For the first time since the covid pandemic began I am cautiously optimistic that we may be entering the beginning of the end of it all.
I posted yesterday the conclusions of Chris Martensen of Peak Prosperity that omicron appears to be becoming the dominant variant of covid and, even though it is much more highly transmissible, does not appear to cause the same proportion of hospital cases or deaths.
Of course, a small percentage of a large number may be bigger than a large percentage of a small number; omicron may still have serious consequences for our health system.
But look at the graphs from Worldometer:
[Wouldn’t let me post screen shots of the daily cases and daily deaths graphs but here’s the link:] https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Daily cases of covid appear to have gone through the roof.
But the world death rate has been trending down for some time.
Perhaps it’s too early to say but maybe omicron is not so deadly, in association with better treatment etc; we may be going to come out the other side of all this in 2022.
Here’s hoping. A happy new year to all on The Standard, and thanks to the moderators and Lprent.
how omicron affects older people, and those with health vulnerabilities
what does 'milder' mean in real terms especially health system impacts (direct and indirect)
what is long covid like from omicron infection? Rates and how it happens for people
we won't know this for some time, eg 6 months
we won't know long term effects (for any covid variant) for years
whether another variant will become dominant that is better or worse than omicron
See why I support the precautionary principle?
There's a huge amount of reckons about omicron, and some of them might turn out to be right (eg it's mild). But once we press the button of loosening up or going back to normal, we can't unpress it. Some people want to take that gamble now, I want us to wait until we know more.
There is a huge statistically based body of work called “the health system” that is a multinational effort that points to omicron being of little harm.
More specifically, as I said in my first comment, we need to know how omicron will impact on older people and those with health vulnerabilities. From what I can tell the South African data doesn't help with that and it's too soon to know from the UK, US etc. Probably not too far away.
“The new virus was detected on four foreign nationals who had entered Botswana on the 7th November 2021, on a diplomatic mission,” said Botswana in a statement. The four diplomats tested positive for COVID-19 on November 11 as they were leaving, and genomic sequencing confirmed the variant on November 24.
Everyone is saying 'Africa is different' and as a continent this is true. The majority of people still live outdoors and the demographics are very different. But this is less true of South Africa as a nation, and a quick look at their data for previous variant waves shows a strong response that is simply not there for Omicron.
Still I've not advocated for rushing to open the border to Omicron either, but how long until you consider we might be certain? And are we going to set an impossible standard to achieve that certainty?
I haven't followed closely enough to have an opinion on timing, but those that have, why not just look at my original list and either think about timing on that basis, or present an argument for how omicron can be managed if we open up instead (don't see so much of that other than 'don't be scare', 'take vit D', vague hand wave in the direction of vulnerable people needing protection).
I'm still in favour of keeping the borders mostly closed (but sorting out the shitshow that is the MiQ lottery), using the longer MiQ stays for people coming across the border. Tightening up on whatever needs to be addressed because of omicron under the traffic light system. After the holidays, more public messaging would help.
And of course alongside that the whole Vit D etc (prevention and treatment), but I won't hold my breath on that one, because it's an impossible standard for NZ at this time 😉
So let's do what we can with the tools we have and the limitations of systems.
Incidentally you may find this reference of interest around the VitD issue:
This succinct but comprehensive review of the evidence found that despite almost complete absence of official government guidelines favoring vitamin D supplements to potentially decrease COVID-19 risk and severity, support among clinicians and other researchers for correcting and preventing vitamin D deficiency with modest daily vitamin D supplementation during the COVID-19 pandemic is very strong, worldwide. The evidence supports recommending 2,000 IU (50 mcg) vitamin D daily for at-risk teens and adults, which is well within safe limits and might dramatically reduce COVID-19 fatalities.
Succinct is one word for it, but it's not a quick read either.
Still I've not advocated for rushing to open the border to Omicron either, but how long until you consider we might be certain? And are we going to set an impossible standard to achieve that certainty?
Seeing what it does in Australia over the next 6-8 weeks would be sufficient to determine if poses a risk to our health systems to the point that it displaces normal loading to the point that people with other critical health issues die of lack of medical attention.
So far that isn't looking good.
The main operational issue is that medical staff with covid-19 (or any other infectious disease) can't attend vulnerable patients. That stresses the remaining staff
NSW is a similar enough state with a more extensive health system. It is also open enough to view the full effects with limited public health measures to see what is likely to happen here.
And that the number of reported cases from PCR testing have jumped from 3763 on Dec 22 to 18278 cases yesterday despite the various PCR testing blockages. It looks like it is still doubling the known community infection rate about every 4 days.
The key measures however are the hospitalisation rate and the staff overload. That isn't looking good at what is still the early surge phase of a variant epidemic.
Hospitalisations have risen to 1,066, up from 901 in the previous reporting period, with 83 patients in intensive care.
There are five times as many people being treated for COVID-19 in the state’s hospitals as there were in mid-December, although the number of people in intensive care has increased at a slower rate.
There isn't enough info to be sure in NSW, but it looks like about a 2 week period from to get from infection to hospitalisation based on the rates of increase. The number of hospitalisations for covid-19 in NSW has risen from 302 on Dec 22 to three times the number. They only had 166 on Dec 15 a week earlier. Can't be sure of the ICU
And here is the important thing.
HSU secretary Gerard Hayes said the increasing number of people being treated in hospital was "more concerning every day".
"I think the key issue here is that while the current variant is not as bad as Delta it will be a larger lot of numbers and the ratio of those numbers to hospitalisations will be potentially the concern."
Mr Hayes said the state's health system would likely reach a critical phase "anywhere within the next two or three months".
Tired and overworked healthcare workers in NSW were left with no choice but to support reducing the isolation rules for asymptomatic staff deemed close contacts of COVID-19 cases.
Under an exemption to the Public Health Order signed by Health Minister Brad Hazzard on Friday night, these staff can now be ordered back to work.
Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF) NSW president Tony Sara said hospitals were running out of staff and the pressure on the system was enormous.
"We're loading our hospitals with COVID-positive patients who need to be in hospital," Dr Sara said.
"We therefore had to reduce the ISO requirements, we don't agree with it but essentially if the health system is not to collapse then ourselves, the nurses and the HSU [Health Service Union] — we don't have a lot of choice but to agree."
If the rate of hospitalisations keeps rising by 2+ times every week in a nearly fully vaccinated state, you can see why they're worried.
It isn't an issue with how less damaging the omnicron outbreak is. That appears to be about 15-30% of the infection vs hospitalisation rate depending where you look world wide.
It is an issue with the rapid rate of infections rapidly driving up the health system into the ground with larger numbers at a lower rate of infection.
I don't think that vitamin D is going to do much in the short term even if it was efficacious. Not to mention that aussies in summer generate a lot of natural vitamin D along with their sunburn.
No we shouldn’t. Not if it’s curtailing the health, mental and physical, off the young and the healthy who have to pay for the old and the unwell in normal times.
from the observable data we can see it’s of little harm to all. We shouldn’t wait just in case there may be some small unknown that rears it’s head. That is a pointless exercise that, if followed in any path in life, leads to nothing good happening.
you can shut yourself off from society until you are happy to come out, but don’t demand society conform to your caution.
Somewhere else in the world where people want freedoms around Covid but then do their best to stop others exercising their freedom to choose to be vaccinated.
It is certainly a change from a decade ago when we had the nutters from Greenpeace destroying crops because they claimed that GMO would threaten the world's food supply.
In January 2021, a presidential decree in Mexico established the prohibition of genetically modified corn as well as the phasing out of glyphosate by 2024.
The continued use of contaminants like GMOs and glyphosate would put Mexican agricultural biodiversity at risk, jeopardise entire ecosystems and move Mexico away from the path towards food sovereignty and self-sufficiency. Securing the ban of GMOs has been the center of countless battles for Greenpeace Mexico over the past 21 years; battles fought alongside various farmer organisations, consumers, academics, researchers, artists and intellectuals.
The 2021 ban on transgenic corn and glyphosate is an important step to advance towards Greenpeace Mexico’s ultimate goal: transformation of the agri-food system from the roots and producing healthy food that does not harm the environment and guarantees the health of farmers and consumers.
One of the good things about this site are the links on the right hand side that bring to your notice things that you may not normally get to view.
Enjoyed the exHalant post which amongst other things reminds you that the right wants you to give up, to think that things are too hard and to not participate. Thatcher's there is no community.
This was a trend I noticed in the 80's – the move by business to blame government for their failures rather than their own uselessness. Their high indebtedness, their low wages, their lack of savings etc all the governments fault. At the same time blaming the poor for being poor. Both narratives designed to consolidate their own position.
"The most annoying part of extreme narratives, of dumping all ills on “the other”, is it allows people to relieve themselves of that duty: telling yourself something is “too big to combat!”, “it’s too overwhelming!” to do anything about is the easy way out.
And nothing would please those who seed the most distorted of narratives more than for people to continue believing in snake oil salesmen Saviours, those who present themselves as having those “instant fixes” to hyper-complex societal issues. And then: selling you out…."
So a quarter of all public servants are suspect? That's what you get if you apply statistical theory and extrapolate from corrections staff to the whole.
Figures released under the Official Information Act (OIA) show the number of staff investigated, the location and the outcome of misconduct proceedings. Over the period 2015/16 to 2019/20, a total of 2284 staff were under investigation.
So a quarter of the public service is error-prone. To err is human, so one could argue that this sizable minority is intent on demonstrating their humanity.
For instance I have been convicted of being a underage drinker and serving three other minors.
Basically wandered down to our local at the Puhio pub from the farm one night with my siblings. I was on leave from the army. Ran in between some over zealous Takapuna cops (well known dipshits at the time) and the pub owner (a known dipso) that they wanted remove a liquor license from. So they laid charges when I said that I didn't know who I'd been served by (and I didn't actually know, nor did I care, and the dipshits annoyed me).
So months later, I had to take time off from my bar job (still underage) and miss a few university lectures to come up to see a judge to get a fine. With the police still ineffectually telling me that they'd drop the charges if I told them what they wanted to know.
I have also been convicted of driving without a license.
I never bothered to renew the 'lifetime' license I got back in the 1990s. In that case I got another small fine after I undertook not to drive again until I went and re-sat the license. Never bothered to pick up my car from the impound yard. It wasn't work much, and it wasn't worth paying the impound fees. At that point I was working from home and only going to work once a month to see the dev team I was running – I hadn't needed a car for a few years before my niece needed to be dropped home because she was late.
Anyway. You are correct – there are ex-cons here including the sysop. Should I now start discussing what I think of dimwitted fools who think that this is something that is important in the context of this site?
I never bothered to renew the 'lifetime' one I got back in the 1990s. In that case I got another small fine after I undertook not to drive again until I went and re-sat the license.
Interesting – my partner saw that change as a major breach of faith by government and to this day remains very unimpressed.
But in this case it was more like I just didn't get around to it. Mostly because I wasn't driving very much.
I didn't bother to get a license for about another 5 years (2007 according to the license). A friend of mine went to work in China and left me her car to take care of. So I sat the test again in her wee sports car. A few years later she sold it via her dad.
Didn't replace it for a few years as I literally don't need a car that much. I use taxis or just hire a car when I need to. Or borrow my partners vehicle. Or since 2014, a awful lot of flying worldwide for work. Or since 2017 I use a e-bike a lot.
My last car was a cheap discard from a family member. That died in 2019 after I'd put about 15k on its clock after nearly a decade.
Brought a small hybrid during the latest lockdown because my new job has a requirement to go to Hamilton periodically to integrate into the dev team. However it may be a functional lemon because that process appears to have successfully be done online over the last 3+ months.
Nice to drive though. Makes a useful shopping cart to the supermarket.
I do find it difficult to understand why some people seem to treat driving as so much of their identity. They’re pain to park. You have to spend time watching the other idiots on the road. And as for commuting – that is just such a stupid way to waste life time.
"I never bothered to renew the 'lifetime' one I got back in the 1990s."
Snap, same with me, as far as I was concerned, a both parties had to agree when changing a contract. I copped a few fines over the years.
