Thanks to LPrent, weka, Ad, Incognito, Mickey, Bill and all the others that make this site possible. I value this community and it has been a great help in understanding news, politics and the challenges involved in trying to be progressive.
Surprisingly I feel compelled to acknowledge Countdown supermarket chain and First Union for their leadership. To have workers on $21.15 an hour after a years service is fantastic. This has to be directly linked to Labour coalition raising the minimum wage to the living wage.
Also Countdowns decision to only sell New Zealand pork. I know this is last years news but it bears repeating.
And.. 12 months ago we had three world cups to look forward to. If you were told we would only win one, how many would have picked the Silver Ferns? Congratulations Noeline Taurua for helping turn around the team.
Many educated and better off people around the globe are surreptitiously eyeing New Zealand as that last great safe bolt hole for them and their families to escape to when rising local temperatures and extreme weather events get too much to bear.
But if it could happen in Tasmania it could happen here.
December 31, 2019
For Australians looking to escape the scorching summer heat, Tasmania, the country's closest point to the South Pole, is usually a safe bet. But that wasn't the case on Monday (December 30) when temperatures in the icy cool island's capital Hobart soared to a devilish 40.8 degrees Celsius, or 105.4 Fahrenheit. That's the city's hottest day on record – double the average summer temperature and even higher than in some parts of the country's tropical north. Simon McCulloch is a senior forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology in Tasmania.
Yes – I was surprised at just how representative the Democrat representation in Congress is of the US demographic. It is also saddening to see that the Republican Party takes 90% of its representation from just 30% of the Demographic.
Well yes But all white males – and indications are that the GOP ethnic representation after 2020 will be even worse. It is estimated that after 2020 97% of GOP representatives will be white.
This actually spell the death nell for the GOP as Black, Hispanic and other ethnicities are now now waking up to the need to vote against them.
eg
A majority of black Americans are more interested in voting in the 2020 presidential election than they were in 2016, according to a national survey of 1200 black voters and non-voters conducted by Third Way and the Joint Center.
Why it matters: Black voter turnout declined significantly in 2016 nationally and in key swing states, ultimately contributing to Hillary Clinton's loss to Donald Trump. New details from focus groups and polling suggests that the motivation to remove Trump from office is firing up black Americans to head to the polls next November.
Just two vendors — Election Systems & Software, LLC (ES&S) and Dominion Voting — account for eighty percent of US election equipment. Thus, corrupt insiders or foreign hackers could wreak havoc on elections throughout the United States by infiltrating either of these vendors.
Corrupt insiders?
ES&S and Dominion are both owned by private equity, which means we don’t know who funds and controls them. And what little we do know is concerning
This actually spell the death nell for the GOP as Black, Hispanic and other ethnicities are now now waking up to the need to vote against them.
I doubt it. They'll just gerrymander the electoral system so that their votes are deemed invalid for some preposterous reason, or they can't even get to vote at all.
Oh! they have tried. And if tRump gets his way they will do it some more – but their recent efforts have been stymied by the courts, and they have had to go back to drawing up fairer boundaries. The blue wave of 2018 wasn't just in the federal system it was overall and repugnants – apart from in the Senate don't have quite the sway they had in the past. tRumps huge influx of right wing judges however could have some influence in the future but at present the courts are holding back some of the bat shit extremes.
Further to my comment above – I was aware that this court action was in progress but it has just been finalised. Just one example of how the courts are holding back the disenfranchisement of some Americans at this stage.
So despite the total fire ban the RFS has decided the Sydney NY fireworks display can go ahead. This seems so very, very wrong especially after losing 80% of the Koala population along with everything else.
Very High to Extreme fire danger is forecast across parts NSW tomorrow , 11 areas have been declared under Total Fire Ban.
Operators wishing to undertake fireworks displays in an area where a Total Fire Ban has been declared MUST apply for an exemption (https://t.co/Ws3U9yvKld) pic.twitter.com/7meX0zAaiV
— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) December 30, 2019
The world-renowned Sydney Harbour New Year’s Eve fireworks display has been approved despite the NSW Rural Fire Service declaring a total fire ban today for the city…..
Sometimes I wonder if people know what the word 'emergency' means
The struggle for leadership between the supporters of business as usual and the realists.
The display may have the green light from officials but a growing online campaign is fighting to cancel all fireworks demonstrations across Australia.
A change.org petition calling to “Say NO to FIREWORKS NYE 2019 – give the money to farmers and firefighters” has gathered more than 272,600 signatures from supporters, who don’t want to celebrate the start of 2020 with a fireworks display.
John Barilaro, Deputy Premier of NSW, yesterday expressed his support for shutting down the fireworks display, calling it a “very easy decision”.
The NSW leader of the Nationals said cancelling the display was about a show of unity, as Australia worked through the ongoing bushfire and drought crisis.
“Sydney’s New Year’s Eve Fireworks should just be cancelled, very easy decision,” Barilaro wrote on Twitter.
“The risk is too high and we must respect our exhausted RFS volunteers. If regional areas have had fireworks banned, then let’s not have two classes of citizens. We’re all in this crisis together.”
Many disagreed with the deputy’s comments, saying people were looking forward to the annual fireworks display. Others praised his comments.
The struggle for leadership between the supporters of business as usual and the realists.
The display may have the green light from officials but a growing online campaign is fighting to cancel all fireworks demonstrations across Australia.
A change.org petition calling to “Say NO to FIREWORKS NYE 2019 – give the money to farmers and firefighters” has gathered more than 272,600 signatures from supporters, who don’t want to celebrate the start of 2020 with a fireworks display.
John Barilaro, Deputy Premier of NSW, yesterday expressed his support for shutting down the fireworks display, calling it a “very easy decision”.
The NSW leader of the Nationals said cancelling the display was about a show of unity, as Australia worked through the ongoing bushfire and drought crisis.
“Sydney’s New Year’s Eve Fireworks should just be cancelled, very easy decision,” Barilaro wrote on Twitter.
“The risk is too high and we must respect our exhausted RFS volunteers. If regional areas have had fireworks banned, then let’s not have two classes of citizens. We’re all in this crisis together.”
Many disagreed with the deputy’s comments, saying people were looking forward to the annual fireworks display. Others praised his comments.
Should Sydneysiders enjoy their fire works display while the rest of Australia suffers?
Should Australia profit from coal while Pacific Islands are being destroyed?
Much like those who argue that the risk of an oil leak from deep sea oil drilling off our coasts is remote.
There will be commentators, (possibly even on this forum), who will argue that the chance of fire caused by the Sydney Harbour fireworks display is negligble. The display is on barges away from the shore line in the middle of the harbour, they will argue, the chance of things going wrong is very remote.
And they are right.
That is not the point.
The point is this:
The NSW leader of the Nationals said cancelling the display was about a show of unity, as Australia worked through the ongoing bushfire and drought crisis.
“The risk is too high and we must respect our exhausted RFS volunteers. If regional areas have had fireworks banned, then let’s not have two classes of citizens. We’re all in this crisis together.”
John Barilaro, Deputy Premier of NSW
John Barilaro's statement makes a very telling argument.
At a deeper level John Barilaro's statement speaks to the wider global divide over climate change. Those most badly affected by climate change are often the poorest and the least responsible for the crisis, the Pacific Islanders, whose lands are being devastated by rising seas and tropical climate change fueled super storms, and who pleaded that Australia ‘not open your coal mines’.
