had from Council when you have asked for the list of contractors that you named – the 5000 and 12,500 suppliers.
What reason have you been given for withholding this information?”
MY REPLY:
Reasons given on 21 November 2011 from Darrell Griffin (Manager for Democracy Services):
When I asked:
” 1) Is the Auckland Council, in a truly ‘open, transparent and democratically-accountable’ way,
going to ensure that citizens and ratepayers of the Auckland region are going to be given the ‘devilish’ detail,
so we can see exactly where our rates monies are being spent on private sector consultants and contractors?
a) Are the names of the consultants/ contractors; the scope, term and value of these contracts going to be
published in the Auckland Council annual Report so that they are available for public scrutiny?
b) If not – why not?
(ANSWER) Not at this stage. there are 500 contracts related to 12,500 suppliers. To collate and publish these
would be a major exercise logistically and cost-wise. ”
That is the answer – the books are not open – they are still not open.
I checked on the website this morning in the forlorn hope that there might have been some development.
You put ‘contracts’ in the Council website – you find nothing.
But – on the front page of the Auckland Council website – ‘Investment in Auckland’.
If you are an investor – Auckland Council is very keen to help you and give you information.
If you are a ratepayer wanting to know where your monies are being spent – sorry – BAD LUCK.
Just one final point.
This book to which I was referring contains ten new ‘Items of Evidence’ that High Court Judge Ellis allowed
me to adduce in the Occupy Auckland vs Auckland Council case at which I was an Appellant.
So – it’s not only the Office of the Auditor-General looking at these issues – also a High Court Judge.
________________________________________________________________________________
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
The SIS told the Immigration NZ in October last year that Kim Dotcom posed no threat to the security of NZ.
So, why the Hollywood style raid at his Coatesville residence in January of this year? If he was no security risk then all they needed to do was knock on his front door.
And that leads to another question. Why was John Key happy for them to carry out the raid on Dotcom’s property? Yes, we know he claims he never knew about it, but we all know now that he did – from October of last year!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10843731
Yep. Two constables turning up in a Holden would have done the trick.
They arrested 4-5 people. Would need more than 2 cops and 1 car to handle that.
Bit of tongue in cheek humour from CV. That’s the way I see it Lanthanide.
National security is a different concept to personal. The SIS deal with the former, the police more with the latter.
Anne in Hollywood, woops I mean America, if you put on a huge production when arresting someone for say, running/owning a raw foods store, or arrest the armish for selling raw foods/ milk, or arrest someone who is growing fresh produce in their own garden, then you set the stage for the public to assume guilt, because hey, if they sent in SWAT/FBI so that person must have done something really bad right!
Its all for show, there is no other reason for it!
Addendum to 8.1
And Key claims he never knew anything? Just how gullible does he think we are?
Cambridge exam system under microscope
So, the students that go through the ‘better’ system are struggling…
Right, that would indicate that it’s not actually the better system.
Cambridge suits cramming and practising exams as Auckland Grammar prides itself.
But it does not result in absence of planning/research skills/independent study/ and thus struggling at University level. This is the same problem faced by students at traditional private schools who are highly organised but ignoring self motivation self organisation.
Oops “But it does not result in absence of planning/research skills/independent study…..”
“But it does result in absence of planning/research skills/independent study……
Exactly. My experience with “gifted” kids from the “elite” schools at the university level is that many of them do not know how to self-motivate. They also think in a very linear fashion and are hopeless at open ended problems. Where they excel is at paint by numbers type stuff.
On the other hand, kids from normal schools who make it to university are often glad to have the opportunity to learn and make the most of it. They do not suffer from any sense of entitlement concerning the degree or diploma they think they deserve once a few tasks have been completed.
Note that this is a total generalisation from my own experiences and I have not done any scientific study of the matter. Somebody probably has.
Bodes well for charter school and national standards then.
I disagree. Its your job, you are the expert educationist, and sure people from different backgrounds come incumbered with different problems. But worse, its not your job to turn out work ready, hungry capitalists, or any particular type. It is certainly true though that people desperate for success are likely to be fawning over themselves to feed narcissists. If a student is not engaging in your course, then it could be your course is boring, you teaching style doesn’t work for them, or the student is depressed for some personal reason, etc, etc, i.e. its an opportunity to learn, which is why you work in a learning establishment. The concern I have is how saturated our society has become with the needs of business, like every good idea, ideal, social good, can only come about if someone is profiting from their exploitation.
