Tom Scott on RNZ saying he thought Nisbet’s cartoon was not funny and that he, Tom Scott, did not target the vulnerable. Apparently he’s drawn a cartoon about the cartoon. If someone knows where to find this online, can they put the link here?
I guess I missed the press release from the SST that expressed outrage about their manifestly inadequate sentencing and the criminals keeping their homes instead of paying reparations to the people they stole from.
I’m fine with home detention for non-violent offenders. It’s just a pity that they get to keep theirs rather than having them confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Under normal circumstances, I don’t see much point in custodial sentences. In cases such as this, though, I can see one compelling argument to lock these guys up. Conditions inside prison will never improve as long as they’re full of poor brown people. The more rich white motherfuckers locked up, the better, at least until we see real change.
The Herald is worried Doug G might lose his knighthood and wonders if that’s fair. If my reading is correct its not because the offending had nothing to do with the reason he got a knighthood. You know, we wouldn’t have this ‘problem’ of deknighting if we didn’t knight in the first place.
Agreed. Certainly give him the chance to do the right thing.
Clearly the title means something and by associating the title with a investment company there was an expectation of greater diligence, that the titled person would safeguard their honored status. It stands therefore that the title should be given up, or taken off them.
Dr Norman will speak at the conference in Christchurch tomorrow and is expected to take a hard-hitting stance on the Government’s passing of legislation that his party feel are unconstitutional.
I’m not a fan of “Harvey” Norman, but credit where it’s due, he seems to have come a ways since he was overwhelmingly voted into coventry by party members on Frogblog when he was trying to justify voting for the CERA outrage.
Also interesting is that most sessions of the upcoming party AGM will be held behind closed doors to facilitate members being able to freely air differences of opinion without fear of the media misrepresenting such openness as evidence of the party split asunder. This seems to be a move away from the pan-party trend of conferences being mere show ponies, with all the important decision making done by the elite few amongst themselves without reference to the membership.
The cartoons were stereotyping Polynesians as spending their money on cigarettes and gambling.
“That is wrong … Some parents living in poverty do their very, very, very best to feed their children, and probably don’t even rely on food in schools and other things,” Ms Devoy said.
It’s funny how her bigotry leaks out when she’s trys to look like she is doing her job.
Note also, that as race relations commissioner, she focusses on poverty rather than racism, which downplays the racist nature of the cartoons.
There is tho a small ray of hope yet for the Dame, She deserves 1 brownie point for at least holding the press conference and giving that offensive little rag a slagging,
i see Her point about Her acting from within the legislation which governs Her role and it has become more than obvious that the legislation needs a serious make-over,
Down here in the gutter the over-monied red neck scum cannot really insult us with their snippets of abuse as such will enter the ‘culture’ and simply be lampooned as is every other insult directed our way…
On the same subject i just listened to an interview with the ex editor of Wellington’s Dom-Post, (a complete fucking non-entity whose name is irrelevant), He defends the racist slurs cast in that particular cartoon on the basis that a lot of people might hold the same views as it expressed,
It’s easy to see why i do not and will not even stoop to reading that particular newspaper and to insert any further comment about such commentary and the scum at RadioNZ giving such views oxygen would have me run the risk of publishing comments directly intended to incite violence….
The Press has an article toady about Nisbet and illustrates it’s text with two Nisbet cartoons.
One clearly shows Eastern Christchurch to be unkempt and poorly maintained (obviously a deliberate slight on it’s less well off residents) and the other clearly denigrates red headed people, showing them as criminal incompetents.
The government, i.e. Steven Joyce, is obviously hellbent on destroying the credibility of public institutions, especially ones like the office of Race Relations conciliator.
Last night I had the good fortune to attend a talk by Nicole Foss, editor of the Automaticearth on the subject o the current financial turbulence. To say the least she was a most informative and persuasive presenter, an intellect the size of a planet.
In reflection the largest contribution Foss makes is to effectively cancel any precepts of ongoing BAU, the contention that we can return to some prior point and distribute the pie equitably forever. That is a common concept on this blog, what Foss indicates is that the pie we divide is diminishing and will do so alarmingly. Which for me throws into stark relief the dilemma of the Left, “we only need to divide the shares of industrial civilisation fairly”.
I did not hear any left or right partisanship from Foss, no ideology, just a cold hard stare at where we are and where we are going (delivered with warmth). Time for us to wake up and see reality as it is, and to remake our world to fit the new reality. In old terms, to cut our cloth to match.
Massive rate of quality failures in recent solar panels now expected
For those who understand the irony of using up irreplaceable rare earth materials and fossil fuel energies to try and create sustainable renewable energy sources…and then have free market pressures cause this to happen.
“we only need to divide the shares of industrial civilisation fairly”.
We can’t do that as there’s too many people. About 6 billion too many.
Some countries and regions may be able to do that though as they themselves aren’t yet over populated and their resources haven’t yet been completely stripped. To do it though they need to stop all immigration, go to a steady state economy and implement full democracy. This representative democracy that only represents the richest will only continue to make things worse.
Think of it this way TC. We’re on a sinking ship. There aren’t enough lifejackets and lifeboats to go around. What do you think is a fair way to allocate saving of lives?
No. Not at all.
So you are suggesting only New Zealand should stop all immigration. Great idea. I look forward to the rest of the world not allowing NZer’s emigrating to their countries.
Isn’t your attitude to human beings who weren’t lucky enought to be born in our two islands, the same as the rich’s attitude to the poor.
They have the attitude that they are entitled to be rich for no other reason they were born into privilige.
You seem to share that attiude towards foreigners as in they can get fucked as long as we are happy.
The only way humanity will survice is with a global solution where all humans are treated equally. We can’t (as the rich do) put up a big wall around NZ and tell everyone else to fuck off. That will work for a while until desperation sets in.
You seem to share that attiude towards foreigners as in they can get fucked as long as we are happy.
Nope. Just practical realities. We can’t maintain 7 billion people at a reasonable living standard this means that there will be starvation, there will be poverty and that those countries that can will have to stop all immigration. Those that can’t, well, they’ll have war.
The only way humanity will survice is with a global solution where all humans are treated equally.
The problem is that there isn’t a global solution or, to be more precise, the global solution is what I described above.
We could have gone for the everyone treated equally and no poverty bit in about the 1950s. The 1970s it was probably still possible but the West wanted more and more people to fuel growth so that the banksters could be paid and the rest of the world, well, who knows what they wanted but what they got was more and more people.
We can’t (as the rich do) put up a big wall around NZ and tell everyone else to fuck off.
Actually, we can do that (it’s a rather difficult swim to get here) and there won’t be any desperation as we have the resources that we need. Well, there won’t be any as long as we get rid of the rich and their delusional socio-economic system.
Nice sounding principles, let’s see how NZ citizens vote on those policies once they see house prices, jobs, school places, hospital beds being taken up by a million, two million, three million new arrivals.
And DTB is right. I think we’ve overshot the planet’s long term carrying capacity by approx 6B people. So after you take in 3M of them and destroyed your own societal structures, there’s still 5997M who are going to be in dire straits.
Don’t worry Draco – The eugenics teams are hard at work, ensuring that one way or another, the herd will be culled, significantly, and sooner than later!
The Contrarian – Yup, some people are born in unfortunate places, under unfortunate circumstances.
Large enough numbers of them are already born, and living in NZ, and apparently there is little, to no appetite to address the existing levels of poverty/inequality, as such there is no room for those who are not already here, and in need of help!
Muzz and TContrary, I don’t think Draco is being eugenicist or otherwise…the reality we face is that we may be among-st the 6 billion surplus and the cold hard reality wont be a cull as opposed to a long drawn out famine / pestulence / war…you know, the standard bad bits. Might even reach supply demand equilibrium in economics talk with regard to food supply….Four horseman territory, DTB might merely be expressing some prescience.
Capitalism is killing thousands of kids a day now, so what’s new.
There is enough to go round now provided we planned sustainably and fairly.
Occupy was half there, it targetted the 1% but couldnt mobilise the 99%
Socialism is the only survival strategy both in terms of humanity and nature (which in my book is the same thing).
Marx not Malthus!
Hi Ennui – Yes, I’m quite sure Draco was not a proponent of eugenics.
I do not buy into the, *overpopulation* theory, at face value. However under current systems, manufactured scarcity, created by the *capitalist model*, has lead people to believe, that 7b, is *overpopulated*.
For one, I am quite certain that technologies are being suppressed , which would allow humanity to remove the noose of mining and burning fuels extracted from the earth, why would they not be with-held from the rest of us!