John Barilaro demands, "…let’s not have two classes of citizens. We’re all in this crisis together.”
John Barilaro's demand not to have two classes of citizens excorciates the likes of business as usual politician Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack who in reply to the Pacific Leaders Forum plea to ‘not open your coal mines’, said that Pacific Islanders can survive climate change by picking our fruit.
The Sydney display is off the bridge and barges and in an urban area (not much fuel) so I expect that the exemption was granted by the fire service because it falls below the threshold for risk.
Also, the calls for the cost of the display to be donated to the fire service are surely unrealistic as there will be a contract and the display takes many months to set up. People also need to be able to celebrate in their traditional way if possible and have some time out – this is especially important when you have been living in a state of emergency for a while. I hope it all goes off spectacularly well and people have a good time.
There will be commentators, (possibly even on this forum), who will argue that the chance of fire caused by the Sydney Harbour fireworks display is negligble. The display is on barges away from the shore line in the middle of the harbour, they will argue, the chance of things going wrong is very remote.
But as I also wrote "That is not the point".
Hi Pingao because you seem to have missed the whole point of my comment.
I will hammer it out so that you can't miss it.
The point is –
Are we all in this together, or are we not?
The point is –
Should we party up, while volunteer fire fighters are risking everything to save others?
The point is –
Should we celebrate the fact that climate change will soon provide us with a lot of desperate Pacific Islanders to pick our fruit?
The point is –
Should we have two classes of citizens, or should we not?
The point is –
Should we be ignoring the suffering of the firefighters?
The point is –
Should we be like the Australian Prime Minister who only belatedly after protests cancelled his fun holiday in Hawaii to come back and pass emergency legislation to address the dire financial needs of the fire fighters whose bills had been piling up?
The point is –
Should we be allowing new coal mines? (because it makes us money)
The point is –
Should we be allowing people to walk on live volcanoes? (because it makes us money)
The point is –
Should we just carry on with business as usual?
The point is –
Are we in a crisis, or are we not?
Should we acknowledge to the world that we are in a crisis by halting the Sydney fireworks display?
Or should we try to pretend that everything is normal?
Succinct like a Spring hailstorm damaging delicate sprouting crops and blossoms thereby destroying any hope for a rich Autumn harvest. A few more of those will result in fatal famine and utter despair.
Hi Jenny, my reply was to A. I'm not sure if your comment at 5.3.1 was up when I posted my comment.
While I probably agree with most of your points and don't give a stuff personally about fireworks displays in Sydney, I nevertheless think it would be a fairly weak gesture to cancel the Sydney fireworks – probably divisive as well.
My point is that people need these kind of events, particularly in times of crisis. The city of Sydney is not isolated from the fires and has been full of smoke for weeks. Also the money is spent already.
My apologies Pingao for the crossed lines of communication.
However I still disagree with your opinion that it would be a fairly weak gesture to cancel the Sydney fireworks display.
This display is broadcast and watched by millions around the world. To cancel it would be a major gesture, signalling to the world that Australia is in a major climate related crisis.
Personally I think you may have inadvertently admitted this when you wrote, "…it would be a fairly weak gesture to cancel the Sydney fireworks – probably divisive as well."
Not probably, it would be 'divisive'.
There are already divisions over this blatant flouting of the fire ban imposed on the rest of the city.
Canceling the Hamilton Rugby game over apartheid sport was divisive. Canceling nuclear ship visits was divisive.
Canceling the government subdivision of Bastion Point was divisive.
It is divisive precisely because it is not a weak gesture.
You may have read the for and anti cancellation argument, especially the powerful for argument by John Barilaro, Deputy Premier of NSW.
Canceling the fireworks display will cause immense and (and as you say "possibly divisive"), debate, possibly leading to a deep realisation by many that we are in a global crisis that is not being adequately addressed.
Instead we get a Potemkin village display of business as usual.
Potemkin village – Wikipedia
Potemkin village
In politics and economics, a Potemkin village is any construction (literal or figurative) built solely to deceive others into thinking that a situation is better than it really is.
Thanks for your reply Jenny. You may be right that a more radical response may be more effective although it is impossible to tell if more people will come round to accepting the AGW and its effects more quickly if loads of people get aggravated by the cancellation of this event … anyway it obviously somewhat moot at this point.
I do think (feel?) that the tide is turning in public acceptance of AGW which gives me a little hope (so long as I don't read comments in the media : / )
It can also be reasonably argued Infused that continuing with this fire works display despite a total city wide fire ban and in the midst of a bush fire emergency is a bit off vice signalling.
Virtue signalling – Wikipedia
Virtue signalling is a pejorative neologism for the conspicuous expression of moral values.[1][2] ….
….The phrase has been criticized by a number of journalists internationally as being hypocritical.[4][5]
….political theorist and economist Sam Bowman argued that the term is hypocritical in that calling out another individual's actions as virtue signaling is simply another form of virtue signaling, executed to heighten the perceived status of the accuser.[4]
…..Guardian writer David Shariatmadari says that while the term serves a purpose, its overuse as an ad hominem attack during political debate has rendered it a meaningless political buzzword.[22] Consequently, the antonym "vice signalling" has emerged to refer to blatant amorality.[23][24][25]
In my opinion we need more virtue signaling and less vice signalling.
Maybe then and possibly only then, enough people will wake up to the realisation that we are in a crisis to demand that immediate action be taken in numbers to big to be ignored by the policy makers.
Not really. The decade still has 366 days to run, otherwise there would have to have existed, somewhere in the CE (AD) period, a decade with only nine years in it; which, of course, is absurd.
"I’ll come right out and say it: as an economist I think endless growth is technically possible. The key word there is technical, because my reasoning is nerdy and economic. However, the more important point is that I believe this is a pointless topic of conversation."
Do you have anything to address Geoff's argument? Because it's the same argument I've made here many times. If you assume infinite simplistic growth, then yes logically it cannot be accomodated in a finite system.
But that is not what we actually do. For instance human population has increased by around 7 times since 1800, yet 200 years ago we struggled to feed even 1b people reliably. Now the top health problems we face are caused by an excess of food for many billions. Clearly the nature of our economic activity has changed dramatically in that time. This is the first part of Geoff's argument, and it's an obvious irrefutable observation.
The other flaw in 'eco-socialist' argument is thinking that we are inevitably on an exponential, unconstrained growth path. All the evidence suggests that we are not; most projections have us peaking at around 9 – 11b people and then declining. Indeed most developed nation populations are already declining. The sooner we develop the whole world, the quicker our total population will stabilise.
And the third flaw is assuming that the planet is 'finite', and that we are forever limited to it's currently understood resources only. Yet the reality is that we can discover new resource domains, unsuspected and untapped. Each one of these conceptual leaps opens up entirely new opportunities. The old aphorism 'the Stone Age didn't end because of a shortage of stones' applies illustrates this.
At the same time I've read my Jared Diamond. We do know that societies collapse, at least locally. The unprecedented challenge we now face is that for the first time in all of human history it's conceivable that we could collapse on a global scale; a truly dystopian prospect. I've alluded to this before, that all the really big problems we now face are global in nature, and therefore demand solutions at a global scale.
