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- Business New Zealand at war with the poor
by Don Franks A just released Salvation Army commissioned survey of over 1000 New Zealanders showed 45 per cent of them went without heating last year, due to cost. Doctor’s visits were not made by 44 per cent because they couldn’t afford it. Manager ...51 mins ago - Franco Basaglia, Marco Cavallo and the closure of Italy’s asylums
Originally published at Overland This week forty years ago, Italy became the first country in the world to legislate the closure of its asylums. The law was drafted by a psychiatrist and member of the governing Christian Democratic party, Bruno ...53 mins ago - More Australian corruption
Another Australian state MP is quitting after being caught behaving corruptly:Voters in the NSW Riverina will head to the polls twice in a matter of months after Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced disgraced Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire would resign from ...8 hours ago - Immigration NZ’s racism problemLast week, Immigration NZ quite properly granted visitor visas to a pair of foreign Nazis, because there was no lawful reason to refuse them. Meanwhile, they're refusing to grant visas to visiting human rights activists:The International Humanist and Ethical Union ...9 hours ago
- Fixing the CRLs two biggest flaws
The City Rail Link will be a truly transformational project for Auckland. One that I believe will change not only how many Aucklanders get around but also how many see their city. It represents Auckland finally growing up and delivering ...13 hours ago - 2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #29
Story of the Week... Analysis of the Week... SkS Highlights... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Graphic of the Week... SkS in the News... Photo of the Week... SkS Spotlights... Video of the ...16 hours ago - Behind the big centre-left win in Mexico presidential elections
PEDRO MERA / GETTY IMAGES Photo: Pedro Mera by Jimena Vergara Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) crushed the other candidates in the July 1 Mexican presidential election, winning over 50% of the votes – twice as much as his nearest ...19 hours ago - Large American Pot, Meet Small Chinese Kettle.
1 day ago - 2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #29
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week. Editor's Pick There Is No Escape for Corals Deep waters have long been seen as potential refuges for endangered corals, but a new ...2 days ago - Balancing Fake American Friends Against Real Chinese Interests.
2 days ago - Flashback Saturday: Downtown – Little Queen Street
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Patrick was originally published in June 2014. This is a quick post on the Downtown site. Precinct Properties, the owner of the Mall and the two existing towers [Zurich Hse + ...2 days ago - Imbalanced Trade
From my office window I can see the single lane at the end of a motorway, usually filled with a queue of slowly moving cars. The conventional wisdom is that it should be two-laned to remove the blockage, but that ...3 days ago - Co-opting and corrupting movements: business as usual then…?
Is this about the most depressing display of “wokeness” that you could imagine? 4 quotes come to mind… Quote 1: James Baldwin, American author “I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do…” Quote 2: George ...3 days ago - Brash: I want to be able to listen to my racist friends!
As a former leader of two major Wellington organisations and the ACT Party, I have, for years, been championing free speech. Consider, if you will, a younger old white man, standing up in front of other old white man in ...3 days ago - 97% of House Republicans foolishly reject carbon taxes
Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted on an anti-carbon tax Resolution. The Resolution was introduced by Steve Scalise (R-LA) with essentially the same language as he introduced in 2013 and 2016. On those past versions, every Republican House member voted against carbon taxes. This time, ...3 days ago - The UK uses child spiesBritish police and intelligence agencies are using children as spies:British police and intelligence agencies are using children as spies in covert operations against terrorists, gangs and drug dealers. A committee of the House of Lords revealed the practice while raising ...3 days ago
- Fuck AustraliaThe Australians are pissed off at Andrew Little for calling them out on their deportation policy and treatment of kiwis. And Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton thinks Little should "reflect" on the NZ-Australia relationship before criticising our neighbours. I think ...3 days ago
- Helsinki Debacle Claims Its Victims
Writing a commentary on current affairs is always a fraught business; however considered one’s views, they are bound to be challenged by someone – even many, – and they can, by the time they are published, be totally discredited by ...3 days ago - Zionist-Inspired Definition Of Antisemitism Deployed Against Jeremy Corbyn.
3 days ago - Labour lied on refugeesWhen they were in opposition, Labour advocated for an increased refugee quota. When they were running for election, they explicitly promised to raise it to 1,500 a year. But now they're in government, they're saying that we're full:The Government has ...3 days ago
- A victory for European justiceA week ago, a German court rejected the extradition of exiled Catalan President Carles Puigdemont on "rebellion" charges. He could be extradited for "misuse of public funds", but not for "rebellion" as there was no equivalent offence in German law ...3 days ago
- How much faster will train timetables be?