Clean technology, life enhancing, sustaining models which could enable the flourishing of humanity, in ways which most people, simply can’t, or dare not consider. I prefer consider such notions almost daily, because its clear to me, the path we have been forced onto, and are currently on, will be the path which leads to the end, there will be no turning back, its simply not part of the plan!
Just live each day, as best as we all can, as honestly as possible, and ignore the noise, which most of what masquerades as life, actually is.
I actually think (from intuition as opposed to any empirical information) that 7 billion is unsupportable. Technology and manufactured scarcity are human issues.
My own viewpoint is that a world that has set energy budget (solar) linked to an amazingly complex biosystem linked to an amazingly complex biosphere….we humans tend to get carried away with our won importance in the scheme of things. Our worst habit is to try and “tame nature” with our technology and to expect the result will sit in isolation. Seven billion of us and our technologies may be in bat short term, natures innings lasts much longer and they bat last.
However under current systems, manufactured scarcity, created by the *capitalist model*, has lead people to believe, that 7b, is *overpopulated*.
That’s not capitalism promoting that idea but the cold hard facts of science.
For one, I am quite certain that technologies are being suppressed , which would allow humanity to remove the noose of mining and burning fuels extracted from the earth, why would they not be with-held from the rest of us!
That’s not capitalism promoting that idea but the cold hard facts of science.
Is it, is it really!
Think that through, then see if you can’t respond from another angle, because from where I see it, the capitalist system (which actually is in name only), is very much driving the destruction bus, nothing to do with the science at all, in fact they have become long since divorced, it would seem! If not, surely capitalism would have forced a change of direction, perhaps away from the mess we have now.
The other problem I see with science, is that it is an industry, and as such 100% controllable by the money masters, in many respects, just like the technology which goes with it, all very easy to keep under cornered!
I know that science types on here like to believe, their colleagues/industry will be the savior of humanity, well the irony is that they will have been, the reality though, that it will not have been for anything like, the greater good!
If science were going to be any such savior, it would be already, feel free to point to where the science will turn it all around…
because from where I see it, the capitalist system (which actually is in name only), is very much driving the destruction bus
Capitalism is driving the destruction. Agree with that. It needs perpetual exponential growth which is impossible but the science has said, for quite some time, that the earth cannot support the number of people already here at anything close to a western living standard.
If not, surely capitalism would have forced a change of direction, perhaps away from the mess we have now.
Capitalism can’t – see above.
If science were going to be any such savior, it would be already, feel free to point to where the science will turn it all around…
Why should I when I’m not the one who believes that science can? Science can do a lot but it can’t bypass physical limits.
Can you imagine what a nutbar like muzz would do with a backyard fusion generator? They’d immediately assume that the “caution: do not overclock or wire in series” stickers and associated safety devices were just The Man trying to keep people down, and the next thing you have is a ten megaton mushroom cloud.
And then imagine how many people on the planet are as nutty as muzz. Even if there’re only ten thousand of ’em in that ballpark, that’s still more dangerous than the Cuban Missile Crisis.
TC – Because its not about the money, what part of that rather simple concept can’t people wrap their heads around, the *money*, is worthless, choking the life out of humanity on the other hand….
McFlock – Keep going, you may even come up with something original one day, let me know when you do, I’ll QA it.
Instead you waste your energy attempting to convince yourself, the things I post here carry no water at all, which is rather transparent, because who are you actually trying to convince here, and I have mentioned previously, that you don’t have the chops, for an online character analysis, even if you could piece togther the bits of personal info I discard from time to time…
Your transparency is no naked, you even respond, in affirmation of a comment by TC, when generally, you throw insults/abuse at that handle too!
Alex Capstick speaks plainly about corruption—Russian corruption, that is.
When will we hear the BBC talk plainly about Western corruption?
Friday 31 May 2013
Big news item of the day so far is the report by Boris Nemtsov and Leonid Martynyuk, alleging that Putinistas have stolen thirty billion dollars from funds for the Sochi Winter Olympics.
Just heard one Alex Capstick on the BBC talking about this. His item finishes with the observation that these contracts “have enriched only the oligarchs and President Putin’s cronies.”
That is no doubt true, and Capstick’s report was spot-on.
It is interesting, though, to note the thoroughness with which the BBC reports these Russian scandals. It is notable that, when it comes to Russian stories, the reporters speak in plain language, and rarely if ever go to official Russian government sources for “balance”. Dissenters and opposition figures are treated with respect, and generally believed.
Oddly, I can find not a single instance of Alex Capstick or any other BBC reporter ever saying in plain language that the billions of dollars of public money paid in contracts in Iraq “have enriched only the oil companies and President Bush’s cronies.”
The BBC is a rigorous and reliable source of information—when it comes to reporting on the crimes of official enemies.
I haven’t seen much about the obscenely rich in Brazil hoovering up the money for the World Cup and the Olympics. The State government of Rio is using both to shift a lot of land across to the private sector.
Brazil was awarded the FIFA World Cup, to be followed by the Olympic Games, two years apart, in what was an unprecendented offering, in modern times!
This is what you would call, exposure, of the intentions which lay in wait for Brasil, by the owners of the capitalist systems, which have locked in the demise, globally!
Ron Davies just died, he scored about 40 goals in one season (when the Premiership was Div One). In 1968 he scored 4 goals against a Manchester United side at Old Trafford. You would’nt see that today, the money has warped the whole event.
Hi Lynn, just got this message. I opened 5 ts pages in individual tabs (not an unusual amount for me). The fifth page loaded this message instead of ts page.
Your access to this site has been limited
Your access to this service has been temporarily limited. Please try again in a few minutes. (HTTP response code 503)
Reason: Exceeded the maximum number of page requests per minute for humans.
Important note for site admins: If you are the administrator of this website note that your access has been limited because you broke one of the Wordfence firewall rules. The reason you access was limited is: “Exceeded the maximum number of page requests per minute for humans.”.
If this is a false positive, meaning that your access to your own site has been limited incorrectly, then you will need to regain access to your site, go to the Wordfence “options” page, go to the section for Firewall Rules and disable the rule that caused you to be blocked. For example, if you were blocked because it was detected that you are a fake Google crawler, then disable the rule that blocks fake google crawlers. Or if you were blocked because you were accessing your site too quickly, then increase the number of accesses allowed per minute.
If you’re still having trouble, then simply disable the Wordfence firwall and you will still benefit from the other security features that Wordfence provides.
If you are a site administrator and have been accidentally locked out, please enter your email in the box below and click “Send”. If the email address you enter belongs to a known site administrator or someone set to receive Wordfence alerts, we will send you an email to help you regain access. Please read our FAQ if this does not work.
Dang. I will have to increase the limit. It was set to 10 page requests per minute – once every 6 seconds. Now increased to 15 – once every 4 seconds.
It is designed to restrict humans and bots flooding the system with page requests. It throttles them down to a acceptable level. I didn’t think that humans could flick up that number of pages in a minute. But I’d admit that I use tabs extensively myself and would hit the same issues on reopening a browser.
Further evidence that the basis for austerity measures is not even wrong (on the basis of causality) ie it is important to at least get the sign correct.
The interesting problem is that the basis for a number of policy initiatives by the incumbents are based on a series of schoolboy howlers, what confidence can we have in any policy initiatives?
El Gringo Yankey john’s mates are at it again robbing the commons to line their own pockets 🙂 Johnno’s former money factory Merrill Lynch are involved as well”
“Barclays and Bank of America Merrill Lynch will also collect millions in fees from more junior roles in the sale.”
“Britain’s Largest Privatization in Over a Decade Underway
Banking giants Goldman Sachs, UBS to lead privatization of state-owned mail.”
Re U$K comment: “Hopefully, this will lead to mass anti-austerity riots. (I say riots because they’ll start off as massive, peaceful protests, but the police will use their usual dastardly tricks to ensure that the event turns ugly.)
A massive uprising is what it’s going to take to reverse the massive sell off of the commons that’s going on not only in the UK, but globally.”
The Artist taxi driver’s comment on the sell off of the Royal Mail in the U$K and who rules the World?
Who Rules The World? Johnno’s mates the bankers of course! Goldman Sachs in this instance, have their sticky money grubbing claws in the deal. Just like MRP all the millions paid to pin stripe bods to sell off our assets.
Why wasn’t Treaty Negotiations spokesperson’s role in the Labour Party given to Nanaia Mahuta by Shearer? Rino is just a newbie. Doesn’t Shearer’s understand the party needs both wings to fly?
Nanaia and Labour Waikato are being punished by Shearer for supporting Cunliffe.
That is why Rino got the spot.
