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- What Role Should Celebrities Play in Our Lives?
We live, like it or not, in the age of the celebrity. High achievers in entertainment or sport have always commanded attention and headlines, but the reach, in today’s society, of film and television, and particularly of the social media, ...1 hour ago - Malaysian Regional Rapid Rail
This is a Guest Post by Nick R. The Malaysian rail network is remarkably similar to New Zealand’s. So similar in fact they actually run some old New Zealand Rail carriages on a tourist train the length of the country. ...2 hours ago - A Green New Deal for Aotearoa
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has caused much angst amongst many conservative republicans in the US by promoting a Green New Deal (GND). The deal is attractive to progressives and those on the left because it is a package or political manifesto that ...16 hours ago - They can’t take it with them when they go
Simon Bridges, leader of the party of the rich, is spreading the usual scare stories about how taxing capital income will see people leaving New Zealand. Its supposed to suggest that the tax will be ineffective, that people will leave ...18 hours ago - Hard News: Always asking the wrong questions about cannabis
"How many shops will there be? How many shops will there be? How many shops will there be? How many shops will there be? How many shops will there be?" Duncan Garner demanded of Chloe Swarbrick MP towards the end ...19 hours ago - “More ambitious”?Newsroom reports on the OGP IRM report into our last Open Government Partnership Action Plan. They highlight the IRM' assessment of progress as "marginal" and their criticism that the "commitments" were chosen so they "would get completed in that time ...19 hours ago
- Just Like “Rogernomics”, A Capital Gains Tax Would Traumatize The New Zealand Economy.
1 day ago - Jan-18 Ridership
Just over a week after we saw the results for December. Now the high level ridership numbers for January are out and they are looking good. January is typically the quietest month of the year thanks to a number of ...1 day ago - A day at Waitangi, and at the beach
The Prime Minister says she hopes every New Zealander, at least once in their lifetimes, gets a chance to go to Waitangi for Waitangi Day. Firstly, because it’s a special place to be, and secondly so they can see how ...1 day ago - UnlawfulThat's the view of a UK House of Lords committee on the country's arms sales to Saudi Arabia:The UK is on “the wrong side of the law” by sanctioning arms exports to Saudi Arabia for the war in Yemen and ...2 days ago
The media frenzy about the NZ-PRC relationship got me to thinking, but as I got to thinking I found myself meandering off of my original train of thought. You see, at first I was pondering the one-sided, hectoring nature of ...2 days ago- Martina Navratilova comes out for fairness in sports
In an article in The Times, 17 February 2019, Martina comes out strongly for fairness in sports. The current rules on trans athletes reward cheats and punish the innocent Letting men compete as women simply if they change ...2 days ago - Climate change: The threat of methaneMore climate change bad news: methane may fry us:Dramatic rises in atmospheric methane are threatening to derail plans to hold global temperature rises to 2C, scientists have warned. In a paper published this month by the American Geophysical Union, researchers ...2 days ago
- The 1080 referendum questionThe Clerk of the House has determined the final form of the question for the proposed citizen's inititated referendum on 1080:Should New Zealand stop using all cruel and inhumane poisons, such as 1080, brodifacoum, and PAPP, to kill wildlife, because ...2 days ago
- A transit oriented development at Smales Farm?
The Northern Busway has been one of Auckland’s most successful transport investments. In the 11 years since it opened it has become the best and most used public transport corridor in probably all of the country. AT peak times in ...2 days ago - 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #7
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... 16-Year-Old Greta Thunberg Cheers 'Beginning of ...2 days ago - The Chinese “Message”.The indications that China is displeased with New Zealand cannot be mistaken. China is a country where nothing of this kind happens by accident; the government’s reach into every aspect of Chinese life is virtually unlimited. Nothing happens without the ...3 days ago
- Political Sadism, Or Moral Inertia? Explaining David Clark.
3 days ago - 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #7
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 10 through Sat, Feb 16, 2019 Editor's Pick What we can learn about climate change from the Titanic Kate ...3 days ago - A new ‘centrist’ party?