What is preventing this is a cultural inflexibility, our reluctance to let go the nation state as the apogee of politics, and evolve an authentic and effective global governance. Because while Diamond rightly points to examples of collapse, he makes the equally important point … that some societies avoid it if they can understand what is happening, and make the necessary cultural adaptions in time.
Declaring that someone 'has nothing' by producing nothing of substance yourself is always less than convincing. But maybe you have a killer argument up your sleeve … I'll await it with interest.
You think responding to an argument 'yet unmade' is impossible, yet somehow you find it very easy to declare it a 'nothing burger' sight unseen. Very odd.
Besides there are at least two obvious arguments in Geoff's article that you could address; much the same as the one's I made above.
My breakfast was homemade buckwheat pancakes with blueberrries and coconut cream yoghurt … my partner declared them “impossibly good”. Does this count?
GS names two paths of unlimited growth…productivity (efficiency) and inflation (financial)….in neither case does he support the assertions with explanation of its working, he does however state he will explain in a second article.
That will be interesting to see because neither address 'growth' , the former merely (potentially) slows it and the latter only changes the way we measure it without addressing the resources at its base. Both impact the allocation but not the need nor the finite nature.
Well here is Norman Smith outlining how NZ can achieve carbon zero by just 2050. (Only 30 years … you and I may well live to see this.)
Improved efficiency is the first and most accessible step. Implementing known renewable technologies is the mid game, and anticipating entirely new technologies to get us over the line.
A short article will necessarily be light on details to flesh out the model, but in my view none of them are unreasonable stages. And while these address themselves primarily to just one of the growth constraints we face, atmospheric carbon balance, the same basic idea is applicable everywhere.
Growth and carbon – can we really have one without the other?
I do hope, but don't believe that annual anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions will peak soon (enough) – admire (and genuinely wish that I could share) your optimism.
"Globally we emit over 36 billion tonnes of CO2 per year – this continues to increase."
"The world is not on-track to meet its agreed target of limiting warming to 2℃. Under current policies, expected warming will be in the range 3.1-3.7℃."
"Diamond himself has "repeatedly been sued, threatened with lawsuits, and verbally abused by scholars". His lecture hosts have been forced to hire bodyguards to shield him from critics, while one scholar concluded a published review of one of his earlier books with the injunction: "Shut up". These dispiriting phenomena, of course, are not completely absent in the UK either." https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/112796232/book-review-upheaval-by-jared-diamond
Excellent news, eh?! Reduces the prospect of being bored to death in acadaemia considerably. 😎
I've got the book out from the local library, but only read the initial thesis & concluding chapters. Worthy, but dull. I own & have read Collapse & Guns, Germs and consider the guy worth reading. Too bad his latest comparative analysis seems a basically a waste of time. Case studies are really only worthwhile if you can deduce general principles and explain how they will shape the future…
Thanks for this; I hadn't spotted his latest book. I found How Societies Collapse better than Guns, Germs and Steel … although both are required reading.
The most interesting point he made in the former is that societies that avoided collapse all had two critical factors in common … they had insight at what was coming down the road at them, and they had sufficient social cohesion to make the necessary sacrifices and adaptations necessary.
We certainly have the former condition … but we clearly struggle with the latter. (The attacks on Diamond being a small yet signal symptom of this. How sad.)
Critical thinking, robust debate, and heated arguments are no obstacle to or for social cohesion. In fact, they are a critically necessary requirement and a hallmark of a well-functioning healthy and cohesive society IMHO. Obsequiousness, compliance, conformity and group think are not.
We've been through at least a decade of intense social and political polarisation that probably has yet to run it's course. Yet there are encouraging signs that I am absolutely not alone in wishing to shift this trend.
Social cohesion absolutely does not imply conformity. The salient question in any relationship is not the fact that you will disagree (sometimes passionately) … but on how you conduct that disagreement. The whole purpose of a discussion is to determine a course of action. If the debate is corrosive however, regardless of whichever party was 'right or wrong' … it undermines our ability to act. This is the salient lesson from the climate change debate, the fossil fuel corporates knew the science perfectly, so they intentionally set out to poison the debate so that we were rendered unable to act on it.
This principle applies everywhere. It is much less important to be 'right' than to be 'sufficiently aligned in order that we can collectively act in unity'.
yes Ad, I read that book a few years ago. One thing I recall from it was the importance of what they called 'institutions". Such as having a robust and well operating justice system, education system, police force etc. I hadn't given it much thought til then, but certainly failed states are characterised by corruption, the law of the jungle and failure of public services.
David Bowie later wrote a song about the Midwich cuckoos (Oh you pretty things). "All the women in the village of Midwich are impregnated in a single night by aliens. Nine months later, the women give birth to a race of children with golden eyes – strangely precocious children who are emotionally blank, band together against the villagers, and are soon perceived to possess formidable and horribly threatening powers." Adolescent me was very impressed!
"In Keys's startling thesis, a global climatic catastrophe in A.D. 535-536–a massive volcanic eruption sundering Java from Sumatra–was the decisive factor that transformed the ancient world into the medieval, or as Keys prefers to call it, the ""proto-modern"" era. Ancient chroniclers record a disaster in that year that blotted out the sun for months, causing famine, droughts, floods, storms and bubonic plague. Keys, archeology correspondent for the London Independent, uses tree-ring samples, analysis of lake deposits and ice cores, as well as contemporaneous documents to bolster his highly speculative thesis. In his scenario, the ensuing disasters precipitated the disintegration of the Roman Empire, beset by Slav, Mongol and Persian invaders propelled from their disrupted homelands." https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-345-40876-1
But that's merely one of several such! I've got plenty of books on the others too. Speculative means circumstantial evidence, not proof. It applies to all history really – historians speculate when they interpret or theorise. So-called historical facts are usually disputed by someone…
Very nice links Dennis. Yet the fact of collapse is not in debate; it's something we've done many times as a species. But we have one critical advantage the ancients lacked … we have far more insight into what is happening to us than they did.
It's our ability to go from informed debate to effective action at the required scale, that we struggle with.
…..they had insight at what was coming down the road at them, and they had sufficient social cohesion to make the necessary sacrifices and adaptations necessary.
We certainly have the former condition … but we clearly struggle with the latter. (The attacks on Diamond being a small yet signal symptom of this. How sad.)
Dennis Frank
The following headline is another small yet signal symptom that we struggle with having sufficient social cohesion to make the necessary sacrifices and adaptations necessary.
Decision made on Sydney New Year’s Eve fireworks display as Parramatta axes shows
The RFS has made a final decision on Sydney’s New Year’s Eve fireworks after a total fire ban led to displays being cancelled across the city.
Fair enough … and to take your metaphor to it's next step … if someone has their fingers firmly plugged into their ears, do you think yelling at them louder will persuade them to listen?
Capitalism is sold as a way of managing needs. Yet if we consider the rather simple analogy, that of a child on a park swing, their parent pushing harder and harder, their child screaming has altered tone from joy to fear, as the child comes closer to the tipping point. Daddy why are you adding more co2 every year? If capitalism is to smooth out risk, why isn't it? All economies have technical vaporware fixes, well until they dont because they kept waiting for them.
When we elect dutiful children who don't scream like Trump, Bossinaro, smomo… their duty first to god, then to big businesses, and lastly to whatever or spin they need to play to keep up their pretense of living up to their oath of office. We conceed our democracy to theology and the giant ponsi scheme capialism has been made into.