The ABC gang hope that Nanaia will go away like Charles Chauvel. She is a fighter. She won’t let a bunch of second rate careerists get one over her.
If the MPs can’t sort out the parliamentary party and stop this destructive behaviour the the membership should.
Kim Hill is interviewing Alan Savory, 8am Sat morning. It’s promoted as being about restoring grasslands, but Savory has pioneered meat production on grassland while building fertility and soil (something we don’t currently do), and is very experienced in ecological farming (including tech we could adopt here).
I’m hoping he will also talk about biological/natural systems of carbon sequestration, a must listen for anyone interested in CC and how farming can be a positive solution to some of the CC problems (not just mitigating industrial farming negatives). Savory has a pretty good TED talk too.
Greets all!
Those who are fascinated with the political spectrum, past and present, may want to check out this series by Oliver Stone.
I cannot highly recommend it enough. Each episode focuses on certain periods of American presidencies (starting at Roosevelt and WW2) and the resulting policies/discrimination/chaos/jaw-dropping arrogance. A lot of it focuses on America’s Military-Industrial Complex
David Shearer says:
“I have appointed Shane Jones to the position of Māori Affairs spokesperson and also as associate Food Safety spokesperson given the importance of the food sector to Maori. “Rino Tirikatene will take over responsibility for Treaty Negotiations”
This is a blatant insult to Nanaia Mahuta, who has the mana, experience and intellectual grunt to fulfill this very important role.
This is a continuation of the ABC bullshit of Grant Robertson and his side-kick David Shearer.
This is the type of Sh2t that has Labour going nowhere in the polls.
I had though that the axe had been buried and that this silliness was a thing of the past.
Appointing Shane Jones to Maori Affairs will lose them some more of the Maori vote. I seriously ask myself if they want a Labour/Greens/Mana coalition to win the next election.
Well, based on the evidence (excepting NZ Power which may or may not be the start of a good thing), they expect the electoral tide to carry them over the line.
On 31 May 2013 the Electoral Commission board cancelled the registration of the United Future New Zealand (United Future) party at the party’s request in accordance with section 70 of the Electoral Act 1993.
Very interesting and not surprising given their previous declarations as to party membership (at least 500 are required) must have been stretching credibility and the testing the conscience of those making them.
It rasies some important questions about the operation of parliament given parties and party leaders receive recognition that entitles them to particular speaking rights and funding.
Standing Order 34 refers to :
34 Recognition of parties
(1) Every political party registered under Part 4 of the Electoral Act 1993, and in whose interest a member was elected at the preceding general election or at any subsequent by-election, is entitled to be recognised as a party for parliamentary purposes.
(2) Independent members, or members who cease to be members of the party for which they were originally elected, may be recognised, for parliamentary purposes,—
(a) as members of an existing recognised party if they inform the Speaker in writing that they have joined that party with the agreement of the leader of that party, or
(b) as a new party if they apply to the Speaker and their new party—
(i) is registered under Part 4 of the Electoral Act 1993, and
(ii) has at least six members of Parliament, or
(c) as members of a component party in whose interest those members stood as constituency candidates at the preceding general election if they inform the Speaker in writing that they wish to be so recognised.
(3) A party that has been recognised as a new party under paragraph (2)(b) loses its recognition if its membership falls below six members of Parliament.
(4) Any member who is not a member of a recognised party is treated as an Independent member for parliamentary purposes.
I for one will be very interested to see the next steps in this process.
RNZ has further information about this interesting turn of events:
“United Future says it has asked the commission to temporarily cancel the party’s registration until it confirms its party membership.
The cancelled registration does not have any bearing on the ability of Peter Dunne to continue to serve as an electorate MP, nor as a minister of the Crown.
However, the party will need to be re-registered before the 2014 election to be able to campaign for the party vote and to be eligible for the broadcasting allocation.
Party president Robin Gunston said on Friday that United Future is about a 100 paid-up members short at the moment and it could take about two months to recticfy.
Mr Gunston acknowledges the situation is embarassing for the party.”
A somewhat hopeful spin on the situation. I’m sure people will rushing to sort out their membership/join the party….not!
Can anyone tell me why David Shearer made Shane Jones Maori Spokesperson rather than Nania Mahuta?
I would have thought this is a great moment to eclipse the Maori Party with some serious mana that cuts across the motu, rather than Shane Jones who knows he should have been in the National Party with Wira Gardiner from day one.
Shane Jones in female-voter appeal is only fractionally less toxic than John Tamihere, and that’s saying something given the bile John generates.
Shane, if anything, should have been given fishing so he can grasp the industry he knows best, and then given Cunliffe something useful to do, with all due respect to the fishing industry.
Nania during the 2010 leadership speeches was radiant and dignified, and you don’t get to put those two words together too often with politicians. Neither apply to Shane Jones.
He has a parliamentary email address that is not hard to locate and use. Rather than project your own bias, do some research, ask him some hard questions and then let us know what you learn.
The point is that Messers Shearer and Robertson are publically sending messages to Nanaia Mahuta, her supporters and anyone else who dares to question them, that she and they are no longer welcome in the Labour Party.
Messers Shearer and Robertson are publically indicating that they prefer the likes on Jones, who sucks up appropriatley to the leadership over a candidate with integrity and respect who suppirted Cunliffe.
Messers Shearer and Robertson thus deserve to be publically challenged on their vindictive behaviour.
Jones in Maori Affairs upsets left leaning Maori and most women.
Jones in fishing upsets the Greens, anyone interested in workers’ rights, and most women.
I can only imagine that they’ve put him where they think he’ll do the least damage.
Look out! Nevil Breivik Gibson’s about! The Panel, Radio NZ National, Friday 31 May 2013
Today’s guests are Joe Bennett and the egregious National Business Review editor Nevil “Breivik” Gibson.
For the first few minutes of the fifteen-minute pre-show segment, there was the usual nervous forced jollity, as Susan Baldacci skimmed over stuff off the internet. Then she read out a piece about some lame-brained humorist in the United States, who has caused consternation with some tomfoolery which led to a police emergency. I missed the details, but the interesting bit was what Susan Baldacci said about the piece…
SUSAN BALDACCI: Now not all terrorists are, ahhhh, religious extremists. Some of them have other issues. JIM MORA: There wouldn’t be much of a sense of humor with that in America, what with the Boston bombings. SUSAN BALDACCI: No. JIM MORA: So he was a punctuation terrorist! JOE BENNETT: Ha ha ha ha ha!
Perhaps Ms. Baldacci was playing a sly little game here; she is no doubt aware that Nevil Breivik Gibson wrote a mad editorial earlier this year, where he learnedly informed his thoughtful and discerning readers that all terrorism in the world was committed by Muslims. (That editorial was what earned this intellectual giant the honorary soubriquet of “Breivik”.) Gibson did not say anything on this occasion, however, and after Joe Bennett’s gale of laughter subsided, they went on to another important story.
Unfortunately, I have to leave Chez Breen now, so I will have to miss the rest of the program. I urge Standardistas to listen carefully to what Nevil Breivik Gibson says; although his recent appearances have been anodyne and uncontroversial, he is due for a big one.
Unfortunately, today there is no one on the program like Gordon McLauchlan to contest what he says, point out the vacuity of Breivik Gibson’s utterances and firmly put him in his place, as he did a few years ago in a memorable on-air arse-kicking.
UPDATE:
After the 4 o’clock news, Mora, in his introductory remarks, which have become infamous over the years for their horrible combination of sycophancy and dishonesty, calls Bennett “brilliant”, and Breivik Gibson “sagacious”.
I have a bad, bad feeling about this. Expect obscenity, shading into lunacy from Breivik Gibson, and lots of supportive guffawing from Joe Bennett and Jim Mora.
See you tomorrow, and enjoy the show, if you can stomach these self-important twits.
UPDATE!!!
Just before the 4:30 news break, Joe Bennett took exception to a particularly foolish contribution from Breivik Gibson. “You’re lucky I’m not in Auckland,” he shouted, only half-jokingly, “otherwise it would be gloves off!”
It was not the total mauling and humiliation that Gordon McLauchlan dished out, but Breivik Gibson was definitely taken aback. There was real tension for a few seconds.
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“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President respectively for the US 2020 Election, may have dispensed with the erstwhile nemesis, Trump the candidate – but there are numerous critical openings through which much, much worse many out there may yet see fit to ...
I don’t know Taupō well. Even though I stop off there from time to time, I’m always on the way to somewhere else. Usually Taupō means making a hot water puddle in the gritty sand followed by a swim in the lake, noticing with bemusement and resignation the traffic, the ...
