Search Results
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Comment:Trump's next 48 hours
Date published: 4:42 pm, January 7th, 2021The VP and cabinet can do it for him.
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Comment:The UK is now the world’s Covid cot case
Date published: 2:22 pm, January 6th, 2021Based on the current figure of 2.65 million UK cases, and that NZ's lockdown resulted in the R value for Covid being 0.2, it would take 4 incubation cycles to get below 10,000 cases (if that's their goal), which would be 8 weeks. That's a long time to ...
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Comment:Open mike 02/01/2021
Date published: 4:06 pm, January 2nd, 2021Early releases are decisions for the Parole Board, so the minister and department have no discretion there. In general, there is limited discretion other than for the judge at sentencing, so Sensible Sentencing et al have no real quarrel with the minister ...
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Comment:Without the handbrake what should this Government do?
Date published: 3:46 pm, January 2nd, 2021Nicely said. I'd be inclined to say that any market for necessities of life inherently has the potential for market failure due to not everyone having the funds to participate in said market, but housing tends to be the big issue since it costs so much ...
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Comment:Open mike 02/01/2021
Date published: 3:28 pm, January 2nd, 2021How is this the "deliberate fault of the minister"? Our system is generally set up to separate departmental operational matters from the ministers - while I'm sure he's aware now, what evidence is there that he knew anything more than the prison needs ...
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Comment:Open mike 02/01/2021
Date published: 10:58 am, January 2nd, 2021The prison is being replaced, but the prison population is too large to close the old prison until the new one is operational. The minister has already pushed a lot of initiatives to get Corrections releasing as many people safely as legally possible, so ...
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Comment:Beefing up the border - expensive and essential
Date published: 2:32 pm, December 26th, 2020There's not really any such thing as straightforward, or at least, not in anything to do with employers. Employers have to be compliant with employment and immigration law and financially sustainable, all of which are potential speedbumps, and for the main...
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Comment:Beefing up the border - expensive and essential
Date published: 6:50 pm, December 23rd, 2020See my answer to LPrent about the acceptance of incomplete applications, and forms and guides are about as accessible as it's possible for them to be given the complexity of the subject matter. It's definitely the case that verification of documents, ...
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Comment:Beefing up the border - expensive and essential
Date published: 6:45 pm, December 23rd, 2020These are good ideas although they are mostly in place already. Incomplete applications generally aren't accepted – the concept of what INZ refer to as lodgement requirements has been part of the system since 1991 and these are currently set out in the ...
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Comment:Beefing up the border - expensive and essential
Date published: 8:58 pm, December 21st, 2020Ignore residence delays, they were caused by the NZ residence programme (number of resident visas the government wants granted in a 2 year period) being much lower the number of residence applications actually made and there being no legal ability (until ...
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Comment:The human Pangaea
Date published: 9:33 am, December 9th, 2020A reduction in international travel looks essential to me and international tourism should be first cab off the rank in that.
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Comment:Daily review 07/12/2020
Date published: 6:34 pm, December 7th, 2020https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/1-news-colmar-brunton-poll-judith-collins-slips-further-labour-maintains-big-election-lead Labour up from election night, not a lot of change otherwise. Jacinda up as preferred PM, Judith down, Chris Luxon ...
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Comment:Being real about the climate emergency
Date published: 4:46 pm, December 4th, 2020Unbelievable is right, particularly all the nonsense around the return of international tourism as the saviour of the economy. Now would be an excellent opportunity to wean ourselves off it permanently.
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Comment:Sneak preview of a neoliberal UBI
Date published: 2:36 pm, November 25th, 2020Depends on the design, but social insurance would normally have a minimum payment, so even if someone is not paying into it, or has never paid into it e.g. a student who is between school and university and has never been employed, would be paid the ...
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Comment:Sneak preview of a neoliberal UBI
Date published: 7:22 pm, November 24th, 2020Simplicity is the main reason for UBI over GMI - easier to actually operate and design systems around. If one takes the view that the net outcome is the important one, not the distribution to get there, then the tax is not a purchase, just a simpler ...
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Comment:Sneak preview of a neoliberal UBI
Date published: 7:19 pm, November 24th, 2020I'm a big proponent of anything that provides for adequate support for a decent life, and consider that UBI, GMI, UBS and various social insurance and welfare models could all be designed to provide for that. Even the current system could be made to work ...