She’s so right about the 70s. As a public servant I didn’t dare become involved in the womens’ movement. It was bad enough being a member of the Labour Party. You would have thought I had committed a treasonable act by the way I was treated.
…… and re SK – about fucking time, and Marilyn Waring for that matter.
That said – it really shows what a croc of shit the whole thing is (and I say that with a bro who holds one, invested by a Guv who damn near lost his false teeth during the ceremony – well deserved btw – more to do with those that miss out, and those that get one). Sometimes you have to wonder what Madge (Her Indoors, HRH Liz) would think if she only knew their backstories – but then she's got her own shit to deal with that could very well knock her off her pedestal this year
Best not get all bitter about the PS though @ Anne – their time will come (SOME in the SENIOR ranks – the parachuted-in, the free-loaders, the Peter-Principled, the thoroughly egotistical bullies et al), and there are signs its already happened/ing.
Their excesses don't go unnoticed forever. If we do get a repeat of the COL in 2020, AND they have a plan before going into the election that features actual transitional change and kindness with published policies that attract ya average bloke with a few unpublished in store of how they're going to get there – we might ekshully see all that hopey changey stuff happening.
Que sera sera. And if things have to get worse before they get better, it's not necessarily a bad thing ( in terms of gaining 'learnings' going forward, and with the wisdom of hindsight, 20/20 vision, and all that sort of kaka)
Feynman had a similar story about how he got an idea for calculating electron rotation from watching a spinning plate fly through the air at a college food fight.
1. After being publicly outed as a helium balloon rather than a sentient human being, Boris Johnson ascends into the stratosphere.
2. Labour announces that if they win the next election, two Brexit/remain referenda will be held consecutively. If the two results, averaged out, deliver less than a 5% margin for either side, there will be another referendum. [my prediction: Labour splitters will demand that this simplistic prescription be complexified, pronto, toot sweet]
3. ScoMo carries a large lump of kerosene-doused coal into the Australian senate. Setting it alight, he declares maniacally that there is nothing to be afraid of. Elected representatives are engulfed in flames as ScoMo escapes back to Hawaii.
4. Australian climate change refugees demand entry as early summer temperatures average 45°c and whole suburbs burn. Jacinda Adern’s re-elected coalition government announces that preference will be given to New Zealand expatriates
5. England defeat the All Blacks at Twickenham by a huge margin. Ian Foster and the coaching team upon return to New Zealand receive 24/7 police protection. A commission of enquiry is established to apportion blame and intensify national self-loathing.
In politics, does negative cancel out (neutralise) positive? I think the answer is “no”. They accentuate each other and create an energy field (polarisation). In some ways, we need this, to make things happen, i.e. use the ‘political’ energy wisely. Our democracy needs a properly functioning Opposition to hold the Government to account. We don’t want (or need) them to neutralise everything the Government does because that leads to stasis and apathy (AKA socio-political death).
Harari, in Sapiens, tells the story of the Apollo 11 astronauts training in the desert, encountering an old Native American, who asked what they were doing there, so they told him they were training for an expedition to the moon.
"When the old man heard that, he fell silent for a few moments, then asked the astronauts if they could do him a favour." They asked him what he wanted. "Well, the people of my tribe believe that holy spirits live on the moon. I was wondering if you could pass an important message to them from my people."
The old guy said something in his tribal language, then got them to memorise it, saying he couldn't explain the meaning to them. Back at base, they eventually found someone who knew the language, who burst out laughing when told the message: "Don't believe a single word these people are telling you. They've come to steal your lands."
Points to trust as being foundational to intercultural relations and peaceful coexistence. Therefore in the fraught times to come, politics must be driven by a trust-building agenda. Expertise in getting suitable results will be essential. If you know anyone leaving school looking for direction, tell them!
A murdered journalist. Shady offshore deals. A tiny nation in the grip of large-scale criminal interests.
These are the leading factors behind the selection of Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat as the OCCRP 2019 Person of the Year in Organized Crime and Corruption.
Under Muscat’s leadership, criminality and corruption have flourished — and in many cases gone unpunished — in the small Mediterranean archipelago of Malta, creating an environment that led to the 2017 murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, investigators and government critics say.
[…]
Other finalists for 2019 included:
US President Donald J. Trump, who is accused of breaking the law by pressuring Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate a political rival in the upcoming US presidential election. He faces a Senate impeachment trial on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s self-proclaimed personal attorney, who is under federal investigation into whether he illegally put pressure on Ukraine to pursue a conspiracy theory involving the president’s political rival.
Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, the son of the longtime president of the Republic of Congo, who is accused in a corruption scheme that saw US$50 million siphoned off from the Congolese treasury. He was also implicated in a 2018 OCCRP investigation and accused — along with other family members — of accepting millions of dollars in bribes to unlock Congo’s oil fields.
Dude had a heart attack, lied about it and hid it from the public for several days, then promised to release his full medical records by the end of the year.
And now he pulls this tRumpian 50% higher than other men his age with a similar diagnosis stunt.
Most published medical records are written like this and usually from a single physician. An example:
"Vice President Biden is a healthy, vigorous, 77-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State, and Commander in Chief," O'Connor wrote.
It's obvious, he's just about dead. In comparison Donald J Trump is the healthiest, fittest president the USA has ever had and he has all the attribute of a 35 year old.
Oh, and that terminal illness which Hillary Clinton had some years back? I must have been away, I missed the death and funeral notices.
The advice might be meant well but some of the explanations come straight from the snake-oil department. For example:
According to the New Zealand Health Promotion Agency, it's best to choose alcohol with fewer congeners, those free radicals that disrupt your body's alkaline balance and sends it into fight mode.
Light alcohols are better than dark alcohols as they contain a lower concentration of congeners, so brandy, whisky and red wine may leave you with a bigger hangover than white wine, gin and vodka.
The fluid is actually a molecule in liquid form that scientists from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden have been working on improving for over a year.
This molecule is composed of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, and when it is hit by sunlight, it does something unusual: the bonds between its atoms are rearranged and it turns into an energised new version of itself, called an isomer.
Like prey caught in a trap, energy from the sun is thus captured between the isomer's strong chemical bonds, and it stays there even when the molecule cools down to room temperature.
When the energy is needed – say at nighttime, or during winter – the fluid is simply drawn through a catalyst that returns the molecule to its original form, releasing energy in the form of heat.
Way to go!! I wonder if a but will emerge. If not, the thing to watch will be copyright licensing. Do the scientists have a contract with the university, and/or does the university own their creations, and if so, how soon will they license production? Those are the key questions, methinks.
So you put a tank of the stuff up on your roof, and run a wire to your in-house Tesla battery to keep it topped up. Bye bye grid.
Okay, so there will need to be a heat distribution network, I was over-simplifying. Perhaps local tech can do that easily.
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
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Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
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Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
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The following interview with former Green Party MP Sue Kedgley came about because she features in the new memoir Hine Toa by activist Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku; the two knew each other at the University of Auckland in the early 70s, when they were both took on leadership roles in the ...
In the spirit of the New Years honours list:
Thanks to LPrent, weka, Ad, Incognito, Mickey, Bill and all the others that make this site possible. I value this community and it has been a great help in understanding news, politics and the challenges involved in trying to be progressive.
