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January 3, 2024 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 03 January 2024

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General Debate

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CJames

For all those out there extolling the virtues of the unreliables (solar and wind), NZ is yet again currently generating more coal than wind power and it looks like it will be that way all day. Gas is a little less than coal – they are limited because of machines out of service. Overnight, spot prices were well above average. Wind is 81MW out of its 1259MW capacity, so how many windfarms would be needed to give a decent amount of power at times like this? And the real question, what would be the cost to the consumer? It cannot be cheaper otherwise they would have already done it. When there is no coal and gas generation allowed, welcome the world of darkness.

Australia is cheaper right now because the black and brown coal stations are running hard to compensate for the little wind.
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January 3, 2024 8:01am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Wednesday that Riyadh supported the final COP28 deal as it leaves countries to decide for themselves on suitable pathways to transition to cleaner sources of energy.
  
  https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/saudi-energy-minister-agreement-with-cop28-presidency-final-deal-2023-12-13/
  
  Saudi have certainly decided their pathway.
  
  Aramco Close To Awarding $5 Billion Deals for World’s Biggest Offshore Oilfield
  
  https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Aramco-Close-To-Awarding-5-Billion-Deals-for-Worlds-Biggest-Offshore-Oilfield.html
  
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  January 3, 2024 8:04am
- Chuck Bird
  
  Nuclear is the answer. Any climate alarmist who genuinely believes we will have a climate disaster should support nuclear power.
  
  Australia will have nuclear power with a change of government.
  
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  January 3, 2024 8:12am
  - Paulus
    
    Does not Australia already have Nuclear Power in North Sydney (Lucas Heights) if I remember but it is used for Medical Purposes only ?
    We have something in Petone for similar purposes.
    
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    January 3, 2024 8:21am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      It is in Southern Sydney.
      
      https://www.ansto.gov.au/our-facilities
      
      It is a 20 MW nuclear reactor. It is a major research facility. I am not sure what is in Petone but it is not that. 🙂
      
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      January 3, 2024 9:40am
      - CJames
        
        BY That 20MW is thermal not electrical capacity. And you are correct that the facility a Gracefield never had any reactor.
        There was supposed to be a subcritical one at Canterbury University Engineering Department, but I think that went after NZ canned the nuke building programme in the 70s. I knew quite a few engineers who had started training for that, plus ones we imported from UK.
        
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        January 3, 2024 9:49am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        GNS (Geological and Nuclear Sciences) has had a linear accelerator for many years in Gracefield.
        
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        January 3, 2024 10:17am
      - nz_aj
        
        Basement of Auckland University ~1960’s science building was also built for a reactor.
        
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        January 3, 2024 11:28am
      - AitchW
        
        Why would anyone downtick this thread? It’s about as innocuous as a post can be. Some sad little mental
        midgets on this planet…..
        
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        January 3, 2024 3:06pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        AitchW: “Why would anyone downtick this thread? It’s about as innocuous as a post can be. Some sad little mental midgets on this planet…..”
        
        Please please mods can you please beseech the great leader and ask that names be listed with down-votes for all to see?
        
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        January 3, 2024 9:07pm
    - Terry Dalee
      
      Lucas Heights is a open pool reactor, used for research and production of medical isotopes. You cannot produce electricity from a open pool reactor.
      Certain open pool reactors are actually certified to operate unattended, thats how safe they are.
      The water acts as the radiation shield.
      
      The Aussies came up with a way to get Technetium-99 safely and in time across to medical facilties for medical use. TC-99 has a very small half life, making it tricky to ship.
      So the Aussies came up with a way to produce Molybdenium-99 which is produced at OPAL, the reactor at Lucas Heights. The MO-99 decays to TC-99 in a special generator they designed, so the TC-99 is “made freshly” on site at the medical facilities.
      
      As for NZ, we can’t even build a tunnel/bridge across a small harbour (by global standards)… and you want NZ to build nuclear reactors?!
      I’m rolling on the floor laughing at that one. No one in the Government has the forsight, vision nor the ability to pull that off politically or logistically. A linear accelerator is hardly a nuclear reactor, that is self sustaining, where as the accelerator turns off as soon as you pull the plug. The two are worlds apart in terms of operating expertise and knowledge required.
      Which is a pity because you’ll need that knowledge base and expertise to pull off fusion when they finally crack that nut.
      
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      January 3, 2024 1:21pm
    - JimBobJoe
      
      We have an accelerator in one of the CRI sites in Gracefield not in Petone. Research purposes and supplying medical needs. Its not a reactor…
      
      https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/43382/installing-the-tandem-accelerator-at-gracefield
      
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      January 3, 2024 3:39pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    Agreed, but climate alarmists care nothing for the climate. Their focus is massive de-industrialisation and Gaia retaking control from rapacious humans.
    
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    January 3, 2024 8:22am
    - Local Miller
      
      Which is hysterically funny. Since most Climate alarmists are secular humanists and believe in evolution, by their own measure, it is 100% natural for man to have evolved to their current state, and by that measure 100% natural for man to do anything that he does. Either evolution through natural selection and the survival of the fittest is right, in which case we should pretty much just go on as we are as this is “natural” or evolution is wrong, man is more than just a highly evolved animal and he actually does have stewardship of the planet (Gaia). You can’t have it both ways.
      
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      January 3, 2024 8:33am
      - Dougal10
        
        It seems they are secular but most will have grown up with religion like cindy did. The climate religion seems to be a replacement for their guilt.
        
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        January 3, 2024 8:44am
      - Dave
        
        You can’t have it both ways.
        
        Disputants can have it any way they like, or no way at all, when key words are undefined – do ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ mean ‘factually true/false’ or ‘morally correct/incorrect’ in this argument?
        
        ‘Survival of the fittest’ – a term never used by Darwin – is a semi-tautology in which ‘fittest’ means ‘reproductively successful over numerous generations’, a summary of how natural selection works, but with no guarantees of future survival, no specification of the best long term reproductive strategy, nor any moral implications, despite the beliefs of social Darwinists.
        
        Likewise, ‘natural’ is not a binding moral imperative, though it might be an important consideration in particular contexts.
        
        ‘[g]o on as we are’ needs much more elaboration before anyone can agree or disagree that we should.
        
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        January 3, 2024 10:14am
    - cmm
      
      kk: I don’t think there is really that much thinking going into this.
      
      Instead it is competitive virtue signalling, each trying to outdo the others.
      
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      January 3, 2024 11:53am
      - krazykiwi
        
        Agree insofar as the domain of those identifying themselves as climate activists includes people with a range of motivations, some crazy eco-cultist, some virtue signaling… but none based on high quality, rational thinking.
        
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        January 3, 2024 3:10pm
  - kevn
    
    Chuck… Indeed but there is a 5-10 lead in time for nuclear. Time is of the essence.
    
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    January 3, 2024 8:36am
    - Chuck Bird
      
      “Time is of the essence.”
      
      Only if you believe there is a climate emergency. I agree with Dr Curry that there is no climate emergency.
      
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      January 3, 2024 11:54am
      - kevn
        
        Chuck… No, it just takes a loong time to construct a nuclear power station and NZ power/energy needs will not diminish.
        Nothing to do with your ‘climate emergency’ assumption.
        
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        January 3, 2024 1:24pm
      - Chuck Bird
        
        I am talking about SMRs (Small Modular Reactors).
        
        That could mean Australia might not have them for ten years and NZ maybe 15 years.
        
        However, as there is no climate emergency that is not a problem.
        
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        January 3, 2024 2:26pm
      - mawm
        
        Chuck – but we’re heading for a power shortage which will become an emergency before our government reacts and all the protest measures are dealt with.
        
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        January 3, 2024 4:21pm
  - MCōs
    
    The other day I raised the questions of cost, location and waste disposal. Nobody came up with any answers, but I got plenty of downticks.
    So once again, how much would a nuclear power plant cost the country; where would one (or more) be located and what becomes of the waste?
    
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    January 3, 2024 8:52am
    - Matt Long
      
      Cost – Expensive https://ieefa.org/resources/eye-popping-new-cost-estimates-released-nuscale-small-modular-reactor
      Location – Sky Tower Basement
      Waste- Store in Sky Tower Basement until new generation recycling comes along.
      
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      January 3, 2024 9:03am
      - Hard Cheese
        
        The IEEFA are clearly anti-nuclear, every one of the articles and press releases on their site has some sort of negative angle on nuclear energy.
        
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        January 3, 2024 9:17am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      If the ideological loons in the Greens and Labour hadn’t decided to sabotage our current energy production by shutting down Marsden Point, banning exploration for oil, driving the EV insanity by subsidising a technology not able to meet current needs, taxing anyone to death who dares disagree with them, refusing to mine our own clean and plentiful coal – we wouldn’t even need to be worrying about nuclear.
      