I recall, when introduced, we assured the new photo licences wouldn't be used as I.D.. That didn't last long as the drinking age in puns dropped the licence became a de-facto I.D.
Well, although these are very minor peccadilloes they obviously had a marked effect on you.
That you can recall what happened in such detail after what must be close to half a century would surely show that you did not find your treatment for such trivial things as something to be glossed over. Perhaps that was enough to keep you strictly on the right side of the law in the future. They do seem pretty minor though. You are probably right in your assumption that they were just trying to use you as a pawn in the attempted prosecution of the owner of the pub. They could hardly be concerned with such activities by a kid.
Actually, according to Wikipedia, they were far mote likely to be from the Labour Party.
There are 20 New Zealand politicians who Wiki records as having been convicted of a crime. A quick count shows that there were 9 from the Labour Party and 4 from National. I'm afraid I have to go out and I don't have time to go into more detail but you can see them all here.
You appear to have overlooked the statement at the top of that page that explains why there is a difference
This category includes several New Zealand Labour Party politicians convicted for political activity in World War I.
There are others who were convicted of blatantly political ‘crimes’ related to unionism. Some for having ‘seditious’ books – ie they read things other than the NZ Herald – the paper of the stupid.
Personally I’d class them as political convictions.
On the other hand, I suspect that you neglected to add in the convicted who were members of the Reform or United or any of the parties who became part of the National party. Bearing in mind just how juvenile the National party is compared to Labour, you should add those in.
Plus it was notable just how many National party politicians or proto-National party politicians were convicted of fraud offences. Thereby showing if you want a conman – it pays to go National.
Just have to look at the detail to get the true picture. You can’t be as stupid as a Farrar.
Oh dear PR, I'll never get that image out of my mind when muttering when undoing a recalcitrant screw, I mean nut, I mean bolt ……you know what I mean……
You don't also say 'left hand down bit' like Leslie Phillips' character in The Navy Lark'.
You only get a quarter if you don't understand maths. The correct calculation would be 2,000 divided by the total number of staff employed by corrections in that five years.
For the figures for the two years provided 4% and 10% of those investigated lost their jobs through dismissal or resignation. That would be a pittance of the total staff and from my experience lower than the number of staff pinching money in the bank where I used to work. Those numbers are not well publicised though cause the bank doesn't like you to know – much harder these days with less cash too.
The correct calculation would be 2,000 divided by the total number of staff employed by corrections in that five years.
True; they don't quantify the churn factor. And the numbers found guilty are significantly less than the numbers suspected of wrongdoing, which is normal re comparison to the output of the justice system.
So what we get from the establishment is indication instead of truth-telling. Obviously it would spook the horses to tell the truth about the size of the problem. Better to sustain naive belief that the system works according to plan.
Well done, you get the Sleuth of the Day award already for that. So looks like we can reduce the suspect quota of the public service a wee bit on that basis. I'll leave the maths to you but I'm guessing around 20%…
Thanks for that. Safe to assume a portion of those suspected would be due to vendettas or accusations based on wrongly-interpreted behaviour or statements, so we can reasonably drop the estimate down from 17% somewhat. Around one public servant in 6 or 7 being dodgy is certainly more reassuring than one in four…
except the other way of doing it is that 2284 over 5years is only 540/8000/year, i.e. about 7%.
Which might be more fair, if the bulk of those being investigated are newer workers who screw (lol) up, lose their rag, or whatever. Or just don't document things properly – that can get you in shit in a lot of places, without actually doing anything wrong.
You might find this story interesting (or not) or it might just confirm what you're already thinking.
So I was pretty new and I was in J Block (seg unit in Chch Mens, the real single person, hand cuffed and multiple officer escort type) and one of the things drummed into us in training college was to get to know your prisoners
So I was reading the prisoners in the unit file notes and records and what not, which you're allowed to do if you're working in the unit, you can't just look people up because thats a big no-no, as in you're fired no-no
So about three months later I got please explain (from HR because of course it was) as to why I was looking up this prisoner (reasonbly well known but also because of the timing of when I looked him up and yes I'm being deliberately vague)
I said I was in the unit and then a couple of days later I was told to go to a meeting with management, HR and that I should bring a representative along
As my union rep pointed out that I was only doing what i was taught in training and that approximately 9 other, new, officers were up for the same thing it certainly taught me a thing or two about how Corrections and government departments work
Yeah, there's been a few cases over the last few five years (? who knows time anymore) in various departments where looky-loos have been picked up by centralised IT access logging getting new flags to throw up – but when you patch in something, it can throw a spanner in the works.
The "easy" way around it is to throw in some cross-validation between staff assignments and prisoner units. But then sure as eggs HR and prisoner records will be on completely different systems, and that's if the assignments for each one goes down to sufficient detail.
I wonder if the turnover was higher under National because they sacked the ones who misbehaved, as opposed to the probable Labour approach that the offenders meant well but had been hurt by colonialism and they were really very nice people?
Do your figures help determine whether that hypothesis is true?
My hypothesis would be that national are a bunch of facist fuckers setting nonsense targets and putting in shit like double bunking that would result in higher turnover as people said WTF.
The figures themselves add nothing to either hypothesis.
I have just found out my computer is non compliant for Windows 11. Hell, I'm running a 3.6 quad core processor that Microsoft does not recognise! 32 GB of ram apparently doesn't impress them…and there's a whole host of other things that need to be switched on or down loaded. For the effort, I doubt Windows 11 will be worth it for me. I will move permanently to Linux after 2024 ( when support for Windows10 stops).
If you consult with Google, you will find you can bypass / ignore that Windows 11 non-compliant warning, and install it anyway (bit of mucking around). Whether you would bother is another thing.
Mostly it is just seems to be to turn on the TPM 2 in the bios and enabling secure boot. It is unlikely that anything that is less than about 8-10 years old won’t have those two features.
I fixed my partners Threadripper in about 30 minutes for compliance by doing some reading and reboots. It still didn't install windows 11 – but that is because they haven't done the CPU/board support yet and she doesn't get the download available for a few months.
However unless you play some particular action games or want to run the Adobe suite or one of the other specialist bits of software – then there is no real reason not to flip to linux.
I did that in about 2007. My last windows box ran The Standard for about 6-7 months and died in 2008. I'm now completely kubuntu on my home servers (including the one running this site), my laptop and my finally my work laptop. Really glad about the latter – the blasted company spyware and antimalware made a fast laptop crawl like a Pentium 3.
Interestingly however virtually all industrial automation packages run on Windows platforms exclusively. What we tend to do now is deliver pre-tested VM images that have been correctly configured and tuned – and they run very well.
The last big project I've just come off was running 24 Server 2016 VM's on a fairly modestly powered hardware stack (Dell R610's) and after I fixed up the various cock-ups from my predecessors it ran really well. And very stable. While we all have Windows horror stories from the 90's to re-tell over a beer, it's my modest sense that MS have generally gotten a lot better over time.
I do get the enduring appeal of the various Linux derived distros, but for most of the non-geek world Windows is going to be with us for a while yet.
So, DJ Dimension was allowed into the country three times as a critical worker because he had skills not available in New Zealand.
Really? So there are no DJs here? A slap in the face to all those who are desperate to see loved ones, or doctors and nurses who might be a little more "critical".
I have no problem at all with some artists and sportspeople and politicians, etc being allowed in. It too is part of trying to have some semblance of normal. And yeah we have DJ’s but would you pay to go and see them over and above this one.
Don't know why people are getting het up about it. We can walk and chew bubblegum at the same time. It is well known that some places are reserved for these types of things but the article does go on to point out it wasn't even one of the reserved spots.
I'd be more antsy at those who book rooms who don't then use them frankly. This apparently is quite common.
Hipkins said he understood the DJ had secured a spot in one of the later MIQ lobby releases which were “under-subscribed”, where people had rejected rooms they were offered, wanting to wait until when borders opened.
I don’t believe there is ever low demand for MIQ. We are short of skilled workers, who are critical to our country. Also don’t think all the families who are separated have been reunited
Nothing will change when she dies. There is little value in moving to a republic – particularly if the constitution is written by politicians.
Building in aspects of the Magna Carta, Charter of The Forests, Treaty of Waitangi seems much less of a priority to those advocating for a republic than the notion of survival of the fittest, individualistic crap coming out of America. Have little time for any of the public utterances by anyone so far promoting a republic as the way to go. Many seem to see it as a way of getting rid of the Treaty.
There may be little value in moving to say, a republic but thats never stopped change before….at the very least I expect it will reinvigorate those seeking change (of all manner)
Good question and conclusions I think. Don't jettison anything. The Queen has been a bright star on the horizon trying to maintain a civil approach to life with ethical values and nice hats to boot, or head I should say. Charles is fine, deserving admiration for maintaining royal standards and promoting business along ethical and environmental lines after coping with heartfelt personal difficulties.
People talk about royalty as if it was an old coat hanging in a wardrobe and due to be cleared out by some clutter-buster of the minimalist cell-furnished variety.
'Nothing will change when she dies. There is little value in moving to a republic – particularly if the constitution is written by politicians'
A constitution written for New Zealand would be a disaster. Maori would demand such a constitution be based on the Treaty. Politicians would baulk at anything threatening their absolute power to rule unless there were ''out clauses. '' If a treaty was ever implemented I would like an amendment that allows the people of New Zealand to remove a government by force if necessary should any attempt be made to subvert the constitution. All in all -best leave things as they are for everyone's peace of mind.
JK Rowling has never resiled from her assertion that you can not change biological sex.
Most public figures with something to lose have issued grovelling apologies when they've fallen foul of the new high priests of current correct ideology .Not JK Rowling and for that she deserves every accolade
That's inspiring. Courage in the face of that much public shaming is not a common thing.
You may enjoy this essay on Edward O Wilson’s life:
Edward O. Wilson: I think I may have been the only scientist in modern times to be physically attacked for an idea. The idea of a biological human nature was abhorrent to the demonstrators and was, in fact, too radical at the time for a lot of people—probably most social scientists and certainly many on the far-Left. They just accepted as dogma the blank-slate view of the human mind—that everything we do and think is due to contingency, rather than based upon instinct like bodily functions and the urge to keep reproducing. These people believe that everything we do is the result of historical accidents, the events of history, the development of personality through experience.
Then there are the true heretics,where a wrong constant could be fatal such as Zamyatin.
June, 1931
Dear Iosif Vissarionovich,
The author of the present letter, condemned to the highest penalty, appeals to you with the request for the substitution of this penalty by another. My name is probably known to you. To me as a writer, being deprived of the opportunity to write is nothing less than a death sentence. Yet the situation that has come about is such that I cannot continue my work, because no creative activity is possible in an atmosphere of systematic persecution that increases in intensity from year to year.
Yet oddly enough our ancestors relied on religion to create the grand narratives which held their societies together and drove them to survive and thrive in a very hostile world.
It is of course very easy to discount many of the things they believed in. Like an adult knows there is no fat man in a red suit slipping bright and shiny down sooty chimneys. Yet we know the story meant a great deal to them as a child, and as an adult carries an even greater symbolic weight.
How to resolve this paradox? That the literal narratives of humanity's collective childhood now offends our science informed minds should not cause us to think there is no transcendence.
Religion is story-telling. Beyond religion there is science. Science is storytelling. Beyond science, there is story-telling. Without story-telling, there is unconsciousness. There is no unconsciousness in a conscious universe. Our universe is a conscious one.
There is no unconsciousness in a conscious universe.
That wouldhave to be the case.
Our universe is a conscious one.
Perhaps. The universe could actually be God, or the creator, or one of several creators. We still don't actually know how, or why, our universe came into existence, so stories – or conjectures – are all we have to work with.
Alternatively, the universe might not be conscious. It might just have been created to evolve over time and space without any awareness, as a process, according to laws of physics we still don't understand.
That still leaves open the question of whether a conscious mind created it, (and for me another question – why?).
The really important thing is that WE are conscious – and able to think about & try to understand and explain these things, don't you think?
