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January 10, 2024 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 10 January 2024

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General Debate

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mikenmildagain

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Happy 50th birthday to Jermaine Clement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGOohBytKTU
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January 10, 2024 8:00am
- imalwaysright
  
  I think Jermaine may have eaten a kebab once.
  How dare you Michael !
  
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  January 10, 2024 4:20pm
krazykiwi

This year two billion people from 50 countries will go to the polls. I’m predicting a couple of things:
1. A move to the Right and/or so-called populist candidates (popular candidate getting elected … who knew?!)
2. Establishment figures, elites and media decrying this outcome saying it is evidence of democracy being ‘broken’ and citing misinformation as the cause against which more censorship and use of lawfare is justified.
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January 10, 2024 8:01am
- G152
  
  The enemies of democracy employ democracy to deny all that democracy brings to us all
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:10am
  - Rusty
    
    @G152
    
    Hitler and the Nazis used democracy to get into power and then outlawed it.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:13am
    - krazykiwi
      
      It’s happening today. The gathering clampdowns on fraudulently-named “hate speech”, and elected leaders ceding power to unelected global elites (WHO, UN et al) being two examples.
      
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      January 10, 2024 10:23am
    - JackRabbit
      
      Correction. The Nazis used MMP to get into power. They did not have a majority.
      
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      January 10, 2024 11:43am
      - Hollyfield
        
        MMP was established in Germany in 1949, after the Nazis were defeated.
        Prior to the Nazis rise to power, the German Empire used the absolute-majority Two Round System, and then the Weimar Republic (the German Government 1919–1933) used a pure proportional representation system. The Nazis were the largest party in the early 1930s under this system, but did not have a majority, and it wasn’t MMP. German president Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor in 1933, and this paved the way to the Nazi dictatorship after Hindenburg’s death in 1934.
        
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        January 10, 2024 5:27pm
- Grunter
  
  Taiwan, Russia, UK, USA amongst them. Sparks will fly!
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:19am
  - Philview
    
    I have always preferred First Past the Post until 2020 when the country gave Ardern and Labour an outright majority and we know what they did with it and this highlights the dangers of one party government. I get a sense that the UK has major problems because the 2 main parties are not really aligned with the electorate but it is very hard to shift the dial there under FPTP.
    
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    January 10, 2024 11:09am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  “Misinformation.” Always accuse others of what you are guilty of yourselves.
  Will the Democrats accuse Donald Trump of cheating? 🙂
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:20am
  - SoloView
    
    @ Steve
    With a smile Steve, I have to ask how many things has Donald Trump accused the Democrats of?
    
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    January 10, 2024 12:54pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Corruption should cover everything.
      Don’t worry, the Democrats will try it again this year. They know that everyone knows but they don’t care. Delve too deep and you get suicided.
      Democrats never won anything without cheating.
      
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      January 11, 2024 8:03am
- MCōs
  
  Popular candidates always get elected or maybe that should be candidates with popular policies
  In the case of Winston it’s hard to tell.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:42am
- kiwikidsnz
  
  Next year my bet is that Canada will elect Pierre Poilievre
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnEj7WLsWbk
  
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  January 10, 2024 5:14pm
- AitchW
  
  The UK seems to be going left, I’m not sure it’s a global shift to the right.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:37pm
  - waikatosinger
    
    The UK has a problem. The conservatives chased Labour to the left. They no longer have a viable right alternative.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:31pm
Ghost

Sigh

Now we have a doctor saying it is ok to be fat and ok to be unhealthy. Wonder how much of a kickback from the pharmaceutical companies she is getting

A doctor at Cedars-Sinai posted a TikTok video saying “it is okay to be fat,” and that being fat “needs to be normalized,” despite obesity-related diseases being the biggest killer in America.

Article

We should be encouraging people to be healthy, get rid of this mindset that we should celebrate people going to an early grave because they are being taught it’s ok to be obese.
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January 10, 2024 8:01am
- krazykiwi
  
  My Wellington place of work also includes a short course training facility. Yesterday I looked over at trainees coming out for morning tea. Of the 16 people 14 were seriously obese, 1 was slightly obese and the other was ‘normal’. At the very least those 14 will generate higher healthcare demand from a socialised system which will never be able to cope.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:10am
  - G152
    
    Go back in 20 years time and see how many of that crowd are still alive and how many are invalids
    
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    January 10, 2024 8:12am
    - krazykiwi
      
      I believe some so-called lifestyle diseases should be carved out of socialised healthcare. Type-II diabetes for example. Early stage Type-II can often be cured with diet, too… although don’t tell the pharmaceutical industry: they want you sick.
      
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      January 10, 2024 8:42am
      - Grunter
        
        Nah – Go the whole way and end socialised healthcare altogether. Otherwise, who gets to decide what is a ‘so-called lifestyle disease’?? The Leftards?
        
        New version of Lennon’s ‘Imagine’…..
        
        Imagine there’s no Government
        It’s easy if you try
        No hell below us
        Above us, only sky
        Imagine all the people
        Livin’ for today
        Ah
        
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        January 10, 2024 8:53am
      - david in Aus
        
        @Krazykiwi. Lifestyle diseases related to obesity- like cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lung disease, sleep aponea ….. not just type 2 diabetes.
        
