Surviving the apocalypse of the Great Twit

Written By: - Date published: 12:34 am, November 22nd, 2022 - 15 comments
Categories: internet, Media, parody, Satire, twitter, uncategorized - Tags: , , , , , ,

The new Great Twit at Twitter has been cauterising off staff in excess. So I suspect that the platform is going to go down the toilet for that (amongst other reasons). But my main concern here has been to preserve the embedded tweets in posts and comments on this site if this idiotic engineer manages to destroy the platform through his stupidity.

You can pretty much guarantee that Musk has been excising more organisational muscle than organisational fat at present. He simply doesn’t appear to understand what the destruction of long formed networks within a company will do, just as he appears to have fuck-all understanding of social networking.

Can’t blame the employees at Twitter. I know that as a coder of many decades that I simply wouldn’t work for any boss with the Great Twit’s attitudes. He sounds like a raving narcissistic lunatic with an inability to gain non-sycophantic loyalty. In short, a pretty standard psychopathic libertarian. Effective within his current engineering and finance sphere. Pretty damn useless in the social one. Not a person you want to engage your creative talents if you have any other choices.

That managerial ‘clean broom’ was old and stale and known to be excessively destructive approach when I did an MBA nearly 40 years ago. Running organisations are complex organisations with a lot of embedded knowledge in their staff. Firing staff arbitrarily sort of works if you’re mostly interested in just realising the value of physical assets. But these days it is one of fastest ways to destroy the real assets of most businesses because the social networks and institutional knowledge inside an organisation is the main asset these days.

That is especially the case with technology based firms. If you cut too fast then you lose too much knowledge that doesn’t transition. Doesn’t matter how much documentation or code there is. Most documentation in a computing sphere is usually effectively obsolete while it is being written.

Losing staff in the manner that the Great Twit has been doing will cause infrastructural issues, typically at peak loads or at high intrusion levels. If not, then all complex systems are pretty fragile when you indiscriminately drop two thirds of staff that support the hardware, software, and processes that make them work. Eventually, it isn’t so much a case for if it is going down in a screaming heap, but more about when, how, and how much will survive. Currently I don’t see much chance of twitter surviving how this transition post settlement has been going.

In the meantime the issue is what do the many many users of Twitter will do. I deliberately picked a article from Wisconsin (a US state with slightly more population than NZ) than just to show how far that anxiety has gotten to.

Many users are encouraging each other to protect against an outage or breach by downloading their archives of data — including their tweets and follower lists. Yet the load that creates on Twitter’s systems could become a tipping point, the former employee said.

They also worried about what might happen to Twitter’s data centers without the workforce to monitor them sufficiently.

“If a network cable gets disconnected, or if a hard drive gets filled up or if there’s some minor power switch failure somewhere, there aren’t enough people to deal with these situations,” they said.

Plus, there are safety and security concerns. Twitter saw a surge in racist and antisemitic tweets following Musk’s takeover. Many of the staff and contractors who were laid off or resigned worked on teams curbing toxic and illegal content.

Musk framed his interest in buying Twitter in the first place as being about increasing free speech. He has previously criticized its policies against hate speech, harassment and misleading claims.

But he’s hit a steep learning curve as Twitter’s self-declared “Chief Twit.” Hours after closing the deal in late October, he tweeted, “Comedy is now legal on Twitter.” Then, when some users changed their names and photos to mimic his own, he changed his tune and declared, “Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended.”

Wisconsin Public Radio: How likely is a complete Twitter meltdown?

Having a libertarian in charge of a social service is like watching stereotypical box ticking for anyone who has been around the net for many decades. Newbies like the Great Twit think running social networking isn’t really a problem. They invariably always come in thinking that you don’t need to limit freedoms in a non-resource constrained environment because surely they will naturally form a self-regulating community. ‘Rational people’ like themselves (which is usually at a considerable variance to how others see them) will naturally form strong communities if they are ‘free’.

This is the classic idiotic conceit of the libertarians, social idealists, and virtually every ‘free speech’ advocates I have ever met. I get the impression that they’re just too damn lazy to actually work at building a viable society with the messy, often semi-irrational, real people who inhabit our societies, in the real world or online. On the net they find the the number and sheer persistence of outright arseholes exceeds the ability for hands-off online social pressure to constrain. It has always amused me watching the convolutions that such ideologues descend to as they try to justify their subsequent actions.