I'm reading about Slavoj Zizek's thinking that behind our eyes all is fiction. I like him but he goes OTT. He could stop talking about voids and nothingness behind us, and honour our remarkable flights of fancy, our fantastic abilities to grow our fictions. One author I like has written so much about a fictional family that she has the thought that one day she could hear a knock and one of her characters would drop by to correct some of her story-telling errors.
I believe in the reality of The Standard, in Lynn Prentice, its founder and wish him and Lyn well for 2022, also all the people that I enjoy reading, particularly Robert Guyton, hello there and Robyn too. Ata marie and kia ora to you all.^-!-^
I’m not against religion per se.I can’t quarrel with Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Although this would be decried as whataboutism these days
or So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Organised religion is something else.One Way religion is actually a prescription for the dark ages,Mumbo Jumbo and power dynamics
Now that God is Dead we have rampant materialism , uninformed by ethics or decency
Organised religion is something else. One Way religion is actually a prescription for the dark ages,Mumbo Jumbo and power dynamics
Yes. That gets to the heart of the matter. Stepping back and looking at the grand gamut of world religions it seems as if we took a lantern – a single common source of light and guidance- and then people decorated it to suit the needs and modes of thought of the era they lived in.
At first the decorations add colour and beauty to the lamp, but they accrete over time, filtering more and more of the original idea until it's almost completely obscured by man-made creeds and institutions. To the point now were many people think there is no light to be found.
"Now that God is Dead we have rampant materialism , uninformed by ethics or decency"
What a load of balderdash. The church has often and still continues to be materialistic. Most of the colonists who came to NZ were religious – struggling to reconcile Darwin and God and failing miserably.
History shows the geed of the church – from the Borgias to Robin Hood to churches running orphanages and single women shelters for profit.
The churches are part of and embedded in capitalism and always have been. Even today they do not pay tax as they should.
Capitalism too has waxed and waned – from the excesses of slavery to the cutting off of hands in Belgium to children working in mines. At many, many levels capitalism is much more benign than it once was – though this does still vary widely.
There is no golden age of godliness nor of capitalism. In general the reduction in influence of both in society is a good thing. We just need to take the best bits of both. You can also be moral without believing in god.
Because religion has little influence on moral judgements, say Pyysiäinen and Hauser, the latter hypothesis seems more likely. They argue that human populations evolved moral ideas about behavioural norms — which themselves promoted group cooperation — before they became encoded in religious systems. The researchers suggest that we may possess an innate 'moral grammar' that guides these ideas.
Outside of the experimental realm, observational studies indicate that nonhuman primates are also sensitive to nondistributional aspects of justice and fairness, such as judging the appropriateness of another’s behavior, providing a broader context in which to consider justice or fairness in these species.
Studying other species’ behaviors in these situations allows us to elucidate the evolutionary function of justice and fairness by exploring behaviors that are related, either because the behavior itself is a component of justice or fairness or because it represents a precursor to human behavior.
RL You constantly revert to thinking as an engineer. Religion is of the mind and spirit and thought, cars have had certain thoughts crystallised and turned into material items. Material and mental don't match up in the same way for comparisons.
Material and mental don't match up in the same way for comparisons.
The human mind is not very good at dealing with pure abstractions. It's why most people for instance are not high level mathematicians. Or why most people read the more esoteric works of thinkers like Karl Jung and their eyes tend to glaze over. I know mine do.
Therefore it's helpful to use analogies as a tool to help create the mental bridge between concrete realities we do grasp, and the invisible ones we have more trouble reaching.
It's doesn't mean the analogy is perfect – clue, it never is – but they are a quick shorthand for conveying a much more complex idea. The New Testament for example is full of well loved parables that use just this method.
But good luck in repairing it when all the mechanics are gone.
Based on the last service, it isn't the mechanics going missing that would be the worst issue. It would be the missing person who services the diagnostic electronics that would be the real problem.
I watched the mechanics plugin and run the diagnostic machine and then immediately go to the things that needed attention. Then followed the instructions.
Hopefully there was a real mechanic that had a look at it later for the nasty things outside of sensored equipment. I work with sensors a lot – and I don't trust them a lot.
We just need to take the best bits of both. You can also be moral without believing in god.
We tend to think of the Abrahamic God of the Jews & the Christians (and, less commonly in NZ, Muslims), when we speak of God. But there are other gods or god substitutes in other religions.
Any gods or religions which preach or teach tolerance, forgiveness, respect & consideration for others, and a healthy dose of realism to temper our dealings with individuals or situations where blindly applying those values would see us harmed or walked over, are worth taking the best bits from and applying them to our lives, imo.
And engage in objectively immoral acts as a fervent believer – human nature. Some agnostic, atheist and religious 'beliefs' (couldn't guess as to proportions) can each be 'bent' to serve morally dubious behaviours.
Religious and non-religious beliefs – each to their own, eh?
That interview is a veritable gold mine of nuggests on human nature & human societies, like this:
*we live in a civilization like the Star Wars movie series: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. That’s a huge problem! We’re not going to keep our balance and figure out the right things to do as long as we don’t understand or even accept that our emotions are Paleolithic, and that they have an evolved basis.
We have to figure out how our institutions came about and decide whether or not they are really viable for us, whether or not we are going to be viable with them, and start moving in the right directions. And that includes a lot of religious institutions. We’ve finally come to realize that religious belief is very dangerous, especially when people are willing to say that something is God’s will. We’re suffering from that idea all the time.*
Damn right! One of the best interviews I've seen for a long time.
I always said to myself, “Don’t get into a pissing contest with a skunk.” If you ask me what I most resent about that period looking back now, I think the answer is the amount of time I wasted. I spent countless hours talking with journalists who were writing stories about all this. They’d come to me and say, “Well, Professor Lewontin just said so-and-so, Professor Gould just said so-and-so.” Or, “I’ve read in the latest thing that they’ve said this. What do you say to that?” I felt that I couldn’t sit by and let them declare me to be a racist and a proto-Nazi. I couldn’t just say, “No comment.” So, I wasted enormous amounts of energy and time I could have used for something much more valuable. So, my advice would be, this too shall pass. Ignore it as much as you can. Conduct yourself with dignity and with courtesy and let it pass.
The Dean or the President of Harvard never called me in and asked me to straighten myself out. They never said, “You’re giving Harvard a bad name.” It was the other way around.
Admirable, the way he finessed the science/politics interface. I recall buying my copy of Consilience hot off the press & enjoying it while being rather disappointed at his lack of mental adventurism. He showed he was capable of deducing fundamental principles in a multidisciplinary context, with suitable validation – he just didn’t go far enough for my liking.
From the now embarrassingly Woke Scientific American:
We must reckon with his [RO Wilson] and other scientists’ racist ideas if we want an equitable future
Specifically, from one Monica R. McLemore: an associate professor in the Family Health Care Nursing Department and a clinician-scientist at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco.
Critical Race Theory’s wild-eyed out-of-control character assassination in action.
All these mediocre social science academics trying to grift themselves into 'scientists' of some description. They wouldn't know science if it was chewing on their arses.
Richard Lewontin was a groundbreaking geneticist, best known for bringing molecular tools into evolutionary biology and for his advocacy against the use of science to rationalize structural inequity.
JK Rowling has never resiled from her assertion that you can not change biological sex.
Most public figures with something to lose have issued grovelling apologies when they’ve fallen foul of the new high priests of current correct ideology .Not JK Rowling and for that she deserves every accolade.
Rowling will be proven right & be acknowledged as such. It’s just a question of time.
The ideology that insists that gender identity is the same thing as biological sex, & that both can be changed, is completely bogus, biologically inaccurate, & even just General Science will ultimately consign it to the rubbish bin, where it belongs.
Because it’s been so wrapped up in identity politics & refusal to accept it has led the Woke & weird to yell “hate speech”, what it really is, imo, has been lost in the noise. It’s a fad.
It's so depressing that this needs saying in reference to such a mundane commonplace as "Mammals can't change sex." Post-modernism has wrought a colossal failure in western education.
Lol, I must be tired. I came to your comment from the Comments tab and thought for a minute you were talking about Bill Rowling, and that his time might finally have come.
Bill is the other Rowling I have a lot of time for. My mum possibly still has the school prizegiving award that Bill Rowling wrote his congratulations on and signed before giving to me back in 1975, South Westland Area School being full of the kind of plebs a Labour leader felt some responsibility for back then.
cool story! My parents liked him, I was too young to understand what was good about him but remember later feeling like he was the kind of person who should be in politics but couldn't be because of how politics is.
I would say this of course, but I feel like the Muldoon years were an ideal introduction to politics for young NZers. On one side, Bill Rowling, a man of obvious integrity but not a charismatic TV personality, and on the other side Rob Muldoon, a man with appeal only to the ugliest aspects of the psyche but whose bombast and savage mockery made for great TV. Naturally, Muldoon slaughtered Rowling at the polls and introduced a very ugly time for NZ society. You really knew where you stood then.
OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma lawmaker wants to give parents the right to compel public school libraries to remove books that contains objectionable content of a sexual nature or addresses sexual preferences or sexual and gender identity.
Under Senate Bill 1142, if just one parent objects to a book it must be removed within 30 days. If it is not, the librarian must be fired and cannot work for any public school for two years. Parents can also collect at least $10,000 per day from school districts if the book is not removed as requested.
Critics of the measure say it’s unconstitutional, potentially causing chaos by giving a single parent the power to strip school library shelves. They also said the measure is targeting LGBTQ+ books.
You TERF's have your chain jerked by the Christian Right and you don't even know it. I see Putin supports Rowling now, the guy on the verge of locking up his country's entire LGBT population (if not exterminating them outright), while GC feminists are bankrolled by religious and far right group. A whole stinking Puritan cesspool, all based on biblical teachings about how people should live and what they should look like.
Unfortunately, more and more people see being transgender as an abomination against God and the Bible, and all trans people should be shunned from society. And TERF's are buying into that BS.
“Transgender as abomination….and terfs are buying into that”
there are some people who may see transgender people as abomination etc, but that is not my view or the view of the women (and men) I know who hav concerns about gender ideology.
one of the many concerns I have about the ideology is teaching very young children they can be born in the wrong body and that there are 50+ gender identities, then (and this is the bit that I fine most disturbing) is children as young as 10 years old are being given life altering medication to block their puberty, then cross sex hormones and surgery (e g double mastectomies at 16 years old). There is a growing number of young mostly women who regret this, but are left with irreversible damage, including fertility issues and inability to achieve orgasm,
I will try and post a link to a u tube clip with a 19 year old NZder who was seeing a counsellor aged 13 years and told the counsellor she thought she was bi sexual. The counsellor asked her if she thought she might be born in the wrong body and the girl said no. Then started to question herself. She then medically transitioned at at 19 regrets it. She has had both breast removed, she has a male sounding voice and looks male. This young person is stuck with these changes. Try and watch fives minutes and you will see the problem gender ideology is creating
Unfortunately, more and more people see being transgender as an abomination against God and the Bible, and all trans people should be shunned from society. And TERF's are buying into that BS.
Terf stands for trans exclusionary radical feminists. Radfems aren't buying into religious right morality.
I've not seen any GCFs say they want trans people shunned from society. Most are left wing or centre left and have liberal values that include trans acceptance.
Weka used the word themselves in recent days when describing GC allies in the UK.
To whit "Terf Island"
And I agree, the open hostility is now widely known and is the reason some contributors are no longer here.
[I repeat, you cannot use the word terf when referring to commenters here. It’s a slur. Many GCFs have claimed the word and like many words, including those used as slurs, it has more than one usage and meaning. The word itself isn’t banned here, I’m telling you where the boundaries are on usage. If you want to know more, ask.
Also giving you a warning: if you actively advocate against a moderation here then expect to get moderated. We have boundaries here for a reason. If you want to make a political argument about the word terf and why it should be used despite it being now largely a term of abuse against women, have at it. But don’t undermine moderation by tossing out your reckons in a casual way. – weka]
A man cannot become a woman and vice versa however transgender people are entitled to the same respect and protections as everyone else but trans woman should not compete against woman
and because some people have a tendency to obtuseness, if a GCF wants to use the term positively this won't be a problem. If you don't understand this, my suggestion is don't use the word at all.