        There is an individual responsibility element to obesity. But the reality is the whole population has become more obese, to the state where NZ has the third highest rate in the world. Our grandparents generations where not as obese, and it was not because they were exercise fanatics and diet-conscious.
        
        Our environment and lifestyle are mostly to blame. Using cars instead of walking or biking, easy access calories, and take-away foods. That is the natural state of human behaviour: why sweat, food taste good.
        
        Once you gain weight, we know that the body defends against weight loss- that is why most people regain after initial weight loss.
        
        It seems in this blogsite many prefer to blame individuals than actually have solutions.
        “Not having bike-lanes, no one tells me how to get around etc……, being against active transport”
        
        Obesity will be an increasing problem with its effects on the healthcare system. We need a change in our mindset and environment to lean against our natural tendency for inactivity and gluttony.
        
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        January 10, 2024 12:47pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        “Lifestyle diseases related to obesity- like cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lung disease, sleep aponea ….. not just type 2 diabetes”
        
        Agreed, however the Type-II diabetes is almost always a direct result of lifestyle choices where causation is more contestable for the others that you have enumerated.
        
        Also agree mindset. Mrs kk and I lead deliberately active and healthy lives, more so than most of our long-term friends, and the difference in our health and life outlook is growing more stark with each passing year.
        
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        January 10, 2024 2:55pm
  - Simon
    
    Fatties die younger saving billions in super payments.
    
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    January 10, 2024 8:29am
    - Gussy Fink-Nottle
      
      Indeed. Same with smoking.
      Such life-shortening habits do not accrue a net financial cost to society.
      
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      January 10, 2024 9:52am
  - MCōs
    
    My wife has eighteen siblings
    Her father had two wives concurrently
    Of the ones I knew all offspring of one wife were/are skinny as rakes and the others are somewhat fleshy
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:58am
    - Philview
      
      I am struggling to raise a couple of kids and various dramas. Your in-laws must be hard as nails to cope with all of that lot.
      
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      January 10, 2024 11:15am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Cat Pause reincarnated?
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:29am
  - Thought Criminal
    
    Died young and fat
    
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    January 10, 2024 11:04am
- James Stephenson
  
  Bring back shame. Human society evolved this concept because it was good for us, we need to accept that and put it to work again.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:31am
  - krazykiwi
    
    I have generally no problem with someone choosing to be fat, but I have a major issue if that person demands that I pick up their healthcare costs, or that I should cower to one side of an aircraft seat as their amble self oozes over the armrest.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:32am
    - MCōs
      
      Next time you see a grossly overweight person ask them if they choose to be fat.
      
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      January 10, 2024 10:04am
      - krazykiwi
        
        Why? It’s fairly obvious. True, there are genetic factors but being at an optimum weight is always a personal choice.
        
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        January 10, 2024 10:20am
      - Taieri
        
        True, there are genetic factors but being at an optimum weight is always a personal choice
        ———-
        
        And what is an optimum weight?
        
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        January 10, 2024 10:23am
      - krazykiwi
        
        Try this. Optimum is best expressed as a percentage of fat in overall bodyweight. Bring on the calipers!
        
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        January 10, 2024 12:49pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Next time you see a lefty extremist mouthing off ask them if they chose to be an idiot?😛
        
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        January 10, 2024 7:31pm
    - Pavel
      
      KK, As a pureblood I’ve enjoyed reading your informative posts regarding the dangers of the Vax. However when you say ” I have a major issue if that person demands that I pick up their healthcare costs” it reminds me of people who used to call for unvaxxed people to be denied hospital admission. For the first time ever I’m giving you a downtick.
      
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      January 10, 2024 3:38pm
  - Lance
    
    What is too fat?
    40Kg overweight, 500 grams overweight?
    
    While you make valid points, this sort of arbitrary thinking is at best antisocial.
    The same argument can be made of rugby players, contact sports, smokers, drinkers, drug users, trampers (falls etc) and even people who take long haul flights and risk DVT.
    
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    January 10, 2024 10:06am
    - julesnzuk
      
      It’s not arbitrary thinking. As a 6ft/183cm female I know that my fighting weight is around 68kgs (these days, it was 65 when I was 21) and don’t need to be over about 72kgs. Of course if I’m 5 or even 10kg over that it’s not a major problem, health wise – but 30kg certainly is. Obesity is far more insidious than any of those things you mention, including smoking and even alcohol. It’s causing huge damage to society including children. Seriously, we need to wake up to this.
      
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      January 10, 2024 12:39pm
    - david
      
      Indeed Lance.
      I read at the time that when applied to Ritchie McCaw at the height of his playing career, BMI classified him as obese.
      Can’t verify or quote but that stuck somewhere in the darker recesses of my memory.
      
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      January 10, 2024 1:01pm
      - sirknz
        
        BMI is a great measure for the population but a crap one for an individual, unless you’re a Victorian era Belgian. According to BMI, my ‘ideal weight’ should be ~75kg but the lightest I have been in my adult life was around 85kg and I looked like I had survived a concentration camp. At 105kg I looked great, I am currently around 115kg and feel festively plump so need to drop it again but at 105kg I was considered obese despite having a resting heart rate at the time below 60 and a body fat % around 13.
        