Frances Williams, King’s College LondonFor most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection – this has been dubbed “long COVID”. Scientists are ...
Last night, a British court ruled that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US. Unfortunately, its not because all he is "guilty" of is journalism, or because the offence the US wants to charge him with - espionage - is of an inherently political nature; instead the judge accepted ...
Is the Gender Identity Movement a movement for human liberation, or is it a regressive movement which undermines women’s liberation and promotes sexist stereotypes? Should biological males be allowed to play in women’s sport, use women-only spaces (public toilets, changing rooms, other facilities), be able to have access to everything ...
Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University of BirminghamSpace exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth. The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of ...
Michael Head, University of SouthamptonThe UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK – following the Pfizer vaccine. The British government ...
So, Boris Johnson has been footering about in hospitals again. We should be grateful, perhaps, that on this occasion the Clown-in-Chief is only (probably) getting in the way and causing distractions, rather than taking up a bed, vital equipment and resources and adding more strain and danger to exhausted staff.Look at ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to ZeroThat’s one of several recent ...
The situation in the UK is looking catastrophic.Cases: over *70,000* people who were tested in England on 29th December tested positive. This is *not* because there were more tests on that day. It *is* 4 days after Christmas though, around when people who caught Covid on Christmas Day might start ...
by Don Franks For five days over New Year weekend, sixteen prisoners in the archaic pre WW1 block of Waikeria Prison defied authorities by setting fires and occupying the building’s roof. They eventually agreed to surrender after intervention from Maori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi. A message from the protesting men had stated: ...
Lost Opportunity: The powerful political metaphor of the Maori Party leading the despised and marginalised from danger to safety, is one Labour could have pre-empted by taking the uprising at Waikeria Prison much more seriously. AS WORD OF Rawiri Waititi’s successful intervention in the Waikeria Prison stand-off spreads, the Maori ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. There’s a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, here’s a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has added her warm congratulations to the New Zealanders recognised for their contributions to their communities and the country in the New Year 2021 Honours List. “The past year has been one that few of us could have imagined. In spite of all the things that ...
Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment David Parker has congratulated two retired judges who have had their contributions to the country and their communities recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. The Hon Tony Randerson QC has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the New Year’s Honours List 2021 highlights again the outstanding contribution made by Pacific people across Aotearoa. “We are acknowledging the work of 13 Pacific leaders in the New Year’s Honours, representing a number of sectors including health, education, community, sports, the ...
The Government’s investment in digital literacy training for seniors has led to more than 250 people participating so far, helping them stay connected. “COVID-19 has meant older New Zealanders are showing more interest in learning how to use technology like Zoom and Skype so they can to keep in touch ...
Dairy prices increased by 3.9% across the board at the latest Fonterra global auction. The lift followed rises of 1.3% and 4.3% in the December auctions which took dairy prices to their highest level in 11 months, defying those analysts who believed Covid-19 had disrupted dairy markets. In the latest ...
America's Cup team American Magic has spoken publicly after their boat Patriot capsized when on its way to their first win of the Challenger Selection Series yesterday. Patriot dramatically capsized yesterday, becoming temporarily airborne before crashing back into the water and tipping. The boat, helmed by New Zealander Dean Barker, could not be ...
It’s a seemingly age old question: why do Auckland’s beaches become unswimmable after every single downpour? Stewart Sowman-Lund investigates.Ah, the beach. A staple of the New Zealand summer. Unless, of course, you’re based in Auckland and it’s raining. The start of 2021 has been a lot like every other New ...
We have opened a book, among members of the Point of Order team, on how long it will be before the PM offers to sort out the land dispute at Wellington’s Shelly Bay and (to win the double) how much the settlement will cost taxpayers. Just a few weeks ago ...
Breakfast TV news is back for 2021, and Tara Ward got up early to watch. “Thank god it’s almost Christmas,” John Campbell said during the opening minutes of Breakfast’s premiere episode of the year. “2021’s been rough so far. I’m buggered”. We’re all buggered, to be fair, but I’m worried that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Pearson, Professor of Journalism and Social Media, Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Griffith University The blame for the recent assault on the US Capitol and President Donald Trump’s broader dismantling of democratic institutions and norms can be ...
Despite a popular and unifying leader of the governing party, divisions both in policy and culture will test the progressive movement, writes Peter McKenzie.‘I think we’re confused.” Marlon Drake is an organiser for the Living Wage Movement. His job takes him all over Wellington, trying to convince businesses to increase ...
Covid-19 Recovery Minister Chris Hipkins says vaccinations should be available to the public by the middle of the year, but other countries are prioritised. ...
It’s as true now as it ever has been: nowhere else offers an education experience like that of Dunedin. But rather than resting on their laurels, the University of Otago and Otago Polytechnic have plans to make the city an even more inspiring place for students.From high in the summit ...
Haggis, neeps and tatties and whisky may not be a traditional spread for a summer gathering in NZ, but trust Auckland city councillor and Kiwi-Scot Cathy Casey on this one. Gie it laldy! Rule one: Hold it on (or near) January 25Robert Burns was born on January 25, 1759. Since the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & CyberSecurity, Griffith University It could be argued artificial intelligence (AI) is already the indispensable tool of the 21st century. From helping doctors diagnose and treat patients to rapidly advancing new drug discoveries, it’s our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Professor, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University Through recent natural disasters, global upheavals and a pandemic, Australia’s political centre has largely held. Australians may have disagreed at times, but they have also kept faith with governmental norms, eschewing the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Holly Seale, Associate professor, UNSW Health workers are at higher risk of COVID infection and illness. They can also act as extremely efficient transmitters of viruses to others in medical and aged care facilities. That’s why health workers have been prioritised to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jim Orchard, Adjunct Lecturer, Monash University Last week, somewhat overshadowed by the events in Washington, the Democrats took control of the US Senate. The Democrats now hold a small majority in both the House and the Senate until 2022, giving President-elect Joe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mittul Vahanvati, Lecturer, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University Heatwaves, floods, bushfires: disaster season is upon us again. We can’t prevent hazards or climate change-related extreme weather events but we can prepare for them — not just as individuals ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mandie Shean, Lecturer, School of Education, Edith Cowan University Starting school is an important event for children and a positive experience can set the tone for the rest of their school experience. Some children are excited to attend school for the first ...
Some families in emergency housing are reporting their children are becoming emotionally distressed because of their living conditions. Demand for emergency accommodation has escalated this past year with the number of emergency housing grants increasing by half. Data showed nearly 10,000 people were given an Emergency Housing Special Needs Grant between ...
Summer reissue: Michèle A’Court, Alex Casey and Leonie Hayden are back for a second season of On the Rag, and where better to start than with the mysterious, exhausting world of wellness?First published June 23, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
With few Covid-19 infections and negiligible natural immunity, New Zealand faces being a victim of its own success when it is left till last to get the vaccines, argues Dr Parmjeet Parmar. ...
Steve Braunias reports on a literary cancelling. The Corrections department has refused to allow Jared Savage's best-selling book Gangland inside prison on the grounds that it "promotes violence and drug use". An inmate at Otago Corrections Facility in Dunedin was sent a copy of the book – but it was ...
New data from the CTU’s annual work life survey shows a snapshot of working people’s experiences and outlook heading out of 2020 and into the new year. Concerningly 42% of respondents cite workplace bullying as an issue in their workplace - a number ...
The dramatic capsize of American Magic brought out the best in the America's Cup sailing fraternity. But, Suzanne McFadden asks, what does it mean to the crippled New York Yacht Club campaign and to the Prada Cup? It was a scene as unreal as it was calamitous. Right at the moment the ...
An international player, selector and self-confessed cricket stats nerd, Penny Kinsella has now played a hand in recording the rich history of the women's game in New Zealand. Penny Kinsella’s cricketing career was perched on the cusp of change for the White Ferns. “My first tour to Australia, we ...
The current number of members of parliament is starting to get too low for the job we expect them to do, argues Alex Braae. As a general rule, with the possible exception of their families, nobody likes backbench MPs. But it’s nevertheless time we accepted that parliament should have more of ...
The experience in the Brazilian city of Manaus reveals how mistaken, and dangerous, the herd-immunity-by-infection theory really is. As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop ...
As New Zealand gears up to fight climate change, experts warn that we need to actually reduce emissions, not just plant trees to offset our greenhouse gases. ...
A nationwide poll has found majority support for the government to continue to closely monitor abortions in New Zealand and the reasons for it, despite the Ministry of Health recently suggesting that there is not a use for collecting much of this information. ...