      It’s what ideologues do given a sniff of power, lay waste to all they disagree with. Scorched earth.
      
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      January 3, 2024 9:39am
      - MCōs
        
        The Marsden Point oil refinery was shut down by its owners as I understand, and that wasn’t the government since they gave it away almost forty years ago.
        There are fourteen operating coal mines in NZ.
        
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        January 3, 2024 9:52am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        MCōs
        Tut tut. Your pesky facts are not welcome.
        
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        January 3, 2024 10:19am
      - Taieri
        
        The Marsden Point oil refinery was shut down by its owners as I understand, and that wasn’t the government since they gave it away almost forty years ago.
        ———–
        
        How would the government react if, hypothetically speaking of course, the owners of Clyde and Roxburgh Power stations decided to go out of business?
        
        How would the government react if Manawa Energy was to decide that there’s more money in growing avocados than in generating electricity?
        
        How would MCōs react to both for that matter? Would he say that it’s nothing to do with the government?
        
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        January 3, 2024 10:30am
      - CJames
        
        Tairei
        On the west coast of the US several states have decommissioned hydro power stations, drained the lakes behind the dams, and returned the river to natural flows. This was to settle native american tribes’ claims on salmon stocks. There was a loss of hundreds of MW of generation. Biden wants to do the same on the Snake river, which has a lot more generation.
        https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/snake-river-dams-biden-administration-supports-removal
        A future Labour Green Government could do the same on hydros here to settle Maori claims over eel stocks.
        
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        January 3, 2024 11:44am
      - MCōs
        
        ‘How would MCōs react to both for that matter?’
        
        Why don’t you ask him?
        
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        January 3, 2024 12:05pm
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Replying to MCos. Marsden Point was shut down because Labour, via Megan Woods (by the way, the most inept Minister of Energy NZ has ever had) advised the board of NZ Refining (Channel Infrastructure) that the refinery was not a strategic asset. After the decision was made to shut it down, my understanding is that Woods and Labour changed their mind. But mothballing had already started, it was too late. The main fuel companies that had asked the NZR board to enquire re the strategic status, rubbed their hands with glee when they were advised it was not strategic.
        
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        January 3, 2024 12:24pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        MCōs: “The Marsden Point oil refinery was shut down by its owners as I understand.”
        
        As with Nuclear (and coal) the minority-interests chicken-little little-hitlers bound the industry up with many many stupid regulations and lawfare which resulted in the industry throwing it’s hands up and leaving NZ. Then the lefty ESG type loons could crow “see, they shut themselves down!!!”
        
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        January 3, 2024 8:12pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Pesky (lefty fact-checker style) deception by omission is not particularly welcome Milky. Get it right.
        
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        January 3, 2024 8:14pm
      - Jack5
        
        MCos’s … The Marsden Point oil refinery was shut down by its owners
        
        But the Australian Government intervened to stop the closing of the last of Australia’s refineries.
        
        One refinery kept open is that of Ampol, which owned a stake in the Marsden Point refinery.
        
        The Government intention was on national strategic grounds.
        
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        January 3, 2024 8:30pm
    - Local Miller
      
      Why does everyone obsess about the waste from Nuclear reactors? It’s a myth born of science fiction and scare mongering that there are multiple tons of nuclear waste that need to be disposed off. There’s a lot of information on the web about this, here are two videos worth watching, but there are lots of others.
      https://youtu.be/IzQ3gFRj0Bc?si=xpcJgKG4CM3LSyhq
      https://youtu.be/Mw-S9UgrfNY?si=MFYf3m-Z-E7c_5So
      
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      January 3, 2024 9:41am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        They are obsessed because of Chernobyl and Long Island and Fukushima.
        Right now they are rolling around on the floor making stupid noises and having anxiety attacks. Hope they never need cancer treatments.
        
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        January 3, 2024 11:11am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Reactors where the heat source is a sealed unit. When spent it is taken away and refined. New one put in place. The generator and cooling condenser etc stay in place.
      % to 10 years? We need it yesterday.
      Time for the anti nuke people to STFU or leave NZ.
      
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      January 3, 2024 11:04am
    - NothingLeft
      
      Cost is essentially all due to one-off production, excessive regulatory burden on already passively/walk away safe reactors, and the need to get high-skill workers in remote shitty locations for years to do construction. All can be avoided by mass producing completed reactors in specialized ship yards – regulatory burden becomes a mostly one-time cost.
      
      Location – should be jack up rigs a few km off-shore. Infinite cooling water, towed in from ship-yards removed for decommissioning in specialized ship yards the same way. A catastrophe would not produce a millenia long hot spot like chernobyl – sea would wash away and dilute it. Civilisation could fail without poisoning land.
      
      Waste – should be fast breeder reactors (inevitable they will take over in medium to long term), that only use about 1% of mined plutonium or thorium, converting all non-fissile isotopes to fissile through neutron capture and producing only about 1% of waste of conventional slow reactors. Waste could easily be buried in deep sea oil well shafts, sealed up with concrete. Gone forever, undetectable.
      
      There’s enough uranium and thorium in accessible earths crust to power human civilisation for many billion years.
      
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      January 3, 2024 11:46am
      - NothingLeft
        
        mined ~~plutonium~~ uranium
        
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        January 3, 2024 12:50pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        NothingLeft: France is powering it’s grid with about 70% nuclear. It has done so for decades. It has some of the cheapest power in Europe and often sells that to nearby desperate countries who are on the road to serfdom with increasing and unsustainable deployment of “renewables” (aka expensive unreliables).
        
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        January 3, 2024 8:20pm
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      Wherever qualified engineers and experienced nuclear power builders and operators think best. We could get some in from Japan, or France, or the UK, and see what they think. Kiwiblog is not the place where such questions are going to get worthwhile answers.
      
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      January 3, 2024 12:06pm
    - cmm
      
      MCos: Waste is a huge part of the problem with uranium nuke.
      
      People who focus in on the generation phase of the exercise are missing the real impact.
      
      Anything that touches the process is treated as low level waste (at least).
      
      When a regular power station is decomissioned, you basically turn off the coal flowing in, wait for it to cool down and call in the scrap metal dealers.
      
      When a nuke building is decommissioned, the whole plant needs to be handled as contaminated waste and transported carefully then stored in some waste storage facility. This takes decades.
      
      This low level waste is often transported long distances.
      In USA the low level waste from the east coast is being transported to storage facilities on the west coast.
      
      For example, the Three Mile Island incident happened in 1979. That’s almost 50 years ago. But the clean up is still ongoing and expected to take 100 years.
      
      Even non-accident sites take a long time to decomission. The UK Berkley reactors were shut down in the 1980s. Partial deconstruction (boilers etc) was performed in 2012 (23 years later). Some of the building is still locked up until the 2070s (ie. 90 years after the facility was shut down) before further decommissioning happens.
      
      While nuke might be “clean burning” it has a lot of headaches.
      
      The problem with coal is not the bogus CO2. CO2 is just plant food. The real problems are with sulphur etc.
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_nuclear_power_station
      
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      January 3, 2024 12:18pm
      - CJames
        
        Sulphur and fly ash aren’t problems with coal plant. Most have flue gas desulfonation and precips. Almost standard nowadays, even in China
        
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        January 3, 2024 4:07pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        cmm yes nuclear is a slow moving feast. Good things take time. Yet without the green/left chicken little nuclear-industry strangling regulations it makes huge sense in countries without hydro or geothermal potential. See France as an example. I believe all things considered it’s a net benefit. Only problem is tyrannical and closed scumbag regimes in the world.
        
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        January 3, 2024 8:25pm
    - slijmbal
      
      Even as a long term fan of Nuclear I’ve always stated costs have been historically very understated as the long term waste management is pretty costly because of time lines and we apply very high standards to nuclear waste. It does get cheaper the more nuclear used as the volumes are relatively small and one can consolidate.
      
      Waste isn’t that hard to store but the biggest issue has been everyone ducking the problem for 50 years. We have mostly a variety of essentially short term storage facilities around the world, which are both more expensive and risky than desirable. Long term storage needs to be in quite specific locations (stable, relatively remote, available for 100 years plus etc) and the biggest issue is generally no political will to get past the inherent NIMBYism of a populace brought up on the ‘dangers’ of nuclear.
      
      Ironically, the various toxic materials used in modern battery technology is on plan to kill more than nuclear ever will even in the worst case scenarios but such a logic based conversation is not going to happen.
      