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        January 10, 2024 2:11pm
    - david
      
      Try this:
      http://www.nzherald.co.nz › nz › mccaw-tips-scale-at-obese
      
      [Your link is so badly constructed, I have no idea how to make any fix. mod.]
      
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      January 10, 2024 1:04pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        Highlight the whole address and select web search or copy and paste it to the search bar. It will take you to a google results page.
        
        http://www.nzherald.co.nz › nz › mccaw-tips-scale-at-obese
        
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        January 10, 2024 4:30pm
    - david
      
      Sorry, can’t get the links to work. Try google “McCaw Obese” NZH, Stuff and ODT all come up.
      
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      January 10, 2024 1:36pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      BMI is a blunt instrument. Body fat percentage by gender and age is much more helpful.
      
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      January 10, 2024 3:31pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Lance: “What is too fat?”
      
      People think you look like sh**? You look in the mirror and think “gee I look like sh**?
      Those are usually indicators.
      
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      January 10, 2024 7:33pm
- Exclamation Mark
  
  If people were in better shape and carrying less weight they would have had much better immune systems for combatting covid. Health authorities should be doing encouraging healthy life-styles as a cost saving measure for the future of our health system, not enabling obesity which is going to cost us all billions in the coming decades.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:32am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Absolutely right. The SARS-CoV-2 virus gains access to cells via the ACE2 receptor, and there are high numbers of these receptors in adipose (fat) tissue.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:38am
  - Paulus
    
    Much of the overweight and obesity is entirely Genetic occurring over many generations and from the wider Pacific, and in itself cannot really be cured anyway.
    We will just see more.
    
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    January 10, 2024 1:19pm
    - julesnzuk
      
      Paulus, are you having a laugh? Look at film footage from the 1960s – no obese people. It’s entirely down to lifestyle, inactivity plus eating the wrong foods plus eating too much. Sure, Pacific Islanders are biological evolved for a Spartan diet (fish and not much else) but if they ate appropriately they’d be slim (or at least normal). There’s nothing “genetic” about obesity.
      
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      January 10, 2024 11:21pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    Paulus, partly correct. The pioneering voyages down to the south pacific islands were strenuous and food was scarce. Those trips favoured those with genetic predisposition for fat retention, and many of the rest simply died en route resulting in a modern-day gene pool that favours fat storage ahead of fat burning. This wouldn’t be a problem if it weren’t for people generally choosing Netflix and KFC ahead of active lifestyles and nutritious foods.
    
    And on this topic, I read a fascinating study on siblings born before, during and after the Hunger Winter (The Dutch famine of 1944–1945). Children born during the famine went on in life to be generally fatter than their siblings. Epigenetics at work.
    
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    January 10, 2024 3:25pm
- Salacious Crumb
  
  But remember – you can trust in what your doctor says; always.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:04am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Don’t trust.
    
    Verify.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:38am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Sal,
    The vast majority of doctors have proved themselves experts in self help.
    It would be interesting to know how much the average doctor was paid to deploy the untested, unproven, drug disguised as a vaccine.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:39am
    - Lance
      
      Your right, you should avoid all medical professionals at all times. I mean, what do they know?
      //
      
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      January 10, 2024 10:09am
    - krazykiwi
      
      I don’t believe my (or any) local GPs were paid. The most likely explanation is that they trusted authorities rather than verifying for themselves. Some that did verify may have remained silent for fear of repercussions, and I regard that as more reprehensible.
      
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      January 10, 2024 10:15am
      - Inandout
        
        krazy, following on from that how many doctors died prematurely?
        
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        January 10, 2024 11:02am
      - Phronesis
        
        Vaccinators were paid quite well. Those payments kept a lot of GP practices solvent when they were refusing to see sick patients. GP’s are part of a healthcare system that pretty much demands conformity. None of them are vaccine specialists and they not unreasonably trusted what they were being told by those who had the information. It put GP’s in an incredibly difficult situation, go against the tide and probably lose their business, or continue as a cog in the medical machine. I have friends and family who did both. The most important issue is that we find out, with the benefit of hindsight, who was right.
        
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        January 10, 2024 12:19pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Fatties impose huge costs on society in extra medical costs, higher consumption and low to zero productivity. Not to mention all the time of others that they waste in looking after them.
  
  Given that it’s a self-chosen condition it wouldn’t be unreasonable to limit access to health services to people with a BMI over 35. Just as hard drug users should have their access to public health limited – they can wreck their health if they choose, but shouldn’t expect taxpayers to pay for it.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:19am
  - Ghost
    
    The stupid part is telling people it’s ok to be overweight and then when it comes time that they need an operation they will be told they need to lose weight before they can have that operation.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:24am
  - Grunter
    
    How many ‘Fatties’ before socialism kicked in?
    
    None! Apart from the Fat Kings and PMs!!
    