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Comment:Open mike 24/11/2020
Date published: 6:39 pm, November 24th, 2020Land tax would work fine if applied to all property but if it excluded the family home, it would be a lot less effective.
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Comment:Sneak preview of a neoliberal UBI
Date published: 2:13 pm, November 23rd, 2020GMI and UBI are really just ways of presenting the same idea, but agree that the Greens GMI was superior to the TOP UBI for the reasons stated. It's not that difficult to make them look the same, but GMI is probably easier to get people to buy into since ...
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Comment:Open mike 22/11/2020
Date published: 3:09 pm, November 22nd, 2020GFC caused banks to tighten the screws on mortgage lending significantly at a time when finance companies and other non-bank mortgage lenders were going under, so a lot of forced sales when there weren't as many qualified buyers.
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Comment:National's annual conference
Date published: 3:06 pm, November 22nd, 2020A lot of the decisionmaking was done at the Cabinet level, so it was correct for a Cabinet Minister to be present to explain those decisions and answer questions about them.
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Comment:Time's up Labour
Date published: 3:03 pm, November 22nd, 2020Kainga Ora (formerly HNZ) is still responsible for building state houses and is building thousands each year. W&I's job with them is assessing whether people meet eligibility criteria for a house.
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Comment:Open mike 10/11/2020
Date published: 6:07 pm, November 10th, 2020Working Holidays are an outcome of reciprocal agreements with other countries, so we could scrap them, but that would probably result the end of the equivalent schemes, so instead of competing with foreign workers, they would compete with young NZ workers ...
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Comment:A tsunami of wing clipped kiwi?
Date published: 1:52 pm, November 9th, 2020Hard to say - I surmise that international education has less migrant employment because a lot of it is via NZ institutions (schools, universities and polytechs) with NZ teachers and educators. Obviously there are also private training establishments (PTEs...
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Comment:A tsunami of wing clipped kiwi?
Date published: 1:23 pm, November 9th, 2020Tourism is a high portion of our GDP, but I think it helped that more than half was domestic tourism anyway, as stated we have had a lot of our own international tourists become domestic tourists (my wife and I did 2 weeks around Northland after our ...
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Comment:President Biden and Vice President Harris.
Date published: 4:56 pm, November 8th, 2020The same argument could be made about 2012 with a similar margin of votes and percentage of popular vote, but that was seen as a decisive victory to Obama.
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Comment:President Biden and Vice President Harris.
Date published: 4:54 pm, November 8th, 2020Agree, it's a sizeable margin in the end.
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Comment:This is how you do it America
Date published: 4:17 pm, November 7th, 2020I posted this elsewhere but may as well copy it here too... https://www.votespa.com/About-Elections/Pages/Counting-Dashboard.aspx is the Pennsylvania election reporting dashboard. According to that, there are 9,091,371 registered voters, of whom 4,229,163 ...
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Comment:Final election result - Labour ascendant National down and out
Date published: 11:28 pm, November 6th, 2020I think John Key's succession plan was to hand over to Bill English a year early and leave it there.
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Comment:Final election result - Labour ascendant National down and out
Date published: 5:02 pm, November 6th, 2020Accountability of ballot papers issued and for statistical and analysis purposes later.
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Comment:US Election 2020
Date published: 2:25 pm, November 4th, 2020Associated Press Politics: https://twitter.com/AP_Politics
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Comment:Blood sucking leeches blame young for blood supply crisis
Date published: 5:39 pm, November 3rd, 2020How do you define housing affordability? I.e. which measure/indicator?
- 2021 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #3
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021 Editor's Choice NASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to help Photo by Michael Held on Unsplash ...23 hours ago - The frail elderly and COVID vaccines – should we be concerned?