One point – it is talking about students who are going to university straight from year 12, so they should be having another year at school. It does not say that students who complete year 13 are having any issues.
Sounds like the major issue is it is too easy to get UE in year 12 for Cambridge rather than either system being better.
EXACTLY RIGHT !!!
The good thing about Cambridge is it gets you out of FUCKING SCHOOL and into life a year before the losers.
There’s nothing wrong with school, I had a great time…played sport, ate my lunch, fired a few spit balls.
Although, I was lucky in that I didn’t bother doing any school work. That meant that I didn’t have to unlearn all that rubbish when I started life, and I also had nothing to unlearn when I got to uni.
National ignores democracy
There’s no doubt that Nationals environmentally naïve policy direction will not only be detrimental to our clean and green branding, but our Kiwi way of life as well.
IMF study: Peak oil could do serious damage to the global economy
Gee, the IMF might be starting to wake up to the fact that the present economic system isn’t actually economic.
What, because they care, or because they are a tool used to roll out “stuff” , as needed!
No, silly, because their minds are controlled.
Just like yoursNothing to see here, move alongI really get under your skirt eh!
The IMF are a tool, who only publish what suits the agenda of themselves/others. Do you undertand what being a tool is?
“…what suits the agenda of themselves/others….”
And only you knows what that is, alone against the forces of evil; brave, noble Muzza, sticking it to the man, revealing all the secret plans and weapons. If only they could figure out how to keep you from hacking the innermost working of their minds, but you are too smart for them, with your keyboard in one hand and your tool in the other.
Good, you do understand what being a tool is, self awareness is important!
The other option is that you think the IMF exist for the good of “man kind”, and you can’t be that clueless!
Its not possible to be inside the minds of others (although yours is rather tranparent), but when you pay attention, over a long enough period of time, and spend a little time trying to piece things togther, it is possible to form opinions, many of which might not add up to those who don’t bother!
Does it make me right, no, does it make me more likely to be nearer understanding than those who categorically rule out possibilities that the world has more doing on than can see seen, of course it does!
Brave, noble, wise, insightful, an example to us all. What a fuckwit.
Plus what TRP said.
We built sprawl, sprawl that had no environmental costing because oil was cheap, energy was assumed always to be cheap. We built our tower of ?Babel? inside out, instead of a multitude of different language being the fault, it was the one ruling ring of power, aka neo-liberalists never make mistakes because the market never fails.
Question for Administration:
Do you think there is any worth in attaching a poll function for article authors to chose to add to their posts?
With the high volume of traffic here, yet fewer number of regular commenters, would this be a way to measure trends of opinion as accurately as any other online polling system, such as MSM news sources? Some visitors may be interested in articles, but may not have the confidence or time to articulate their point of view – or need to repeat comments already made. Since subjects here often amount to a simple either/or/alternative conclusion, would a poll shorten, but increase, wider community participation?
For example, the article on plain packaging on cigarettes has good arguments and eventually a reader is left to ask themselves, do I support this or not? Today, another author asks, does anyone support the mindset of Anyone But Cunliffe anymore? Another author asks, is government intervention the answer to an affordable housing crisis? There are other questions posed in these articles too, which the authors may want to promote instead of the obvious.
It would be as flawed as any other unofficial survey, but the polls, tied to the subjects and perspectives of the authors, would at least create varied poll questions instead of a single point of view from a single editorial office.
From The Standard’s point of view, it wins a collection of collated opinion, framed in it’s own language, from a sympathetic perspective, that could be made into a monthly review/summary of trends. The trends/opinions, of course, reflecting the views of the community, rather than The Standard, its authors or administration. Since TS contributors are often refered to as extremists (to put it politely) would their collated views be a portion of the public opinion market not yet recognised and measured? Reviews need not be strictly scientific. Depending on the manner of the poll question, a conclusion that Minister X is a Genius/Nutbox could be as valid as a report that a specific policy has a certain percentage of support from TS readers.