It's a day ending in 'Y' so that means there must be some new feverish speculation about the British Labour Party splitting.Today it comes courtesy of The Guardian, a paper with a proud record of taking any possible negative story ...4 days ago - Flashback Saturday: The Victoria St Linear Park: Why it is vital, but not really a park.
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Patrick was originally published in October 2016. This is one of a series of posts I intend to do about about the city streetscape we ought to be able to expect as a ...4 days ago - Nikki Kaye – playing politics with children’s health
. . It is a given that most politicians will do whatever it takes to win voters to get elected. It’s pretty much why their reputation is often at the same level as telemarketers and sex-workers (which, fair to say, ...4 days ago - “How many are coming from your job?”: notes on the Wellington Trades Council
by Don Franks The Vietnam war continued. Muldoon was yet to dominate New Zealand’s parliament, there was no internet and the Waitangi Tribunal did not exist. ...4 days ago - Process Heat In New Zealand: CANA Submission Guide
The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Agency (EECA) and MBIE are calling for submissions on their paper Process Heat in New Zealand: Opportunities and barriers to lowering emissions. We’d love you to make a submission, because 60% of process heat in ...5 days ago - Why is Labour subsidising bad employers?The government has declared a seasonal labour shortage for Hawke's Bay, effectively subsidising employers with cheap migrant labour. But why do they have a labour shortage? Perhaps those same employers' attitude to wages have something to do with it...Fruit may ...5 days ago
- Spare a thought for Anne-Marie.Put yourself in the following position: You are a professor at a NZ university, a NZ citizen who although well-known in your academic sub-field is virtually unknown outside of academia. Your research interests focus on the foreign policy of an ...5 days ago
- New research, February 4-10, 2019
A selection of new climate related research articles is shown below. Climate change mitigation Upscaling from the grassroots: potential aggregate carbon reduction from community-based initiatives in Europe Climate change communication An assessment of public perceptions of climate change risk in ...5 days ago - Not one hectare more!Yesterday the government announced that it was ending the farmer's rort of high country tenure review, under which over 350,000 hectares of public land has been corruptly privatised for next to nothing (and then frequently flicked on for 500 times ...5 days ago
- Mixed Messages.
Incoming Calls: While she’s contemplating the ever-widening ramifications of the United States’ and the United Kingdom’s increasingly reckless endangerment of so many of this country’s longstanding diplomatic, military and trade relationships, she might also consider asking herself how New Zealand’s ...5 days ago - Commentary Is Free – But Facts Are Sacred.
5 days ago - Mad dogsLast night the police were asked to help a mentally ill person in Hawke's Bay. They were meant to help him. Instead, they killed him: A man - who police had been trying to locate because of fears for his ...5 days ago
- Wheelly good growth on the cycleways
February is bike month and often the busiest month time of the year for people riding bikes. As such it’s a good time to look at the numbers to see how we’re progressing. Are the bike lanes empty, like Mike ...5 days ago - Meditating on Nelson and Population Growth
In terms of ambience and style, Nelson City reminds me of the New Zealand I grew up in half a century and more ago. I do not mean that it is not a modern city. The shops reflect today’s customers ...6 days ago - The law means nothingDisposing of public records without authorisation is a crime. Destroying them to prevent their release under the OIA is an aggravating factor in that crime. But when push comes to shove, it seems that the Chief Archivist isn't actually interested ...6 days ago
- Trump thinks winter weather invalidates climate change…
The post Trump thinks winter weather invalidates climate change… appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa. ...6 days ago - “The most transparent government ever” – again6 days ago
- The end of tenure review?High country tenure review is organised corruption, which has seen the privatisation of huge swathes of our country. Hundreds of millions of dollars of public land has been effectively given to farmers for free, and then flicked on for enormous ...6 days ago
- China flexing it’s economic muscle again?. . Reported in the NZ Herald today (10 February 2019), this curious incident; . . The story continued; Shortly after 11.30am this morning, Hundman was sent a txt from Air NZ saying “As you were advised onboard, the aircraft ...6 days ago
- Victoria’s Secret
Victoria’s traffic fatalities dropped by 17.8% last year, to 213. This means their traffic authority, VicRoads, is on track for meeting its interim Vision Zero target of fewer than 200 lives lost in 2020. Each one of the lives lost ...6 days ago - Politically expedient “moderation!” has simply allowed far bigger storms to gather power