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      January 3, 2024 12:22pm
    - JimBobJoe
      
      Where: North of Auckland (Kaipara Habour). Access to cooling water, stable, close to the AKL so transmission line loss minimised… Also power production close to the big urban and industrial consumption zone avoids building another very expensive south to North transmission pole
      Waste Storage: Specialist facility in geologically stable area like Northland
      Cost: A bit BUT if it means we avoid the 30 billion odd Ben Yu highlights under the 2030 Climate Hoax agreement (Paris agreement iirc correctly) we have signed then its much cheaper cost option for NZ Inc. surely?
      
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      January 3, 2024 3:45pm
      - Colville
        
        USA produces 2000 tonnes of nuke waste/yr.
        in rough terms if ALL of New Zealand’s power was converted to Nuke we would produce 100 t/yr.
        So likely 10 t?
        
        half a shipping container. woopdedoo!
        
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        January 3, 2024 4:15pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I think Aussie already has some nuclear power
    
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    January 3, 2024 12:14pm
    - KiWombat
      
      No – they have a Nuclear Reactor, but it does not produce power
      
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      January 3, 2024 2:10pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        So what is the reactor for?
        
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        January 3, 2024 2:14pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Produces home grown special radioactive material necessary for the medical industry.
        
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        January 3, 2024 8:26pm
  - Blueskin
    
    NZ should contribute towards a nuclear power station in Oz, might be cheaper for us to build a cable across the Tasman rather both countries each building nuclear stations.
    
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    January 3, 2024 3:14pm
- hullkiwi
  
  …and throw in the reduced sunlight hours NZ experienced during 2023, and solar is also a poor option for bulk power generation. Although NZ can have high sunshine hour days, the lack of consistently high light levels make solar also a poor option for bulk power generation.
  
  Future reliance on solar & wind power will be expensive options indeed.
  
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  January 3, 2024 8:14am
- Grunter
  
  If anyone still remains convinced that global boiling is real, then have a read of the report below by scientists that have analysed the latest IPCC report.
  Now why would these IPCC clowns deceive so blatantly?
  Why would they steer the ship away from fossil fuels?
  Why would they recommend wind and solar when they know they aren’t the answer?
  
  https://clintel.org/thorough-analysis-by-clintel-shows-serious-errors-in-latest-ipcc-report/
  
  There is only one answer as to why they would create such a global scam. A scam so big that it is now tipping up the global economy with trillions $’s of debt funny money being poured into unreliable energy projects. Get prepared for the outcome of this scam as it implodes over the next 2-3 years.
  
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  January 3, 2024 8:40am
  - Ra Henare
    
    The over arching “reports”” are writing by usually non scientists editors.
    
    Its amazing how the spin is applied as you move up the reporting chain to give the bS reported as IPCC reports.
    
    Its a long read, reading the actual science, but often the science gives a low probability to an event or situation, which magically transforms to am immediate threat in the reports delivered to politicians.
    
    So politics is applied in the higher levels, science in the lower levels.
    
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    January 3, 2024 9:56am
  - Taieri
    
    Why would they steer the ship away from fossil fuels?
    ———–
    
    Why indeed? Especially, since no other fuels or modes of propulsion are available. Or likely to become available in a conceivable future…
    
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    January 3, 2024 10:20am
    - Grunter
      
      There are only two possible answers why they would create such a scam:
      1. They are all really, really dumb. Or,
      2. They want to create a centrally controlled society and to do that they need to ‘de-power’ the fossil fuel industry.
      
      Be very sceptical of any govt, global corporates and banks. They are all part of the scam. They will ultimately fail of course, but the carnage they create on the way thru will be spectacularly awful.
      
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      January 3, 2024 11:01am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Most likely motive I can think of is “hey even if our hypothesis turns out to be bullshit and we’re just looking at various climate cycles, going net zero is going to be good for the planet”. Two prominent doyens of climate hysteria, Michael Mann and James Hanson appear to be well connected to the green movement. I’ve heard many self righteous and hysterical climate midwits eventually pull this reasoning out when it became clear they were pretty much personally clueless on the whole topic.
        
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        January 3, 2024 8:34pm
  - hullkiwi
    
    Grunter, like you I believe the “Climate crisis”, the IPCC reports, and the move away from fossil fuels is an expensive scams.
    
    I am speculating here, but it is as usual a case of following the money and the interests and it appears at the heart of matters are the 3 European resource companies (Glencore, Trafigura, and Vitol SA), the financial interests of Europe) & the WEF. An unholy alliance that has money interests at its heart that aims to perpetuate the power of the elites at the expense of the lives of the rest of the world’s population.
    
    So, it is all about control in the developed world.
    
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    January 3, 2024 10:53am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Chris Luxon has painted himself into a corner on climate change policy. He has vowed to meet the Paris Accord obligations by “supercharging renewables”.
  
  https://www.national.org.nz/national_will_meet_nzs_climate_change_targets
  
  It is fact free gibberish.
  
  New Zealand has no hope of meeting the 2030 obligations without drastic increases in energy prices, including petrol and diesel. Or give up and hand over $30 billion to buy offshore carbon credits.
  
  I thought that this unfolding and totally foreseeable problem would be kicked for touch until the next term of government. I’m now not so sure that will fly. To compound the problem, both Winston Peters and David Seymour would be happy to see these commitments to collapse.
  
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  January 3, 2024 9:07am
  - Simon
    
    It’s all irrelevant. If NZ went against the climate scam GAE would crush NZ. Mickey Mouse half measures in whatever form Luxon etc can come up, hampered by NZF / Act, with will do. Even if they cost billions.
    
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    January 3, 2024 9:32am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      So you think that Mr Luxon can convince us all that handing $30 billion to Bulgaria and Pakistan is totally fine?
      
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      January 3, 2024 9:42am
      - Che Guava
        
        Why would he have to convince us first? He’ll just do it. What’s going to stop him?
        
        If they can foist something concrete like Covidmania on the population without asking, they can do something essentially abstract like giving away $30 billion to foreign nations with barely a whimper.
        
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        January 3, 2024 11:13am
    - imalwaysright
      
      We could also tell them the truth.
      
      We’re skint! Can’t pay!
      
      What are they going to do, make an example of us and show the rest of the world it is only about the money?
      
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      January 3, 2024 10:01am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Only way to face down the ESG road to serfdom is to form trade alliances with other countries that don’t want to buy into the ESG suicide pact either.
      
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      January 3, 2024 8:38pm
  - Taieri
    
    It is fact free gibberish.
    ——–
    
    It is indeed.
    
    No one will meet climate “targets”. No one in the world. Apart from everything else the targets and the dates that they are supposed to be met on are completely arbitrary and have no relationship with the reality.
    
    Wonder who will be the first to advertise the vacancy for a new emperor’s tailor?
    
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    January 3, 2024 10:17am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Sorry that is just not correct. Many nations WILL meet their Paris Accord obligations.
      
      The USA will be challenging, but they should get most of the way there and they can meet the balance with offshore carbon credits. Emissions in the USA have fallen steadily since 2005, the base year for the Paris Accord.
      
      https://www.c2es.org/content/u-s-emissions/
      
      The EU will meet its Paris Accord commitments – no problem.
      
      I have not done a trawl through every country – and I am not going to. However no surprise – Canada signed up to a totally unrealistic commitment.
      
      https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/canadas-emissions-reductions-unlikely-meet-2030-target-auditor-general-says-2023-11-07/
      
      Who is the PM of Canada? 🙁
      
      .. and the other country that was stupid enough to sign up to an unrealistic target – New Zealand. Unfortunately, I seem to be the only person in New Zealand to hold this opinion. 🙁 Mr Luxon clearly thinks that everything is in hand.
      
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      January 3, 2024 11:24am
      - Taieri
        
        Many nations WILL meet their Paris Accord obligations.
        ————
        
        Show me one that does. Or is on the way.
        
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        January 3, 2024 11:54am
      - artemisia
        
        BY, is an ‘adjustment’ to agri emissions a realistic option? Like finding some degree of balance between grass / trees and cow farts? Because we feed a fair chunk of the world.
        
        New Zealand has I believe been at the forefront of including agri emissions. Maybe that was Aotearoa though, no surprise there.
        
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        January 3, 2024 12:15pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “Show me one that does. Or is on the way.”
        
        I just did.
        
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        January 3, 2024 1:24pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “BY, is an ‘adjustment’ to agri emissions a realistic option? ”
        
        No. It would take years and every nation would need to agree. If even one nation objected the current rules would remain.
        
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        January 3, 2024 1:26pm
      - Taieri
        
        “Offshore carbon credits”. Like an investment in a forest in Paraguay? Or was it in New Zealand, Benedict?
        