And I agree, the open hostility is now widely known and is the reason some contributors are no longer here.
Snort. Show me your history of supporting women to write and comment on TS, and an understanding of why so many women have left, and I'll start to respect your views. Do the mahi of standing up for people you think are under-represented here rather than just slagging off others, and I'll start to respect you. Atm you just look like you are shitstirring.
Couldn't leave this last night due to maintenance.
Why do you think I want you to respect my views? Is that a pre-condition of not having my anonymity breached by you as you did some weeks ago? Ah no, it's just your crap attempt to paint me as a misogynist.
As for standing up for people who are under-represented on this site:
Well, I did stand up for the trans-woman Joanne before she grew sick of being referred to as a "pervert in a dress" and being told to "apologise for what she had done" and asked that a moderator intervene. That good enough for you?
Or how about the fact that I stood up for the rights of intersex people to have medical terms and language used in an inclusive manner. Because yes, people who are not women can menstruate, get pregnant and give birth. Oh I know, it throws a lot of 20th century feminist theory into the bin but it's a medical and scientific fact.
And that was met with cries of "But they are only a minority" by the GC crew here, showing their true colours.
Or perhaps you would prefer to hear about my past voluntary work for Auckland Action against Poverty (which resulted in WINZ changing one of their policies) and the NZ Prostitutes Collective. Or maybe my ongoing voluntary work with the blind community?
Nah, you're not interested. See ya
[“Is that a pre-condition of not having my anonymity breached by you as you did some weeks ago?”
Explain what you mean, and provide direct evidence, or retract, or face a ban. This is the second mod warning I’ve had to give you in as many comments. Don’t make shit up about me or moderation – weka]
Nope. I was just pointing out that I haven't seen you address the issues for women on this site. I have no idea if you are a misogynist.
If you think the GCFs are wrong, then get in and argue the politics. That's what we do here.
Well, I did stand up for the trans-woman Joanne before she grew sick of being referred to as a "pervert in a dress" and being told to "apologise for what she had done" and asked that a moderator intervene. That good enough for you?
I think you making shit up, or at least distorting what happened. But from what I can tell this is your MO. Instead of pointing to the evidence, you just throw out lazy specious arguments.
And sure, if you don't care if people respect you or not, I can see why you wouldn't respect TS.
I hate how this site has declared war on the transgender community.
From the Policy,
Attacking the blog site, or attributing a mind to a machine (ie talking about The Standard as if it had an opinion), or trying to imply that the computer that runs the site has some kind of mind control over authors and commentators is not allowed. Making such assertions will often get the sysop answering you, because he considers that those are comments directed at him personally. As a computer programmer he knows exactly how dumb machines are. If you’re lucky he will merely give you an educational ban. But sometimes when time is available, he does like to point out in a humiliating manner that machines are not intelligent – and neither is the person expressing that fallacy. .
My emphasis.
If you mean that the people that run the site have declared war on the transgender community, you're bullshitting. The authors cover a range of views on gender/sex issues.
If you are talking about me, then again, bullshitting. I've been careful to be clear that I am talking about gender identity ideology, and that the issue isn't trans people. Don't know what you mean by the transgender community, they're not a hive mind. Maybe you could pay more attention to the politics instead of throwing out lazy slurs.
Millsy, I respectfully ask that you consider watching a little of the clip Bill posted above. Then you might understand where some of us are coming from and what our concerns are.
I thought this was amazing that people voted for J K Rowling.
On another note those young actors who made their career from her work attending a re-union in the US that she has been excluded from……………what a way to treat someone you owe so much to. Likely those young stars wouldn't have a career without her
Can anyone recommend a meeting planner where I can add multiple dates and multiple times zones? All I'm seeing are single dates that mean having to enter lots of dates manually. On a mac.
Yes – another very good point weka. I recall when my father and brother visited us over Christmas here in Australia a few years back – there was this humiliating ritual of informing WINZ so as to be certain they could stop his disability benefit.
Then there is the related story of the numerous people stuck overseas due to COVID, who have turned 65 and cannot apply for the NZ Super they're entitled to.
True, that. Their theory was that you had to be waiting by the phone for when they called with a job that started that afternoon. As if that ever happened.
There’s a high trellis just outside my kitchen window. She & the other pooks (who learnt it off her) would fly up & perch on top of it so they could see when I came into the kitchen.
Then they’d fly down to the ground like that & ask for food (a handful of wheat grains or a grainy bread chunk).
She knew the sparrows would just get out of the way from previous experience.
Hope you have a great 2022, too. It’s been nice getting your supportive comments on my stream & back yard friends. They helped me thru some tuff times & help keep me focused on the wonders of nature & the wonderful range of personalities all animals seem to have.
Ha. Gorgeous. Especially when that big brolga bird is dancing.
Reminds me for some reason of a program I watched on Choice TV channel. Part of a series featuring a zoo somewhere in the UK. They had a pair of young African vultures who were really people-friendly, nice-tempered, & curious. They'd follow the keepers around and watch (& if necessary check out, with their beaks and feet) anything the keepers did.
They make a unique deep booming mating call and we're pretty sure we had one or two males calling from within the parkland next to our unit here in Brisbane this spring.
My partner thinks she caught a glimpse of one taking off one morning, but otherwise in their wild state they're notoriously secretive bird that is extremely hard to spot. We got a chat with one of the local bird watchers one morning who was a bit surprised, but he didn't rule it out.
Which is why this seeing this hand reared bird behaving in the open like Barry here is pretty special.
I can only imagine how terrified these vulnerable people would've been when they were confronted with either staying at home and dying or traveling to dialysis centres and risk contracting Covid and then dying.
The pandemic killed so many dialysis patients that their total number shrunk for the first time in nearly half a century. Few people took notice.
They were COVID-19’s perfect victims.
[…]
“It can’t help but feel like a massive failure when we have such a catastrophic loss of patients,” said Dr. Michael Heung, a clinical professor of nephrology at the University of Michigan. “It speaks to just how bad this pandemic has been and how bad this disease is.”
Before most patients reach advanced kidney failure, they are diagnosed with diabetes, hypertension or a host of other underlying conditions. Their immune systems are severely compromised, meaning they are essentially powerless to survive the most dangerous infections.
Many are old and poor. They also are disproportionately Black, as was Cosey. A 2017 study called end-stage renal disease “one of the starkest examples of racial/ethnic disparities in health.” Those inequities carried through to the pandemic. Dialysis patients who were Black or Latino, according to federal data, suffered higher rates of COVID-19 by every metric: infection, hospitalization, death.
Victimhood is in so they are following the zeitgeist, dialysis people affected by covid 19 who have been overlooked. Feeling goodness and gratitude for life-extending care is pushed aside. And ever older age is taken for granted while at the same time children are being denied secure homes and regular good food and a happy parent with time to love them and help them grow well. Too bad. It's all about 'my' rigjhts to grow and expand all round me and to hell with whatever my rights smother, that's not my affair.
Very wise. You have missed though, a wonderfully idiotic/myopic portrayal of an Elon Musk/Eftpost Brian "3rd wealthiest man on the planet" harpooning/lampooning that would have you shaking your head in wonder.
“In Horizon, Barry suggested that the culture hero—Prometheus or Siddhartha Gautama or Odysseus—is no longer relevant in an age when humanity is exceeding ecological limits. The scale of the problems we face in the Anthropocene, the era in which humans have altered the very bone structure of the planet, are simply beyond the lone hero’s ability to fix. I asked him what stories should replace the lone-hero story.”
“They haven’t been written yet,” Barry said. “We need new narratives, at the center of which is a concern for the fate of all people. The story can’t be about the heroism of one person. It has to be about the heroism of communities.”"
I think some very frustrated scientists and advocates tired of continually shouting into the void between politics and money finally let it all out in a film.
Watch “Death to 2021” – very dark sense of humour. I particularly liked the comedian playing the extremely thick ‘average’ English woman, Hugh Grant as the self-entitled senile anti-woke commentator. Lucy Lu deserves mention for her straight faced forever Washington correspondent. I wound up watching it twice because there were some quirks that I didn’t catch the first time around.
Her character Philomena Cunk does a wonderful take on TV documentarians who are interviewing experts and describing things they know absolutely nothing about. E.g. "Moments of Wonder", 4 and a half minutes about time.
So, how is it that the US sharemarket keeps going up but we have to stay home and there's fewer people not working but the foodbank lines are going round the block?
And why can't they just print money for us ordinary folks?
Anyone read Matthew Hooton's Herald column today? The lead sentence seems to be complimentary of Chris Hipkins. But of course being paywalled could read no further. Chris Hipkins does handle situations well, with humour on occasions, but quite firm when necessary.
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You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
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 ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
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. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
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. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
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. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
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 Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Chartres, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of Sydney shutterstockAhmet Misirligul/Shutterstock You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
A Labour Party Member’s Bill aims to plug a culpability gap between manslaughter and health and safety breaches The post New push for corporate killing laws appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
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Why has New Zealand slipped from third to 12th on Quality of Death Indexes over the past decade or so? Hospice New Zealand Chief Executive Wayne Naylor has a list of reasons. “We don’t have a current national strategy – the Government hasn’t renewed our 2001 strategy, so we don’t ...
While women’s sport is exploding in Aotearoa and around the world, you still don’t hear a lot of talk about athletes and their periods, RED-S, breastfeeding and visible panty-lines. SASS (Suze and Sez Sports)Talk isn’t afraid to have that kōrero.LockerRoom founder Suzanne McFadden and Olympian broadcaster Sarah ...
On an unusually hot night in January 2019, a little boy’s lifeless body was found face up in a small town’s sewage oxidation pond. To the police, it was an open and shut case: three-year-old Lachlan Jones had run away from his home in the Southland town of Gore, climbed ...
Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter has apologised in Parliament after National accused her of intimidating and attacking one of its ministers in the House. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Prime Minister and state and territory leaders met on Wednesday as the national cabinet to discuss a crisis gripping Australia – the horrific number of women murdered this year. The killings have shocked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Radhika Raghav, Teaching Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Otago Netflix Indian director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known for his big-budget Bollywood production, featuring grand sets, star casts, meticulously choreographed dance sequences and lavish costumes, jewellery and furnishings. ...
Sir Robert devoted his life to disability rights after living in institutions in his younger years, says Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga | Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University Violence against women is not a women’s problem to solve, it is a whole of society problem to solve; and men in particular have to take responsibility. Those were the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Allen, Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Newcastle Snapshot freddy/ShutterstockPlans to revive an old coal-fired power station using bioenergy are being considered in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Similar plans for the station ...
Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
Lawyers representing two iwi as well as the Māori Women’s Welfare League on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn last week’s High Court decision on the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to summons Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Tribunal is currently investigating the Government’s decision to repeal section 7AA of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will introduce legislation to ban deepfake pornography and provide more funding for the eSafety Commission to pilot age-assurance technologies. The contribution of internet sites to gender-based violence was one major issue ...
Average ordinary time hourly earnings, as measured by the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), increased 5.2 percent in the year to the March 2024 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. Annual wage cost inflation, as measured by the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dimitrios Salampasis, FinTech Capability Lead | Senior Lecturer, Emerging Technologies and FinTech, Swinburne University of Technology Clem Onojeghuo/Unsplash In the digital era, the job market is increasingly becoming a minefield – demanding and difficult to navigate. According to the Australian Bureau ...
As of the March 2024 quarter, we can now look back on 20 years of data related to youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET), as collected by the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), according to figures released by Stats NZ today. "The ...
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For the first time since the covid pandemic began I am cautiously optimistic that we may be entering the beginning of the end of it all.
I posted yesterday the conclusions of Chris Martensen of Peak Prosperity that omicron appears to be becoming the dominant variant of covid and, even though it is much more highly transmissible, does not appear to cause the same proportion of hospital cases or deaths.
Of course, a small percentage of a large number may be bigger than a large percentage of a small number; omicron may still have serious consequences for our health system.
But look at the graphs from Worldometer:
[Wouldn’t let me post screen shots of the daily cases and daily deaths graphs but here’s the link:]
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Daily cases of covid appear to have gone through the roof.
But the world death rate has been trending down for some time.