There are number of examples even in the New Zealand blogs and news sites where sites turn off comments rather than moderate them, force logins, silently and arbitrarily silence critical comments before releasing them out of a continuous moderation, or simply delete comments that they disagree with. Rather than dealing with the real online world, they just drop to tactics worthy of any autocratic society.

This site allows comments without logins, doesn’t require real identities, immediately publishes comments (after a first accepted comment), and makes any bans up front and handled in public. Moderators explain why someone has been restricted, roughly down long it is for. In other words, the process is roughly that of any ‘free’ local judicial system – but sped up to internet speeds. It isn’t perfect. But it is effective.

None of this is perfect. But it is way closer to freedom of expression on the local NZ net than any other site I know of. Indeed most of the advocates that I know of as being involved in the free speech advocacy don’t run sites with anything like this level of freedom of expression. Certainly the NZ Free Speech Union certainly doesn’t. You can’t even comment on that site – probably the ultimate in autocratic avoidance of ‘free speech’ .

Plus of course we had the Whaleoil site which managed to do literally all of the autocratic techniques to make sure that their site (and its successor) aren’t bothered by any actual ‘free speech’ while hypothetically proclaiming its adherence to that goal.

Its eventual legal demise through an excess of being a site for arseholes to congregate and plot criminal (like trying to pay to have this site hacked) or totally morally repugnant actions. Jordan Williams of the ‘Taxpayers Union’ and The ‘NZ Free Speech Union’ particularly comes to mind for what I consider to be his repugnant, immoral and what should probably be professionally reprehensible actions (see the quote at [56]).

So for now the Great Twit appears to be determined to increase the world wide ‘freedom’ for the arseholes of the net. It is a great temporary tool to increase engagement. At least until you find that it will drive the non-arseholes (and the advertisers who market to them) away. Under the Great Twit, it currently sounds like Twitter will head towards a Whaleoil market in the name of ‘free speech’ without responsible moderation, and with the same kind of arbitrary authoritarianism that Cameron Slater indulged himself in.

There are already reports of a massive increase in racial bigotry on Twitter. I’d expect misogyny to start to increase even more. The moderation policies will shift to being Great Twit arbitrary (like the sudden ‘parody’ rule) and increasing ineffectual. It always does without clear moderation controls on social media sites. It is exactly the same process that in the real work through history where breakdowns in clear legal norms invariably progresses towards local warlords and famine. In social networks the cycle just spirals way faster because there are seldom resource constraints slowing the downward descent.

It often only takes a few weeks or months from a insane lapse of judgement shifting a online social network from vaguely useful to being a shit hole social media inhabited by the rejects from the dark web and places like 4chan.

Advertisers are aware of this and appear to holding back because of it.

It is not clear what, if any, changes Musk and his team have made to the platform since he closed on his $44 billion deal to take the company private last week, though at least one study suggested hate speech on the platform increased soon after the takeover. Musk himself posted, then deleted, a debunked, anti-LGBTQ conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just days after the deal closed.

When asked how brands will position themselves in this opening chapter of Twitter’s new era, Wedbush Securities managing director, Dan Ives, told NBC News that advertisers simply do not want to be associated with controversy.

“If it becomes an essential street fight around hate speech, advertisers are going to run for the hills,” Ives said.

“That fundamentally is the problem. You’re trying to bring advertisers back on while loosening content moderation. Those go exactly against each other. And no advertiser is going to jump in the deep end until they know the rules of the game. And Musk goes to the beat of a different drummer.”

NBC News: “Advertisers pull back from Twitter amid ‘uncertainty’ about new owner Elon Musk’s strategy

Personally I haven’t ever bothered too much with twitter. Too short for analytical writing. It has always appeared to me to resemble an up-yours garden for shallow memes and slogans tailored for and by early influencers and other forms of implicit advertising. Not a bad place to pump ‘come-on’ links to content and not much more.

I have essentially ignored Twitter since its inception as it does little for me in helping to understand the world I’m in. It also takes way too much time to carefully worded and usually semantically meaningless waffling. Time that I could otherwise use for writing code. I mostly observe Twitter spams in the digest e-mails or tweets from people I have followed or read in the political and media spheres. It allows me to see what a lot of the local political and social parasites are doing instead of some kind of productive work. There are exceptions, and they appear to becoming rarer rapidly.