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...2 days ago - Guest post: How to ‘fairly’ share emissions from goods traded around the worldThis article, guest authored by Dr Michael Jakob, Dr Hauke Ward & Dr Jan C Stecke, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Jan 4, 2021. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Photo by Kingsley Jebaraj on Unsplash Each year, close ...2 days ago
- How good is the AstraZeneca vaccine looking? Look at the data, not news headlinesHappy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...2 days ago
- Opening Pandora’s American Box
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...3 days ago - 100 Days 4 Action
School Strike 4 Climate is holding a "100 Days 4 Action" rally outside Parliament on the 26th: The Youth of NZ will be standing up for climate action once again on January 26th outside of Parliament for School Strike 4 Climate NZ’s 100 Days 4 Action campaign rally. “We ...3 days ago - A Big Science Publisher Is Going Open Access. But at What Cost?Grigori Guitchounts In November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...3 days ago
- Early next step: Add risk management to National Climate AssessmentThis is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...3 days ago
- NZ Politics Daily: 15 January 2021
Tiwai Point Smelter deal Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Aluminium smelter deal – who caved? Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Power play: Meridian Energy reaches deal with Rio Tinto over Tiwai Point Smelter No Right Turn: Paying the BluffGeld Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Tiwai Point negotiations continuing despite breakthrough on smelter RNZ: Locals ‘absolutely thrilled’ about Tiwai Point’s revival Evan Harding (Stuff): Tiwai aluminium smelter to stay open until ...3 days ago - Will New Zealand’s Body-Politic Be Snatched By Trumpism?
“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 ...3 days ago - Thoughts on the Amazon LOTR TV Series Synopsis
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: ...3 days ago - Hat tips to history
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, ...3 days ago - Ideology as an organising principle.
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 ...4 days ago - Paying the BluffGeldSo, Rio Tinto has supposedly reached a deal with Meridian and Contact to give them cheaper electricity prices and keep the Tiwai Point smelter open. Down south, they're celebrating. But the rest of us shouldn't be. I've argued before that the best thing this foreign polluter can do is close. ...4 days ago
- Impeached againThe 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 ...4 days ago
- Dire wolves went extinct 13,000 years ago but thanks to new genetic analysis their true story can no...Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Thanks 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 ...4 days ago
- NZ Politics Daily: 14 January 2021Twitter suspension of NZ accounts Rachel Sadler (Newshub): Twitter’s suspension of New Zealand-based right-wing accounts ‘an overreaction’ – Simon Bridges Alex Braae (Spinoff): NZ right-wingers caught up in global purge of Twitter accounts No Right Turn: The Twitter Purge Marc Daalder (Newsroom): NZ far-right Twitter accounts suspended Jason Walls (Herald): Twitter crackdown reaches NZ: Hundreds of NZ right-wing users kicked off Twitter ...4 days ago
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #2, 2021Tide 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 ...4 days ago
- The Mob Rules Society: Reckoning between an Idea versus the Reality of America as chickens came home...
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 ...4 days ago - The Twitter PurgeIn 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 ...5 days ago
- They’re everywhere: New study finds polyester fibres throughout the Arctic OceanPeter S. Ross, University of British Columbia The 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 ...5 days ago
- Time to tackle the housing crisis!
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 ...5 days ago - Cleansing the TwittersI’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 ...5 days ago
- NZ Politics Daily: 13 January 2021Covid Nick Wilson & Michael Baker (The Conversation): With COVID-19 mutating and surging, NZ urgently needs to tighten border controls Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Government’s latest Covid measures described as both too strong and too weak RNZ: Covid-19: Ban on UK flights should be considered – Professor Nick Wilson Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Covid-19 testing numbers plummet, worrying experts Phillip Hill & Brian ...5 days ago
- Liam Hehir: Do as I say – the ongoing risks of covid hypocrisyThe 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 ...5 days ago
- How we work: Getting input from scientistsOver 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 ...5 days ago
- One way of fixing itYesterday 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 ...6 days ago
- Reviewing the horrid global 2020 wildfire seasonThis 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 ...6 days ago
- NZ Politics Daily: 12 January 2021Covid, vaccine, and border Matthew Theunissen (RNZ): Government accused of being ‘too relaxed’ over new Covid strains Herald: Judith Collins on urging Govt to accelerate rollout of vaccine Jason Walls (Herald): Government being lobbied to accelerate the Covid vaccine rollout ‘before it’s too late’ Shannon Redstall (Newshub): Coronavirus: Judith Collins calls for vaccine roll-out ‘now’, or consider closing the borders Newsroom: Lockdown expected ...6 days ago
- Seeds of DoubtNOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here. Tess Tuxford Ko 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 ...7 days ago
- 2021 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #02Story 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 assessment Look for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...7 days ago
- NZ Politics Daily: 11 January 2021US politics and NZ Chris Keall (Herald): NZ Privacy Commissioner critical of Facebook and Twitter’s decision to ban Trump Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): NZ privacy commissioner says social media bans on Trump ‘arbitrary and cynical’ RNZ: PM should not ‘tiptoe’ around Trump’s culpability – professor Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): US riots: NZ Trump aide Chris Liddell staying on to ‘lead successful transition’ ...7 days ago
- The Trump Insurrection: Primal Urges And Transgressive Images.7 days ago
- To Impeach Or Not?