Perhaps it’s too early to say but maybe omicron is not so deadly, in association with better treatment etc; we may be going to come out the other side of all this in 2022.
Here’s hoping. A happy new year to all on The Standard, and thanks to the moderators and Lprent.
things to look out for:
See why I support the precautionary principle?
There's a huge amount of reckons about omicron, and some of them might turn out to be right (eg it's mild). But once we press the button of loosening up or going back to normal, we can't unpress it. Some people want to take that gamble now, I want us to wait until we know more.
There is a huge statistically based body of work called “the health system” that is a multinational effort that points to omicron being of little harm.
'points to'
I want to wait until we actually know. Others want to bet the bank on a maybe.
More specifically, as I said in my first comment, we need to know how omicron will impact on older people and those with health vulnerabilities. From what I can tell the South African data doesn't help with that and it's too soon to know from the UK, US etc. Probably not too far away.
Omicron was first reported back in early November.
Everyone is saying 'Africa is different' and as a continent this is true. The majority of people still live outdoors and the demographics are very different. But this is less true of South Africa as a nation, and a quick look at their data for previous variant waves shows a strong response that is simply not there for Omicron.
Still I've not advocated for rushing to open the border to Omicron either, but how long until you consider we might be certain? And are we going to set an impossible standard to achieve that certainty?
dunno, what would be an impossible standard?
I haven't followed closely enough to have an opinion on timing, but those that have, why not just look at my original list and either think about timing on that basis, or present an argument for how omicron can be managed if we open up instead (don't see so much of that other than 'don't be scare', 'take vit D', vague hand wave in the direction of vulnerable people needing protection).
I'm still in favour of keeping the borders mostly closed (but sorting out the shitshow that is the MiQ lottery), using the longer MiQ stays for people coming across the border. Tightening up on whatever needs to be addressed because of omicron under the traffic light system. After the holidays, more public messaging would help.
And of course alongside that the whole Vit D etc (prevention and treatment), but I won't hold my breath on that one, because it's an impossible standard for NZ at this time 😉
So let's do what we can with the tools we have and the limitations of systems.
Incidentally you may find this reference of interest around the VitD issue:
Succinct is one word for it, but it's not a quick read either.
ta. Let me know if you find some science journalism coverage of that piece.
I expect the mainstream public health organisations will get there in the end.
On reflection and considering the still 'opaque' origin of Omicron, there are good reasons to keep an open mind around the longer term implications.
And this broadly applies to the whole pandemic and every aspect of it.
Seeing what it does in Australia over the next 6-8 weeks would be sufficient to determine if poses a risk to our health systems to the point that it displaces normal loading to the point that people with other critical health issues die of lack of medical attention.
So far that isn't looking good.
The main operational issue is that medical staff with covid-19 (or any other infectious disease) can't attend vulnerable patients. That stresses the remaining staff
NSW is a similar enough state with a more extensive health system. It is also open enough to view the full effects with limited public health measures to see what is likely to happen here.
Looking at the timeline fro NSW
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/458461/fresh-warning-about-omicron-variant-after-cases-skyrocket-in-nsw
It looks like omnicron really broke out of the initial community transfer about 2 weeks ago.
What is noticeable at present is that the lines for PCR testing have gone ridiculous. Also the uncontrolled price of RAT kits with their unreported testing has now gone to directly to price gouging. Which suggests a large epidemic sweeping the state
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-02/covid-omicron-cognitive-leap-into-2022/100734564
And that the number of reported cases from PCR testing have jumped from 3763 on Dec 22 to 18278 cases yesterday despite the various PCR testing blockages. It looks like it is still doubling the known community infection rate about every 4 days.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-02/nsw-records-18278-covid19-cases-two-deaths/100734294
The key measures however are the hospitalisation rate and the staff overload. That isn't looking good at what is still the early surge phase of a variant epidemic.
There isn't enough info to be sure in NSW, but it looks like about a 2 week period from to get from infection to hospitalisation based on the rates of increase. The number of hospitalisations for covid-19 in NSW has risen from 302 on Dec 22 to three times the number. They only had 166 on Dec 15 a week earlier. Can't be sure of the ICU
And here is the important thing.
If the rate of hospitalisations keeps rising by 2+ times every week in a nearly fully vaccinated state, you can see why they're worried.
It isn't an issue with how less damaging the omnicron outbreak is. That appears to be about 15-30% of the infection vs hospitalisation rate depending where you look world wide.
It is an issue with the rapid rate of infections rapidly driving up the health system into the ground with larger numbers at a lower rate of infection.
I don't think that vitamin D is going to do much in the short term even if it was efficacious. Not to mention that aussies in summer generate a lot of natural vitamin D along with their sunburn.
No we shouldn’t. Not if it’s curtailing the health, mental and physical, off the young and the healthy who have to pay for the old and the unwell in normal times.
from the observable data we can see it’s of little harm to all. We shouldn’t wait just in case there may be some small unknown that rears it’s head. That is a pointless exercise that, if followed in any path in life, leads to nothing good happening.
you can shut yourself off from society until you are happy to come out, but don’t demand society conform to your caution.
How is another month going to cause more harm than good in NZ?
Be specific. Not interested in vague generalities.
Oh good, please post the data on older people and those with pre-existing conditions. We'll leave out long covid for now because no-one has that.
Meanwhile, UK is looking at creating temporary hospitals because of the covid demand.
But hey, "little harm".
Anti-vaxxers say the darndest things.
https://twitter.com/taliaotg/status/1476023873191694342
Apparently these deranged fuckwits thought they’d hit the jackpot, a vaccination site.
https://twitter.com/culladgh/status/1476212244723732486
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-police-appeal-for-information-after-dozens-of-anti-vaxxers-protest-at-testing-site-12505943
Somewhere else in the world where people want freedoms around Covid but then do their best to stop others exercising their freedom to choose to be vaccinated.
It is certainly a change from a decade ago when we had the nutters from Greenpeace destroying crops because they claimed that GMO would threaten the world's food supply.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-14/20110714-greenpeace-gm-protest/2794272#:~:text=Greenpeace%20protesters%20have%20broken%20into,crop%20of%20genetically%20modified%20wheat.&text=They%20say%20the%20entire%20crop,of%20Australia's%20first%20outdoor%20trials.
I wonder what they are doing now because it would certainly appear they lost that battle?
https://theconversation.com/from-this-week-every-mainland-australian-state-will-allow-genetically-modified-crops-heres-why-thats-nothing-to-fear-159976
Luddites like the anti-vaxxers weren't they?
Looks like they're winning to me.
https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/51761/10-inspiring-environmental-victories-2021/
The Luddites were right. Capitalism was killing community and harming livelihoods and workers. Still is.
It's lucky that there are lots of different countries in the world.
I can find a place like Australia where they are doing what I think is sensible.
You can find one like Mexico taking the approach you think is correct.
Meanwhile we can both feel that the world is moving in the right direction.
ok, that's quite funny 🙂
One of the good things about this site are the links on the right hand side that bring to your notice things that you may not normally get to view.
Enjoyed the exHalant post which amongst other things reminds you that the right wants you to give up, to think that things are too hard and to not participate. Thatcher's there is no community.
This was a trend I noticed in the 80's – the move by business to blame government for their failures rather than their own uselessness. Their high indebtedness, their low wages, their lack of savings etc all the governments fault. At the same time blaming the poor for being poor. Both narratives designed to consolidate their own position.
"The most annoying part of extreme narratives, of dumping all ills on “the other”, is it allows people to relieve themselves of that duty: telling yourself something is “too big to combat!”, “it’s too overwhelming!” to do anything about is the easy way out.
And nothing would please those who seed the most distorted of narratives more than for people to continue believing in snake oil salesmen Saviours, those who present themselves as having those “instant fixes” to hyper-complex societal issues. And then: selling you out…."
https://exhalantblog.wordpress.com/2021/12/29/sorry-reality-just-doesnt-care-about-how-contrarians-or-political-ideological-and-religious-absolutists-feelings-deal-with-it/
Good to see some real people recognised…
New Year Honours: Outstanding Kiwis despite the tough times | Stuff.co.nz
Not enough Tories for my liking. Hopefully Luxon will change that.
So a quarter of all public servants are suspect? That's what you get if you apply statistical theory and extrapolate from corrections staff to the whole.
The dept of corrections had 8,000 staff at the start of the period: https://www.corrections.govt.nz/resources/strategic_reports/annual-reports/annual_report_201516/corrections_by_the_numbers
So a quarter of the public service is error-prone. To err is human, so one could argue that this sizable minority is intent on demonstrating their humanity.
Hardly surprising given some of the clowns around these parts who've ended up working as screws.
Yep, one such clown is a regular poster on here.
I wonder what percentage of posters are ex-cons?
Depends on what you consider to be an 'ex-con'.
For instance I have been convicted of being a underage drinker and serving three other minors.
Basically wandered down to our local at the Puhio pub from the farm one night with my siblings. I was on leave from the army. Ran in between some over zealous Takapuna cops (well known dipshits at the time) and the pub owner (a known dipso) that they wanted remove a liquor license from. So they laid charges when I said that I didn't know who I'd been served by (and I didn't actually know, nor did I care, and the dipshits annoyed me).
So months later, I had to take time off from my bar job (still underage) and miss a few university lectures to come up to see a judge to get a fine. With the police still ineffectually telling me that they'd drop the charges if I told them what they wanted to know.
I have also been convicted of driving without a license.
I never bothered to renew the 'lifetime' license I got back in the 1990s. In that case I got another small fine after I undertook not to drive again until I went and re-sat the license. Never bothered to pick up my car from the impound yard. It wasn't work much, and it wasn't worth paying the impound fees. At that point I was working from home and only going to work once a month to see the dev team I was running – I hadn't needed a car for a few years before my niece needed to be dropped home because she was late.
Anyway. You are correct – there are ex-cons here including the sysop. Should I now start discussing what I think of dimwitted fools who think that this is something that is important in the context of this site?
I never bothered to renew the 'lifetime' one I got back in the 1990s. In that case I got another small fine after I undertook not to drive again until I went and re-sat the license.
Interesting – my partner saw that change as a major breach of faith by government and to this day remains very unimpressed.
So was I.
But in this case it was more like I just didn't get around to it. Mostly because I wasn't driving very much.
I didn't bother to get a license for about another 5 years (2007 according to the license). A friend of mine went to work in China and left me her car to take care of. So I sat the test again in her wee sports car. A few years later she sold it via her dad.
Didn't replace it for a few years as I literally don't need a car that much. I use taxis or just hire a car when I need to. Or borrow my partners vehicle. Or since 2014, a awful lot of flying worldwide for work. Or since 2017 I use a e-bike a lot.
My last car was a cheap discard from a family member. That died in 2019 after I'd put about 15k on its clock after nearly a decade.
Brought a small hybrid during the latest lockdown because my new job has a requirement to go to Hamilton periodically to integrate into the dev team. However it may be a functional lemon because that process appears to have successfully be done online over the last 3+ months.
Nice to drive though. Makes a useful shopping cart to the supermarket.
I do find it difficult to understand why some people seem to treat driving as so much of their identity. They’re pain to park. You have to spend time watching the other idiots on the road. And as for commuting – that is just such a stupid way to waste life time.
My current transport most days:
.
"I never bothered to renew the 'lifetime' one I got back in the 1990s."
Snap, same with me, as far as I was concerned, a both parties had to agree when changing a contract. I copped a few fines over the years.
I recall, when introduced, we assured the new photo licences wouldn't be used as I.D.. That didn't last long as the drinking age in puns dropped the licence became a de-facto I.D.
Well, although these are very minor peccadilloes they obviously had a marked effect on you.
That you can recall what happened in such detail after what must be close to half a century would surely show that you did not find your treatment for such trivial things as something to be glossed over. Perhaps that was enough to keep you strictly on the right side of the law in the future. They do seem pretty minor though. You are probably right in your assumption that they were just trying to use you as a pawn in the attempted prosecution of the owner of the pub. They could hardly be concerned with such activities by a kid.
alwyn,I say alwyn…a few ex conservatives no doubt and a number of conservationists…still.