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        January 3, 2024 1:45pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Under Trump and under Obama’s nose, the USA incidentally reduced Co2 emissions with the use of fracking. IE massive use of their own natural gas.
        Nothing to do with the net zero junk science.
        
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        January 3, 2024 10:17pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Who is controlling Luxon with his crazy climate change nonsense?
    
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    January 3, 2024 11:16am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Luxon is getting us to pick up the tab for aderns virtue signalling.
      
      He needs his head read.
      
      Just submit revised targets.
      
      If anyone complains, refer them to the IMF gdp projections for 2024.
      
      They will see the virtuous NZ second to the bottom.
      
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      January 3, 2024 12:09pm
    - Chuck Bird
      
      I assume it is Rod Carr who has no science qualifications.
      
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      January 3, 2024 12:10pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        PhD in insurance.
        
        A premium doctor.
        
        7 0
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        January 3, 2024 2:27pm
      - Jack5
        
        Carr’s academic qualifications (from Canterbury University web site):
        
        “… a PhD in insurance and risk management, an MBA in money and financial markets, an MA in applied economics and managerial science and undergraduate honours degrees in law and in economics.”
        
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        January 3, 2024 3:02pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The fact is he wants power operators to be able to build what they want in a reasonable time frame, Contact for one has pulled stumps on a few new ventures including hydro near Beaumont, the RMA holding up progress for 10 years is pathetic, this also comes with no cost to tax payers , also science doing the heavy lifting for agri emissions will see us well up there, he has to look as if he cares, 2030 is not far away I know, but there is two election’s before then, he might get some teal voters if he can show progress is being made.
    
    I think climate change is a load of horse shit, but it is important for brain washed young people, if he can make it look like progress is being made, then just perhaps he can tell those young voters we are getting there as opposed to Labour jamming up progress with RMA
    
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    January 3, 2024 12:24pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Luxon could of course echo John Maynard Keynes.
    
    When my information changes, I change my mind. What do you do?
    
    So maybe not the corner you imagine BE
    
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    January 3, 2024 7:25pm
- Handyman
  
  The official Transpower site shows 3 MW solar and 23 MW wind at 8.30 this fine and sunny morning.
  So not much contribution to the 4,435 MW demand.
  
  https://www.transpower.co.nz/system-operator/live-system-and-market-data/consolidated-live-data
  
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  January 3, 2024 9:38am
  - AitchW
    
    Coal is almost 4 times solar and coal combined. Crikey, even co-gen is marginally higher than solar and coal.
    Hydro still providing the lion’s share.
    
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    January 3, 2024 3:15pm
- peterwn
  
  Having failed to convince EA etc that the ‘Gentailers’ should be split, a panel of ‘experts’ is now suggesting keeping the threat of ‘virtual separation’ in the wings. All these ideas are premised on the false assumption the the five major power generators will keep investing even if they are forbidden to line up buyers of the power from new projects. EA messed around with Genesis a few years ago and got its fingers burnt. Genesis in response proposed de-commissioning one of the Rankine machines at Huntly since there was no assurance that Genesis would be compensated for retaining it. Then Meridian squealed that the huntly machine was essential for ‘firming’ hydro so EA had to capitulate.
  The issue the ‘experts’ are trying to address boils down to this. The small retailers want to be able to set up shop but do not want to invest in generation. Most of the time they can buy on the spot market and retail the power at a profit. However occasionally the spot price goes through the roof (this is exactly what it is intended to do when things get very tight – it is a signal to temporarily reduce or cease consumption). The small retailers cannot force drastic cuts on their customers at such times, so they squeal and bellyache for a ‘market’ where they can buy electricity at an ‘affordable’ price when the spot price is high. In other words the small retailers want to be SUBSIDISED by the five large generators. If the ‘big five’ have to subsidise others, it does not make sense for them and their shareholders to invest in new generation. Who else is going to invest in new generation? – the Government? Nicola has enough financial headaches than to have to find money to invest in power generation.
  
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  January 3, 2024 10:23am
  - CJames
    
    I agree totally Peter. Those power retailers play a very risky game and get burnt. They also don’t want to buy hedges – preferring to lobby bureaucrats or gullible Ministers instead.
    There are a lot of speculative wind and solar developers announcing “prospects”. They don’t seem to be able to find someone who wants to buy their power. What is almost certain is few will get built unless subsidised. Note that fully private has a different policy to the other big three (which are majority government owned) with regards renewables. I wonder how much was board directives nudged by the Minister, rather than economics, which drove the decisionmaking.
    
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    January 3, 2024 11:54am
- comm4nder
  
  All New Zealand needs is more hydro power.
  I just discovered for the first time that all the dams in the South Island are on the East side of the Southern Alps rather than the rainy West side!
  Hydro is the ultimate sustainable source of energy since it has a battery (the lake) built in.
  Apparently the battery for one windmill costs 80 times the cost of the windmill.
  I don’t know why the Greens are so opposed to hydro when it is so dramatically environmentally better than solar and wind.
  
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  January 3, 2024 2:17pm
  - iainh
    
    Surely geothermal is even better as it doesn’t mean more dams etc.?
    Can’t understand why geothermal isn’t promoted more as it is a stable source of energy.
    Wind and solar have much greater impacts and nuclear does have some risks.
    Anyone able to enlighten me as to why we don’t pursue geothermal energy?
    
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    January 3, 2024 3:39pm
    - CJames
      
      Because the geothermal fields to exploit aren’t there.
      
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      January 3, 2024 4:10pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    To have enough lithium ion batteries to back up a mere 2 days of electricity supply in the USA would take roughly 1000 years to produce using all of today’s lithium ion battery factories running 24/7 and 365 days a year. That’s 1000 years as in a one followed by three zeros. For TWO DAYS backup. Um, can you imagine the cost of electricity using this kind of backup??? Definitely the road to serfdom.
    
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    January 3, 2024 9:20pm
peterwn

A new parking payment system (‘pay by plate’) comes into effect in Wellington today. Now it was not that long ago that Council installed a little radio device in the middle of each parking space that would signal whether a car was parked there or not. The user had to enter the space number in the machine when paying. The idea was that parking wardens could be alerted to ‘time expired’ spaces and could concentrate their ticket writing accordingly. It is apparent now that this system is a failure presumably because sensors failed or it was not worthwhile to replace the batteries. Ratepayers’ money down the drain.
Not sure how the new system will work, presumably someone can just scan numberplates and the system will then generate parking tickets automatically.
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January 3, 2024 8:01am
pdm

Did anyone else see the 16 year old Darts Star, Luke Littler, on the news last night.

Age wise he looked closer to 30 to me but I will accept confirmation at 24 or 35. He sure as hell did not look 16 to me – or did they feature the wrong player?
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January 3, 2024 8:06am
- Tony Stuart
  
  He’s definitely 16 pdm, and just out of school; he turns 17 in a few weeks.. The facial hair ages him somewhat, but he’s basically just a kid with nothing to lose now, and no fear whatsoever. I’m looking forward to his semi-final shortly.
  
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  January 3, 2024 8:09am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    I remember competing in an inter school sports comp back in the day. I was in under 15 shot put and one of my competitors had a pretty good beard!! He was 14 but guessing he had hormonal imbalance or something.
    
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    January 3, 2024 9:43am
    - imalwaysright
      
      One eyebrow?
      Southerner?
      
      6 1
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      January 3, 2024 12:13pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  He’s the genuine article..
  
  He’s been on a winning streak since the age of 9…and there’s a track record of his wins.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1udlV1hoah8
  
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  January 3, 2024 8:19am
- pdm
  
  Thanks Inv and Maggy for the clarification.
  
  I heard about his progress over the last few days but last night was the first time I had seen him.
  
  I will doubt no more..
  
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  January 3, 2024 8:27am
  - hullkiwi
    
    ….and PDM, he is now through to the Final of the World Darts competition!
    
    8 0
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    January 3, 2024 10:55am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    He virtually doesn’t miss the doubles, I watch three games in a row, and all three he won with a three tart gunshot to finish on the double
    
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    January 3, 2024 12:29pm
- Eketahuna
  
  And he’s now in the final.
  His training and diet are definitely unusual for a top sportsman.
  
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  January 3, 2024 10:44am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  He does look older, but he is still attending school which is a bit hard to deny
  
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  January 3, 2024 12:26pm
G152

I notice that those claiming to be greens always seem to connected to the many utilities we enjoy.
And really have to force themselves to attend overseas conferences by flying business or First Class . A hard life
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January 3, 2024 8:09am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Claudine Gay resigns as Harvard University president after facing allegations of plagiarism and criticism over her comments about antisemitism on campus. Gay was the first black person and only the second woman to be appointed to lead Harvard.