However even those e-mails have been irritating me for a while because they have been tending to deteriorate into raw links with only a few words of explanation – which just reads like invitation to clickbait.

These were in In my twitter digest at 20:17 today. Why should I click a link that only says something like “We already have?” from Liam Hehir, or “Guest Post: Winning Seats from Labour” from David Farrar, or “Oh no he is doing it again” from antihobbes, or “our Great and String Judicary” from Morgan Godfery.

Only Judith Collins and Keith Ng managed to write something with more than 10 words about the link they would like me to look at.

Obviously the authors and commentators around here seem to rely on Twitter more than I do. Embedding tweets has been popular. There are tens of thousands of tweets embedded on the site. Which is a bit of a problem if the Great Twit mucks it up. There is a lot of the site that will lose context in the posts and comments if the tweets disappear out of view and just become a dead link.

So I’m looking around for a tool to store all tweets on the site into local storage to cover us if and when Twitter fails or declines. This site runs WordPress. Anyone got any suggestions for helping this site survive the (probable) Great Twit apocalypse?

I had a look around this morning and couldn’t find anything obvious for the task. Don’t mind paying for tool if there isn’t a FOSS or set of open source libraries. Leave links if possible.

Doesn’t need to be fancy. I write code for a living. While that is mostly in c++, c, bash and python. I’m fluent in php, html, css, javascript (and several frameworks), java, kotlin, c# and way way too many other languages and dialects. Linux on AMD64 (ie x86-64) is preferred because my Windows, Mac and Arm systems tend to live in isolated virtual virtual machines for cross compilation testing.

I just don’t want to spend too much time dealing the the fallout from the Great Twit’s screwups. So suggestions please… I’m sure that there will be a lot of other sites looking to safeguard their sites as well.

15 comments on “Surviving the apocalypse of the Great Twit ”

  1. That managerial ‘clean broom’ was old and stale and known to be excessively destructive approach when I did an MBA nearly 40 years ago. Running organisations are complex organisations with a lot of embedded knowledge in their staff. Firing staff arbitrarily sort of works if you’re mostly interested in just realising the value of physical assets. But these days it is one of fastest ways to destroy the real assets of most businesses because the social networks and institutional knowledge inside an organisation is the main asset these days.

    I didn't do an MBA but in the management papars I did do 20/30 years ago the approach was similarly slated. Favoured by the proponents of neolib from both Nat/Lab this method of 'management' was alive and well then. Also some sort of myth grew up that it was natural & expected that a new CE would have a wholesale clean out within months of being appointed, that CEs could manage anything, that it was a good idea to bring hordes of mates into your new workplace even though they knew nothing about the business but were appropriately sycophantic,..

    Now we have this type of person managing an organisation and wrestling with 'free speech' . It can only lead to disaster.

    I have had good insight from the Tweets I look at particularly Te_Taipo, louie the red and some commentators who were taking a 'medical' interest in Trumps walking and talking and those pointing out the anti women slant of the trans debate, Joyce, Forstater etc. As long as they go some where else I won't miss Twitter.

    My Chief Twit title though is reserved for Jordan Petersen, so, nutty as he is, Elon Musk slots in behind JP.

    Hope you get some help on saving 'legacy' tweets on this site.

    • lprent 1.1

      Elon has referred to himself as the "Chief Twit" on Twitter.

      I wasn't aware of the "Great Twit" claim by JP. I thought that was something he was only referred to by others. In which case he can stand in line.

  2. AB 2

    At least two gems in here – thanks:

    He simply doesn’t appear to understand what the destruction of long formed networks within a company will do

    Agreed – seen an instance of this first-hand.

    But [The Standard] is way closer to freedom of expression on the local NZ net than any other site I know of. Indeed most of the advocates that I know of as being involved in the free speech advocacy don’t run sites with anything like this level of freedom of expression

    Yep – the vociferous free-speech advocacy we are witnessing is mostly a scam to maintain the dominance of the advocates' preferred speech.

  3. weka 3

    Hard to know how much the dropping ad revenue will bother elmo, given he wants to bring in subscriptions (lol). But must be a worry in the short term.

    An advertiser explains why they’re pausing their Twitter ads campaigns:

    Image

    Image

    from twitter. Original source,

    https://www.teamblind.com/post/i-told-my-team-to-pause-our-750kmonth-twitter-ads-budget-last-week-4dnbo1Ft

    • weka 3.1

      cool, we can copy and paste images straight into the comment box now. Still some issues with needing to resize each time.