Could a poll feature combine a bit of fun, a bit of science, an option for silent readers to be heard and possibly become a point of reference and media influence?
I think we’ve talked about polls in the past and decided they were a waste of time because the results are meaningless, even if they weren’t rigged by one side or the other.
Sadness
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10843785
True, 🙁
Suicide is about loss of control over ones life, the ability to make choices, to gain status, to solve problems, in my opinion, and the prospect that nothing is going to change.
Government is oppressive, it creeps into every aspect of our lives, selecting winners (like those who have money and are given the incentive of free untaxed capital gains). And then government fails to address the problem. Then a utlra conservative leader, John Key, does nothing to change matters. So asking Key about Suicide, is like asking someone who had the choices, who has great status, who feels the need to help the winners not the also rans, and has time after time done nothing to change the status quo.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=1084238
Huh???
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10842385
It seems that Auckland does not have 18,000
Sections available this is the land that is Zoned is 18,000,there are about 3000 available or being developed the other 15000 have impediments like water care not having in its construction program for 4+ years to deliver water or find for storm water management. Other issues are awaiting for council to construct or improve its road network to service these developments even though council has been receiving contributions and levies for these.
Unfortunately some of Les’s advisors have been misleading him and making him look silly
Yeah, that would be the part of that makes more sprawl uneconomic.
WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM/ GET OWNERSHIP OF / ACCESS TO / ‘SURPLUS’ CHRISTCHURCH MINISTRY OF EDUCATION LAND?
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/parata-tries-head-revolting-masses-ch-131459#comment-591888
MY COMMENT – YET TO BE PUBLISHED
What is being planned for the Ministry of Education LAND upon which these ‘redundant’ schools have been built?
Is it true that Ministry of Education land is a major source of land for iwi settlements?
Is THIS the real reason behind the forced ‘amalgamation’ of these Christchurch schools?
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
http://www.dodgyjohnhasgone.com
One final point on land availability is that even if there was adequate zoned land available, there still is a reluctance for those Australian banks to fund the development. I am aware of quite a few large developments (200-1500 lot developments) that are hamstrung by the financial constraints that limits pace of development. As banks are still land adverse and are wanting the debt reduced and any “surplus” can go towards future development and capitalising of interest is not an option so must be financed from existing cash flows or additional capital. I had heard that these banks were wishing to divest out of development in NZ, wishing to use these funds to invest in Australia where the banks hierarchy is better acquainted with and developments like those in Queenstown Nigel McKenna (Kawerau Falls),
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/518956/Queenstown-edgy-as-finance-companies-fail.
It is somewhat a paradoxical the banks are falling over themselves in refueling the property boom but are reluctant to fund the development.
Yet not a mention of this issue in regard to the creation of new residential land.
I was expecting to see David Shearer rip into Kate Wilkinson on the 6pm news about their latest attack on vulnerable workers.
I’ve been waiting all day because everyone knew it was coming.
Did anyone see the news? Was there a response to this? There is nothing on the usual websites.
Please don’t tell me Fozzie Bear was asleep at the wheel again.
Chances that our MSM would do this?
Considering how much lies and misinformation they parrot from this government – about zero.
Can’t see John Armstrong putting in this much effort – maybe a blogger would
In Brazil the newspapers are very closely linked to particular political parties. It doesn’t surprise me at all that the likes of Rede Globo and Editora Abril would put this effort into exposing the corruption of what they see as a socialist government. As a comparison, imagine the lengths our media would go to if we had a Mana/Greens government.
Well, yeah, that is always the other problem with a captured MSM.
john72 …
Today’s Quote:- 1 Corinthians 13:11 “When I was a child I spoke as a child…”
The limited vocabulary of some authors is sad because, not only does it destroy the author’s credibility, something they deserve, but it lowers the level of “Open Mike” as a whole. It raises the question, “Is it worth reading Open Mike ?” I do not want to waste my time watching people abuse each other.
However, there still seem to be some interesting contributors. It is a pity that the children have such an adverse effect.
Gods peace be with you all.
Gods’ peace be with you too Babe 🙂
Bless ya.