Surprisingly I feel compelled to acknowledge Countdown supermarket chain and First Union for their leadership. To have workers on $21.15 an hour after a years service is fantastic. This has to be directly linked to Labour coalition raising the minimum wage to the living wage.
Also Countdowns decision to only sell New Zealand pork. I know this is last years news but it bears repeating.
And.. 12 months ago we had three world cups to look forward to. If you were told we would only win one, how many would have picked the Silver Ferns? Congratulations Noeline Taurua for helping turn around the team.
I haven't posted on here as much as I used to, but I always drop in on here throughout the day and read the chatter going on.
Cheers Gsays and a happy new year to you and your whanau.
Many educated and better off people around the globe are surreptitiously eyeing New Zealand as that last great safe bolt hole for them and their families to escape to when rising local temperatures and extreme weather events get too much to bear.
But if it could happen in Tasmania it could happen here.
Sometimes I wonder if people know what the word 'emergency' means.
Freakin' heck…this pic pretty much defines it
https://twitter.com/danbakes/status/1211850190132367360
Let's see if that impressive photo embeds for me ..
https://twitter.com/danbakes/status/1211850190132367360
Tassies the best bet if you want to remain within Oz. The mainland’s an oven bruce.
44deg wind in melb was burning the eyes the other week. Only go out if totally necessary shite.
Hold tight to that Kiwi passport, it might become the most important thing you own.
For those who think there is no difference between the Republican and Democratic Parties in the US:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ENCtPlrX0AA_cL0.jpg:large
Wow!! Those plots are striking, but not a surprise I guess.
Yes – I was surprised at just how representative the Democrat representation in Congress is of the US demographic. It is also saddening to see that the Republican Party takes 90% of its representation from just 30% of the Demographic.
lol probably closer to 1% if you count their pre-congress incomes
Well yes But all white males – and indications are that the GOP ethnic representation after 2020 will be even worse. It is estimated that after 2020 97% of GOP representatives will be white.
This actually spell the death nell for the GOP as Black, Hispanic and other ethnicities are now now waking up to the need to vote against them.
eg
https://www.axios.com/black-voters-motivated-2020-election-trump-dae9583e-44d2-4d0c-8fdd-f0d9b3966064.html
The GOP can't lose.
The centralization of America’s election system.
Just two vendors — Election Systems & Software, LLC (ES&S) and Dominion Voting — account for eighty percent of US election equipment. Thus, corrupt insiders or foreign hackers could wreak havoc on elections throughout the United States by infiltrating either of these vendors.
Corrupt insiders?
ES&S and Dominion are both owned by private equity, which means we don’t know who funds and controls them. And what little we do know is concerning
https://medium.com/@jennycohn1/americas-electronic-voting-system-is-corrupted-to-the-core-1f55f34f346e
I doubt it. They'll just gerrymander the electoral system so that their votes are deemed invalid for some preposterous reason, or they can't even get to vote at all.
Oh! they have tried. And if tRump gets his way they will do it some more – but their recent efforts have been stymied by the courts, and they have had to go back to drawing up fairer boundaries. The blue wave of 2018 wasn't just in the federal system it was overall and repugnants – apart from in the Senate don't have quite the sway they had in the past. tRumps huge influx of right wing judges however could have some influence in the future but at present the courts are holding back some of the bat shit extremes.
Further to my comment above – I was aware that this court action was in progress but it has just been finalised. Just one example of how the courts are holding back the disenfranchisement of some Americans at this stage.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/01/north-carolina-voter-id-law-blocked-discriminatory
So despite the total fire ban the RFS has decided the Sydney NY fireworks display can go ahead. This seems so very, very wrong especially after losing 80% of the Koala population along with everything else.
A. From your link
Sometimes I wonder if people know what the word 'emergency' means
Sums up the political leadership in Oz nicely. I expect many expat kiwis eyeing off a return now the stark reality of living in a tinderbox sinks in.
The struggle for leadership between the supporters of business as usual and the realists.
The struggle for leadership between the supporters of business as usual and the realists.
Should Sydneysiders enjoy their fire works display while the rest of Australia suffers?
Should Australia profit from coal while Pacific Islands are being destroyed?
Much like those who argue that the risk of an oil leak from deep sea oil drilling off our coasts is remote.
There will be commentators, (possibly even on this forum), who will argue that the chance of fire caused by the Sydney Harbour fireworks display is negligble. The display is on barges away from the shore line in the middle of the harbour, they will argue, the chance of things going wrong is very remote.
And they are right.
That is not the point.
The point is this:
John Barilaro's statement makes a very telling argument.
At a deeper level John Barilaro's statement speaks to the wider global divide over climate change. Those most badly affected by climate change are often the poorest and the least responsible for the crisis, the Pacific Islanders, whose lands are being devastated by rising seas and tropical climate change fueled super storms, and who pleaded that Australia ‘not open your coal mines’.
John Barilaro demands, "…let’s not have two classes of citizens. We’re all in this crisis together.”
John Barilaro's demand not to have two classes of citizens excorciates the likes of business as usual politician Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack who in reply to the Pacific Leaders Forum plea to ‘not open your coal mines’, said that Pacific Islanders can survive climate change by picking our fruit.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2019/08/pacific-islanders-can-survive-climate-change-by-picking-aussie-fruit-deputy-pm-michael-mccormack-says.html
Let's not have two classes of global citizens. We're all in this crisis together.
The Sydney display is off the bridge and barges and in an urban area (not much fuel) so I expect that the exemption was granted by the fire service because it falls below the threshold for risk.
Also, the calls for the cost of the display to be donated to the fire service are surely unrealistic as there will be a contract and the display takes many months to set up. People also need to be able to celebrate in their traditional way if possible and have some time out – this is especially important when you have been living in a state of emergency for a while. I hope it all goes off spectacularly well and people have a good time.
How about that?
Just as I predicted.
But as I also wrote "That is not the point".
Hi Pingao because you seem to have missed the whole point of my comment.
I will hammer it out so that you can't miss it.
The point is –
Are we all in this together, or are we not?
The point is –
Should we party up, while volunteer fire fighters are risking everything to save others?
The point is –
Should we celebrate the fact that climate change will soon provide us with a lot of desperate Pacific Islanders to pick our fruit?
The point is –
Should we have two classes of citizens, or should we not?
The point is –
Should we be ignoring the suffering of the firefighters?
The point is –
Should we be like the Australian Prime Minister who only belatedly after protests cancelled his fun holiday in Hawaii to come back and pass emergency legislation to address the dire financial needs of the fire fighters whose bills had been piling up?
The point is –
Should we be allowing new coal mines? (because it makes us money)
The point is –
Should we be allowing people to walk on live volcanoes? (because it makes us money)
The point is –
Should we just carry on with business as usual?
The point is –
Are we in a crisis, or are we not?
Should we acknowledge to the world that we are in a crisis by halting the Sydney fireworks display?
Or should we try to pretend that everything is normal?
Succinct like a Spring hailstorm damaging delicate sprouting crops and blossoms thereby destroying any hope for a rich Autumn harvest. A few more of those will result in fatal famine and utter despair.
Hi Jenny, my reply was to A. I'm not sure if your comment at 5.3.1 was up when I posted my comment.