The out-of-control growth in gangs, gun crime, and violent gang activity is exposing our communities to dangerous levels of violence that will inevitably end in tragedy, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “The recent incidents of people being shot and ...
Successive governments have paid lip service to our productivity challenge but have failed to deliver. It's time to establish a Productivity Council charged with prioritising efforts. ...
Understanding the connection between chronic fatigue syndrome and ‘long Covid’ might be helpful in treating symptoms that doctors will find all too easy to dismiss.When people began to report signs of “long Covid”, characterised by a lack of full recovery from the virus and debilitating fatigue, I recognised their stories. ...
Nadine Anne Hura, who never considered herself an artist, reflects on what art and making has taught her.I couldn’t clean or cook or wash the clothes, but I could sew. That’s a lie, I’m a terrible sewer, but I left work early to fossick around in the $1 bin of ...
Summer reissue: In the final episode of this season of Bad News, Alice is joined by Billy T award winner Kura Forrester to look at how well we’re honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 2020.First published September 3, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The ...
Lucy Revill’s The Residents is a blog about daily life in Wellington that has morphed into a stylish, low-key coffee-table book featuring interviews and photographic portraits of 38 Wellingtonians. In this extract, Revill profiles Eboni Waitere, owner and executive director of Huia Publishers. The Residents features names like Monique Fiso ...
Pacific Media Watch correspondent The pro-independence conflict in West Papua with a missionary plane reportedly being shot down at Intan Jaya has stirred contrasting responses from the TNI/POLRI state sources, church leaders and an independence leader. A shooting caused a plane to catch fire on 6 January 2021 in the ...
“Last year ACT warned that rewarding protestors at Ihumātao with taxpayer money would promote further squatting. We just didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it is in Shelly Bay” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “The prosperity of all ...
Our kindly PM registered her return to work as leader of the nation with yet another statement on the Beehive website, the second in two days (following her appointment of Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council on Wednesday). It’s great to know we don’t have to check with ...
A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past.Content warning: This article contains racist language and images.On a pub wall in ...
Supermarket shoppers looking for citrus are seeing a sour trend at the moment – some stores are entirely tapped out of lemons. But why? Batches of homemade lemonade will be taking a hit this summer, with life not giving New Zealand shoppers lemons. Prices are high at supermarkets and grocers that ...
You’re born either a cheery soul or a gloomy one, reckons Linda Burgess – but what happens when gene pools from opposite ends of the spectrum collide?In our shoeboxes of photos that we have to sort out before we die or get demented – because who IS that kid on ...
Summer reissue: Prisoner voting rights are something that few in government seem particularly motivated to do anything about. Could a catchy charity single help draw attention to the issue?First published September 1, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its ...
Hundreds more Cook Islanders are expected to begin criss-crossing the Pacific, Air NZ will triple the number of flights to Rarotonga next week, and about 300 managed isolation places will be freed up for Kiwis returning from other parts of the world. When Thomas Tarurongo Wynne took a job in Wellington at ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ena Manuireva in Auckland It seems a long time ago – some 124 days – since Mā’ohi Nui deplored its first covid-19 related deaths of an elderly woman on 11 September 2020 followed by her husband just hours later, both over the age of 80. The local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral research associate, UNSW A global coalition of more than 50 countries have this week pledged to protect over 30% of the planet’s lands and seas by the end of this decade. Their reasoning is clear: we need greater protection ...
The Reserve Bank Governor’s apology and claim he will ‘own the issue’ is laughable given the lack of answers and timing of its release. Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union said: “It’s been five days since they came clean, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olga Kokshagina, Researcher – Innovation & Entrepreneurship, RMIT University Are too many online meetings and notifications getting you down? Online communication tools – from email to virtual chat and video-conferencing – have transformed the way we work. In many respects they’ve made ...
The Reserve Bank acknowledges information about some of its stakeholders may have been breached in a malicious data hack. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has commissioned an independent inquiry into how stakeholders' information was compromised when hackers breached a file sharing service used by the bank. “We ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland This story contains spoilers for Ammonite Palaeontologist Mary Anning is known for discovering a multitude of Jurassic fossils from Lyme Regis on England’s Dorset Coast from the age of ten in 1809. ...
A tribute to the sitcoms of old? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Yup. Sam Brooks reviews the audacious WandaVision.Nothing sends a chill up my spine like the phrase “Marvel Cinematic Universe”. Since launching in 2008 with Iron Man, the MCU has become a shambling behemoth, with over 23 films (not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University The alt-right, QAnon, paramilitary and Donald Trump-supporting mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6 claimed they were only doing what the so-called “founding fathers” of the US had done in ...
The Point of Order Ministerial Workload Watchdog and our ever-vigilant Trough Monitor were both triggered yesterday by an item of news from the office of Conservation Minister Kititapu Allan. The minister was drawing attention to new opportunities to dip into the Jobs for Nature programme (and her statement was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Kupz, Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University In July 1921, a French infant became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), after the mother had died from the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is ...
The first Friday Poem for 2021 is by Wellington poet Rebecca Hawkes.While you were partying I studied the bladeI your ever-loving edgelord God-emperorof the bot army & bitcoin mine subsistingon an IV drip of gamer girl bathwaterfinally my lonelinessis your responsibility………. you seeI need a girlfriend assigned to me by the ...
The arming of police officers in Canterbury was inevitable with the growing numbers and brazenness of the gangs across the country – this should be a permanent step, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is unfortunate that we have come to the point ...
Celebrations in Aotearoa New Zealand to mark the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will begin on Thursday 21 January with ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand’s Wellington and online event, and continue on Friday ...
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change.As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer ...
On the East Coast, a group of Māori-owned enterprises is innovating to create new revenue streams while doing what they love.New Zealand’s remote and sparsely populated regions are typically not the best places to create thriving brick-and-mortar businesses. In small communities miles away from any major centres, there are so ...
As we reach the height of summer, it’s not too late to do a safety check on your gas bottle. The Environmental Protection Authority’s Safer Homes programme has some tips and tricks to keep in mind before you fire up the grill. "If you’ve ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)If you’re in any way unsure about ...
“We may as well knock on the gang headquarters around this country and tell them we all give up," says Darroch Ball co-leader of Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is simply outrageous that violent offender, James Tuwhangai, has been released from ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Ireland, Israel, and Lebanon. Chart by Keith Rankin. The countries with the most recent large outbreaks of Covid19 are those with large numbers of recent recorded cases, but yet to record the deaths that most likely will result. In this camp, this time, are Ireland, Israel ...
RuPaul is in Aotearoa, kicking back in managed isolation to await the filming of an Australasian version of her hugely popular reality show Drag Race. But not everyone is happy about, explains Eli Matthewson. The world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, is in New Zealand, the government confirmed earlier this week ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong What can we make of Clive Palmer? This week, he announced his United Australia Party (UAP) would not contest the upcoming West Australian state election on March 13. After a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England Have you ever seenmagpies play-fighting with one another, or rolling around in high spirits? Or an apostlebird running at full speed with a stick in its beak, chased by a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Jackson, Program Director, Centre for Policy Development, and Associate Professor of Education, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Childcare centres across Australia are suffering staff shortages, which have been exacerbated by the COVID crisis. Many childcare workers across Australia left when parents started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Rhetoric plays an important role in tax debate and therefore tax policy. If your side manages to gain traction in the public imagination with labels such as “death ...
*This article was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission* Whoever leads the Republican Party post-Trump will need to consider how they will maintain the rabid support of his “base”, while working to regain more moderate voters who defected from the party in the 2020 election. In a historic ...
Tom Scott on RNZ saying he thought Nisbet’s cartoon was not funny and that he, Tom Scott, did not target the vulnerable. Apparently he’s drawn a cartoon about the cartoon. If someone knows where to find this online, can they put the link here?
The faces of criminals living off other people’s money.
I guess I missed the press release from the SST that expressed outrage about their manifestly inadequate sentencing and the criminals keeping their homes instead of paying reparations to the people they stole from.
Home detention.
What a joke!
I’m fine with home detention for non-violent offenders. It’s just a pity that they get to keep theirs rather than having them confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Under normal circumstances, I don’t see much point in custodial sentences. In cases such as this, though, I can see one compelling argument to lock these guys up. Conditions inside prison will never improve as long as they’re full of poor brown people. The more rich white motherfuckers locked up, the better, at least until we see real change.
The poor dears
/sarc
The original sentences were a joke and I glad that the Court of appeal is upping them.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10887532
The Herald is worried Doug G might lose his knighthood and wonders if that’s fair. If my reading is correct its not because the offending had nothing to do with the reason he got a knighthood. You know, we wouldn’t have this ‘problem’ of deknighting if we didn’t knight in the first place.