    The solution is easy – eliminate income tax, eliminate public health, and pay for it yourself. If you choose to have fun and be fat suffer the consequences.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:42am
    - MCōs
      
      NZ has had free hospital care for a long time now
      What we haven’t had is KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hutt, ready to eat meals in the supermarkets, supermarkets even
      When I went to school all the kids had bikes.
      In Chch all sorts of people got round on bikes. Now people sneer at cyclists
      
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      January 10, 2024 10:20am
      - Grunter
        
        No such thing as “free hospitals”. You pay for it with tax, the central planners then take a (big) cut, and other central planners then spend some on pet projects, finally leaving some to pay Dr’s & nurses.
        
        It would be much more sense to let sick people, if they want, to pay a Dr or nurse directly for hospital care.
        
        Just like when my dog gets sick – I pay the vet. Seems to work OK. We seem to treat our pets better than people.
        
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        January 10, 2024 1:38pm
      - OlderChas
        
        I think they only sneer at the MAMILs and virtue-signalling cyclists.
        
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        January 10, 2024 2:10pm
  - Taieri
    
    Fatties impose huge costs on society in extra medical costs, higher consumption and low to zero productivity.
    ————
    
    Low to zero productivity? How did you establish that?
    
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    January 10, 2024 10:25am
  - SoloView
    
    @ NothingLeft
    
    As something to think about I’ve a slight alteration to your comment –
    Given that it’s a self-chosen condition it wouldn’t be unreasonable to limit access to health services to people —- 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗮𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗵𝗼𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀
    ——. Just as hard drug users should have their access to public health limited – they can wreck their health if they choose, but shouldn’t expect taxpayers to pay for it.
    
    (My BMI is under 35)
    
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    January 10, 2024 1:17pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Yeah Ghost, and there are these fat “influencers”. Nothing bad can come from being obese……. and our own Dr Cat Pause (I kid you not) had this to say: “The science isn’t quite as clear cut as we’d like to believe and there’s not really quite a consensus yet about the relationship between weight and health. Obese people, and even morbidly obese people, have just as good health or better health than someone in the normal weight range”. There’s a Tui ad right there.
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12872397/These-four-social-media-influencers-swept-movement-claims-obesity-perfectly-healthy-tragic-truth-died-age-45.html
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:22am
  - Ghost
    
    Yeah. I watched a video last week about a pile of fat influencers who were all dead.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:36am
- BeaB
  
  Or just mind your own business and let people choose their own poison. It never ceases to amaze me how much time some people spend angsting over fat people, pointing them out, seeing them everywhere, expressing their disgust, peering at what they have on their plate or in their trolleys.
  If that’s all you want to see, that’s all you will see.
  
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  January 10, 2024 10:47am
  - julesnzuk
    
    Er, no, Bea. We see them everywhere because they are everywhere, and the worrying thing is that it is becoming normalised. Ever watch film footage of public events in the 1960s? No fat people. When I was at primary school in the 80s the fat kids were rare and stood out, even at secondary school in the 90s – but look at kids now. This is an epidemic – and it’s far more insidious than smoking or even alcohol. What’s happening to children is frankly child abuse. Don’t get me started on the burden on the public health system and the number of diseases that are directly related to obesity. Something must be done.
    
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    January 10, 2024 12:42pm
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  I note with interest the comments engendered by a puff article in a small online magazine quoting one Doctor. Check your sources folks.
  Also please be aware that we all place our own definitions onto words lilke fat (do we mean 10 kg overweight, or morbidly obese (whatever that means))?
  I and many of my generation have carried some excess weight all our lives and although healthy worried constantly about being overweight. Foolishly, in hindsight.
  Morbid obesity is an entirely different matter, often beginning through poor education and diet and ultimately becoming entrenched.
  The ultimate answer is education, not only about health and diet and health but also the 3Rs.
  
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  January 10, 2024 10:56am
- Ra Henare
  
  Another PRO for living in Cambodia.
  buggar all fat people.
  Tourists excluded, mainly fat and Obese Europeans.
  
  and they dont do Woke.
  So its perfectly acceptable to say to someone. You have put on weight!
  Their response, yes I am fat.
  
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  January 10, 2024 1:02pm
peterwn

That Boeing 737 door panel. It was fixed in place by four bolts and these bolts were found loose in similar cases. The issue is why were these bolts not properly restrained especially as bolts on an aircraft will suffer lots of vibration. It seems the issue now is how large would be the payment to passengers and crew members be by Boeing and its subbies.
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January 10, 2024 8:02am
- Simon
  
  Boeing Co is seeking to increase Black U.S. employees throughout the company by 20% and mandate benchmarks for hiring people of color, Chief Executive Dave Calhoun told employees in a memo on Friday reviewed by Reuters.
  
  https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN25O24A/
  
  Alaska Airlines says it has returned some of its grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 jets to service after one of its planes lost a section of fuselage mid-flight.
  
  The airline apologised to those affected, saying an inspection found “no concerning findings”.
  
  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67899564
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:30am
  - Lance
    
    Bullshit.
    The culture of safety first that was a hallmark of Boeing went down the shitter when McDonnell Douglas management ended up in charge after a merger.
    Anyone that complained, raised concerns or was a whistle blower regarding the quality of assembly work was sacked.
    how to fuck up a once great company.
    