For drivers, school holidays must seem almost magical with traffic seemingly vanishing for a few weeks. Commutes that might normally take an hour in mind-numbing congestion can, for a few weeks, be achieved in less than half that time. On ...4 days ago - Are you a Nazi?
You've probably been called a Nazi recently by someone who disagreed with you online. But how can you tell if you really are a piece of fetid fascist garbage? Take the test. ...4 days ago - Ocean Temperature – Part 2
Ocean Temperature – Part 2 We are coming back to the topic of sea-surface temperature measurements, which we have taken on in the article “Ocean Temperature – Part 1”. This time, we will discuss issues concerning satellite measurements. Pictet Mirrors ...4 days ago - Have your say: Country of Origin Food Labelling
People want and deserve to know where their food comes from. That is the intention behind my member’s bill (originally Steffan Browning’s) the Consumers’ Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Bill which has re-opened for submissions. There is ...4 days ago - Doomed?Good news from Nelson: the Waimea dam project - the one National wants to pass a Muldoonist Enabling Act to rip land out of a forest park for - has escalated in price and looks doomed:Updated costs for the proposed ...4 days ago
- A curious absenceThe Free Speech Coalition has filed its suit against Phil Goff and the Auckland Council over their cancellation of a Nazi event, seeking to have the decision overturned. But reading the statement of claim, there's an odd omission: while they ...4 days ago
- Mainstream media “mob violence” over Helsinki summit
Professor Cohen is always good value and we should take these comments of his seriously. After all, there is nothing more serious today than the threat of war between the US and the Russian Federation. Yet we have politicians and ...4 days ago - Hop out of the way of that falling truck, honey
This is a guest post by reader Heidi O’Callahan On Thursday 8th March this year, a truck heading east up Great North Rd from Waterview failed to negotiate the right-turn corner into Carrington Rd, at the heart of the Pt Chevalier ...5 days ago - Hard News: Miles on the Clock
It took no great insight to suppose that the main casualties of the report by the Office of the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor debunking the "meth contamination" hysteria would be the companies who for years made a profitable business ...5 days ago - Another transparency failureLast month, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones claimed he had received 365 text messages supporting his criticism of Fonterra. But surprisingly, he's refusing to release them under the OIA:Self-styled "provincial champion" Jones launched a blistering attack on the long-serving dairy ...5 days ago
- Trump, tariffs, tantrums and trade – grandstanding or real trade war?by The Spark Since the spring (NZ autumn – Redline), the Trump administration has imposed a wave of tariffs on 1,102 imported goods, from aluminum and steel, that is, the building blocks of basic industry, to consumer items like washing ...5 days ago
- When police investigate policeAnother IPCA report is out today, this time into an officer's use of pepper spray in a police cell. The inquiry found that the officer's actions were unjustified, in breach of police policy, and unlawful. So there's the obvious question ...5 days ago
- UK drone pilots are criminalsThat's the conclusion of a UK Parliamentary inquiry into drone strikes:British military personnel could be prosecuted for killing civilians in drone strikes and risk becoming complicit in alleged war crimes committed by the US, an inquiry has found. A two-year ...5 days ago
- Wireless Docs: The Forest of Tiriwa
Maunga Waitakere supplies drinking water to the wider region, and drives significant tourism value through its iconic scenery. With some Pākehā showing confusion over the recently established rāhui, now is the time to discuss the wider cultural life of the region. In ...5 days ago - Quay St works to be unveiled soon
In just three years Auckland’s waterfront is going to look dramatically different. The completion of a $268 million suite of projects on and around Quay St will transform the area, creating a people friendly space from Silo Park through to Britomart and ...6 days ago - Who do we think we are? The free speech debateI argued in my previous post that a free speech debate played into the hands of the numpties - Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux - who wanted to come to New Zealand to make their case for racial superiority and prejudice. ...6 days ago
- New Zealand should ratify the Kampala AmendmentIn 2010, the parties to the International Criminal Court agreed the Kampala Amendment, which finally gave a formal, legal definition to the crime of aggression (you know, the one they convicted the Nazis of), allowing the court to prosecute it. ...6 days ago
- AT’s (lack of) Achievement of Carbon Emission and Fuel Usage Targets
This is a guest post from reader Takaite Background As 40% of Auckland’s carbon emissions are due to transport, if Auckland is to contribute its share to NZ’s carbon reduction targets this is an area where reductions have to be ...6 days ago - An Inconvenient Truth About Free Speech Denialism.
6 days ago - Elon Musk didn’t go AWOL with his idiotic tweet, he did what these “gurus” often do: throw an ...