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 ...1 week ago - Evening On The Land (For The United States of America)1 week ago
- 2021 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #2A 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, 2021 Editor's Choice After the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...1 week ago
- Guest post: How human activity threatens the world’s carbon-rich peatlandsThis 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 ...1 week ago
- Taxonomies of mass political violence.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 ...1 week ago
- A cracked windowOn 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 ...1 week ago
- Post-pandemic cities can permanently reclaim public spaces as gathering placesAnne-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 ...1 week ago
- A New World Order?
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 ...1 week ago - Why Aotearoa New Zealand’s early Polynesian settlement should be recognised with World Heritage Si...Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of Waikato Aotearoa 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 ...1 week ago
- Fundraiser for Lumad Communities: Lunch at Nanam Eatery
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 ...1 week ago - On Prisons."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 ...1 week ago
- Covid-19 and Climate Change Will Remain Inextricably Linked, Thanks to the Parallels (and the Denial...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 ...1 week ago
- 2020: The History That Was – Part 1
. . 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 ...1 week ago - NZ Politics Daily: 8 January 2021US politics and NZ Marc Daalder (Newsroom): It could happen here Matthew Hooton (Herald): Capitol Riot confirms Donald Trump leaves office as worst President in history(paywalled) Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Kiwi Chris Liddell weighs up resigning as Trump’s deputy chief of staff Damian George (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern on US Capitol riot: Democracy ‘should never be undone by a mob’ Herald: ‘Democracy will prevail’: Jacinda ...1 week ago
- The Adventures of Annalax: A Compendium
In the interests of keeping my D&D campaign write-up coherent, I thought I would adopt the same system as I have adopted with other multi-part blog post series. An Index/Compendium. Contextual musings: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2020/05/14/dd-again-drow-musings-and-originality/ Sessions 1-6: The Waking World to the Dreamland: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2020/05/28/the-adventures-of-annalax-volume-i/https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2020/06/18/the-adventures-of-annalax-volume-ii/ Sessions 7-8: Ocean and City: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2020/07/02/the-adventures-of-annalax-volume-iii/ ...1 week ago - The Adventures of Annalax: Volume XV
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 ...2 weeks ago - Telling It Like It IsIn 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 ...2 weeks ago
- The madness of King Trump
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 ...2 weeks ago - The end of US democracy?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 ...2 weeks ago
- NZ Politics Daily: 7 January 2021Waikeria prison riot Te Aorewa Rolleston and Te Aniwa Hurihanganui (RNZ): Police fired rubber bullets at men during Waikeria Prison standoff Alexander Gillespie (RNZ): Waikeria inmates’ protest: a symptom of a much larger problem ODT: Editorial – Thorough Waikeria review needed Mackenzie Smith (RNZ): Waikeria prison protest prompts calls for Hōkai Rangi rethink John Weekes (Herald): Waikeria riot: Jail staff union’s ...2 weeks ago
- Song for Georgia
...2 weeks ago - Skeptical Science New Research for Week #1, 2021Melted 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 ...2 weeks ago
- Online Misinformation Fuels a Fight Over Folic AcidChristina Szalinski When 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 ...2 weeks ago
- Realistically, “post-Trump” Era America may amount to little more than a wardrobe change in crit...
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 ...2 weeks ago - Geyserland: Or, What happened at TaupōI 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 ...2 weeks ago
- Long COVID: who is at risk?Frances Williams, King’s College London For 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 ...2 weeks ago
- NZ Politics Daily: 6 January 2021Housing Financial Times: New Zealand’s housing crisis poses big test for Jacinda Ardern Jean Bell (RNZ): Buying first home will be out of reach for more people in 2021 – CoreLogic Dan Satherley (Newshub): House prices kept going up through December, Government and investors blamed David Chaston (Interest): History repeating Craig Elliffe (Herald): Taxing residential properties: Is it time to pull ...2 weeks ago
- A dangerous decision for journalismLast 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 ...2 weeks ago
- Is the Gender Identity Movement a movement for human liberation, or a regressive movement underminin...