As we look around the world, we see movements for change (and often the individuals that spur them by extension) that are often called out as wanting to go “too fast, too soon!”. We’re at the point however where that ...7 days ago - Climate Damages: Uncertain but Ominous, or $51 per Ton?This is a re-post from Triple Crisis by Frank Ackerman. Second in a series of posts on climate policy. Find Part 1 here. According to scientists, climate damages are deeply uncertain, but could be ominously large (see the previous post). Alternatively, according to ...7 days ago
- It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my fi...On Wednesday something happened in Parliament that was on its face a clever but petty political move designed to capture headlines, yet at a deeper level ought to concern anybody interested in how New Zealand governs itself. Forgive me while ...7 days ago
- New Fisk7 days ago
- More censorship with Speak Up For Women’s posters taken downOn February 11 the campaign group Speak Up for Women received notification from Phantom Billstickers that their poster campaign calling for public consultation on the controversial Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Bill would be removed from over 60 sites ...7 days ago
- Bold proposal puts people at the heart of vocational education
Staff can turn their attention to opening doors for students and communities with creative teaching, learning, and research under bold changes proposed today for vocational education says the Tertiary Education Union. ...7 days ago - A good questionThe government is currently waiting to formally consider and release the advice from its Tax Working Group, which is widely expected to recommend a capital gains tax. But Green co-leader James Shaw has pre-empted it by asking whether they deserve ...7 days ago
- VET reform – our voice mattersTogether we have made sure that students, iwi, communities, and staff are at the heart of bold changes proposed for the vocational education sector. And we need to keep working together to ensure life-long learning is accessible to New Zealanders ...7 days ago
- Basic humanity in Australia?Australia's anti-refugee policy is based on cruelty. According to the Australian government, refugees claiming their rights under international law are a "threat", which can only be deterred by imprisoning them without trial forever in concentration camps, neglecting them, allowing them ...7 days ago
- Is Israel Democratic?An interesting thing happened after I wrote last week’s first blog post about Venezuela ( http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2019/02/on-the-venezuelan-mess/). A gentleman from the Israel Institute of New Zealand wrote me at my business email address to request a correction or retraction for something ...7 days ago
- A Duplicitous Minister?
In a ‘Breakfast’ interview with Fran Kelly on ABC Radio National, the Minister for Energy, Angus Taylor, made a number of statements which are either wrong or misleading. A record of the interview is available here. 1. The Minister claims that a ...1 week ago - Queens Wharf to be closed to the public again
“Today, Queens Wharf becomes the public’s wharf,” said then Auckland Regional Council (ARC) Chairman Mike Lee in 2010 when the red gates were flung open, once again allowing the public to access the prime piece of Auckland’s waterfront, ending its ...1 week ago - Democracy on trialTwelve Catalan political leaders went on trial in Madrid today. Their crime? Advocating peacefully for an independent Catalonia and organising a referendum on the issue. The Spanish government calls this "sedition" and "rebellion". But what it really is is democracy. ...1 week ago
- Open Government: MarginalThat's the verdict of the Open Government Partnership's Independent Reporting Mechanism on New Zealand's OGP progress for the last two years:Although this report reflects high commitment completion, change in government practice stood as marginal overall. Notably, the government’s early efforts ...1 week ago
- Intimations of MortalityThe last week has been a momentous one for my wife and me. I had a birthday at the beginning of the week; my reaction to turning 80 is one of restrained enthusiasm – it is at least better than ...1 week ago
- Climate change: Our future is burningLike many, I've spent the last week watching the Nelson fire in horrified fascination as the Australian-style spectacle of a huge long-lasting fire threatening an urban area played out. But while it looks like we were lucky this time, the ...1 week ago
- Good riddanceMurray McCully's sordid Saudi sheep bribe is finally over: The controversial Saudi sheep deal been shut down, which the Government says will save about $1 million. [...] But Trade Minister David Parker said the deal has now been axed. "We're ...1 week ago
- Feb-19 AT Board Meeting
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for their first formal meeting of the year. Here are some of the highlights from the papers going to the board. Closed Session The closed session is usually where most of the interesting items ...1 week ago - Newshub poll: If this is the winter of Bridge’s discontent, he can’t be too discontented...1 week ago
- Harrowing Statistics: The Left’s Supposed To Shrink The Social Hell Of Joblessness – Not Expand ...