      • lprent 3.1.1

        Its been for a while. I also didn't realise that you could do it as a drag target. It hasn't stored the image on our site, it is linked to twimg

        __https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FiF_m-5VIAAanfz?format=jpg&name=large

        When editing in the WYSIWYG edit, you should be able to invoke the dialog box on teh image. Just set the width in the dialog and let the height take care of itself.

        After submitting you'll need to deal with it as HTML. But the same principle applied. Remove the height attribute and set the width.

        • weka 3.1.1.1

          yeah, I pretty much always have to re-edit and add width= afterwards, no matter what I do with the original size when I make the comment.

        • weka 3.1.1.2

          trying to see if I can do a screen grab from twitter and the copy and paste from my mac. Won't paste from Preview. When I try from Notes TS tells me the comment is too long (and I get a brief glimpse of a very long text before the image appears in a new text box as a stand alone comment).

          • weka 3.1.1.2.1

            Copying text from image works,

            told my team to pause our $750K/month Twitter ads budget last week I've seen a lot of technical and ideological takes on Elon Twitter but wanted to share the marketing perspective. For background I'm a director at a medium sized b2b tech (not in finserv anymore) running a team that deploys about $80M in ad spend/year. Twitter was 8-10% of our media mix and we have run cost per engagement (ie download a white paper, register for an event) campaigns successfully since 2016. had my team keep our campaigns live for 2 weeks post-takeover on the bet that efficiency would improve with fewer advertisers and the risks were managed and probably overblown. I was wrong and I think the things we saw in these last 2 weeks means many more advertisers will bail on the platform in the coming weeks (for non-ideological or virtue signaling reasons):

    • tc 3.2

      Interesting times, Elon's dismissed or invited tech folk to depart so all his own doing.

      Bring popcorn. He didn't do this alone with Saudis, banks,Ellison etc having skin in whatever game he's playing.

  4. weka 4

    oh great.

    Russell Brown

    I'm seeing a deluge of fake followers in the past couple of days on Twitter. Hundreds of zero-follower accounts with the occasional real person in the midst. This is presumably not a good sign.

  5. roblogic 5

    There are many “tweet 2 image” services online. Those with decent APIs all cost $$$.

    https://snaptweets.com

    https://htmlcsstoimage.com/pricing

    https://pikaso.me/api

    Another approach is a command-line app, that could be automated to convert tweets en masse – these examples are free & open source

    https://github.com/styrowolf/tweetshot

    https://github.com/privatenumber/snap-tweet

  6. roblogic 6

    Another command-line tool, in Python:

    https://github.com/Xacnio/tweetcapture

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    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    4 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    4 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    5 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    5 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    5 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • There’s a name for this
    Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • Echoes of 1968 in 2024?  Pocock on the repetitive problems of the New Left
    Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Two bar blues
    The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 13
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • AT Need To Lift Their Game
    Normally when we talk about accessing public transport it’s about improving how easy it is to get to, such as how easy is it to cross roads in a station/stop’s walking catchment, is it possible to cycle to safely, do bus connections work, or even if are there new routes/connections ...
    6 days ago
  • Christopher's Whopper.
    Politicians are not renowned for telling the truth. Some tell us things that are verifiably not true. They offer statements that omit critical pieces of information. Gloss over risks, preferring to offer the best case scenario.Some not truths are quite small, others amusing in their transparency. There are those repeated ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago

  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    19 hours ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    24 hours ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
    Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
    The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced.  “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • NZ, India chart path to enhanced relationship
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level.   “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Ruapehu Alpine Lifts bailout the last, say Ministers
    Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
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    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Fresh produce price drop welcome
    Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024.  “Lower fruit and vege ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
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    6 days ago
  • Speech to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68)
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government backs rural led catchment projects
    The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber
    Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction.   Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago
  • Commission’s advice on ETS settings tabled
    Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Government lowering building costs
    The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Trustee tax change welcomed
    Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister’s Ramadan message
    Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness.  It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister appoints new NZTA Chair
    Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Speech to Life Sciences Summit
    Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology.  It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Progress continues apace on water storage
    Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Government agrees to restore interest deductions
    Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister to attend World Anti-Doping Agency Symposium
    Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity
    This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti.  Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

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