Dollars to donuts that Harvard knew of her dodgy academic record prior to appointment, but appointed her anyway for intersectional reasons.

Ain’t it amazing how often those held up as inspiring breakers of glass ceilings turn out to have pasts not as represented. Golhriz, Jimmy – looking at you.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67868280
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January 3, 2024 8:14am
- John Loveridge
  
  It does seem as if they have trouble finding diversity hires without fixed CVs.
  
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  January 3, 2024 9:15am
- Jack5
  
  The resignation of Claudine Gay, Woke heroine, as president of a Harvard University came as anti-semitism after the Hamas attack on Israel proved a step too far for Woke-ism.
  
  Gay, professor of government and of African and African American studies, now returns to her faculty.
  
  She was accused of plagiarism in her Ph.D. thesis and in published academic papers, but more recently has been under fire over anti-semiktism among students.
  
  The Wall Street Journal reports that at a House of Representatives committee hearing last month she gave an equivocal response to a question about whether calls for the genocide of Jewish people violated the campus code of conduct.
  
  The Harvard Corporation, described by the newspaper as the university’s top governing board, said last month that reviews of her work uncovered some instances of “inadequate citation,” but that the omissions didn’t meet the bar of outright research misconduct.
  
  Earlier, the University of Pennsylvania’s president, Liz Magill, resigned after accusations she didn’t do enough to counter anti-semitism.
  
  Gay, Magill, and Sally Kornbluth, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on December 5 were questioned for hours by a House of Representatives committee on what might count as harassment at their schools, and how they might punish it. They were also asked what actions were taken to protect Jewish students from hate speech or threats of violence.
  
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  January 3, 2024 9:18am
  - Che Guava
    
    Obviously being a Zionist, or not threatening Zionist interests, matters more than anything else. This case is a concrete instance of this idea.
    
    You can be a plagiarist, and be as woke and anti-White as they come, but if you threaten Jewish interests, you’re gone. Could the power dynamic be any clearer here?
    
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    January 3, 2024 11:22am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Guava I’ve often heard people from Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq etc eventually revealing views very similar to yours once one starts talking about bad things that happen in the middle east and surrounds, and even in the wider world (IE “The Jooos” are behind everything bad). I’m wondering if you’ve had this stuff drilled into your brain from a young age.
      
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      January 3, 2024 8:46pm
- Che Guava
  
  “Dollars to donuts that Harvard knew of her dodgy academic record prior to appointment, but appointed her anyway for intersectional reasons.”
  
  So they were happy enough that she was a plagiarist, but she only became a problem for Harvard’s Jewish billionaire donors when she wasn’t sufficiently pro-Zionist? Shows you the hierarchy of priorities, doesn’t it.
  
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  January 3, 2024 11:18am
  - imalwaysright
    
    As The Stranglers put it, “better watch out for the skin deep!”
    
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    January 3, 2024 12:21pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      RIP Jet and Dave! They produced some brilliant stuff, especially when Hugh was onboard!
      
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      January 3, 2024 10:20pm
krazykiwi

Harvard President Claudine Gay has resigned. When challenged about repeated plagiarizing of her papers she dug in and her board supported her, apparently after Obama weighed in on the matter.

Good riddance to a DEI-enabled charlatan.

The board should go next and then maybe, just maybe, Harvard can find its way back to its roots.
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January 3, 2024 8:19am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Its roots? Should Harvard revert to a theological training college?
  
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  January 3, 2024 8:22am
  - Jethrod
    
    As deep as the NZ Labour party needs to go.
    
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    January 3, 2024 8:30am
  - Local Miller
    
    Yes
    
    29 3
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    January 3, 2024 8:34am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    mikenmildagain: “Should Harvard revert to a theological training college?”
    
    Pretty much what they’ve already become. Preaching the religion of woke nutbaggery!
    
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    January 3, 2024 10:23pm
- pdm
  
  Asking this for a friend.
  
  Will Jacinda take over?
  
  It seems a natural progression for her.
  
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  January 3, 2024 8:28am
  - Grumpy Silver Top
    
    Maybe when she completes her PhD thesis, or maybe not?
    
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    January 3, 2024 9:57am
    - imalwaysright
      
      First she would need to learn to spell PhD.
      
      Written questions only!
      
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      January 3, 2024 12:25pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      PhD in intersectional climate change influenced micro-aggressions?
      
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      January 3, 2024 10:26pm
- Inandout
  
  krazy, Harvard has a murky history with regards to anti-Semitism.
  https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/12/opinions/harvard-university-israel-antisemitic-history-golinkin/index.html
  
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  January 3, 2024 8:32am
  - MCōs
    
    Robert Oppenheimer, who was Jewish, went to Harvard in the early twenties at which time about 20% of the students were Jewish
    A quota was introduced to keep the numbers down and he had to compete for a position.
    
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    January 3, 2024 9:37am
    - Che Guava
      
      Times have certainly changed. Jews are now vastly overrepresented at Ivy League schools, and 6 out of 8 have Jewish presidents. Yet they still complain about anti-semitism on Ivy League college campuses?
      
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      January 3, 2024 11:32am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Victimhood gives social license to do anything you want to.
        
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        January 3, 2024 12:38pm
- Paulus
  
  Rev John Harvard, a Non Conformist Minister, and later a New England Puritan, would be saddened at what has become of his University and it current leaders.
  He was born in Southwark, London, in 1607 and went on to Cambridge University.
  
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  January 3, 2024 9:47am
  - MCōs
    
    If he was a Puritan he would be saddened at a Catholic being President for a start and the thought of an incorrigible sinner dominating the Republican Party wouldn’t improve his mood
    Mind you back in his day America was a British colony . . . . .
    
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    January 3, 2024 10:22am
- Che Guava
  
  You mean she’s been forced out for threatening Jewish interests. Obviously, being a “DEI-enabled charlatan” was perfectly acceptable, until she pissed off the Jewish donors. See the connections here?
  
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  January 3, 2024 11:24am
Graham Sharpe

He is also already considerabley overweight. So obviously undergoing the same training regime followed by most top darts “sportsmen”. Beer. Pies. Couch. Remote control. Crisps. Full English breakfast.
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January 3, 2024 8:28am
- hullkiwi
  
  Too young to drink beer in public at the moment, but a good English diet of fry ups & baked beans, and convenience junk food will see him through.
  
  That said, the kid has got a talent.
  
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  January 3, 2024 9:39am
  - hullkiwi
    
    PS. The kid has won his semi-final and is now in the final.
    
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    January 3, 2024 10:59am
- Dave
  
  Of course. To see how it’s done, here are Smith and Jones.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SJnSmQCxkg
  
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  January 3, 2024 10:36am
mikenmildagain

I see that one of the financiers for X (Twitter) reports that the company’s value has declined by 71% since Elon Musk’s purchase. That would mean its value is now $13 billion rather than the purchase price of $44 billion.
https://www.axios.com/2023/12/31/elon-musks-x-fidelity-valuation-cut?utm_campaign=editorial&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook
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January 3, 2024 8:28am
- Tweedse
  
  A reflection of the price of free speech in current times.
  
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  January 3, 2024 8:35am
- Matt Long
  
  And yet you accuse Trump of felonies for valuing his own assets.
  
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  January 3, 2024 9:12am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Could you expand on that theory, please?
    
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    January 3, 2024 10:23am
- ClanMcleod
  
  I’m sure Elon isn’t too distressed to be down to his last 250 billion. Twitter is a hobby for him. Like me throwing $500 at Substack last year.
  
  The best part is, it lets Elon say this:
  
  “If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go fuck yourself. Go. Fuck. Yourself,”
  
  Got to love the guy just for that!
  
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  January 3, 2024 9:48am
  - All_on_Red
    
    I liked it when he appointed his dog Floki as CEO.
    He now has someone more professional of course- who probably doesn’t lick their balls.
    Musk has said X is worth around $20 billion but he doesn’t seem to care about that.
    His other businesses are doing too well and growth in those has exceeded any Twitter loss.
    Tesla has just started ramping up new Battery production in Texas and has a new manufacturing method to make bodies out of two parts not multiple parts. They will be dropping car prices accordingly (again).
    The company is considered to be undervalued
    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-inc-tsla-significantly-undervalued-193214627.html
    
    Many billionaires lose money on media investment. Look at Bezos and WAPO. They dont care though. Its about influence and power.
    
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    January 3, 2024 10:02am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      If he didn’t care about losing $40 billion, why did he try to wriggle out of the deal?
      
      3 21
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      January 3, 2024 10:24am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Twitter lied about its number of users.
        And he hasnt lost $40 billion.
        You dont seem very educated about Financial matters.
        But keep trolling.
        