Actually, according to Wikipedia, they were far mote likely to be from the Labour Party.
There are 20 New Zealand politicians who Wiki records as having been convicted of a crime. A quick count shows that there were 9 from the Labour Party and 4 from National. I'm afraid I have to go out and I don't have time to go into more detail but you can see them all here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:New_Zealand_politicians_convicted_of_crimes
Happy New Year.
You appear to have overlooked the statement at the top of that page that explains why there is a difference
There are others who were convicted of blatantly political ‘crimes’ related to unionism. Some for having ‘seditious’ books – ie they read things other than the NZ Herald – the paper of the stupid.
Personally I’d class them as political convictions.
On the other hand, I suspect that you neglected to add in the convicted who were members of the Reform or United or any of the parties who became part of the National party. Bearing in mind just how juvenile the National party is compared to Labour, you should add those in.
Plus it was notable just how many National party politicians or proto-National party politicians were convicted of fraud offences. Thereby showing if you want a conman – it pays to go National.
Just have to look at the detail to get the true picture. You can’t be as stupid as a Farrar.
/sarc
Whos that? I'd like to compare notes with them, I think it'd be interesting
Whats a screw?
righty tighty, lefty loosey.
How the hell do you know what I say to my wife to initiate marital relations?!?!?
Oh dear PR, I'll never get that image out of my mind when muttering when undoing a recalcitrant screw, I mean nut, I mean bolt ……you know what I mean……
You don't also say 'left hand down bit' like Leslie Phillips' character in The Navy Lark'.
You only get a quarter if you don't understand maths. The correct calculation would be 2,000 divided by the total number of staff employed by corrections in that five years.
For the figures for the two years provided 4% and 10% of those investigated lost their jobs through dismissal or resignation. That would be a pittance of the total staff and from my experience lower than the number of staff pinching money in the bank where I used to work. Those numbers are not well publicised though cause the bank doesn't like you to know – much harder these days with less cash too.
The correct calculation would be 2,000 divided by the total number of staff employed by corrections in that five years.
True; they don't quantify the churn factor. And the numbers found guilty are significantly less than the numbers suspected of wrongdoing, which is normal re comparison to the output of the justice system.
So what we get from the establishment is indication instead of truth-telling. Obviously it would spook the horses to tell the truth about the size of the problem. Better to sustain naive belief that the system works according to plan.
Nah it isn't hidden or some conspiracy. Turnover is on the SSC website.
Around 10% per annum under Labour, 13% to 16% under the Law and Order Party National.
https://www.publicservice.govt.nz/our-work/workforce-data/drill-down-data-cubes/#s2
Well done, you get the Sleuth of the Day award already for that. So looks like we can reduce the suspect quota of the public service a wee bit on that basis. I'll leave the maths to you but I'm guessing around 20%…
8,000 staff with the lower 10% turnover rate would be 800 per year Over 5 years that would be 4,000 staff so 12,000 total.
17% investigated assuming each staff member was only investigated once which was probably not the case. Lower if you use the higher turnover rates.
Thanks for that. Safe to assume a portion of those suspected would be due to vendettas or accusations based on wrongly-interpreted behaviour or statements, so we can reasonably drop the estimate down from 17% somewhat. Around one public servant in 6 or 7 being dodgy is certainly more reassuring than one in four…
heh
except the other way of doing it is that 2284 over 5years is only 540/8000/year, i.e. about 7%.
Which might be more fair, if the bulk of those being investigated are newer workers who screw (lol) up, lose their rag, or whatever. Or just don't document things properly – that can get you in shit in a lot of places, without actually doing anything wrong.
You might find this story interesting (or not) or it might just confirm what you're already thinking.
So I was pretty new and I was in J Block (seg unit in Chch Mens, the real single person, hand cuffed and multiple officer escort type) and one of the things drummed into us in training college was to get to know your prisoners
So I was reading the prisoners in the unit file notes and records and what not, which you're allowed to do if you're working in the unit, you can't just look people up because thats a big no-no, as in you're fired no-no
So about three months later I got please explain (from HR because of course it was) as to why I was looking up this prisoner (reasonbly well known but also because of the timing of when I looked him up and yes I'm being deliberately vague)
I said I was in the unit and then a couple of days later I was told to go to a meeting with management, HR and that I should bring a representative along
As my union rep pointed out that I was only doing what i was taught in training and that approximately 9 other, new, officers were up for the same thing it certainly taught me a thing or two about how Corrections and government departments work
Yeah, there's been a few cases over the last few five years (? who knows time anymore) in various departments where looky-loos have been picked up by centralised IT access logging getting new flags to throw up – but when you patch in something, it can throw a spanner in the works.
The "easy" way around it is to throw in some cross-validation between staff assignments and prisoner units. But then sure as eggs HR and prisoner records will be on completely different systems, and that's if the assignments for each one goes down to sufficient detail.
I've always thought it'd be really interesting if every CO had to go through a complete pysch evaluation
Also be interesting to know how many Officers have gang links…
I wonder if the turnover was higher under National because they sacked the ones who misbehaved, as opposed to the probable Labour approach that the offenders meant well but had been hurt by colonialism and they were really very nice people?
Do your figures help determine whether that hypothesis is true?
My hypothesis would be that national are a bunch of facist fuckers setting nonsense targets and putting in shit like double bunking that would result in higher turnover as people said WTF.
The figures themselves add nothing to either hypothesis.
I have just found out my computer is non compliant for Windows 11. Hell, I'm running a 3.6 quad core processor that Microsoft does not recognise! 32 GB of ram apparently doesn't impress them…and there's a whole host of other things that need to be switched on or down loaded. For the effort, I doubt Windows 11 will be worth it for me. I will move permanently to Linux after 2024 ( when support for Windows10 stops).
Don't wait to ditch windows, do it now! Ubuntu user for 10 years, it just works. Turns on or off in seconds, not like the fat bloated windows.
If you consult with Google, you will find you can bypass / ignore that Windows 11 non-compliant warning, and install it anyway (bit of mucking around). Whether you would bother is another thing.
Mostly it is just seems to be to turn on the TPM 2 in the bios and enabling secure boot. It is unlikely that anything that is less than about 8-10 years old won’t have those two features.
I fixed my partners Threadripper in about 30 minutes for compliance by doing some reading and reboots. It still didn't install windows 11 – but that is because they haven't done the CPU/board support yet and she doesn't get the download available for a few months.
However unless you play some particular action games or want to run the Adobe suite or one of the other specialist bits of software – then there is no real reason not to flip to linux.
I did that in about 2007. My last windows box ran The Standard for about 6-7 months and died in 2008. I'm now completely kubuntu on my home servers (including the one running this site), my laptop and my finally my work laptop. Really glad about the latter – the blasted company spyware and antimalware made a fast laptop crawl like a Pentium 3.
Interestingly however virtually all industrial automation packages run on Windows platforms exclusively. What we tend to do now is deliver pre-tested VM images that have been correctly configured and tuned – and they run very well.
The last big project I've just come off was running 24 Server 2016 VM's on a fairly modestly powered hardware stack (Dell R610's) and after I fixed up the various cock-ups from my predecessors it ran really well. And very stable. While we all have Windows horror stories from the 90's to re-tell over a beer, it's my modest sense that MS have generally gotten a lot better over time.
I do get the enduring appeal of the various Linux derived distros, but for most of the non-geek world Windows is going to be with us for a while yet.
Thanks for info.
So, DJ Dimension was allowed into the country three times as a critical worker because he had skills not available in New Zealand.
Really? So there are no DJs here? A slap in the face to all those who are desperate to see loved ones, or doctors and nurses who might be a little more "critical".
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300488326/covid19-dj-dimension-on-third-border-exemption-to-nz-since-december-2020
I have no problem at all with some artists and sportspeople and politicians, etc being allowed in. It too is part of trying to have some semblance of normal. And yeah we have DJ’s but would you pay to go and see them over and above this one.
Don't know why people are getting het up about it. We can walk and chew bubblegum at the same time. It is well known that some places are reserved for these types of things but the article does go on to point out it wasn't even one of the reserved spots.
I'd be more antsy at those who book rooms who don't then use them frankly. This apparently is quite common.
Give me nurses over your 'artists' any day.
Yeah, right. Those "essential" acts seemed to have been replaced very quickly by the organisers.
Fat Freddy's Drop for me any day over some celebrity DJ.
Totally agree. Unbelievable this guy has accessed MIQ three times…………
And nurses and other real critical workers, NZ citizens in dire need can't get into our country.
The guy applied for MIQ in November, at a time when there was minimal demand for MIQ places.
I don’t believe there is ever low demand for MIQ. We are short of skilled workers, who are critical to our country. Also don’t think all the families who are separated have been reunited
The Queen is in poor health (so i hear)…..what will NZ do about a Head of State when she dies?
I imagine there is some form of planning in place given the statement from various figures in the past that nothing will occur while QE2 is alive.
Nothing will change when she dies. There is little value in moving to a republic – particularly if the constitution is written by politicians.
Building in aspects of the Magna Carta, Charter of The Forests, Treaty of Waitangi seems much less of a priority to those advocating for a republic than the notion of survival of the fittest, individualistic crap coming out of America. Have little time for any of the public utterances by anyone so far promoting a republic as the way to go. Many seem to see it as a way of getting rid of the Treaty.
Nothing?….I'd be very surprised.
There may be little value in moving to say, a republic but thats never stopped change before….at the very least I expect it will reinvigorate those seeking change (of all manner)
Good question and conclusions I think. Don't jettison anything. The Queen has been a bright star on the horizon trying to maintain a civil approach to life with ethical values and nice hats to boot, or head I should say. Charles is fine, deserving admiration for maintaining royal standards and promoting business along ethical and environmental lines after coping with heartfelt personal difficulties.
People talk about royalty as if it was an old coat hanging in a wardrobe and due to be cleared out by some clutter-buster of the minimalist cell-furnished variety.
'Nothing will change when she dies. There is little value in moving to a republic – particularly if the constitution is written by politicians'
A constitution written for New Zealand would be a disaster. Maori would demand such a constitution be based on the Treaty. Politicians would baulk at anything threatening their absolute power to rule unless there were ''out clauses. '' If a treaty was ever implemented I would like an amendment that allows the people of New Zealand to remove a government by force if necessary should any attempt be made to subvert the constitution. All in all -best leave things as they are for everyone's peace of mind.
Good to see Guardian readers support JK Rowling, despite the loud denunciations of her as a transphobe.
She received many nominations for a Person of the Year poll.
The Guardian for some reason doesn't break down the numbers each person received
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/30/guardian-readers-nominate-their-person-of-the-year
JK Rowling has never resiled from her assertion that you can not change biological sex.
Most public figures with something to lose have issued grovelling apologies when they've fallen foul of the new high priests of current correct ideology .Not JK Rowling and for that she deserves every accolade
That's inspiring. Courage in the face of that much public shaming is not a common thing.
You may enjoy this essay on Edward O Wilson’s life:
Then there are the true heretics,where a wrong constant could be fatal such as Zamyatin.
http://soviethistory.msu.edu/1929-2/proletarian-writers/proletarian-writers-texts/zamiatins-letter-to-stalin/
(name spelling incorrect)
Perhaps one of the greater conceits of the West is that we imagined ourselves somehow immune to these mass failures of the collective psyche.
Who would have thought we in the highly evolved freedom loving west would have been so susceptible to totalitarian thinking .
Like One Way religious thinking
Yet oddly enough our ancestors relied on religion to create the grand narratives which held their societies together and drove them to survive and thrive in a very hostile world.
It is of course very easy to discount many of the things they believed in. Like an adult knows there is no fat man in a red suit slipping bright and shiny down sooty chimneys. Yet we know the story meant a great deal to them as a child, and as an adult carries an even greater symbolic weight.
How to resolve this paradox? That the literal narratives of humanity's collective childhood now offends our science informed minds should not cause us to think there is no transcendence.
Religion is story-telling. Beyond religion there is science. Science is storytelling. Beyond science, there is story-telling. Without story-telling, there is unconsciousness. There is no unconsciousness in a conscious universe. Our universe is a conscious one.