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 ...2 weeks ago - Six space missions to look forward to in 2021Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University of Birmingham Space 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 ...2 weeks ago
- Oxford COVID vaccine authorised in the UK – global health expert on why this is a key momentMichael Head, University of Southampton The 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 ...2 weeks ago
- NZ Politics Daily: 5 January 2021Today’s content Waikeria prison riot Chris Trotter: A Powerful political metaphor Polly Gillespie (Stuff): The prison riot that didn’t need to happen Kim Workman (RNZ): Transforming Waikeria – Hōkai Rangi or Hōkai Nuku? John Minto (Daily Blog): Waikeria – dignity and respect still missing 38 years later Ani O’Brien: Waikeria Prison riots and calls for prison abolition Don Franks (Redline): Reflections ...2 weeks ago
- Johnson back in hospitalSo, 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 ...2 weeks ago
- 2021 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #01Story 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 Zero That’s one of several recent ...2 weeks ago
- COVID 19 – Double+ UngoodThe 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 ...2 weeks ago
- Reflections after Waikeria incident
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: ...2 weeks ago - A Powerful Political Metaphor.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 ...2 weeks ago
- A covidious year
Dear friends, it’s been a covidious year, A testing time for all of us here— Citizens of an island nation In a state of managed isolation, A team (someone said) five million strong, Making it up as we went along: Somehow in typical Kiwi fashion, Without any wild excess ...2 weeks ago - 2021 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #1A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Dec 27, 2020 through Sat, Jan 2, 2021 Editor's Choice 7 Graphics That Show Why the Arctic Is in Trouble Arctic Sea Ice: NSIDC It’s no secret that the Arctic is ...2 weeks ago
- The Shadow of the Nineteenth Century: Rider Haggard and Tolkien
One of the books I read in 2020 was She, by H. Rider Haggard (1887). I thoroughly enjoyed it, as being an exemplar of a good old-fashioned adventure story. I also noted with amusement ... 2 weeks ago - What we know so far about Covid19
Scottish doctor Malcolm Kendrick looks at the pandemic and the responses to it 30th December 2020 I have not written much about COVID19 recently. What can be said? In my opinion the world has simply gone bonkers. The best description can be found in Dante’s Inferno, written many hundreds of ...2 weeks ago - December ’20 – NZ blogs sitemeter ranking
2 weeks ago
- Twenty highlights of 2020
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 ...2 weeks ago
- Cook Islanders to resume travel to New Zealand
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 ...3 days ago - Supporting communities and landowners to grow employment opportunitiesJobs 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, ...4 days ago
- Border exception for some returning international tertiary studentsThe 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 ...4 days ago
- Tiwai deal gives time for managed transitionToday’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 ...4 days ago
- New member for APEC Business Advisory CouncilPrime 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 ...5 days ago
- Govt’s careful economic management recognisedThe 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 ...5 days ago
- Additional actions to keep COVID-19 out of NZThe 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 ...6 days ago
- 19 projects will clean up and protect waterways$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 ...1 week ago
- New Zealand Government acknowledges 175th anniversary of Battle of RuapekapekaThe 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 ...1 week ago
- Better care for babies with tongue-tieBabies 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 ...2 weeks ago
- Prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison overThe 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 ...2 weeks ago
- Pre-departure COVID-19 test for travellers from the UK and the US from 15 JanuaryTravellers 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 ...2 weeks ago
- PM congratulates New Year Honour recipientsPrime 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 ...3 weeks ago
- David Parker congratulates New Year 2021 Honours recipientsAttorney-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 ...3 weeks ago
- New Year’s Honours highlights outstanding Pacific leadership through challenging yearMinister 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 ...3 weeks ago
- Supporting seniors to embrace technologyThe 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 ...3 weeks ago