I think that Douglas has said that if his appealed failed he would hand in his Sir.
Agreed. Certainly give him the chance to do the right thing.
Clearly the title means something and by associating the title with a investment company there was an expectation of greater diligence, that the titled person would safeguard their honored status. It stands therefore that the title should be given up, or taken off them.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10887551
I’m not a fan of “Harvey” Norman, but credit where it’s due, he seems to have come a ways since he was overwhelmingly voted into coventry by party members on Frogblog when he was trying to justify voting for the CERA outrage.
Also interesting is that most sessions of the upcoming party AGM will be held behind closed doors to facilitate members being able to freely air differences of opinion without fear of the media misrepresenting such openness as evidence of the party split asunder. This seems to be a move away from the pan-party trend of conferences being mere show ponies, with all the important decision making done by the elite few amongst themselves without reference to the membership.
God help us, Susan Devoy thinks some poor parents really do their very to feed their kids. Presumably, even some Polynesian parents.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8739113/Cartoons-no-joke-for-the-poor-Devoy
It’s funny how her bigotry leaks out when she’s trys to look like she is doing her job.
Note also, that as race relations commissioner, she focusses on poverty rather than racism, which downplays the racist nature of the cartoons.
There is tho a small ray of hope yet for the Dame, She deserves 1 brownie point for at least holding the press conference and giving that offensive little rag a slagging,
i see Her point about Her acting from within the legislation which governs Her role and it has become more than obvious that the legislation needs a serious make-over,
Down here in the gutter the over-monied red neck scum cannot really insult us with their snippets of abuse as such will enter the ‘culture’ and simply be lampooned as is every other insult directed our way…
On the same subject i just listened to an interview with the ex editor of Wellington’s Dom-Post, (a complete fucking non-entity whose name is irrelevant), He defends the racist slurs cast in that particular cartoon on the basis that a lot of people might hold the same views as it expressed,
It’s easy to see why i do not and will not even stoop to reading that particular newspaper and to insert any further comment about such commentary and the scum at RadioNZ giving such views oxygen would have me run the risk of publishing comments directly intended to incite violence….
The Press has an article toady about Nisbet and illustrates it’s text with two Nisbet cartoons.
One clearly shows Eastern Christchurch to be unkempt and poorly maintained (obviously a deliberate slight on it’s less well off residents) and the other clearly denigrates red headed people, showing them as criminal incompetents.
This guy Nisbet has a lot to answer for…..
Give her enough rope….
The government, i.e. Steven Joyce, is obviously hellbent on destroying the credibility of public institutions, especially ones like the office of Race Relations conciliator.
I firmly believe that the Government, i.e. Steven Joyce, should just go all out with the mockery project and appoint this guy as the next Human Rights Commissioner….
http://cdn.3news.co.nz/3news/AM/2013/3/23/291492/nationalfront-kylechapman.jpg?width=460
Last night I had the good fortune to attend a talk by Nicole Foss, editor of the Automaticearth on the subject o the current financial turbulence. To say the least she was a most informative and persuasive presenter, an intellect the size of a planet.
In reflection the largest contribution Foss makes is to effectively cancel any precepts of ongoing BAU, the contention that we can return to some prior point and distribute the pie equitably forever. That is a common concept on this blog, what Foss indicates is that the pie we divide is diminishing and will do so alarmingly. Which for me throws into stark relief the dilemma of the Left, “we only need to divide the shares of industrial civilisation fairly”.
I did not hear any left or right partisanship from Foss, no ideology, just a cold hard stare at where we are and where we are going (delivered with warmth). Time for us to wake up and see reality as it is, and to remake our world to fit the new reality. In old terms, to cut our cloth to match.
Interesting. Foss’s blog.
Foss on RNZ Saturday Morning on 24 March 2012
[audio src="http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/sat/sat-20120324-0815-nicole_foss_global_finance_and_peak_oil-048.mp3" /]
THIS (thanks for the front line report, Ennui)
Massive rate of quality failures in recent solar panels now expected
For those who understand the irony of using up irreplaceable rare earth materials and fossil fuel energies to try and create sustainable renewable energy sources…and then have free market pressures cause this to happen.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2013-05-30/next-shoe-drop-shoddy-solar-panels-china
The good old embedded energy versus the future return…the equation of properly constructed always puts the embedded total as the greater.
We can’t do that as there’s too many people. About 6 billion too many.
Some countries and regions may be able to do that though as they themselves aren’t yet over populated and their resources haven’t yet been completely stripped. To do it though they need to stop all immigration, go to a steady state economy and implement full democracy. This representative democracy that only represents the richest will only continue to make things worse.
Stop all immigration?
So if you were born in the Sudan, sorry buddy, tough shit.
Think of it this way TC. We’re on a sinking ship. There aren’t enough lifejackets and lifeboats to go around. What do you think is a fair way to allocate saving of lives?
What, you’re so stupid as to think we can support everyone presently living in the Sudan on these small islands?
No. Not at all.
So you are suggesting only New Zealand should stop all immigration. Great idea. I look forward to the rest of the world not allowing NZer’s emigrating to their countries.
Or that if you could, you should?
Isn’t your attitude to human beings who weren’t lucky enought to be born in our two islands, the same as the rich’s attitude to the poor.
They have the attitude that they are entitled to be rich for no other reason they were born into privilige.
You seem to share that attiude towards foreigners as in they can get fucked as long as we are happy.
The only way humanity will survice is with a global solution where all humans are treated equally. We can’t (as the rich do) put up a big wall around NZ and tell everyone else to fuck off. That will work for a while until desperation sets in.
I don’t know, it might still work then.
Nope. Just practical realities. We can’t maintain 7 billion people at a reasonable living standard this means that there will be starvation, there will be poverty and that those countries that can will have to stop all immigration. Those that can’t, well, they’ll have war.
The problem is that there isn’t a global solution or, to be more precise, the global solution is what I described above.
We could have gone for the everyone treated equally and no poverty bit in about the 1950s. The 1970s it was probably still possible but the West wanted more and more people to fuel growth so that the banksters could be paid and the rest of the world, well, who knows what they wanted but what they got was more and more people.
Actually, we can do that (it’s a rather difficult swim to get here) and there won’t be any desperation as we have the resources that we need. Well, there won’t be any as long as we get rid of the rich and their delusional socio-economic system.
E is E
Nice sounding principles, let’s see how NZ citizens vote on those policies once they see house prices, jobs, school places, hospital beds being taken up by a million, two million, three million new arrivals.
And DTB is right. I think we’ve overshot the planet’s long term carrying capacity by approx 6B people. So after you take in 3M of them and destroyed your own societal structures, there’s still 5997M who are going to be in dire straits.
Don’t worry Draco – The eugenics teams are hard at work, ensuring that one way or another, the herd will be culled, significantly, and sooner than later!
The Contrarian – Yup, some people are born in unfortunate places, under unfortunate circumstances.
Large enough numbers of them are already born, and living in NZ, and apparently there is little, to no appetite to address the existing levels of poverty/inequality, as such there is no room for those who are not already here, and in need of help!
Simple really!
Muzz and TContrary, I don’t think Draco is being eugenicist or otherwise…the reality we face is that we may be among-st the 6 billion surplus and the cold hard reality wont be a cull as opposed to a long drawn out famine / pestulence / war…you know, the standard bad bits. Might even reach supply demand equilibrium in economics talk with regard to food supply….Four horseman territory, DTB might merely be expressing some prescience.
Capitalism is killing thousands of kids a day now, so what’s new.
There is enough to go round now provided we planned sustainably and fairly.
Occupy was half there, it targetted the 1% but couldnt mobilise the 99%
Socialism is the only survival strategy both in terms of humanity and nature (which in my book is the same thing).
Marx not Malthus!
Hi Ennui – Yes, I’m quite sure Draco was not a proponent of eugenics.
I do not buy into the, *overpopulation* theory, at face value. However under current systems, manufactured scarcity, created by the *capitalist model*, has lead people to believe, that 7b, is *overpopulated*.
For one, I am quite certain that technologies are being suppressed , which would allow humanity to remove the noose of mining and burning fuels extracted from the earth, why would they not be with-held from the rest of us!
Clean technology, life enhancing, sustaining models which could enable the flourishing of humanity, in ways which most people, simply can’t, or dare not consider. I prefer consider such notions almost daily, because its clear to me, the path we have been forced onto, and are currently on, will be the path which leads to the end, there will be no turning back, its simply not part of the plan!