There is no unconsciousness in a conscious universe.
That would have to be the case.
Our universe is a conscious one.
Perhaps. The universe could actually be God, or the creator, or one of several creators. We still don't actually know how, or why, our universe came into existence, so stories – or conjectures – are all we have to work with.
Alternatively, the universe might not be conscious. It might just have been created to evolve over time and space without any awareness, as a process, according to laws of physics we still don't understand.
That still leaves open the question of whether a conscious mind created it, (and for me another question – why?).
The really important thing is that WE are conscious – and able to think about & try to understand and explain these things, don't you think?
– Carl Sagan
I like that. Carl Sagan was without equal in explaining the cosmos to mere mortals like me.
Indeed. "a" way. The "universe" and its composite elements know also, in their own way. Ours is a funky little knowing-niche though, that's for sure!
There is nothing that is unconscious and unknowing, imo.
It seems to me the universe is evolving and we along with it, toward a tremendously creative point (or plane, or x-dimensional form 🙂
And the rate of evolution is speeding up noticeably 🙂
I'm reading about Slavoj Zizek's thinking that behind our eyes all is fiction. I like him but he goes OTT. He could stop talking about voids and nothingness behind us, and honour our remarkable flights of fancy, our fantastic abilities to grow our fictions. One author I like has written so much about a fictional family that she has the thought that one day she could hear a knock and one of her characters would drop by to correct some of her story-telling errors.
I believe in the reality of The Standard, in Lynn Prentice, its founder and wish him and Lyn well for 2022, also all the people that I enjoy reading, particularly Robert Guyton, hello there and Robyn too. Ata marie and kia ora to you all.^-!-^
Thank you, greywarshark – Robyn and I both wish you all the best for the coming/imminent new year 🙂
RL re religion
I agree with you
Organised religion is something else.One Way religion is actually a prescription for the dark ages,Mumbo Jumbo and power dynamics
Now that God is Dead we have rampant materialism , uninformed by ethics or decency
Organised religion is something else. One Way religion is actually a prescription for the dark ages,Mumbo Jumbo and power dynamics
Yes. That gets to the heart of the matter. Stepping back and looking at the grand gamut of world religions it seems as if we took a lantern – a single common source of light and guidance- and then people decorated it to suit the needs and modes of thought of the era they lived in.
At first the decorations add colour and beauty to the lamp, but they accrete over time, filtering more and more of the original idea until it's almost completely obscured by man-made creeds and institutions. To the point now were many people think there is no light to be found.
I do like your light allusion.
There's a great deal that's illuminated by looking toward the light.
Thank you.
"Now that God is Dead we have rampant materialism , uninformed by ethics or decency"
What a load of balderdash. The church has often and still continues to be materialistic. Most of the colonists who came to NZ were religious – struggling to reconcile Darwin and God and failing miserably.
History shows the geed of the church – from the Borgias to Robin Hood to churches running orphanages and single women shelters for profit.
The churches are part of and embedded in capitalism and always have been. Even today they do not pay tax as they should.
Capitalism too has waxed and waned – from the excesses of slavery to the cutting off of hands in Belgium to children working in mines. At many, many levels capitalism is much more benign than it once was – though this does still vary widely.
There is no golden age of godliness nor of capitalism. In general the reduction in influence of both in society is a good thing. We just need to take the best bits of both. You can also be moral without believing in god.
You can also be moral without believing in god.
You can drive a car without knowing how it works too. But good luck in repairing it when all the mechanics are gone.
https://www.nature.com/articles/news.2010.55
and
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3690609/
As to the analogy:
good luck in repairing it when all the mechanics are gone.
One could always just read the Haynes Manual
RL You constantly revert to thinking as an engineer. Religion is of the mind and spirit and thought, cars have had certain thoughts crystallised and turned into material items. Material and mental don't match up in the same way for comparisons.
@gw
Material and mental don't match up in the same way for comparisons.
The human mind is not very good at dealing with pure abstractions. It's why most people for instance are not high level mathematicians. Or why most people read the more esoteric works of thinkers like Karl Jung and their eyes tend to glaze over. I know mine do.
Therefore it's helpful to use analogies as a tool to help create the mental bridge between concrete realities we do grasp, and the invisible ones we have more trouble reaching.
It's doesn't mean the analogy is perfect – clue, it never is – but they are a quick shorthand for conveying a much more complex idea. The New Testament for example is full of well loved parables that use just this method.
I don't get it.
Where have the mechanics…gone?
Based on the last service, it isn't the mechanics going missing that would be the worst issue. It would be the missing person who services the diagnostic electronics that would be the real problem.
I watched the mechanics plugin and run the diagnostic machine and then immediately go to the things that needed attention. Then followed the instructions.
Hopefully there was a real mechanic that had a look at it later for the nasty things outside of sensored equipment. I work with sensors a lot – and I don't trust them a lot.
We just need to take the best bits of both. You can also be moral without believing in god.
We tend to think of the Abrahamic God of the Jews & the Christians (and, less commonly in NZ, Muslims), when we speak of God. But there are other gods or god substitutes in other religions.
Any gods or religions which preach or teach tolerance, forgiveness, respect & consideration for others, and a healthy dose of realism to temper our dealings with individuals or situations where blindly applying those values would see us harmed or walked over, are worth taking the best bits from and applying them to our lives, imo.
Absolutely As well as accepting morals change – sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
Ameliorating the excess of both religion and capitalism are both good things.
Generally society continues overall to get better. There are blips along the way.
Perhaps we can lean towards believing in being good to each other even if we don't believe in god. It tends to have cost benefits.
And RL I have used analogies a lot hadn't you noticed.
A simple joke for people with warped minds.
Graffiti on wall. 'Men prefer good-looking grils.'
Reply – You are referring to girls I think.
Reply – What about us grils?
And engage in objectively immoral acts as a fervent believer – human nature. Some agnostic, atheist and religious 'beliefs' (couldn't guess as to proportions) can each be 'bent' to serve morally dubious behaviours.
Religious and non-religious beliefs – each to their own, eh?
Perhaps one of the greater conceits of the West is that we imagined ourselves somehow immune to these mass failures of the collective psyche.
Oh shit, did we what. Rowling's treatment is one of the big examples of how we're not immune.
RL upthread
Thanks for that EO Wilson piece
Good read
👍🏼
That interview is a veritable gold mine of nuggests on human nature & human societies, like this:
*we live in a civilization like the Star Wars movie series: we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. That’s a huge problem! We’re not going to keep our balance and figure out the right things to do as long as we don’t understand or even accept that our emotions are Paleolithic, and that they have an evolved basis.
We have to figure out how our institutions came about and decide whether or not they are really viable for us, whether or not we are going to be viable with them, and start moving in the right directions. And that includes a lot of religious institutions. We’ve finally come to realize that religious belief is very dangerous, especially when people are willing to say that something is God’s will. We’re suffering from that idea all the time.*
Damn right! One of the best interviews I've seen for a long time.
Admirable, the way he finessed the science/politics interface. I recall buying my copy of Consilience hot off the press & enjoying it while being rather disappointed at his lack of mental adventurism. He showed he was capable of deducing fundamental principles in a multidisciplinary context, with suitable validation – he just didn’t go far enough for my liking.
.
RL
From the now embarrassingly Woke Scientific American:
Specifically, from one Monica R. McLemore: an associate professor in the Family Health Care Nursing Department and a clinician-scientist at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco.
Critical Race Theory’s wild-eyed out-of-control character assassination in action.
I mean for chrissakes … give me strength !
All these mediocre social science academics trying to grift themselves into 'scientists' of some description. They wouldn't know science if it was chewing on their arses.
This isn't exactly a new claim:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01936-6
He was also a colleague of Wilson's and made the same claim before 1986 very publicly
Well said. She's certainly showing immense courage.
Courage, mon (mom) brave!
JK Rowling has never resiled from her assertion that you can not change biological sex.
Most public figures with something to lose have issued grovelling apologies when they’ve fallen foul of the new high priests of current correct ideology .Not JK Rowling and for that she deserves every accolade.
Rowling will be proven right & be acknowledged as such. It’s just a question of time.
The ideology that insists that gender identity is the same thing as biological sex, & that both can be changed, is completely bogus, biologically inaccurate, & even just General Science will ultimately consign it to the rubbish bin, where it belongs.
Because it’s been so wrapped up in identity politics & refusal to accept it has led the Woke & weird to yell “hate speech”, what it really is, imo, has been lost in the noise. It’s a fad.
It's so depressing that this needs saying in reference to such a mundane commonplace as "Mammals can't change sex." Post-modernism has wrought a colossal failure in western education.
Lol, I must be tired. I came to your comment from the Comments tab and thought for a minute you were talking about Bill Rowling, and that his time might finally have come.
Bill is the other Rowling I have a lot of time for. My mum possibly still has the school prizegiving award that Bill Rowling wrote his congratulations on and signed before giving to me back in 1975, South Westland Area School being full of the kind of plebs a Labour leader felt some responsibility for back then.
cool story! My parents liked him, I was too young to understand what was good about him but remember later feeling like he was the kind of person who should be in politics but couldn't be because of how politics is.
Muldoon destroyed him-'keep NZ Rowling…downhill'!
I would say this of course, but I feel like the Muldoon years were an ideal introduction to politics for young NZers. On one side, Bill Rowling, a man of obvious integrity but not a charismatic TV personality, and on the other side Rob Muldoon, a man with appeal only to the ugliest aspects of the psyche but whose bombast and savage mockery made for great TV. Naturally, Muldoon slaughtered Rowling at the polls and introduced a very ugly time for NZ society. You really knew where you stood then.
Too bad she wasn't as outspoken when they burned her books in the Bible Belt.
Someone mentioned book burning?
Yup, woke mobs are the real book-burners.
/
OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma lawmaker wants to give parents the right to compel public school libraries to remove books that contains objectionable content of a sexual nature or addresses sexual preferences or sexual and gender identity.
Under Senate Bill 1142, if just one parent objects to a book it must be removed within 30 days. If it is not, the librarian must be fired and cannot work for any public school for two years. Parents can also collect at least $10,000 per day from school districts if the book is not removed as requested.
Critics of the measure say it’s unconstitutional, potentially causing chaos by giving a single parent the power to strip school library shelves. They also said the measure is targeting LGBTQ+ books.
https://www.mcalesternews.com/cnhi_network/oklahoma-bill-gives-parents-the-right-to-have-a-book-removed-from-a-school-library/article_2cd5f468-641c-11ec-9674-475897eac565.html
…just one parent…
The world has gone crazy.
You TERF's have your chain jerked by the Christian Right and you don't even know it. I see Putin supports Rowling now, the guy on the verge of locking up his country's entire LGBT population (if not exterminating them outright), while GC feminists are bankrolled by religious and far right group. A whole stinking Puritan cesspool, all based on biblical teachings about how people should live and what they should look like.
[Terf is a slur, and a sexist one at that. https://terfisaslur.com/
You can’t use it on this site when referring to other commenters, any more than you could could call someone here a slut or a fag. – weka]
[RL: I saw this earlier and it sent my mod senses tingling, but I didn’t act. Now I wish I had.]
"you terfs have your chain jerked by the Christian Right and you don't even know it"
That just shows me Millsy you have no understanding of the issues around gender ideology and their demands and how this is impacting women.
The 'demand' to be left alone.
Unfortunately, more and more people see being transgender as an abomination against God and the Bible, and all trans people should be shunned from society. And TERF's are buying into that BS.
there are some people who may see transgender people as abomination etc, but that is not my view or the view of the women (and men) I know who hav concerns about gender ideology.
one of the many concerns I have about the ideology is teaching very young children they can be born in the wrong body and that there are 50+ gender identities, then (and this is the bit that I fine most disturbing) is children as young as 10 years old are being given life altering medication to block their puberty, then cross sex hormones and surgery (e g double mastectomies at 16 years old). There is a growing number of young mostly women who regret this, but are left with irreversible damage, including fertility issues and inability to achieve orgasm,
I will try and post a link to a u tube clip with a 19 year old NZder who was seeing a counsellor aged 13 years and told the counsellor she thought she was bi sexual. The counsellor asked her if she thought she might be born in the wrong body and the girl said no. Then started to question herself. She then medically transitioned at at 19 regrets it. She has had both breast removed, she has a male sounding voice and looks male. This young person is stuck with these changes. Try and watch fives minutes and you will see the problem gender ideology is creating
This one?