While I probably agree with most of your points and don't give a stuff personally about fireworks displays in Sydney, I nevertheless think it would be a fairly weak gesture to cancel the Sydney fireworks – probably divisive as well.
My point is that people need these kind of events, particularly in times of crisis. The city of Sydney is not isolated from the fires and has been full of smoke for weeks. Also the money is spent already.
This link explains the NYE fireworks in Sydney.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/how-do-the-new-year-s-eve-fireworks-work-20191209-p53ibb.html
My apologies Pingao for the crossed lines of communication.
However I still disagree with your opinion that it would be a fairly weak gesture to cancel the Sydney fireworks display.
This display is broadcast and watched by millions around the world. To cancel it would be a major gesture, signalling to the world that Australia is in a major climate related crisis.
Personally I think you may have inadvertently admitted this when you wrote, "…it would be a fairly weak gesture to cancel the Sydney fireworks – probably divisive as well."
Not probably, it would be 'divisive'.
There are already divisions over this blatant flouting of the fire ban imposed on the rest of the city.
Canceling the Hamilton Rugby game over apartheid sport was divisive. Canceling nuclear ship visits was divisive.
Canceling the government subdivision of Bastion Point was divisive.
It is divisive precisely because it is not a weak gesture.
You may have read the for and anti cancellation argument, especially the powerful for argument by John Barilaro, Deputy Premier of NSW.
Canceling the fireworks display will cause immense and (and as you say "possibly divisive"), debate, possibly leading to a deep realisation by many that we are in a global crisis that is not being adequately addressed.
Instead we get a Potemkin village display of business as usual.
Potemkin village – Wikipedia
Thanks for your reply Jenny. You may be right that a more radical response may be more effective although it is impossible to tell if more people will come round to accepting the AGW and its effects more quickly if loads of people get aggravated by the cancellation of this event … anyway it obviously somewhat moot at this point.
I do think (feel?) that the tide is turning in public acceptance of AGW which gives me a little hope (so long as I don't read comments in the media : / )
Low risk is not no risk.
Lots of people go to Sydney for this. Many people would be pissed.
These fireworks impact the current fires in Australia 0%
There is no reason to cancel these except a bit of virtue signaling.
It can also be reasonably argued Infused that continuing with this fire works display despite a total city wide fire ban and in the midst of a bush fire emergency is a bit off vice signalling.
Virtue signalling – Wikipedia
Hi Infused,
In my opinion we need more virtue signaling and less vice signalling.
Maybe then and possibly only then, enough people will wake up to the realisation that we are in a crisis to demand that immediate action be taken in numbers to big to be ignored by the policy makers.
you lot are so far removed from reality it's crazy.
In other words, you have nothing. Why then do you even bother commenting?
Woah, that decade was quick.
Believe me. The next one will be even quicker
Albert Einstein once wittily remarked, "Time is natures way of stopping everything happening at once"
Get ready and brace yourself for everything happening at once.
Not really. The decade still has 366 days to run, otherwise there would have to have existed, somewhere in the CE (AD) period, a decade with only nine years in it; which, of course, is absurd.
"I’ll come right out and say it: as an economist I think endless growth is technically possible. The key word there is technical, because my reasoning is nerdy and economic. However, the more important point is that I believe this is a pointless topic of conversation."
https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/103140/top-leader-geoff-simmons-argues-eco-socialist-claim-we-cant-we-cant-keep-growing
Hope the second article has something of substance or TOP may have just consigned itself to the history book of NZ politics (a one line entry)
Do you have anything to address Geoff's argument? Because it's the same argument I've made here many times. If you assume infinite simplistic growth, then yes logically it cannot be accomodated in a finite system.
But that is not what we actually do. For instance human population has increased by around 7 times since 1800, yet 200 years ago we struggled to feed even 1b people reliably. Now the top health problems we face are caused by an excess of food for many billions. Clearly the nature of our economic activity has changed dramatically in that time. This is the first part of Geoff's argument, and it's an obvious irrefutable observation.
The other flaw in 'eco-socialist' argument is thinking that we are inevitably on an exponential, unconstrained growth path. All the evidence suggests that we are not; most projections have us peaking at around 9 – 11b people and then declining. Indeed most developed nation populations are already declining. The sooner we develop the whole world, the quicker our total population will stabilise.
And the third flaw is assuming that the planet is 'finite', and that we are forever limited to it's currently understood resources only. Yet the reality is that we can discover new resource domains, unsuspected and untapped. Each one of these conceptual leaps opens up entirely new opportunities. The old aphorism 'the Stone Age didn't end because of a shortage of stones' applies illustrates this.
At the same time I've read my Jared Diamond. We do know that societies collapse, at least locally. The unprecedented challenge we now face is that for the first time in all of human history it's conceivable that we could collapse on a global scale; a truly dystopian prospect. I've alluded to this before, that all the really big problems we now face are global in nature, and therefore demand solutions at a global scale.
What is preventing this is a cultural inflexibility, our reluctance to let go the nation state as the apogee of politics, and evolve an authentic and effective global governance. Because while Diamond rightly points to examples of collapse, he makes the equally important point … that some societies avoid it if they can understand what is happening, and make the necessary cultural adaptions in time.
"Do you have anything to address Geoff's argument?"
when he makes one I'll respond…theres nothing in that first article to support his contention hence the comment about his proclaimed second
Declaring that someone 'has nothing' by producing nothing of substance yourself is always less than convincing. But maybe you have a killer argument up your sleeve … I'll await it with interest.
lol…you challenge me to contest an argument as yet unmade…how many impossible tasks do you perform before breakfast?
You think responding to an argument 'yet unmade' is impossible, yet somehow you find it very easy to declare it a 'nothing burger' sight unseen. Very odd.
Besides there are at least two obvious arguments in Geoff's article that you could address; much the same as the one's I made above.
My breakfast was homemade buckwheat pancakes with blueberrries and coconut cream yoghurt … my partner declared them “impossibly good”. Does this count?
GS names two paths of unlimited growth…productivity (efficiency) and inflation (financial)….in neither case does he support the assertions with explanation of its working, he does however state he will explain in a second article.
That will be interesting to see because neither address 'growth' , the former merely (potentially) slows it and the latter only changes the way we measure it without addressing the resources at its base. Both impact the allocation but not the need nor the finite nature.
Well here is Norman Smith outlining how NZ can achieve carbon zero by just 2050. (Only 30 years … you and I may well live to see this.)
Improved efficiency is the first and most accessible step. Implementing known renewable technologies is the mid game, and anticipating entirely new technologies to get us over the line.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/118485011/the-three-stages-to-zero-carbon-success
A short article will necessarily be light on details to flesh out the model, but in my view none of them are unreasonable stages. And while these address themselves primarily to just one of the growth constraints we face, atmospheric carbon balance, the same basic idea is applicable everywhere.
thats wonderful and I may have a look later…but net carbon neutral by 2050 in NZ bears no relationship to unlimited growth
Growth and carbon – can we really have one without the other?
I do hope, but don't believe that annual anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions will peak soon (enough) – admire (and genuinely wish that I could share) your optimism.