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    January 10, 2024 10:14am
  - peterwn
    
    Race of employees not relevant. Mercedes Benz opened a new plant in USA. An unemployed woman applied for a job despite no mechanical knowledge. They gave her some components to assemble, tools and written instructions. She was daunted. Nevertheless she read the instructions and successfully assembled the components. To her surprise she was hired! They told her she had the ability to follow instructions and not take shortcuts etc.
    Anyway if an employee does up a bolt with a hole in it and a castellated nut then it should be pretty obvious that it needs to be secured with a split pin or wire.
    
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    January 10, 2024 10:31am
  - krazykiwi
    
    At a system level using any criteria (race, colour, political leanings, sexual preferences) ahead of demonstrated capability is always going to result in lower quality outcomes. This may not matter much for office cleaning services, but it matters a lot for designing and building aircraft.
    
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    January 10, 2024 10:35am
    - JackRabbit
      
      Virgin Air had an impeccable safety record in Nigeria before they pulled out. They could not compete on prices with govt owned Air Nigeria that had planes falling out of the sky on a regular basis.
      
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      January 10, 2024 11:49am
      - MCōs
        
        Air Nigeria was Virgin Nigeria, which rebranded as Nigerian Eagle Airlines in 2009 and Air Nigeria the next year and folded altogether in 2012.
        A certain amount of jiggery pokery may have been involved
        
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        January 10, 2024 2:14pm
- krazykiwi
  
  One of the items sucked out of the cabin when it depressurised was an iPhone. It fell 16,000 feet and was found before the door itself. This is what the phone looked like. Yes… still working!
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:38am
  - Local Miller
    
    Not sure why everyone gets excited about 16,000 feet. Once a falling object gets close to terminal velocity, the rest of the fall is mostly time.
    
    16,000 ft, about 4.8km, the phone probably reached terminal velocity after a few 100m.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:06am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      True, at that point the height it fell from is irrelevant.
      
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      January 10, 2024 9:12am
    - Local Miller
      
      A small correction for the pedants like myself. An object never actually reaches terminal velocity, it “approaches terminal velocity asymptotically”.
      
      But for all practical purposes at some point the change in velocity becomes so small that we can consider TV to have been reached.
      
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      January 10, 2024 9:22am
      - krazykiwi
        
        And lets remember that terminal velocity is not constant: it reduces as altitude reduces 🙂
        
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        January 10, 2024 10:08am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        I have always wished I had paid more attention to the sciences at school in the 70s. Sadly I went to one of those ‘preppy’ Grammar schools (scholarship) that taught everything by rote. Including Latin ffs!
        
        I can’t learn that way, I asked stupid questions like “why? What’s the point of that? What is that formula/equation used for?”
        
        Was expelled in the 3rd form. Best thing ever happened to me.
        
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        January 10, 2024 10:13am
      - Master Mariner
        
        Basically Gravity with 8.9m/ second.
        Only hampered by resistance to air. Ie surface area.
        Even though recognised, Is Gravity a Force ?
        This is Newtons law that no one fully understands.
        
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        January 10, 2024 2:39pm
      - Michael Sommerville
        
        I would tend to disagree with your “an object never reaches terminal velocity” statement.
        
        My hypothesis is that the object would slow up as it approached ground level.
        
        The air is thinner at higher altitudes – known fact. As the object approaches the ground, the air density increases proportionally with the altitude and therefore the drag increases and the object slows. As we know in aviation, True airspeed v Indicated airspeed is higher at the higher altitudes and so too the momentum. Therefore, in real terms, the speed will reduce as the object gets to ever lower altitudes. Therefore, it must have slowed down and therefore must have reached terminal velocity prior to reaching ground level.
        
        From one pedant to another, Sir, I disagree. 😉
        
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        January 10, 2024 3:06pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        Michael Sommerville,
        
        You are correct .
        That is why passenger aircraft couldn’t have flown into the World Trade Center at 500mph.
        Even if they had enough horsepower to reach that speed in such a dense medium, the wings and tail and fuselage would have parted company from the engines.
        
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        January 10, 2024 4:42pm
    - slijmbal
      
      I would have thought terminal velocity of an iPhone is quite high as it would be narrow edge down and present a pretty small cross section. More likely it relates more to what it landed on and a decent protector. I mean one can drop an iPhone on concrete from <4 feet and it hits edge on and cracks the screen.
      
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      January 10, 2024 12:19pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The panel is a slide fit then positioned with 4 bolts. What is wrong with some threadlock? Or nyloc nuts?
  Back in the old days before dirt was invented, nyloc nuts were known as aeroplane nuts.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:46am
  - cmm
    
    They are castellated nuts and are supposed to be secured with split pins.
    
    Maybe the pins were not installed.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:17am
    - Tricati
      
      Correct – I watched a very good technical piece on line yesterday that showed the fuselage is made by Spirit Aero in Wichita, Kansas then railed to Renton, Washington (Boeing) for assembly. It appears the door plugs are installed at Spirit Aero, but then removed in Renton to allow access for the cabin interior parts/components to be installed.
      As stated above, the plug door is retained by bolts with castellated nuts and spilt pins, so shouldn’t be hard to find out where the error occurred.
      
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      January 10, 2024 9:31am
    - Opie
      
      Not possible – as long as people are sticking to protocols… Any bolt requiring threadlocking be it manual (split pin), interference (nylon, cone lock etc) or chemical will be documented at build and checked off at routine inspections.
      