- Where is she now? Penny Kinsella
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 ...18 mins ago - Unpopular but true: New Zealand should have more MPs
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 ...44 mins ago - Siouxsie Wiles: The Plan B implosion – what Brazil teaches us about the herd immunity hogwashThe 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 ...46 mins ago
- Why we can't plant our way out of climate change
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. ...48 mins ago - Online safety laws lagging by a decade
Government needs to do more to keep the laws governing Kiwis online safety relevant and effective. ...48 mins ago - Majority Of Kiwis Want Continued Monitoring Of Abortions
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. ...16 hours ago - Gangs And Guns: Govt Failing To Keep Our Community SafeThe 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 ...16 hours ago
- Productivity is the key to our economic recovery
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. ...17 hours ago - Some advice for ‘long Covid’ sufferers, from the chronic fatigue communityUnderstanding 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. ...23 hours ago
- Amid the chaos, I createdNadine 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 ...23 hours ago
- Alice Snedden’s Bad News: How racist is New Zealand really?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 ...23 hours ago
- Meet the residents: Huia Books publisher Eboni WaitereLucy 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 ...1 day ago
- Confusion reigns over real reasons for burning of missionary plane in Papua
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 ...2 days ago - Shelly Bay Shows The Dangerous Side Of Kindness“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 ...2 days ago
- The PM announces a relaxation of border controls – but only Cook Islanders will be able to benefit
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 ...2 days ago - The history of the n-word in New ZealandA 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 ...2 days ago
- Why is it so hard to find lemons right now?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 ...2 days ago
- Joylessness to the world 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 ...2 days ago
- Alice Snedden’s Bad News: Shouldn’t everybody have the right to vote – even from prison?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 ...2 days ago
- Glamorous alcohol ads hide ugly truth
NZ deserves a far more robust framework controlling how this drug, that causes so much harm to so many, is being marketed and sold. ...2 days ago - Far-reaching impact of Cooks quarantine-free travel
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 ...2 days ago - Controversy over renaming Tahiti’s hospital after Chirac amid covid crisisSPECIAL 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 ...2 days ago
- 75% of Australia’s marine protected areas are given only ‘partial’ protection. Here’s why th...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 ...2 days ago
- Orr’s 3pm Friday Apology For Data Snafu Anything But UpfrontThe 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, ...3 days ago
- Too much information: the COVID work revolution has increased digital overloadSource: 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 ...3 days ago
- Bank Governor personally apologises for data breach
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 ...3 days ago - Ammonite: the remarkable real science of Mary Anning and her fossilsSource: 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. ...3 days ago
- Review: WandaVision is the first artistic triumph of the Marvel Cinematic UniverseA 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 ...3 days ago
- Why social media platforms banning Trump won’t stop — or even slow down — his causeSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Carlson, Professor, Indigenous Studies, Macquarie University Last week Twitter permanently suspended US President Donald Trump in the wake of his supporters’ violent storming of Capitol Hill. Trump was also suspended from Facebook and Instagram indefinitely. Heads quickly turned to the right-wing ...3 days ago
- Why online platforms banning Trump won’t stop — or even slow down — his causeSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bronwyn Carlson, Professor, Indigenous Studies, Macquarie University Last week Twitter permanently suspended US President Donald Trump in the wake of his supporters’ violent storming of Capitol Hill. Trump was also suspended from Facebook and Instagram indefinitely. Heads quickly turned to the right-wing ...3 days ago
- Why the alt-right believes another American Revolution is comingSource: 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 ...3 days ago
- Parker should brace for lobbying from guardians of the swamp after housing project is given fast-tr...