"Diamond himself has "repeatedly been sued, threatened with lawsuits, and verbally abused by scholars". His lecture hosts have been forced to hire bodyguards to shield him from critics, while one scholar concluded a published review of one of his earlier books with the injunction: "Shut up". These dispiriting phenomena, of course, are not completely absent in the UK either." https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/112796232/book-review-upheaval-by-jared-diamond
Excellent news, eh?! Reduces the prospect of being bored to death in acadaemia considerably. 😎
I've got the book out from the local library, but only read the initial thesis & concluding chapters. Worthy, but dull. I own & have read Collapse & Guns, Germs and consider the guy worth reading. Too bad his latest comparative analysis seems a basically a waste of time. Case studies are really only worthwhile if you can deduce general principles and explain how they will shape the future…
Thanks for this; I hadn't spotted his latest book. I found How Societies Collapse better than Guns, Germs and Steel … although both are required reading.
The most interesting point he made in the former is that societies that avoided collapse all had two critical factors in common … they had insight at what was coming down the road at them, and they had sufficient social cohesion to make the necessary sacrifices and adaptations necessary.
We certainly have the former condition … but we clearly struggle with the latter. (The attacks on Diamond being a small yet signal symptom of this. How sad.)
Critical thinking, robust debate, and heated arguments are no obstacle to or for social cohesion. In fact, they are a critically necessary requirement and a hallmark of a well-functioning healthy and cohesive society IMHO. Obsequiousness, compliance, conformity and group think are not.
We've been through at least a decade of intense social and political polarisation that probably has yet to run it's course. Yet there are encouraging signs that I am absolutely not alone in wishing to shift this trend.
Social cohesion absolutely does not imply conformity. The salient question in any relationship is not the fact that you will disagree (sometimes passionately) … but on how you conduct that disagreement. The whole purpose of a discussion is to determine a course of action. If the debate is corrosive however, regardless of whichever party was 'right or wrong' … it undermines our ability to act. This is the salient lesson from the climate change debate, the fossil fuel corporates knew the science perfectly, so they intentionally set out to poison the debate so that we were rendered unable to act on it.
This principle applies everywhere. It is much less important to be 'right' than to be 'sufficiently aligned in order that we can collectively act in unity'.
In the same vein I'd recommend:
Why Nations Fail.
yes Ad, I read that book a few years ago. One thing I recall from it was the importance of what they called 'institutions". Such as having a robust and well operating justice system, education system, police force etc. I hadn't given it much thought til then, but certainly failed states are characterised by corruption, the law of the jungle and failure of public services.
Re collapse theorising, there's excellent analysis/commentary here: https://philosophicaldisquisitions.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-collapse-of-complex-societies_1.html
Yes, I also liked Jared's Collapse more than the one that made him famous. Related to the collapse genre is the catastrophe genre – much older. I got addicted to it when I discovered scifi in early 1963: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jul/05/jane-rogers-top-10-cosy-catastrophes
David Bowie later wrote a song about the Midwich cuckoos (Oh you pretty things). "All the women in the village of Midwich are impregnated in a single night by aliens. Nine months later, the women give birth to a race of children with golden eyes – strangely precocious children who are emotionally blank, band together against the villagers, and are soon perceived to possess formidable and horribly threatening powers." Adolescent me was very impressed!
"In Keys's startling thesis, a global climatic catastrophe in A.D. 535-536–a massive volcanic eruption sundering Java from Sumatra–was the decisive factor that transformed the ancient world into the medieval, or as Keys prefers to call it, the ""proto-modern"" era. Ancient chroniclers record a disaster in that year that blotted out the sun for months, causing famine, droughts, floods, storms and bubonic plague. Keys, archeology correspondent for the London Independent, uses tree-ring samples, analysis of lake deposits and ice cores, as well as contemporaneous documents to bolster his highly speculative thesis. In his scenario, the ensuing disasters precipitated the disintegration of the Roman Empire, beset by Slav, Mongol and Persian invaders propelled from their disrupted homelands." https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-345-40876-1
But that's merely one of several such! I've got plenty of books on the others too. Speculative means circumstantial evidence, not proof. It applies to all history really – historians speculate when they interpret or theorise. So-called historical facts are usually disputed by someone…
Very nice links Dennis. Yet the fact of collapse is not in debate; it's something we've done many times as a species. But we have one critical advantage the ancients lacked … we have far more insight into what is happening to us than they did.
It's our ability to go from informed debate to effective action at the required scale, that we struggle with.
The following headline is another small yet signal symptom that we struggle with having sufficient social cohesion to make the necessary sacrifices and adaptations necessary.
A clear victory has been handed to the deniers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsZJKpbEoNE
Fair enough … and to take your metaphor to it's next step … if someone has their fingers firmly plugged into their ears, do you think yelling at them louder will persuade them to listen?
Human adaptability works just fine thanks.
The animosity is particularly fierce among anthropologists who produced less cogent work, according to a couple of my students.
PUBLISH, n. In literary affairs, to become the fundamental element in a cone of critics ~ Bierce
Capitalism is sold as a way of managing needs. Yet if we consider the rather simple analogy, that of a child on a park swing, their parent pushing harder and harder, their child screaming has altered tone from joy to fear, as the child comes closer to the tipping point. Daddy why are you adding more co2 every year? If capitalism is to smooth out risk, why isn't it? All economies have technical vaporware fixes, well until they dont because they kept waiting for them.
When we elect dutiful children who don't scream like Trump, Bossinaro, smomo… their duty first to god, then to big businesses, and lastly to whatever or spin they need to play to keep up their pretense of living up to their oath of office. We conceed our democracy to theology and the giant ponsi scheme capialism has been made into.
A New Year present for Lynn; this may well stroke your sense of humour
https://youtu.be/P-hUV9yhqgY
Reminds me of some Standard 'discussions'.
@ 8.1
Oops… not a dig at any specific male commentators. Just a side salad of friendly humour.
And while I'm here;
Congratulations and thank-you to Sue Kedgley for 50 years of service to women and the environment:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/406444/new-year-honours-sue-kedgley-made-officer-of-the-new-zealand-order-of-merit
She’s so right about the 70s. As a public servant I didn’t dare become involved in the womens’ movement. It was bad enough being a member of the Labour Party. You would have thought I had committed a treasonable act by the way I was treated.
🙂
…… and re SK – about fucking time, and Marilyn Waring for that matter.
That said – it really shows what a croc of shit the whole thing is (and I say that with a bro who holds one, invested by a Guv who damn near lost his false teeth during the ceremony – well deserved btw – more to do with those that miss out, and those that get one). Sometimes you have to wonder what Madge (Her Indoors, HRH Liz) would think if she only knew their backstories – but then she's got her own shit to deal with that could very well knock her off her pedestal this year
Best not get all bitter about the PS though @ Anne – their time will come (SOME in the SENIOR ranks – the parachuted-in, the free-loaders, the Peter-Principled, the thoroughly egotistical bullies et al), and there are signs its already happened/ing.
Their excesses don't go unnoticed forever. If we do get a repeat of the COL in 2020, AND they have a plan before going into the election that features actual transitional change and kindness with published policies that attract ya average bloke with a few unpublished in store of how they're going to get there – we might ekshully see all that hopey changey stuff happening.
Que sera sera. And if things have to get worse before they get better, it's not necessarily a bad thing ( in terms of gaining 'learnings' going forward, and with the wisdom of hindsight, 20/20 vision, and all that sort of kaka)
Happy New Year
And Happy New Year to you too OWT.