      More likely its a short cut in design or someone literally not inspecting properly and signing off (criminal charges if so)
      
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      January 10, 2024 9:34am
      - cmm
        
        Yup, people don’t always stick to protocols.
        
        Then pins get missed etc and shit happens.
        
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        January 10, 2024 11:56am
      - Master Mariner
        
        Id hazard a guess and pick, Design flaw.
        It would of been tripple checked before signing off.
        Boeing 737 max.
        Like an above comentator daid, They lost there way once the accountants took over.
        
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        January 10, 2024 2:43pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      I have not seen them. Castellated makes sense.
      
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      January 10, 2024 11:55am
  - Ian Boag
    
    They will have stated torque settings ….
    
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    January 10, 2024 10:39am
    - cmm
      
      The reason for the locking pins is that these prevent the thread undoing under vibration.
      Torque on its own is not enough.
      
      Not only do these need to resist vibration, but also extreme temperature swings. Using torque alone to keep a nut secure is problematic because the bolt and nut will experience different loading (and thus different torque) at different temperatures.
      
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      January 10, 2024 12:00pm
      - Burtland
        
        best check your conrod bearing bolts then
        – big temperature changes, no split pins, no glue, no interference
        just proper engineering
        
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        January 10, 2024 12:49pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Spring washers.
        Alaska Air. There are some extreme temperatures there, yet their summer is just like NZ summer. My partner got sunburnt in 2017.
        
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        January 10, 2024 1:45pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Vibration peter? I flew between Delhi and Jabalpur in India in November last year, and the plane vibrated so much the overhead luggage doors were popping open all the time, and you could see the seat in front of you shaking! I was probably imagining it, but at the time I said to my wife “I think the fuselage is flexing”!!! We were pretty happy to get our feet back on the ground, I can tell you!
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:29am
- NothingLeft
  
  AAs I understand it fasteners on aircraft are generally required to have two methods of retention – eg bolts will have both screws and something to prevent loosening, like metal tabs or lock wire. Something seriously awry with this.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:35am
- krazykiwi
  
  The aircraft in question had generated cabin pressure flightdeck alerts several times over the past few weeks. Alaska Airlines decided to limit it to short flights, and none over water so as to improve options for any emergency landing situation. With the benefit of hindsight they should have removed the aircraft from service pending diagnostic work.
  
  I’m not sure how Boeing operates, but Airbus receives these alerts and can force the operator to ground the aircraft. I know this as I’ve been on an A380 that was grounded by Airbus part way through my journey.. after one engine mount bolt was deposited into the Tasman sea between Auckland and Sydney.
  
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  January 10, 2024 12:23pm
Grunter

The ODT using their PIJF reporter to highlight the racist, woke and useless Otago Uni. Good on the ODT. And not even paywalled. I suspect it’s a mistake. Maybe the Editor is still on holiday?

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/secrecy-shows-%E2%80%98lack-respect%E2%80%99-taxpayers
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January 10, 2024 8:04am
- sungsamning
  
  Its the one time that fund has come up with a useful story.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:31am
- pdm
  
  Don’t worry Grunter.
  
  Robbo will fix it when he takes over as Vice Chancellor or whatever the sinecure he is allegedly seeking at Otago University is.
  
  I will bet he could get the cost of that carving up to $1.5million at least – before GST.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:52am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    his father [ Mod : leave it out. You didn’t get to pick your father either ]
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:38am
  - plc
    
    Yep, those are rookie numbers
    
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    January 10, 2024 11:24am
- Local Miller
  
  Personally, while the statue isn’t something I like, I don’t think $110k is over the top, especially if it includes getting it properly installed. It’s a major carving, I assume in natural wood and would have taken month (at least) to complete. What I do object to is their trying to hide the cost, and the fact that they felt $110k was OK to spend when the university is already under significant financial pressure.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:19am
Opie

Happened to turn my screen around and saw at the top of the kiwiblog page it says Kia ora opie.

Is this a new thing? Or has it been there for ages and I just haven’t seen it?

Regardless, why must I be constantly bombarded with Maori words? I’m just not interested and nor is 90% of the country.

Its the same with the tvnz cricket coverage. It will be almost unwatchable for overseas viewers.

Why do people do this? Will it help 7 Maori kids out of poverty? Will it stop male maoris from being 7.5% of the population but 53% of the prison population?

Virtue signalling nonsense
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January 10, 2024 8:06am
- sungsamning
  
  I think it has been like that for a while.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:31am
- Simon
  
  ” why must I be constantly bombarded with Maori words?”
  
  Its just white noise. If its forced down people’s throats the language will never make it. People will just treat it with the contempt forced top down fake shit deserves.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:38am
- Paulus
  
  I cannot find the place. we hear about on RNZ daily. Motu on any map – is it in the North Island or South ?
  And what is the speed limit there ?
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:47am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Here it is:
    https://www.topomap.co.nz/NZTopoMap/nz3032/Motu/
    
    It’s about 12km N of Matawai.. off SH2.
    
    It did have a cute little cafe/tea rooms… but Covid lockdowns killed it…and I haven’t visited since.
    