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 ...3 days ago - Tuberculosis kills as many people each year as COVID-19. It’s time we found a better vaccineSource: 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 ...3 days ago
- The Friday Poem: While you were partying I studied the blade by Rebecca HawkesThe 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 ...3 days ago
- Arming Police In Canterbury Inevitable: Tip Of The Iceberg For Protection Against GangsThe 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 ...3 days ago
- NZ Celebrates Global Nuclear Weapons Ban, 21 And 22 January 2021Celebrations 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 ...3 days ago
- Five ideas to fix NZ’s completely pathetic Covid QR scanning recordHardly 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 ...3 days ago
- Tolaga Bay businesses are innovating beyond brick, mortar and distanceOn 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 ...3 days ago
- Don’t Skip Your Gas Bottle Check This SummerAs 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 ...3 days ago
- The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending January 15The 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.AUCKLAND1 Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)If you’re in any way unsure about ...3 days ago
- Judge Releases ‘Vicious’ Wife-beater On Home Detention – Makes Total Mockery Of Justice System“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 ...3 days ago
- Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Covid-19: Worst Countries in the New YearAnalysis 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 ...3 days ago
- Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – January 15 2021Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. Today’s content Tiwai Point Smelter deal Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Aluminium smelter deal – who caved? Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Power play: Meridian Energy reaches deal with Rio Tinto over Tiwai Point Smelter No Right Turn: Paying the ...3 days ago
- There’s a new quaranqueen in town – and her name is RuPaulRuPaul 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 ...3 days ago
- Is it curtains for Clive? What COVID means for populism in Australia 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 ...3 days ago
- Birds that play with others have the biggest brains – and the same may go for humansSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England Have you ever seen magpies 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 ...3 days ago
- Early childhood educators are leaving in droves. Here are 3 ways to keep them, and attract moreSource: 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 ...3 days ago
- Government funds are not ‘taxpayer money’ — media and politicians should stop confusing the tw...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 ...3 days ago
- Digitising the economy is bigger than us
The new Digital Economy Partnership Agreement with Singapore foreshadows a bigger, global approach to increasing productivity. ...3 days ago - Republicans must decide the future of their party post-Trump
*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 ...3 days ago - How a ‘cash-free’ banking system harms vulnerable consumers
Covid-19 fears accelerated banks’ moves towards cashless transactions. But the Reserve Bank is fighting to protect cash, and those who still use it. ...3 days ago - The Bulletin: Summer news stories you might have missedGood morning and welcome to this one-off edition of The Bulletin, covering major stories from the last few weeks.A quick preamble to this: Today’s special edition of The Bulletin is all about filling you in on some of the stories you might have missed over the summer period. Perhaps you had ...3 days ago
- Alice Snedden’s Bad News held a euthanasia debate dinner partySummer reissue: In this episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden is forced to confront her own mortality before hosting a very special dinner party to get to grips with the euthanasia debate.First published August 27, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...3 days ago
- Words matter and so do presidents
The contrast between the words of John F Kennedy and today’s anti-democratic demagogue is inescapable, writes Dolores Janiewski I still remember three eloquent speeches by an American president. One happened in January 1961 and spoke about a “torch being passed to a new generation”. Two years later and one day apart, ...3 days ago - Wrangle seeds call for more urban trees
The debate over cutting down a large macrocarpa to make way for a new residential development has highlighted a wider agreement between developers and protesters: that we also need to be planting far more trees. At the corner of Great North Road and Ash Street in Avondale, a 150-year-old macrocarpa stands its ground ...3 days ago - Pressure mounts on government to accelerate Covid vaccine roll-outMore infectious variants of Covid-19 are increasingly being intercepted at the country’s borders, but the minister running New Zealand’s response is resisting pressure to accelerate vaccination plans despite demands from health experts as well as political friends and foes, Justin Giovannetti reports.New Zealand’s first Covid-19 jabs will be administered in ...3 days ago
- Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: We must urgently boost border controls in the face of the Covid perilAs CEO of her iwi rūnanga, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was on the frontline protecting her community during the first outbreak of Covid-19. Now that more virulent strains threaten to breach our borders, the Māori Party co-leader calls on the government to introduce much stricter measures.As we enter the New Year I ...3 days ago
- Certainty the key outcome from Tiwai deal
The deferral of the smelter's closure enables the planning of a just transition in the south and the electricity system of the future. ...3 days ago - Behind the scenes of the biggest show in town