Just live each day, as best as we all can, as honestly as possible, and ignore the noise, which most of what masquerades as life, actually is.
I actually think (from intuition as opposed to any empirical information) that 7 billion is unsupportable. Technology and manufactured scarcity are human issues.
My own viewpoint is that a world that has set energy budget (solar) linked to an amazingly complex biosystem linked to an amazingly complex biosphere….we humans tend to get carried away with our won importance in the scheme of things. Our worst habit is to try and “tame nature” with our technology and to expect the result will sit in isolation. Seven billion of us and our technologies may be in bat short term, natures innings lasts much longer and they bat last.
Nicely put, E!
That’s not capitalism promoting that idea but the cold hard facts of science.
Possibly but I don’t believe so.
Is it, is it really!
Think that through, then see if you can’t respond from another angle, because from where I see it, the capitalist system (which actually is in name only), is very much driving the destruction bus, nothing to do with the science at all, in fact they have become long since divorced, it would seem! If not, surely capitalism would have forced a change of direction, perhaps away from the mess we have now.
The other problem I see with science, is that it is an industry, and as such 100% controllable by the money masters, in many respects, just like the technology which goes with it, all very easy to keep under cornered!
I know that science types on here like to believe, their colleagues/industry will be the savior of humanity, well the irony is that they will have been, the reality though, that it will not have been for anything like, the greater good!
If science were going to be any such savior, it would be already, feel free to point to where the science will turn it all around…
Capitalism is driving the destruction. Agree with that. It needs perpetual exponential growth which is impossible but the science has said, for quite some time, that the earth cannot support the number of people already here at anything close to a western living standard.
Capitalism can’t – see above.
Why should I when I’m not the one who believes that science can? Science can do a lot but it can’t bypass physical limits.
“I am quite certain that technologies are being suppressed”
Why would an oil company suppress clean energy technology when they could patent it and make a fucking killing.
Can you imagine what a nutbar like muzz would do with a backyard fusion generator? They’d immediately assume that the “caution: do not overclock or wire in series” stickers and associated safety devices were just The Man trying to keep people down, and the next thing you have is a ten megaton mushroom cloud.
And then imagine how many people on the planet are as nutty as muzz. Even if there’re only ten thousand of ’em in that ballpark, that’s still more dangerous than the Cuban Missile Crisis.
TC – Because its not about the money, what part of that rather simple concept can’t people wrap their heads around, the *money*, is worthless, choking the life out of humanity on the other hand….
McFlock – Keep going, you may even come up with something original one day, let me know when you do, I’ll QA it.
Instead you waste your energy attempting to convince yourself, the things I post here carry no water at all, which is rather transparent, because who are you actually trying to convince here, and I have mentioned previously, that you don’t have the chops, for an online character analysis, even if you could piece togther the bits of personal info I discard from time to time…
Your transparency is no naked, you even respond, in affirmation of a comment by TC, when generally, you throw insults/abuse at that handle too!
Here’s a window….
TC, unlike you, occasionally has a point worthy of consideration.
Alex Capstick speaks plainly about corruption—Russian corruption, that is.
When will we hear the BBC talk plainly about Western corruption?
Friday 31 May 2013
Big news item of the day so far is the report by Boris Nemtsov and Leonid Martynyuk, alleging that Putinistas have stolen thirty billion dollars from funds for the Sochi Winter Olympics.
Just heard one Alex Capstick on the BBC talking about this. His item finishes with the observation that these contracts “have enriched only the oligarchs and President Putin’s cronies.”
That is no doubt true, and Capstick’s report was spot-on.
It is interesting, though, to note the thoroughness with which the BBC reports these Russian scandals. It is notable that, when it comes to Russian stories, the reporters speak in plain language, and rarely if ever go to official Russian government sources for “balance”. Dissenters and opposition figures are treated with respect, and generally believed.
Oddly, I can find not a single instance of Alex Capstick or any other BBC reporter ever saying in plain language that the billions of dollars of public money paid in contracts in Iraq “have enriched only the oil companies and President Bush’s cronies.”
The BBC is a rigorous and reliable source of information—when it comes to reporting on the crimes of official enemies.
To find out the extent of the financial, as well as the humanitarian, crimes carried out in Iraq, serious people have learned to bypass official and biased outlets like the BBC, and go to sites like this….
https://www.globalpolicy.org/political-issues-in-iraq/corporate-contracts-7-6.html
I haven’t seen much about the obscenely rich in Brazil hoovering up the money for the World Cup and the Olympics. The State government of Rio is using both to shift a lot of land across to the private sector.
Brazil was awarded the FIFA World Cup, to be followed by the Olympic Games, two years apart, in what was an unprecendented offering, in modern times!
This is what you would call, exposure, of the intentions which lay in wait for Brasil, by the owners of the capitalist systems, which have locked in the demise, globally!
Ron Davies just died, he scored about 40 goals in one season (when the Premiership was Div One). In 1968 he scored 4 goals against a Manchester United side at Old Trafford. You would’nt see that today, the money has warped the whole event.
Hi Lynn, just got this message. I opened 5 ts pages in individual tabs (not an unusual amount for me). The fifth page loaded this message instead of ts page.
Your access to this site has been limited
Your access to this service has been temporarily limited. Please try again in a few minutes. (HTTP response code 503)
Reason: Exceeded the maximum number of page requests per minute for humans.
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If this is a false positive, meaning that your access to your own site has been limited incorrectly, then you will need to regain access to your site, go to the Wordfence “options” page, go to the section for Firewall Rules and disable the rule that caused you to be blocked. For example, if you were blocked because it was detected that you are a fake Google crawler, then disable the rule that blocks fake google crawlers. Or if you were blocked because you were accessing your site too quickly, then increase the number of accesses allowed per minute.
If you’re still having trouble, then simply disable the Wordfence firwall and you will still benefit from the other security features that Wordfence provides.
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Dang. I will have to increase the limit. It was set to 10 page requests per minute – once every 6 seconds. Now increased to 15 – once every 4 seconds.
It is designed to restrict humans and bots flooding the system with page requests. It throttles them down to a acceptable level. I didn’t think that humans could flick up that number of pages in a minute. But I’d admit that I use tabs extensively myself and would hit the same issues on reopening a browser.
Further evidence that the basis for austerity measures is not even wrong (on the basis of causality) ie it is important to at least get the sign correct.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/reinhart-rogoff-debunked_n_3361299.html
The interesting problem is that the basis for a number of policy initiatives by the incumbents are based on a series of schoolboy howlers, what confidence can we have in any policy initiatives?
El Gringo Yankey john’s mates are at it again robbing the commons to line their own pockets 🙂 Johnno’s former money factory Merrill Lynch are involved as well”
“Barclays and Bank of America Merrill Lynch will also collect millions in fees from more junior roles in the sale.”
“Britain’s Largest Privatization in Over a Decade Underway
Banking giants Goldman Sachs, UBS to lead privatization of state-owned mail.”
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/05/30-4
Re U$K comment: “Hopefully, this will lead to mass anti-austerity riots. (I say riots because they’ll start off as massive, peaceful protests, but the police will use their usual dastardly tricks to ensure that the event turns ugly.)
A massive uprising is what it’s going to take to reverse the massive sell off of the commons that’s going on not only in the UK, but globally.”
The Artist taxi driver’s comment on the sell off of the Royal Mail in the U$K and who rules the World?
Who Rules The World? Johnno’s mates the bankers of course! Goldman Sachs in this instance, have their sticky money grubbing claws in the deal. Just like MRP all the millions paid to pin stripe bods to sell off our assets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p36-4GEqExc&list=UUGThM-ZZBba1Zl9rU-XeR-A&index=4
Why wasn’t Treaty Negotiations spokesperson’s role in the Labour Party given to Nanaia Mahuta by Shearer? Rino is just a newbie. Doesn’t Shearer’s understand the party needs both wings to fly?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10887596
Nanaia and Labour Waikato are being punished by Shearer for supporting Cunliffe.
That is why Rino got the spot.
The ABC gang hope that Nanaia will go away like Charles Chauvel. She is a fighter. She won’t let a bunch of second rate careerists get one over her.
If the MPs can’t sort out the parliamentary party and stop this destructive behaviour the the membership should.
Could it be she has a new baby, and that her family takes precedent over work?
Babies and families are common to many many MPs. You comment is trite.
Are you suggesting Nanaia did not want the role? You do not know Nanaia.
Kim Hill is interviewing Alan Savory, 8am Sat morning. It’s promoted as being about restoring grasslands, but Savory has pioneered meat production on grassland while building fertility and soil (something we don’t currently do), and is very experienced in ecological farming (including tech we could adopt here).