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    January 10, 2024 10:05am
    - Opie
      
      Great rally stage back n the day!
      
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      January 10, 2024 5:12pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I would never have seen ‘Kia ora Steve’ if you did not mention it.
  Just stick a bit of insulation tape over it.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:49am
  - pdm
    
    Twink it out.
    
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    January 10, 2024 8:53am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Now an engineering type guy would never have thought of that!
      
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      January 10, 2024 9:03am
    - Jethrod
      
      Wots this twink stuff?
      
      8 0
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      January 10, 2024 9:46am
      - Colville
        
        White paint stuff used for writing your initials on the school desks.
        
        6 0
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        January 10, 2024 11:20am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        And to do your nails.
        
        3 0
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        January 10, 2024 1:55pm
  - Local Miller
    
    Duct tape. Works better than insulation tape.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:28am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Shocking, really. Snowflakes should not be exposed to such triggers.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:59am
  - Aquarius
    
    Nor be exposed to morons
    
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    January 10, 2024 12:26pm
  - Opie
    
    I agree, I would rather bit be exposed to any words in a different language jammed in to what I’m reading/watching.
    
    If I want to learn another language I’ll learn it, but it won’t be Maori
    
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    January 10, 2024 5:14pm
- cmm
  
  It has been there many months.
  It was probably added by wordpress (or whatever the underlying engine is).
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:19am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Bullshit. You really think WordPress changed it from “howdy” to “kia ora”?
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:24am
    - Local Miller
      
      Yup, that part of the web page is almost definitely managed by WordPress on some sort of automated system. It was probably “upgraded” to find the “default” greeting for the country based on the URL country designation (NZ).
      
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      January 10, 2024 9:31am
- Local Miller
  
  Funny, I noticed this the other day as well. Stupid given +90% posters don’t have Maori as a first language, but since I don’t really see it I don’t care. It’s all the Maori that I have to skip over when reading news, etc. and which makes the articles unintelligible that really gets my goat.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:26am
  - julesnzuk
    
    Does anyone anywhere have Maori as a first language? It has no native speakers (at least not in numbers of any consequence).
    
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    January 10, 2024 11:33am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Waititi and his followers?//
      
      3 1
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      January 10, 2024 2:00pm
      - julesnzuk
        
        Doubt it. Many of them may speak it fluently but I strongly suspect it’s as a second language and that they’re native English speakers like the rest of us (and even if they weren’t we’d still be talking about inconsequential numbers).
        
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        January 10, 2024 11:26pm
- Ra Henare
  
  Opie
  Maybe its time you got a life??
  
  All that energy moaning about a greeting that has been common since Muldoon days.
  
  Time to move on and join the real world.
  
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  January 10, 2024 1:09pm
  - Countrygirl
    
    When I was young the greeting was tena koe. Kia ora seemed to me to be a later greeting. Maybe just because I lived in Shannon then?
    Oh I’ve just realised the reference to Muldoon. I was grown up then 😊
    
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    January 10, 2024 2:22pm
    - Colville
      
      You know the great thing about Shannon?
      Its gives people who live in Palmy a reason to be thankful !
      
      4 0
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      January 10, 2024 4:05pm
  - Opie
    
    You want to make this personal?
    
    My life is quite fulfilling thanks.
    
    I pay my taxes, commit no crimes and carry out a productive job every day. I won’t however be bullied or pushed into learning another language that serves no purpose
    
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    January 10, 2024 5:18pm
Clyde

I note that the University of Otago who are heading down the financial tubes faster than a speeding bullet, have been ticked off for not revealing the costs they incurred when commissioning a carved telephone pole which stood on the entrance to the Uni for a year or so under wraps.

Today, the Otago Daily Times have a good editorial (behind a paywall) on the fiasco.

But bigger questions remain. How much taxpayer money has been spent up on making the Uni a “treaty led organisation”? A few years ago the Uni had massive reserves and now they are at their borrowing limit. Go woke, go broke has never been truer.
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January 10, 2024 8:06am
- sungsamning
  
  Its time for the Minister of education to announce that certain woke courses are no longer eligible for Student Loan Scheme funding. Anything with the word ‘studies’ in it for a start. An easy way to save $1.5 billion as required by the Minister of Finance.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:34am
- peterwn
  
  What has come of the suggestion that Robbo would leave Parliament and become Otago’s Vice Chancellor (CEO)? Perhaps no one wants the job.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:48am
  - imalwaysright
    
    He is maximising his time on the parliamentary public tit by coordinating his resignation from Parliament with starting the new uni job thereby being paid by both organisations for the first three months.
    He’s good with numbers when it suits him.
    A despicable shameful stain on this country.
    
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    January 10, 2024 2:08pm
    - Close Hen Counters
      
      Whoops sorry – I accidentally down ticked you by mistake.
      
      6 0
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      January 10, 2024 2:51pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The number of staff is incredible. Could save a lot of Taxpayer money by cutting staff 90%.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:56am
Grunter

The China house of cards continues to fall with this bankrupt Ponzi scheme in real estate. Funny that they call out China as a Ponzi when in fact it is no different to what is happening in all US and EU banks (which own our banks…..)