Thanks Bill for posting. Yes that is the clip. I was unable to post it.
All good. Saw it a few weeks back. "Disturbing" to say the least.
Terf stands for trans exclusionary radical feminists. Radfems aren't buying into religious right morality.
I've not seen any GCFs say they want trans people shunned from society. Most are left wing or centre left and have liberal values that include trans acceptance.
You just don't know what you are talking about.
Better watch out, Millsy doesn't like being challenged
And without prompting, out comes the name calling. So tolerant. So inclusive.
And without prompting up pops the know-it-all preachiness of those excited to overturn the patterns of aeons of evolution.
Fyi, 'TERF' is a misogynist slur. If you're not a misogynist, avoid using it.
mod note for you millsy. I need an acknowledgement from you that you have seen this mod note and I really don't want to have to chase you up on it.
Ok – I won't use that term again.
I hate how this site has declared war on the transgender community.
Actually Mills, you should.
Weka used the word themselves in recent days when describing GC allies in the UK.
To whit "Terf Island"
And I agree, the open hostility is now widely known and is the reason some contributors are no longer here.
[I repeat, you cannot use the word terf when referring to commenters here. It’s a slur. Many GCFs have claimed the word and like many words, including those used as slurs, it has more than one usage and meaning. The word itself isn’t banned here, I’m telling you where the boundaries are on usage. If you want to know more, ask.
Also giving you a warning: if you actively advocate against a moderation here then expect to get moderated. We have boundaries here for a reason. If you want to make a political argument about the word terf and why it should be used despite it being now largely a term of abuse against women, have at it. But don’t undermine moderation by tossing out your reckons in a casual way. – weka]
A man cannot become a woman and vice versa however transgender people are entitled to the same respect and protections as everyone else but trans woman should not compete against woman
mod note Cinder, I need an acknowledgement you have seen this.
Acknowledged, and a reply for you below
and because some people have a tendency to obtuseness, if a GCF wants to use the term positively this won't be a problem. If you don't understand this, my suggestion is don't use the word at all.
Snort. Show me your history of supporting women to write and comment on TS, and an understanding of why so many women have left, and I'll start to respect your views. Do the mahi of standing up for people you think are under-represented here rather than just slagging off others, and I'll start to respect you. Atm you just look like you are shitstirring.
Couldn't leave this last night due to maintenance.
Why do you think I want you to respect my views? Is that a pre-condition of not having my anonymity breached by you as you did some weeks ago? Ah no, it's just your crap attempt to paint me as a misogynist.
As for standing up for people who are under-represented on this site:
Well, I did stand up for the trans-woman Joanne before she grew sick of being referred to as a "pervert in a dress" and being told to "apologise for what she had done" and asked that a moderator intervene. That good enough for you?
Or how about the fact that I stood up for the rights of intersex people to have medical terms and language used in an inclusive manner. Because yes, people who are not women can menstruate, get pregnant and give birth. Oh I know, it throws a lot of 20th century feminist theory into the bin but it's a medical and scientific fact.
And that was met with cries of "But they are only a minority" by the GC crew here, showing their true colours.
Or perhaps you would prefer to hear about my past voluntary work for Auckland Action against Poverty (which resulted in WINZ changing one of their policies) and the NZ Prostitutes Collective. Or maybe my ongoing voluntary work with the blind community?
Nah, you're not interested. See ya
[“Is that a pre-condition of not having my anonymity breached by you as you did some weeks ago?”
Explain what you mean, and provide direct evidence, or retract, or face a ban. This is the second mod warning I’ve had to give you in as many comments. Don’t make shit up about me or moderation – weka]
Nope. I was just pointing out that I haven't seen you address the issues for women on this site. I have no idea if you are a misogynist.
If you think the GCFs are wrong, then get in and argue the politics. That's what we do here.
I think you making shit up, or at least distorting what happened. But from what I can tell this is your MO. Instead of pointing to the evidence, you just throw out lazy specious arguments.
And sure, if you don't care if people respect you or not, I can see why you wouldn't respect TS.
thanks millsy.
From the Policy,
My emphasis.
If you mean that the people that run the site have declared war on the transgender community, you're bullshitting. The authors cover a range of views on gender/sex issues.
If you are talking about me, then again, bullshitting. I've been careful to be clear that I am talking about gender identity ideology, and that the issue isn't trans people. Don't know what you mean by the transgender community, they're not a hive mind. Maybe you could pay more attention to the politics instead of throwing out lazy slurs.
Millsy, I respectfully ask that you consider watching a little of the clip Bill posted above. Then you might understand where some of us are coming from and what our concerns are.
I thought this was amazing that people voted for J K Rowling.
On another note those young actors who made their career from her work attending a re-union in the US that she has been excluded from……………what a way to treat someone you owe so much to. Likely those young stars wouldn't have a career without her
Can anyone recommend a meeting planner where I can add multiple dates and multiple times zones? All I'm seeing are single dates that mean having to enter lots of dates manually. On a mac.
Probably should write a post about this and flesh it out, but this is a good start.
https://twitter.com/wekatweets/status/1476665327014461453?s=20
Yes – another very good point weka. I recall when my father and brother visited us over Christmas here in Australia a few years back – there was this humiliating ritual of informing WINZ so as to be certain they could stop his disability benefit.
Then there is the related story of the numerous people stuck overseas due to COVID, who have turned 65 and cannot apply for the NZ Super they're entitled to.
True, that. Their theory was that you had to be waiting by the phone for when they called with a job that started that afternoon. As if that ever happened.
https://i.imgur.com/9V0xMCz.gif
'Yes and leave a big buffer around the sides as we never know if Mt Pook Airlines is going to be able to finesse a pinpoint landing…….this time'
Hi Gezza (12) … was Pook going after food, or the other birds?
Look forward to more videos and stories from Gezza's Stream next year. Take care and all the best for 2022
That was Sweety Pook, mary.
There’s a high trellis just outside my kitchen window. She & the other pooks (who learnt it off her) would fly up & perch on top of it so they could see when I came into the kitchen.
Then they’d fly down to the ground like that & ask for food (a handful of wheat grains or a grainy bread chunk).
She knew the sparrows would just get out of the way from previous experience.
Hope you have a great 2022, too. It’s been nice getting your supportive comments on my stream & back yard friends. They helped me thru some tuff times & help keep me focused on the wonders of nature & the wonderful range of personalities all animals seem to have.
Try this one for size
Ha. Gorgeous. Especially when that big brolga bird is dancing.
Reminds me for some reason of a program I watched on Choice TV channel. Part of a series featuring a zoo somewhere in the UK. They had a pair of young African vultures who were really people-friendly, nice-tempered, & curious. They'd follow the keepers around and watch (& if necessary check out, with their beaks and feet) anything the keepers did.
They make a unique deep booming mating call and we're pretty sure we had one or two males calling from within the parkland next to our unit here in Brisbane this spring.
My partner thinks she caught a glimpse of one taking off one morning, but otherwise in their wild state they're notoriously secretive bird that is extremely hard to spot. We got a chat with one of the local bird watchers one morning who was a bit surprised, but he didn't rule it out.
Which is why this seeing this hand reared bird behaving in the open like Barry here is pretty special.
Agree 100% with your comments Gezza re animals and nature. Great teachers.
I can only imagine how terrified these vulnerable people would've been when they were confronted with either staying at home and dying or traveling to dialysis centres and risk contracting Covid and then dying.
The pandemic killed so many dialysis patients that their total number shrunk for the first time in nearly half a century. Few people took notice.
They were COVID-19’s perfect victims.
[…]
“It can’t help but feel like a massive failure when we have such a catastrophic loss of patients,” said Dr. Michael Heung, a clinical professor of nephrology at the University of Michigan. “It speaks to just how bad this pandemic has been and how bad this disease is.”
Before most patients reach advanced kidney failure, they are diagnosed with diabetes, hypertension or a host of other underlying conditions. Their immune systems are severely compromised, meaning they are essentially powerless to survive the most dangerous infections.
Many are old and poor. They also are disproportionately Black, as was Cosey. A 2017 study called end-stage renal disease “one of the starkest examples of racial/ethnic disparities in health.” Those inequities carried through to the pandemic. Dialysis patients who were Black or Latino, according to federal data, suffered higher rates of COVID-19 by every metric: infection, hospitalization, death.
Their deaths went largely unnoticed.
https://www.propublica.org/article/they-were-the-pandemics-perfect-victims
Victimhood is in so they are following the zeitgeist, dialysis people affected by covid 19 who have been overlooked. Feeling goodness and gratitude for life-extending care is pushed aside. And ever older age is taken for granted while at the same time children are being denied secure homes and regular good food and a happy parent with time to love them and help them grow well. Too bad. It's all about 'my' rigjhts to grow and expand all round me and to hell with whatever my rights smother, that's not my affair.
Anyone watched "Don't Look Up" yet?
not a chance. I value my nervous system.
It's no more disrhythmic than what's happening outside of the theatre…in fact… 🙂
true, but then I don't livestream that into my five senses for a couple of straight hours at a time in a highly dramatic way. And I build in buffers.
Very wise. You have missed though, a wonderfully idiotic/myopic portrayal of an Elon Musk/Eftpost Brian "3rd wealthiest man on the planet" harpooning/lampooning that would have you shaking your head in wonder.
is it satire?
I can save it for when I am feeling more resilient.
Perhaps read this instead, weka?
It's marvellous.
“In Horizon, Barry suggested that the culture hero—Prometheus or Siddhartha Gautama or Odysseus—is no longer relevant in an age when humanity is exceeding ecological limits. The scale of the problems we face in the Anthropocene, the era in which humans have altered the very bone structure of the planet, are simply beyond the lone hero’s ability to fix. I asked him what stories should replace the lone-hero story.”
“They haven’t been written yet,” Barry said. “We need new narratives, at the center of which is a concern for the fate of all people. The story can’t be about the heroism of one person. It has to be about the heroism of communities.”"
https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/an-unbroken-grace/
Oh! wonderful quote. I utterly agree. I will read that, thank-you!
Yes.
I think some very frustrated scientists and advocates tired of continually shouting into the void between politics and money finally let it all out in a film.
Politics and money… pop-culture and tech-religion too!
Yes! absolutely – musk-petersen personified was a smarmy highlight.
Next on my list.
Watch “Death to 2021” – very dark sense of humour. I particularly liked the comedian playing the extremely thick ‘average’ English woman, Hugh Grant as the self-entitled senile anti-woke commentator. Lucy Lu deserves mention for her straight faced forever Washington correspondent. I wound up watching it twice because there were some quirks that I didn’t catch the first time around.
Diane Morgan.
Her character Philomena Cunk does a wonderful take on TV documentarians who are interviewing experts and describing things they know absolutely nothing about. E.g. "Moments of Wonder", 4 and a half minutes about time.
I enjoyed that. Very funny. 😀
Will check out some of the other Philomena Cunk clips.
The apocalypse is coming. At some point.
The Apocalyptic Comedy of Frankie Boyle – YouTube
LMAO…the guy's an optimist
https://www.twitter.com/covid19nz/status/1476691085912993798
So, how is it that the US sharemarket keeps going up but we have to stay home and there's fewer people not working but the foodbank lines are going round the block?
And why can't they just print money for us ordinary folks?
Answer:
Government Spending & Stock Market | Mo Amer: Mohammed In Texas – YouTube
The biggest 'confidence' trick in history.
AND they had over 500,000 covid case yesterday!!!
Surely warrants a travel ban à la southern Africa, a lot of those new cases are omicron.
Anyone read Matthew Hooton's Herald column today? The lead sentence seems to be complimentary of Chris Hipkins. But of course being paywalled could read no further. Chris Hipkins does handle situations well, with humour on occasions, but quite firm when necessary.