I’m hoping he will also talk about biological/natural systems of carbon sequestration, a must listen for anyone interested in CC and how farming can be a positive solution to some of the CC problems (not just mitigating industrial farming negatives). Savory has a pretty good TED talk too.
http://www.savoryinstitute.com/
Greets all!
Those who are fascinated with the political spectrum, past and present, may want to check out this series by Oliver Stone.
I cannot highly recommend it enough. Each episode focuses on certain periods of American presidencies (starting at Roosevelt and WW2) and the resulting policies/discrimination/chaos/jaw-dropping arrogance. A lot of it focuses on America’s Military-Industrial Complex
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1494191/
A little bird mentioned that this link might be of interest…
http://pastebin.com/s3LJTJ6B
Ah yes, I might set aside some time this weekend to take a look at this American history…
David Shearer says:
“I have appointed Shane Jones to the position of Māori Affairs spokesperson and also as associate Food Safety spokesperson given the importance of the food sector to Maori. “Rino Tirikatene will take over responsibility for Treaty Negotiations”
This is a blatant insult to Nanaia Mahuta, who has the mana, experience and intellectual grunt to fulfill this very important role.
This is a continuation of the ABC bullshit of Grant Robertson and his side-kick David Shearer.
This is the type of Sh2t that has Labour going nowhere in the polls.
I had though that the axe had been buried and that this silliness was a thing of the past.
Roberson/Shearer are silly silly boys.
Appointing Shane Jones to Maori Affairs will lose them some more of the Maori vote. I seriously ask myself if they want a Labour/Greens/Mana coalition to win the next election.
Well, based on the evidence (excepting NZ Power which may or may not be the start of a good thing), they expect the electoral tide to carry them over the line.
hahahhaha, I blame Pete George:
http://t.co/eB5WKDiCDT
And with one media release, a United Future becomes a lonely past…
or as someone else just said, “the end of an error”
Very interesting and not surprising given their previous declarations as to party membership (at least 500 are required) must have been stretching credibility and the testing the conscience of those making them.
It rasies some important questions about the operation of parliament given parties and party leaders receive recognition that entitles them to particular speaking rights and funding.
Standing Order 34 refers to :
34 Recognition of parties
(1) Every political party registered under Part 4 of the Electoral Act 1993, and in whose interest a member was elected at the preceding general election or at any subsequent by-election, is entitled to be recognised as a party for parliamentary purposes.
(2) Independent members, or members who cease to be members of the party for which they were originally elected, may be recognised, for parliamentary purposes,—
(a) as members of an existing recognised party if they inform the Speaker in writing that they have joined that party with the agreement of the leader of that party, or
(b) as a new party if they apply to the Speaker and their new party—
(i) is registered under Part 4 of the Electoral Act 1993, and
(ii) has at least six members of Parliament, or
(c) as members of a component party in whose interest those members stood as constituency candidates at the preceding general election if they inform the Speaker in writing that they wish to be so recognised.
(3) A party that has been recognised as a new party under paragraph (2)(b) loses its recognition if its membership falls below six members of Parliament.
(4) Any member who is not a member of a recognised party is treated as an Independent member for parliamentary purposes.
I for one will be very interested to see the next steps in this process.
RNZ has further information about this interesting turn of events:
“United Future says it has asked the commission to temporarily cancel the party’s registration until it confirms its party membership.
The cancelled registration does not have any bearing on the ability of Peter Dunne to continue to serve as an electorate MP, nor as a minister of the Crown.
However, the party will need to be re-registered before the 2014 election to be able to campaign for the party vote and to be eligible for the broadcasting allocation.
Party president Robin Gunston said on Friday that United Future is about a 100 paid-up members short at the moment and it could take about two months to recticfy.
Mr Gunston acknowledges the situation is embarassing for the party.”
A somewhat hopeful spin on the situation. I’m sure people will rushing to sort out their membership/join the party….not!
So, as Peter Dunne is no longer leader of a party does that mean he gets a pay cut?
Unfortunately not. His salary as a Minister of the Crown is unaffected by this latest embarrasing event.
Can anyone tell me why David Shearer made Shane Jones Maori Spokesperson rather than Nania Mahuta?
I would have thought this is a great moment to eclipse the Maori Party with some serious mana that cuts across the motu, rather than Shane Jones who knows he should have been in the National Party with Wira Gardiner from day one.
Shane Jones in female-voter appeal is only fractionally less toxic than John Tamihere, and that’s saying something given the bile John generates.
Shane, if anything, should have been given fishing so he can grasp the industry he knows best, and then given Cunliffe something useful to do, with all due respect to the fishing industry.
Nania during the 2010 leadership speeches was radiant and dignified, and you don’t get to put those two words together too often with politicians. Neither apply to Shane Jones.
Why don’t you ask him?
He has a parliamentary email address that is not hard to locate and use. Rather than project your own bias, do some research, ask him some hard questions and then let us know what you learn.
Nordy you Roman
The point is that Messers Shearer and Robertson are publically sending messages to Nanaia Mahuta, her supporters and anyone else who dares to question them, that she and they are no longer welcome in the Labour Party.
Messers Shearer and Robertson are publically indicating that they prefer the likes on Jones, who sucks up appropriatley to the leadership over a candidate with integrity and respect who suppirted Cunliffe.
Messers Shearer and Robertson thus deserve to be publically challenged on their vindictive behaviour.
Asked Shearer then? No…..thought not. Keep projecting your ignorance…. it provides a good laugh.
Jones in Maori Affairs upsets left leaning Maori and most women.
Jones in fishing upsets the Greens, anyone interested in workers’ rights, and most women.
I can only imagine that they’ve put him where they think he’ll do the least damage.
Can anyone tell me why David Shearer made Shane Jones Maori Spokesperson rather than Nania Mahuta?
I’m sure that Mr Jones will make a good fist of it.
(Geddit?)
Naughty Morrissey !
Shane would say “a two-hands of it”…….regardless.
Look out! Nevil Breivik Gibson’s about!
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Friday 31 May 2013
Today’s guests are Joe Bennett and the egregious National Business Review editor Nevil “Breivik” Gibson.
For the first few minutes of the fifteen-minute pre-show segment, there was the usual nervous forced jollity, as Susan Baldacci skimmed over stuff off the internet. Then she read out a piece about some lame-brained humorist in the United States, who has caused consternation with some tomfoolery which led to a police emergency. I missed the details, but the interesting bit was what Susan Baldacci said about the piece…
SUSAN BALDACCI: Now not all terrorists are, ahhhh, religious extremists. Some of them have other issues.
JIM MORA: There wouldn’t be much of a sense of humor with that in America, what with the Boston bombings.
SUSAN BALDACCI: No.
JIM MORA: So he was a punctuation terrorist!
JOE BENNETT: Ha ha ha ha ha!
Perhaps Ms. Baldacci was playing a sly little game here; she is no doubt aware that Nevil Breivik Gibson wrote a mad editorial earlier this year, where he learnedly informed his thoughtful and discerning readers that all terrorism in the world was committed by Muslims. (That editorial was what earned this intellectual giant the honorary soubriquet of “Breivik”.) Gibson did not say anything on this occasion, however, and after Joe Bennett’s gale of laughter subsided, they went on to another important story.
Unfortunately, I have to leave Chez Breen now, so I will have to miss the rest of the program. I urge Standardistas to listen carefully to what Nevil Breivik Gibson says; although his recent appearances have been anodyne and uncontroversial, he is due for a big one.
Unfortunately, today there is no one on the program like Gordon McLauchlan to contest what he says, point out the vacuity of Breivik Gibson’s utterances and firmly put him in his place, as he did a few years ago in a memorable on-air arse-kicking.
UPDATE:
After the 4 o’clock news, Mora, in his introductory remarks, which have become infamous over the years for their horrible combination of sycophancy and dishonesty, calls Bennett “brilliant”, and Breivik Gibson “sagacious”.
I have a bad, bad feeling about this. Expect obscenity, shading into lunacy from Breivik Gibson, and lots of supportive guffawing from Joe Bennett and Jim Mora.
See you tomorrow, and enjoy the show, if you can stomach these self-important twits.
UPDATE!!!
Just before the 4:30 news break, Joe Bennett took exception to a particularly foolish contribution from Breivik Gibson. “You’re lucky I’m not in Auckland,” he shouted, only half-jokingly, “otherwise it would be gloves off!”
It was not the total mauling and humiliation that Gordon McLauchlan dished out, but Breivik Gibson was definitely taken aback. There was real tension for a few seconds.
Respect to Joe Bennett!