When Elon Musk struck out on Twitter with his unsubstantiated (and now deleted) “pedo” comment over the refusal to use his latest gadget to help rescue the Thai boys and their coach the other week, he didn’t really sink to ...6 days ago - Fixing housing crises – lessons for San Francisco and Auckland
A great recent article takes a “deep dive” look at the steps San Francisco’s new mayor could take to fix their housing crisis. The new mayor – London Breed – is a breath of fresh air in a city with ...7 days ago - Comprehensive study: carbon taxes won’t hamper the economyEleven teams participated in a recent Stanford Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) project, examining the economic and environmental impacts of a carbon tax. The studies included “revenue recycling,” in which the funds generated from a carbon tax are returned to taxpayers either ...1 week ago
- Hard News: Music: What the Flying Nun donation means, and why everyone should be looking at itFlying Nun Records' donation of hundreds of original master tapes to the Alexander Turnbull Library, announced on Friday, is significant in any number of ways. Firstly, it's a big step in addressing the problem of deteriorating masters, which has been ...1 week ago
- Israel’s new apartheid lawIsrael is an apartheid state. But the pretence in Israel has always been that this is about the occupation and "security" against their victims, and that Arab citizens are equal in law. Now, a new law aims to allow formal, ...1 week ago
- Wireless Docs Season 4: Call for proposals
Here’s your chance to make a documentary. We’re excited to announce that The Wireless is now accepting proposals for a fourth season of Wireless Docs. We’ll be commissioning six new made-for-web documentary films to be released in ...1 week ago - Auckland Land Values
One of the neat features of the Council’s GIS viewer is the ability to put on an overlay showing the land values per m² for the Auckland Region. Council valuations are conducted every three years and the 2017 data is ...1 week ago - Will Talleys get what they paid for?Talleys is one of the country's largest political donors. Last year it dished out $49,000 to election candidates, including $10,000 to NZ First's Shane Jones. Talleys also hates the idea of the government properly regulating the criminal fishing industry, and ...1 week ago
- Crime and Punishment: Will freeing more prisoners work?
Grisly attacks and brutal murders convinced New Zealand that criminals should be locked up for longer. Now, with jails bursting at the seams, the government wants to slash prisoner numbers. Will Kiwis panic, or get behind the changes? Susan Strongman reports. ...1 week ago - The Costa Rican Solution.
1 week ago - Riding the Central New Network
1 week ago - What this Economist Has Learnt From BrexitI have found Brexit rivetting. As a piece of Econ 101, it is straight forward. (OK, I simplify; it is rare for first year students to study in any depth the implications of intra-industry trade, supply chains, the economies of ...1 week ago
- Free Speech Denialism Is Fascism In Action.
1 week ago - The Free-market, Hyper-individualism… and a Culture of Cruelty?
. . Up till recently, I had believed that there were two facets comprising to create a neo-liberal economy (not “society” – neo-liberalism does not recognise community or society where individuals organise for a greater collective good). The first was ...1 week ago - 2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #28
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week. Editor's Pick Heat Records Falling Around the World in 2018 Above: A sampling of all-time high temperatures reported around the world in 2018 ...1 week ago - Flashback Saturday: Population-weighted densities in New Zealand and Australia
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Peter was originally published in September 2014. Urban population density is a hot topic – some people complain that it’s getting too high in Auckland, while others worry that it’s ...1 week ago - The Minister for Open Government, yet againClare Curran attended a secret meeting with Google and refused to take notes about it:At least two Cabinet ministers attended a dinner at an exclusive club hosted by Google's top lawyer under secretive "Chatham House" rules, but made no notes ...1 week ago
- Better news than it soundsLast night, a German court ruled that exiled Catalan President Carles Puigdemont could be extradited to Spain - but only on charges of "misuse of public funds". The charge Spain really wants to stick him with - "rebellion" - was ...1 week ago
- Climate change: Getting rid of petrol carsWhat does the government's target of zero net emissions by 2050 mean in practice? James Shaw states the obvious: no more petrol cars:If New Zealand is to meet its zero carbon pledge, nearly all the country's cars will have to ...1 week ago
- Noise PollutesYesterday was wonderfully warm and sunny at Ohiwa Beach where we live in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. Our enjoyment of the winter sunshine, as we sat on our deck overlooking the beach, was however ruined by the noise made ...1 week ago
- Testing The Boundaries Of Political Discourse.