The Prada Cup challenger series starts today. Suzanne McFadden goes behind the scenes of the world's only live yachting regatta to see what's in store for the next five weeks. At 6am on race days, Iain Murray wakes up and immediately checks the weather outside his Auckland window. “It’s all ...3 days ago - Bridgerton offers clever relationship advice — why friendship is the foundation of happy romantic ...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Raquel Peel, Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland This story contains spoilers for Bridgerton The first season of Bridgerton, Netflix’s new hit show based on Julia Quinn’s novels, premiered on December 25 last year. The show is set in London, during the ...4 days ago
- Tiwai Point negotiations continuing despite breakthrough on smelter
The New Zealand government believes its own negotiations with Rio Tinto will be resolved "fairly quickly" now there is certainty about the future of the Tiwai Point smelter. ...4 days ago - A meat eater reviews New Zealand’s best and worst vegetarian sausagesAmanda Thompson and her family are attempting to cut back on the meat, so they gave all the vego sausies the local supermarket had to offer a hoon on the barbie. Here are the results.I was a vegetarian once. Even the best of us take a well-meaning wrong turn on ...4 days ago
- Land Value Based Rates Charges Gets Thumbs Up From Taxpayers' UnionThe Taxpayers’ Union welcomes the call by Wellington City Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons for a shift to land value based rates charges. Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, "Local government leaders across the country should join in Fitzsimons’s call ...4 days ago
- Why Trump’s impeachment really mattersIt’s been described as ‘pointless revenge’, but impeaching the president has a firm moral purpose, argues Michael Blake – setting a limit to what sorts of action a society will accept.A House majority, including 10 Republicans, voted today to impeach President Trump for “incitement of insurrection”. The vote will initiate ...4 days ago
- Trump is impeached again in historic vote. Now Republicans must decide the future of their partySource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bryan Cranston, Lead Academic Teacher – Politics & Social Science (Swinburne Online), Swinburne University of Technology In a historic vote today, Donald Trump became the only US president to be impeached twice. By a margin of 232–197, the Democrat-controlled US House of ...4 days ago
- Let’s further tighten the border and – oh, wait, don’t make it too tough for overseas students...Hurrah. The PM is back to posting her announcements on the government’s official website, her deputy is back in the business of self-congratulation, Rio Tinto is back in the business of sucking up cheap electricity to produce aluminium at Tiwai Point, near Bluff. And overseas students (some, anyway) can come ...4 days ago
- Tiwai closure deferral hailed as 'welcome certainty'
The electricity sector, Government and people of Southland are rejoicing after Tiwai Point aluminium smelter owner Rio Tinto announced the major industrial would be open until the end of 2024, Marc Daalder reports Stakeholders in the electricity sector and across Southland are celebrating the extension of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter's ...4 days ago - Ahoy! A sea shanty veteran on why the genre is blowing up on social mediaIf you’ve been on social media this week, you may well have come across a surge in interest in sea shanties. We asked a veteran of the style why. In case you missed it, soon may the Wellerman come, to bring us sugar and tea and rum. If that sentence is even ...4 days ago
- Sensible Sentencing Trust: Cowards Who Withhold Information In Child Abuse Cases Should Be Prosecute...“It is basic human decency to speak up and protect any vulnerable child from harm, so withholding information in child abuse cases and allowing the abuse to happen by not speaking up is, put simply, a cowardly move,” says Jess McVicar Co-Leader ...4 days ago
- ExportNZ Welcomes Back International StudentsAllowing 1,000 returning international students back to New Zealand is the right move by the Government, and hopefully we will be able to welcome more, says ExportNZ Executive Director Catherine Beard. "International education has contributed ...4 days ago
- Live: US House votes to impeach President Donald Trump after Capitol riot
A majority of the House of Representatives have voted to make Donald Trump the first US president ever to be impeached twice, formally charging him in his waning days in power with inciting an insurrection just a week after a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol. Follow the ...4 days ago - January 26th 100 Days 4 Action RallyThe Youth of NZ will be standing up for climate action once again on January 26th outside of Parliament for School Strike 4 Climate NZ’s 100 Days 4 Action campaign rally. “We believe it is vital to hold our new Labour-led government to account ...4 days ago
- Council Must Release Engineering Safety Report On Hemo Gorge Monument LeanThe Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Rotorua Lakes District Council to urgently release the engineering report on the public safety and structural integrity of the visible foundation-misalignment and lean of the City’s Hemo Gorge monument to government ...4 days ago
- Child Poverty And Hospitalisation Study Gets Surprising ResultChanges in income and movement in and out of poverty over time are only weakly associated with higher rates of child hospitalisation in New Zealand, according to a new University of Auckland study. Published today in PLOS ONE, the collaborative study led by Dr ...4 days ago
- 8 Tips To Protect Your Pets From The Summer SunWith a long, hot summer upon us, pet owners are urged to be extra mindful of their pet’s health and safety. Unusually warm weather can quickly take its toll on furry family members, who aren’t well equipped for dealing with blazing heat. The National ...4 days ago
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