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        January 3, 2024 10:39am
      - Cassandra
        
        He’s not stupid, mike. Extravagant yes, but not stupid. I’m sure you can see that through the red haze.
        
        10 3
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        January 3, 2024 11:57am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        He didn’t, he tried to get a better deal after he found they had been lying about it’s value
        
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        January 3, 2024 12:46pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    Twitter wasn’t worth $44 billion in the first place, which is why Musk tried to pull out of the deal when his due diligence revealed the problems, of which the following is just one – but incredible for a firm whose business model is all about software, An Obscure Twitter Horror Story
    
    [Former Twitter security executive Peiter “Mudge” Zatko] explained that they had no software development lifecycle [SDLC] and they’d misled the FTC on that.
    
    Twitter does not have separate development, test, staging, and production environments. At least 5,000 employees had privileged access to production systems.
    …
    On [January 6, 2021], Mudge (the whistleblower) wanted to take action to prevent potential sabotage by a rogue employee. He learned it was not possible for Twitter to secure its production environment.
    
    As I put it in the original post, Musk, with his IT background, must have just about had a heart attack when he found this out. Having those areas separated has been basic IT practice for sixty years. Having SDLC has been standard practice for at least forty years. This was a Silicon Valley titan? And any of five thousand employees could reach out and touch the production systems?
    
    The security breaches were so serious Twitter had to report them to the Federal government and it was almost weekly. Meanwhile the CEO simply lied to the BOD about it all, which means lying to the investors also.
    
    Mudge realized that a data center failure could potentially cause the permanent loss of all of Twitter’s data. He shared this fact with senior leadership, who instructed him not to put it in writing for the Board.
    …
    A few months later, that exact eventuality almost came true, and only herculean effort by Twitter engineers prevented “permanent, irreparable failure.”
    
    What a nightmare of a company.
    
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    January 3, 2024 10:10am
  - MCōs
    
    Musk reminds me of a joke I once heard.
    A woman was tired of her husband being a know all. Every time she’d tell him something he’d say ‘Yes, I know’
    One day she took a whole lot of money out of the bank and bought a horse. She took it home, up two flights of stairs and put it in their bedroom
    When the husband came home from work at the panel beaters he went upstairs to change. He gave a yell and ran back down shouting ‘There’s a horse in the bedroom”
    His wife said “I know “
    
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    January 3, 2024 10:38am
    - ISeeRed
      
      Did you cut off the punchline?
      
      3 0
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      January 3, 2024 5:23pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Yes, seen him say that on Fox, he was angry looking and meant it, go F…. Your self, for a guy that I thought was a leftie greenie shill, he appears to have become almost a Trump equivalent, what happens if he decides in a few years to ride the escalator?
    
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    January 3, 2024 12:44pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      He cant run for President because he was born in SA
      
      9 0
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      January 3, 2024 1:22pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Okay
        
        3 3
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        January 3, 2024 2:17pm
kevn

mma… So?
FoodBag? $1.15 then 16c
28 3
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January 3, 2024 8:37am
- hmmokrightitis
  
  True, but calling out the primary promoter of MFB after its price collapse makes you a misogynistic tosser.
  
  Apparently, according to the MSM anyway.
  
  18 2
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  January 3, 2024 8:58am
- Burtland
  
  Kia ora. I’m Theresa Gattung
  
  “I work to make a profound difference to the lives of women and girls in New Zealand and around the world. With experience as a CEO, Chair of boards, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and investor, I strongly believe in giving back. ”
  
  https://www.theresagattung.com/
  
  Wasnt she NZs first diversity hire at Telecom?
  
  24 3
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  January 3, 2024 10:14am
  - hullkiwi
    
    Yes, and there was follow on to he story.
    
    11 1
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    January 3, 2024 11:03am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    No, she got there on ability, she was not that old then, a bit of a stretch to say this when there was no word of diversity back in the 90s
    
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    January 3, 2024 12:48pm
    - Jack5
      
      Gattung was very much the protege of Roderick Deane, Telecom’s chairman – in his day one of the most intelligent public service and business people in the country.
      
      Gattung, who became the first woman CEO of an NZ Stock Exchange company, was co-founder of My Food Bag, which has been a lousy investment for those in at the float. The launch price was $1.85 a share. Today it is trading around 16c.
      
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      January 3, 2024 2:15pm
  - Scott
    
    I remember her when she was marketing manager at National Mutual and she seemed very bright and on to it in those days.
    
    3 1
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    January 3, 2024 3:05pm
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Yup, it was a typical float so that the original investors could cash out – look who was involved.
  
  Lots of heat and light, and the people involved did very nicely on the way out. Gattung got about $24m from memory and the Chef lady got $14m, enough to buy a nice farm with.
  
  Investors, nah. You guys got left holding a largely worthless bag.
  
  Pointing this out in indelicate terms was of course misogyny.
  
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  January 3, 2024 11:02am
iMP

What was the (now late) deputy leader of Hamas doing in Lebanon? A conference with Hezbollah and Iran?

And I see the French are closing their embassy in Niger (which is where we get the ‘N’ word from). A final closing act of colonisation. A military coup has taken the country and there are massacres of Christians and non-Muslims everywhere. Rwanda 2? Oh well at least colonisation has been thrown off. The replacement can only be peace and indigenous utopia (and marked up sales of machetes).
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January 3, 2024 8:41am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Epstein. Things are getting stranger.
Mark Epstein wants prehospital care records.
Also Epstein’s prison clothing was cut away changed into a hospital gown (I did not know this)

https://therecorddaily.com/tucker-carlson-unveils-video-of-mark-epstein-seeking-jeffreys-ems-records-teases-upcoming-interview/?
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January 3, 2024 8:48am
- Paulus
  
  But, But, Epstein committed suicide whilst nobody was watching – Yea, that is America !
  
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  January 3, 2024 9:49am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Another friend who suicided.
    
    5 2
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    January 3, 2024 11:30am
  - G152
    
    Convenientlythe cameras failed and the monitoring warders didn’t monitor so its believable that he commited suicide.
    I have this bridge for sale
    
    9 1
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    January 3, 2024 11:57am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  They are releasing the names of the filth that used the plane for kid fiddlers this week, it maybe very interesting, this might be why they are going so hard at Trump, they say they are dem shills like Clinton ( I did not have sexual relations with that woman) it will be interesting to see if the judge who is releasing this falls off a cliff this week
  
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  January 3, 2024 12:51pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

ULTRA MAGA PARTY Unleashes Scathing Video Critique of Biden Administration.
Why did Biden not help with the Maui fires? Why the black screens around Lahaina?
The Iran nuclear deal. Importing terrorism across the border.

https://therecorddaily.com/ultra-maga-party-unleashes-scathing-video-critique-of-biden-administration/?
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January 3, 2024 9:00am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Could Texas secede from the US?
A lot of Texans have had enough of where America is heading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqYBARqOeVk
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January 3, 2024 9:05am
- Grunter
  
  Add in Florida and a dozen other southern states. The US is buggered and will splinter into red states and blue states over the next few years. The election will spark a new round of civil unrest. The majority want Trump but that will never be allowed to happen.
  Or, the woke left suddenly wake up and say sorry we were wrong…….! Yeah right
  
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  January 3, 2024 9:16am
- Benedict Yu
  
  That YouTube channel has 458 subscribers. 😂
  
  States cannot secede from the Union.
  
  https://www.governing.com/now/no-texas-cant-legally-secede-from-the-u-s-despite-popular-myth
  
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  January 3, 2024 9:20am
  - All_on_Red
    
    They cant unilaterally just leave.
    But they could if it was mutually agreed they could leave. SCOTUS Texas v White 1868
    But to get Mutual Agreement they need over 75% of the States to agree (which means those States have to get majority to agree in their own House and Senates) plus a majority in Congress and the Senate agreeing.
    Not going to happen.
    
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    January 3, 2024 9:48am
    - Che Guava
      
      Ultimately, the law is just words on paper. It’s an abstraction. Whether or not a state can secede would come down to a concrete matter of physical reality: do they have sufficient military and economic power to leave, and conversely, does anyone who would oppose them have the same?
      
      Look at Ukraine: probably (arguably) illegal under law, but it didn’t matter because Russia is sufficiently powerful (and NATO sufficiently weak) that they did it anyway.
      
      Is it likely a US state would leave the union? Not at all. Not currently anyway. But no political arrangement lasts for ever. When the US crumbles, states will decide to stop participating and nobody will have the will or the ability to stop them.
      