1 week ago - Northwest Light Rail in the news
The Herald have been running a number of articles on Light Rail this week Light Rail to Kumeu On Tuesday, it was presented with some surprise that light rail will eventually reach Kumeu Major changes are on the way for ...2 weeks ago - Auckland Herald covers for drug dealersby Don Franks “Auckland’s phoney homeless make $100 a day on the streets” is a Herald piece by Amanda Saxton, about a few skid row alcoholics who assemble early each morning to sit together and drink. A group of apparently ...2 weeks ago
- Māui dolphins deserve better
Like many of us, I feel a deep connection to our oceans. The rich marine life that surrounds our shores is what makes our place in the world so special and why we’re so passionate about protecting it. There are ...2 weeks ago - Rising ocean waters from global warming could cost trillions of dollarsOcean waters are rising because of global warming. They are rising for two reasons. First, and perhaps most obvious, ice is melting. There is a tremendous amount of ice locked away in Greenland, Antarctica, and in glaciers. As the world warms, ...2 weeks ago
- Make your voice heard on the Zero Carbon Bill
We’ve put together a quick guide so you can make a submission on the Zero Carbon Bill. Making a full submission is a much better contribution than simply signing a form on a website (although if you don’t have time, ...2 weeks ago - Report exposes the reality of tertiary students’ mental health
Adjusting to tertiary study, feelings of loneliness and academic anxiety have been identified as major triggering factors of depression, stress and anxiety amongst students, in a new study released by the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA). The Kei Te Pai? report ...2 weeks ago - Campaign to eliminate family and sexual violence in Pasifika communitiesA new government-backed campaign has been launched to help eliminate family and sexual violence, and suicidal behaviour among Pasifika young people in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Atu-Mai violence prevention programme has been developed to equip Pasifika young people and their families with the ...2 weeks ago
- Working with government and community to keep tertiary education localSandra Grey, national president of the Tertiary Education Union, reflects on what the future holds for the provision of tertiary education in Northland. It’s been a rocky road in recent years for staff, students, and communities reliant on tertiary education provided ...2 weeks ago
- Brexit as a natural disasterSomething bad is about to happen. The government has plans to stockpile food and medicine to ensure continued supplies, and to float thousands of generators on barges in the irish Sea to provide electricity to Northern Ireland. A hurricane, earthquake, ...2 weeks ago
- Street Talks: Transforming Public Transport with Auckland’s New Network
An event readers may be interested in: Street Talks: Transforming Public Transport with Auckland’s New Network – with Anthony Cross 5:30pm – 7:00pm Wednesday 18th July, Whare Wānanga, Papa Tuarua/ Second Floor, Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero/ Central Library, Lorne Street Auckland has made ...2 weeks ago - Time to fix rentingRenters United this morning launched The Plan to Fix Renting, a set of policy proposals building on last year's People's Review of Renting. Things like giving renters security of tenure by banning no-cause evictions and requiring landleeches to give reasons ...2 weeks ago
- GA’s Low Emissions Economy Submission
Patrick wrote last month about Greater Auckland’s submission on a draft report by the Productivity Commission: “Low-Emissions Economy”. Our full submission is available here. We looked at three chapters of the report – Land Use, Transport, and The Built Environment. ...2 weeks ago - We need to protect dolphins from miningConservation Minister Eugenie Sage appears to have granted a permit to explore for ironsands in a Marine Mammal Sanctuary:A mining exploration permit has been quietly granted inside a marine sanctuary set up to protect the endangered Māui dolphins. The decision ...2 weeks ago
- We need to talk about Stuart McCutcheonSilencing staff, cutting the Faculty of Education and Social Work in the midst of a nationwide teacher shortage, and refusing to listen to serious concerns about the direction he is taking the University of Auckland. It is time we talked about Vice-Chancellor ...2 weeks ago
We need to talk about Stuart McCutcheon
Silencing staff, cutting the Faculty of Education and Social Work in the midst of a nationwide teacher shortage, and refusing to listen to serious concerns about the direction he is taking the University of Auckland. It is time we talked about Vice-Chancellor ...
2 weeks ago
We need to talk about Stuart McCutcheon
Silencing staff, cutting the Faculty of Education and Social Work in the midst of a nationwide teacher shortage, and refusing to listen to serious concerns about the direction he is taking the University of Auckland. It is time we talked about Vice-Chancellor ...
2 weeks ago
We need to talk about Stuart McCutcheon
Silencing staff, cutting the Faculty of Education and Social Work in the midst of a nationwide teacher shortage, and refusing to listen to serious concerns about the direction he is taking the University of Auckland. It is time we talked about Vice-Chancellor ...
2 weeks ago
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