Yes, I did think of Marilyn Waring but the linked item was about SK.
Two women who did so much and one of them at such personal cost. Now don't anyone get me started on Muldoon. Grrrr.
Feynman had a similar story about how he got an idea for calculating electron rotation from watching a spinning plate fly through the air at a college food fight.
Similar, yet very different…
This one obviously did not get hacked 😉
https://dpmc.govt.nz/publications/new-year-honours-list-2020
Apocalypse 2020 has Wayne Hope's predictions… https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/12/23/apocalypse-2020/ Highlights worth recycling:
1. After being publicly outed as a helium balloon rather than a sentient human being, Boris Johnson ascends into the stratosphere.
2. Labour announces that if they win the next election, two Brexit/remain referenda will be held consecutively. If the two results, averaged out, deliver less than a 5% margin for either side, there will be another referendum. [my prediction: Labour splitters will demand that this simplistic prescription be complexified, pronto, toot sweet]
3. ScoMo carries a large lump of kerosene-doused coal into the Australian senate. Setting it alight, he declares maniacally that there is nothing to be afraid of. Elected representatives are engulfed in flames as ScoMo escapes back to Hawaii.
4. Australian climate change refugees demand entry as early summer temperatures average 45°c and whole suburbs burn. Jacinda Adern’s re-elected coalition government announces that preference will be given to New Zealand expatriates
5. England defeat the All Blacks at Twickenham by a huge margin. Ian Foster and the coaching team upon return to New Zealand receive 24/7 police protection. A commission of enquiry is established to apportion blame and intensify national self-loathing.
The size of the problem is huge but this is a small step in the right direction.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/118523315/new-state-houses-for-richmond-as-waiting-lists-reach-record-highs
Don’t expect miracles overnight.
The local Nat MP is bound to declare "But we have been waiting a decade already! Time this do-nothing govt got on with it!"
Their caucus must have been passing around one of those memory zappers from Men In Black. Shame the rest of us are still sentient.
In politics, does negative cancel out (neutralise) positive? I think the answer is “no”. They accentuate each other and create an energy field (polarisation). In some ways, we need this, to make things happen, i.e. use the ‘political’ energy wisely. Our democracy needs a properly functioning Opposition to hold the Government to account. We don’t want (or need) them to neutralise everything the Government does because that leads to stasis and apathy (AKA socio-political death).
I welcome them coming up with bolder plans to tackle the problem – or go back to denying there is one. #antithesis
White man, him speak with forked tongue, as the old saying goes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forked_tongue
Harari, in Sapiens, tells the story of the Apollo 11 astronauts training in the desert, encountering an old Native American, who asked what they were doing there, so they told him they were training for an expedition to the moon.
"When the old man heard that, he fell silent for a few moments, then asked the astronauts if they could do him a favour." They asked him what he wanted. "Well, the people of my tribe believe that holy spirits live on the moon. I was wondering if you could pass an important message to them from my people."
The old guy said something in his tribal language, then got them to memorise it, saying he couldn't explain the meaning to them. Back at base, they eventually found someone who knew the language, who burst out laughing when told the message: "Don't believe a single word these people are telling you. They've come to steal your lands."
Points to trust as being foundational to intercultural relations and peaceful coexistence. Therefore in the fraught times to come, politics must be driven by a trust-building agenda. Expertise in getting suitable results will be essential. If you know anyone leaving school looking for direction, tell them!
Not so much winning.
A murdered journalist. Shady offshore deals. A tiny nation in the grip of large-scale criminal interests.
These are the leading factors behind the selection of Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat as the OCCRP 2019 Person of the Year in Organized Crime and Corruption.
Under Muscat’s leadership, criminality and corruption have flourished — and in many cases gone unpunished — in the small Mediterranean archipelago of Malta, creating an environment that led to the 2017 murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, investigators and government critics say.
[…]
Other finalists for 2019 included:
https://www.occrp.org/en/poy/2019/
Dude had a heart attack, lied about it and hid it from the public for several days, then promised to release his full medical records by the end of the year.
And now he pulls this tRumpian 50% higher than other men his age with a similar diagnosis stunt.
WTF is he hiding?
https://twitter.com/ccadelago/status/1211729914245918720
Well Yeah! But what about this! 🙄
https://www.newsweek.com/republican-vp-trends-americans-react-biden-saying-he-would-consider-gop-2020-running-mate-1479765
It's the "with a similar diagnosis" that's the real fudge lol.
Most published medical records are written like this and usually from a single physician. An example:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/biden-medical-records-reveal-heart-condition
It's obvious, he's just about dead. In comparison Donald J Trump is the healthiest, fittest president the USA has ever had and he has all the attribute of a 35 year old.
Oh, and that terminal illness which Hillary Clinton had some years back? I must have been away, I missed the death and funeral notices.
The advice might be meant well but some of the explanations come straight from the snake-oil department. For example:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/118528840/how-to-start-2020-without-a-new-years-eve-hangover
In this context, a good journalists would have changed the wording from “light” to light-coloured, clear, or pale even.
The “free radicals” sounds great but it is absolute nonsense.
Same thing about sending the body “into fight mode”.
None of these statements are backed (up) by the Health Promotion Agency's alcohol.org.nz as far as I can tell.
Turns out this is a cut & paste job from a similar article that appeared on Stuff four years ago: https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/christmas/75064270/how-to-pre-emptively-handle-an-epic-hangover
As far as I can tell, the ‘original’ source of this ignorant mis-information might be this article on 10 Dec 2012: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/article/nutrition-articles/how-to-get-rid-of-a-hangover-as-fast-as-possible-with-the-best-natural-hangover-cures/
Rant over; need drink.
very good
https://twitter.com/goodoldcatchy/status/1211580238662160384
Someone agrees..
https://twitter.com/AoDespair/status/1211727638039089157
Now this is pretty damn cool.
https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1211205471790665728
The fluid is actually a molecule in liquid form that scientists from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden have been working on improving for over a year.
This molecule is composed of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, and when it is hit by sunlight, it does something unusual: the bonds between its atoms are rearranged and it turns into an energised new version of itself, called an isomer.
Like prey caught in a trap, energy from the sun is thus captured between the isomer's strong chemical bonds, and it stays there even when the molecule cools down to room temperature.
When the energy is needed – say at nighttime, or during winter – the fluid is simply drawn through a catalyst that returns the molecule to its original form, releasing energy in the form of heat.
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-develop-liquid-that-sucks-up-sun-s-energy
Way to go!! I wonder if a but will emerge. If not, the thing to watch will be copyright licensing. Do the scientists have a contract with the university, and/or does the university own their creations, and if so, how soon will they license production? Those are the key questions, methinks.
So you put a tank of the stuff up on your roof, and run a wire to your in-house Tesla battery to keep it topped up. Bye bye grid.
Okay, so there will need to be a heat distribution network, I was over-simplifying. Perhaps local tech can do that easily.
lucky we don't live in OZ.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/30/1908659/-Thousands-celebrating-New-Years-Eve-in-Australia-flee-into-the-ocean-to-escape-raging-wildfires?utm_campaign=trending
The smoke drift is moving onto the SI .
Realtime satellite imagery here.
https://himawari8.nict.go.jp/
The future is not amused.
https://twitter.com/StrikeClimate/status/1211957822717456384