      In the late 80s, it was commonly thought that the USSR would be around indefinitely – 4 or 5 years later, it didn’t exist. The US looks more and more like late-stage Soviet Union by the day.
      
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      January 3, 2024 11:54am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    And they weren’t very successful the last time they attempted to secede.
    
    6 8
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    January 3, 2024 10:26am
    - Che Guava
      
      When first you don’t secede, try try again.
      
      18 1
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      January 3, 2024 11:56am
      - Pope Punctilious II
        
        Quip de jour.
        
        5 0
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        January 3, 2024 12:25pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Hey, I gave you an uptick for that one Guava!
        
        2 0
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        January 3, 2024 9:24pm
  - Stellaboxer
    
    “ States cannot secede from the Union” . Last time that was argued around 650 thousand people were killed.
    
    8 0
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    January 3, 2024 10:30am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The google machine has lots of pages that say yes, and no.
    Looks like I may have shared fake news!
    I will have a closer look later. If Texas was able to secede that wall would go up super quick.
    
    4 4
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    January 3, 2024 11:39am
- Dougal10
  
  If they throw the current rule book out the window , they probably can , avoiding a civil war by doing so might be harder .
  
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  January 3, 2024 10:38am
Bridgenag

The Distortion of Science
To support the globalist’s Climate Change agenda

“Most climate change scientists receive funding from the government. So they must comply with the government edict and policy position that human activity-caused climate change is an existential threat to both humankind and global ecosystems. When these “scientists” publish studies supporting the thesis that human activities cause climate change, they are more likely to receive more grant monies and therefore more publications- and therefore to be academically promoted (or at least to survive in the dog-eat-dog world of modern academe). Those who produce a counter narrative from the government approved one soon find themselves without funding, tenure, without jobs, unable to publish and unable to procure additional grants and contracts. It is a dead-end career wise. The system has been rigged.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/the-distortion-of-science?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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January 3, 2024 9:05am
- Grunter
  
  Yip, yip…..that’s exactly what we are doing!
  
  15 3
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  January 3, 2024 9:18am
  - Don Beckett
    
    But we’ve known this for years. One simply has to check up on all the doomsday predictions over the last 30 odd years – none – NOT ONE – has come about.
    It’s all a huge crock of shit, and most of the world’s leaders have been sucked in. God help us.
    
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    January 3, 2024 11:35am
- Burtland
  
  the truth slowly dribbles out about this grift as staff retire
  – theyre no longer obliged to tell the lie
  
  the UN corrupted science
  
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  January 3, 2024 10:24am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Yes, tens of thousands of scientists have been bribed to pretend that AGW is an actual threat. Accepting that, I now realize how comparatively simple it was for NASA to fake the moon landings.
  
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  January 3, 2024 10:29am
  - Taieri
    
    Yes, tens of thousands of scientists have been bribed to pretend that AGW is an actual threat.
    ———–
    
    No need to bribe anyone. There’s plenty of “educated” idiots, who will uncritically accept even the most outlandish ideas. Want a few examples?
    
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    January 3, 2024 10:37am
    - cmm
      
      Of course they are bribed. With their jobs.
      
      But it is not just bribery, there is also filtering in the selection process – from both sides.
      
      Look at NIWA:
      * If you’re a NIWA employee, part of the NIWA inner circle, then you will reject anyone coming in that does not share your world view. They better say the right things in their CVs and any research papers they have generated.
      * On the flip side, everyone knows NIWA is like this. Anyone that doesn’t share the views wouldn’t want to join.
      
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      January 3, 2024 2:56pm
  - Grunter
    
    Mike, I put you in the “really really dumb” category. I don’t think you’re part of the scam creators.
    Read the scientists that aren’t paid by big govt, big corps or big banks. Then you actually find the truth.
    
    And if you and your nutty mates are right, the world is actually boiling and we are about to die, what is the answer? Solar panels, windmills and EV’s???? It is just so blatantly ridiculous.
    
    16 3
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    January 3, 2024 11:19am
  - Che Guava
    
    “Yes, tens of thousands of scientists have been bribed to pretend that AGW is an actual threat”
    
    It’s not so much that they receive cash in a brown paper bag, it’s that they are far less likely to get funding or advance their careers if they go against the entrenched political dogma of AGW.
    
    This is hardly an incredible notion, in fact selling out for material benefit happens all the time in many areas.
    
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    January 3, 2024 11:37am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Yet people like you believe 9//11 was orchestrated
    
    5 6
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    January 3, 2024 12:54pm
    - Mike
      
      Yes, 9/11 was orchestrated, by Al Qaeda.
      
      6 1
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      January 3, 2024 2:36pm
    - ISeeRed
      
      There were no orchestras involved.
      
      4 0
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      January 3, 2024 5:29pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    So Milky can a climate scientist in a regular uni infested by woke idiocy get funding for investigating earnestly whether some of this hypothesis is a crock? You know, as in follow the traditional scientific method. If no, then yes climate science is indeed broken and corrupt, and scientists are told by the regime what narratives they must not challenge (just like with Lysenkoism, which resulted in millions starving to death).
    
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    January 3, 2024 9:29pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

https://stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/maori-art-reveals-how-maori-think-about-white-children/
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January 3, 2024 9:54am
- mikenmildagain
  
  What a jumble of nonsense.
  
  6 32
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  January 3, 2024 10:31am
  - Dougal10
    
    You forgot the “in my opinion”
    
    19 2
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    January 3, 2024 10:39am
    - Mike
      
      Oh, it’s objectively nonsense. Even Kiwibloggers downtick it routinely.
      
      4 17
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      January 3, 2024 11:26am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Downticks are you and your pseudonyms using VPNs.
        Two atm. mikenmildagain and Mike
        
        19 4
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        January 3, 2024 11:51am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    What exactly is nonsensical about it.
    
    10 1
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    January 3, 2024 12:28pm
    - Mike
      
      The cartoon for a start, and then every purported fact listed.
      
      3 3
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      January 3, 2024 2:37pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    That’s the left for you
    
    8 3
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    January 3, 2024 12:55pm
- MCōs
  
  Denis O’Reilly’s experience at one of Mr B’s anti co governance meetings
  https://e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-analysis/julian-batchelors-muddle-of-mischief/
  Back when we were Catholic school kids in Timaru we were fortunate to have the O’Reillys on our side when it came to slanging matches with the non Catholics!
  
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  January 3, 2024 12:57pm
Burtland

Robertson’s hole gets larger – seems like Little and Henare have been stretching it at NZDF …

the general malaise of NZDF continues
“In 21 months to April last year, NZDF lost almost a third of its uniformed service personnel”

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/nz-defence-force-in-crisis-our-ships-cant-sail-planes-cant-fly-and-soldiers-have-left-in-droves/YP5RTDCFWBE7FFG23IJIK634UU/

Big money is being paid out to retain staff – guess where its gone?

https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/350139985/defence-force-personnel-nabbed-lsd-and-meth
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January 3, 2024 10:03am
- Right of way is Way of Right
  
  I left the NZDF recently after a 37 year career.
  
  If you really want to know why the Defence Force is in the pickle it is in at the moment, I can tell you.
  
  It is top heavy!
  
  The number of senior Officers still holding positions in the NZ Defence Force, especially the Navy, has to be seen to be believed.
  
  When I joined, we had 4 Frigates, one tanker, a Hydro-graphic Survey Ship, an oceanographic research ship, two inshore survey vessels, 4 patrol boats and a dive tender. We also only had three officers of Flag Rank. one Commodore, one Rear Admiral, and one Vice Admiral.
  
  Now there are so many Commodores in the NZ Navy, Lionel Ritchie is thinking about getting the band back together!
  
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  January 3, 2024 11:22am
  - NothingLeft
    
    A key requirement for peace-time armed forces is that they retain the skills and institutional knowledge to grow rapidly in case of conflict. Being top heavy isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
    
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    January 3, 2024 12:05pm
    - Cassandra
      
      Yes it is, if by top you mean Flag level/red hats. “More admirals than ships” is only favoured by captains. We have very little capacity n anything, perhaps aspects of the Air Force excepted, yet more senior officers than ever before. The answer is not to reduce the number of senior officers but instead increase the capacity. Hard times are coming – NZ must be able to play its (modest still) part.
      
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      January 3, 2024 1:03pm
    - Right of way is Way of Right
      
      The skills required are those we need to take ships to sea, maintain them, propel them and fight them.
      
      They are the areas in which we have deficiencies.
      
      Flag officers cannot run a machinery space. They cannot maintain a ships electrical system. They cannot berth ships, or operate combat sensors or weapon systems, they cannot cook for a crew.
      
      Being top heavy when you cannot properly support or remunerate the people who do the actual work in getting ships to sea is a VERY bad thing.
      