1 week ago - Socialist Rhetoric No Substitute For Socialist Substance.
1 week ago - On Buying Insurance, and Ignoring Cost-Benefit AnalysisThis is a re-post from TripleCrisis by economist Frank Ackerman First in a series of posts on climate policy. The damages expected from climate change seem to get worse with each new study. Reports from the IPCC and the U.S. Global Change Research Project, ...1 week ago
- What’s happening with light rail?
In recent months it has been immensely frustrating how little progress seems to have been made on the City Centre to Mangere project. Large and complicated projects always take time of course, but Auckland Transport had been working on it ...1 week ago - The slow killing of Fares Baroud
Palestinian prisoner Fares Baroud, 51, from al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza, died on Wednesday, 6 February only hours after being suddenly transferred to intensive care from Ramon prison. Baroud ...1 week ago - 2019 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #6
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 3 through Sat, Feb 10, 2019 Editor's Pick Seven take-aways from the Green New Deal launch Sweeping in scope, an ...1 week ago - The Brexit PartyNigel Farage has set up a new political vehicle to drive his ego about in. With startling originality, he's called it The Brexit Party. Interesting timing. You'd have thought they would have waited until after Brexit to see if it was ...2 weeks ago
- Flashback Saturday: Removing the RUB won’t necessarily work as planned
Every weekend we dig into the archives. This post by Matt was originally published in May 2016. Yesterday Phil Twyford announced that it would be Labour’s policy to abolish Auckland’s Rural Urban Boundary (RUB), as part of a policy to ...2 weeks ago - An Advisory to the West Coast Regional Council. . In July last year (2018), the West Council Regional Council announced in a submission to the Ministry for the Environment that they would not be supporting the Coalition Government’s proposed Zero Carbon Bill. The Council stated; The West ...2 weeks ago
- New research, January 28 – February 3, 2019A selection of new climate related research articles is shown below. Climate change impacts Mankind Historical Analysis of U.S. Tornado Fatalities (1808-2017): Population, Science and Technology (open access) Climate Change and Psychology: Effects of Rapid Global Warming on Violence and Aggression ...2 weeks ago
- Climate change: A step in the right directionSome good news on climate change from Australia: for the first time, a court has refused permission for a new coal mine, explicitly on the basis of climate change:The controversial Rocky Hill coalmine in the Hunter Valley will not go ...2 weeks ago
- The Incredible Lightness of Being Green.
2 weeks ago - Hands Off Venezuela!
2 weeks ago - Dec-18 Ridership
With public transport fares set to increase this weekend, it’s useful to look at how public transport use has been growing and with December’s ridership numbers now out, we can do just that. We’ve also been waiting to see the ...2 weeks ago - Reflections on a day at Waitangi and ‘the c word’The chap waiting in the Mr Whippy queue with me wearing his grandfather's Maori Warden helmet used the 'c' word. So did one of the aunties on the waka stage, as she introduced her kapahaka group. It's a word that ...2 weeks ago
- Staff are the foundation for the future of tertiary educationThe TEU has launched its vision for the future of ITPs ahead of the Minister's announcement on proposed reforms next week. ...2 weeks ago
- Climate Change: Breaching the thresholdLast year the IPCC warned us that the Paris Agreement target of limiting climate change to no more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels was a line in the sand for our species and that if we miss it, we ...2 weeks ago
Climate Change: Breaching the threshold
Last year the IPCC warned us that the Paris Agreement target of limiting climate change to no more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels was a line in the sand for our species and that if we miss it, we ...
2 weeks ago
Climate Change: Breaching the threshold
Last year the IPCC warned us that the Paris Agreement target of limiting climate change to no more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels was a line in the sand for our species and that if we miss it, we ...
2 weeks ago
Climate Change: Breaching the threshold
Last year the IPCC warned us that the Paris Agreement target of limiting climate change to no more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels was a line in the sand for our species and that if we miss it, we ...
2 weeks ago
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