      This is referred to as ‘coffin corner’ because in order to justify the existence of those in the higher echelons, those in the lower ranks who are needed now have to do more and more to meet outputs, and in the Navy, this is doubly difficult, because those who remain must stay on ships, and spend longer and longer away from their family, because those ashore are either medically unable to take a turn at sea, or they simply do not exist.
      
      Bear in mind that a sailor at sea away from their family is currently being paid an EXTRA $100.00 a day while at sea. Ships on a 4 month deployment would see each sailor paid 12,000 above their salary. They are still leaving, because they are being burned out!
      
      Meanwhile, most of those Commanders, Captains and Commodores pretty much get to go home every single night.
      
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      January 3, 2024 2:11pm
      - fightingtemeraire
        
        RN is running a system with crews are 4/3 more than reqd so 1/3rd of the crew are on leave at any one time and they are keeping ships on station in the middle and far east for several years before they come back to the UK for refit.
        
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        January 3, 2024 6:14pm
    - cmm
      
      ” Being top heavy isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”
      
      Certainly retaining capability is important, but it still takes a while to ramp up junior officers.
      
      During the SA bush war, junior officer training was almost a year from raw recruit to combat-ready officer. Such an officer would be ready to command a platoon and step up to commanding a company if needed (and they were senior enough – for example had a university degree). A captain would need at least a year of experience on top of that (more likely two).
      
      I think what we likely have in NZ is a lot of junior officers doing short service then leaving after a few years. That takes them out of service, but they are available as reservists if a war kicks off. With a one to two month refresher they should be up to speed again.
      
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      January 3, 2024 2:51pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    I believe the NZ army currently has more majors than captains!
    
    4 4
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    January 3, 2024 12:15pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Am I correct thinking that once you are a major you are afforded that rank for life? I seem to remember Major Vic Boyens when I was a kid, he was well out of the army but was still called major Boyens
      
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      January 3, 2024 12:58pm
      - kevn
        
        G… Like the Major in Fawlty Towers?
        
        4 0
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        January 3, 2024 1:26pm
      - Mike
        
        I think majors and above are allowed to use their rank, as in Major (ret’d). Not mamy do – seems a bit uppity.
        
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        January 3, 2024 2:41pm
      - cmm
        
        It depends… not sure about NZ.
        
        Second Lieutenants, Lieutenants, and Captains are junior officers. Their ranks are not normally recognised outside of the military (ie. you’d call them Mister in civvy street).
        
        Majors, Lt Colonels and Colonels are senior officers and normally get to keep their rank, as do Brigadiers and Generals.
        
        There is some overlap in the tasks that Majors and Captains would normally perform. A surplus of Majors in active service would tend to indicate a stagnation (ie. too few junior officers coming through).
        
        I expect that a lot of NZ Army officers do their time as Lt then leave before they promoted higher. Those that have stuck it out to Major are likely there for the long haul.
        
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        January 3, 2024 2:42pm
  - Cassandra
    
    RoW: I think your numbers are out. Commodore in London? DCNS?
    
    1 2
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    January 3, 2024 1:06pm
    - Mike
      
      Probaby at least 4 commodores: 1 overseas, 1 deputy chief, 1 maritime commander and 1 hq assistant chief. Same for other two services and our tiny defence force needs nearly 20 1-star or above officers.
      
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      January 3, 2024 2:45pm
Jack5

Artificial intelligence, sometimes overhyped, seems to be coming for the legal system, Reuters reports.

American Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in a year-end report urges “caution and humility” as the evolving technology transforms how judges and lawyers go about their work.

The news agency reports Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former lawyer, said in court papers unsealed last week that he mistakenly gave his attorney fake case citations generated by an AI program that made their way into an official court filing.

Other instances of lawyers including AI-hallucinated cases in legal briefs have also been documented.

The Reuters article on AI in the legal system – linked to here – should be available either without signing in, or else by free registration:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-courts-roberts-urges-caution-ai-reshapes-legal-field-2023-12-31/
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January 3, 2024 10:44am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Seeing as a large part of legal work is the drudgery of looking up cases and precedents, AI should both improve the quality of legal advice and reduce the number of lawyers.
  
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  January 3, 2024 12:17pm
  - cmm
    
    Yes, there is drudgery, but the important part is getting the details right.
    
    THis is something where AI often fails in spades.
    
    Where AI could really, really, help is replacing the pointless make-work in the civil service.
    
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    January 3, 2024 2:44pm
- greybeard
  
  Is there really any such thing as “AI” ?
  Surely what is called “AI” is nothing more than very sophisticated computer programming, with very granular decision making.
  
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  January 3, 2024 4:44pm
  - Jack5
    
    Greybeard, you’re right in that artificial intelligence isn’t “artificial”. It’s the algorithms of intelligent and skilled human beings.
    
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    January 3, 2024 8:55pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dNWfU5n0f4
YOUSAF’S HOGMANAY HORROR.
Plenty of people want to vote tactically to get rid of the SNP.
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January 3, 2024 11:24am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISXU1MiPf-8
France’s Power Play: Dominating Europe | Peter Zeihan.
Discover the intricate dynamics of global politics, economics, and demographics in this enlightening video. The speaker delves into the complexities of Brexit, highlighting the UK’s challenges in establishing a post-Brexit strategy and its diminishing negotiating power. The discussion then shifts to the United States’ unique position in global trade, emphasizing its minimal trade exposure, status as a net energy exporter, and its robust agricultural and manufacturing sectors.

The renegotiation of NAFTA under Donald Trump is praised as a strategic move, bolstering North America’s position. The video also explores the United States’ relationships with dynamic economies like Colombia, Chile, South Korea, Japan, and Australia, forming a potent American co-prosperity sphere.
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January 3, 2024 11:25am
Jack5

The country’s getting back on the sanity rails with English-language department names first, then, perhaps, Maori.

Not Stuff. From a report on its site today about passports: “Te Tari Taiwhenua (Department of Internal Affairs)”.

If Stuff does indeed have a mystery backer, are there clues to its identity in Stuff’s staunch support of Maori language, and Stuff’s refusal to leave the political side of defeated Labour?
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January 3, 2024 3:16pm
- greybeard
  
  Stuff is assiduously sticking to the “Aotearoa” name in most of its headlines. Probably because of the source of its donations which keep it afloat.
  
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  January 3, 2024 4:42pm
- igm
  
  CTU are surely giving financial support.
  
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  January 4, 2024 3:29am
Ghost

No reason other than to stir up the left to say how much the PM’s property is worth

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/301031694/nz-news-live-teen-allegedly-found-on-pm-christopher-luxons-waiheke-property
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January 3, 2024 4:22pm
- greybeard
  
  Agreed.
  I can’t wait to see the QVs for properties owned by maori tribes and trusts when one of their members gets into shit.
  
  10 2
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  January 3, 2024 4:40pm
  - Jack5
    
    Do QV values have meaning on tribal properties, when the properties are inalienable – that is cannot be sold?
    
    They’re no use as security for raising capital, so are they of similar value to neighbouring properties that can be sold? Surely not.
    
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    January 3, 2024 9:28pm
kevn

Ghost… Perp needed some attention it seems, maybe security ruffled the alleged intruder. Nice (not) for stuff to put a property pic up.
arden has 6 security dudes 24/7 I gather. The neighbours at Tairua must ‘enjoy’ the lack of holiday burglaries in the street and the change of ‘tone’.
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January 3, 2024 4:41pm
Ghost

I missed this when it came out, only saw it now as someone has posted it to national ministers Facebook page

Immigration officers say they’ve been told to ignore criminal convictions and investigations, not to read supporting documents on visa applications, and not to check work visas at the border in a “light touch” drive to grant more visas faster.

Multiple past and present Immigration NZ (INZ) staff have told Stuff about their concerns with what they say is a completely dysfunctional visa regime that has allowed rampant fraud – including visa staff themselves exposing the flaws by using pictures of cats and dogs as supporting documents in a dummy visa application that was allegedly approved.

Multiple officials have told Stuff that:

they were told to ignore criminal convictions and investigations when granting visas and residency to individuals

they were told not to open and check attachments on visa applications as this would delay processing times

some visa staff concocted an application and attached photos of household pets instead of supporting documents to prove that attachments were not being read

border staff told not to query work visa holders and accept them at “face value”

staff told to take a “streamlined” approach to visitor visas

officers were warned if they did not consider enough applications in a week and given ‘shout-outs’ if they processed the most applications.

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January 3, 2024 8:09pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  I presume this would be for the type of immigrant most reasonable people in NZ would definitely not want in the country?
  
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  January 3, 2024 9:36pm

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