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/08/zhongzhi-latest-casualty-of-chinas-deepening-debt-and-property-crisis-.html
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January 10, 2024 8:07am
- Simon
  
  lol – CNBC
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:42am
- JimBobJoe
  
  Lol… you are a day late – see yesterdays GD!
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:53am
  - Grunter
    
    I missed that
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:46am
Nickc2

Trump Fires Back!
Exclusive – Donald Trump Recounts How Ted Kennedy Once Told Him Joe Biden Was the Dumbest’ Person in the US Senate’.
Courtesty Breitbart.
IMO, no second opinion was necessary or called for.
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January 10, 2024 8:14am
- peterwn
  
  Sounds like a kettle calling the pot ‘black’.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:51am
- All_on_Red
  
  Trump might have a bit of luck in Georgia, thanks to the help of one of his co-defendants.
  Corruption by the DA and the Special Prosecutor she appointed. The whole case might have to be withdrawn.
  ‘District Attorney Fani Willis improperly hired an alleged romantic partner to prosecute Donald Trump and financially benefited from their relationship, according to a court motion filed Monday which argued the criminal charges in the case were unconstitutional.
  
  The bombshell public filing alleged that special prosecutor Nathan Wade, a private attorney, paid for lavish vacations he took with Willis using the Fulton County funds his law firm received. County records show that Wade, who has played a prominent role in the election interference case, has been paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees since January 2022. The DA authorizes his compensation.’
  ‘Among the salacious allegations and one for which Merchant clearly has the receipts, the special counsel hired by Willis met with the White House in Washington about the Trump RICO case. It provides some evidence that Willis did, in fact, coordinate with the Biden team to take out Trump.
  We know this because the special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, filed for reimbursement and documented a meeting with the White House Counsel about the case.’
  More in the link
  https://pjmedia.com/athena-thorne/2024/01/09/oh-la-la-court-filing-accuses-fulton-county-da-fani-willis-of-sleeping-with-the-help-n4925326
  I still dont think Trump will win the Election though (sorry Steve)
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:00am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    I’d take anything from pjmedia with a very large pinch of salt.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:12am
    - All_on_Red
      
      PJ Media is an aggregator and commentator
      The story was broken by the Atlanta Journal and the article quotes that
      You didnt even read it did you
      What a dick
      
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      January 10, 2024 9:25am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      So? I don’t read any articles on webshites like PJ Media. It’s not impossible for them to post something true, just highly unlikely.
      
      4 13
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      January 10, 2024 10:08am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    So this time Joe will get 100 million votes to make sure of the win?
    Only one thing can stop Trump – assassination, and the Dems are quite capable of doing that. Just ask Killary how.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:20am
  - virtualmark
    
    The person making that allegation wouldn’t make it under oath. So let’s take it with a grain of salt for now.
    
    These allegations sound like familiar Trump tactics to flood the zone with shit rather than engage on the legal facts. So let’s wait to see what evidence is presented in Court.
    
    Trump tends to “win” every case on Fox and social media, but lose every case in Court … because in Court facts matter.
    
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    January 10, 2024 11:01am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Everyone has an opinion. Here is Fran Leibowitz’s:
  “You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.”
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:02am
  - Salacious Crumb
    
    Well Fran obviously had never met Jacinda Ardern.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:07am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Low bar for Trump, you reckon? Or is he the ‘very stable genius’?
      
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      January 10, 2024 9:14am
  - Matt Long
    
    Nice to see your heroes are such intellectual heavy weights Mike.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:14am
    - imalwaysright
      
      23 downtickers disagree with Frannie calling The Great One stupid.
      Democracy has spoken Matt…
      
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      January 10, 2024 5:05pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Yep polling has it are you better now or when Trump was prez, there is a resounding answer of Trump
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:44am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Seriously Mike? At least Trump has built things and employed people and run for office to serve his country. Leibowitz on the other hand has created nothing, employed no one. She has not run for office, and her only real claim to fame is (1) claiming of Reagan “before Reagan there was no idea the president could be stupid” and (2) saying on Maher’s show that Trump should suffer the same fate as Khashoggi. Just another lovey chardonnay socialist that lives the high life and contributes bugger all. Seems to me that any popular Republican gets the same treatment from her (and by the way, she was academically inept).
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:50am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Not denying Trump is stupid then?
      
      3 17
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      January 10, 2024 10:09am
      - Matt Long
        
        Stupid compared to who, Mike?
        
        11 3
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        January 10, 2024 10:29am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Trump’s latest example of wisdom:
        “All I know about magnets is this, give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, that’s the end of the magnets.”
        
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        January 10, 2024 10:29am
      - Cassandra
        
        Trump is not stupid. He’s a lot of bad things but stupidity is not one of them. And he’s achieved more than most of us, good and bad. Mostly bad but he stands a very good chance of being president again. I used to live in Leavenworth, Kansas. My kids used to call the Federal Penitentiary there “The White House”. Prescient at 6 (in 1975).
        
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        January 10, 2024 10:43am
      - Matt Long
        
        Was Trump by any chance talking about electromagnets on an aircraft carrier?
        
        2 3
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        January 10, 2024 12:20pm
      - Mike
        
        Matt
        It seems unlikely to me that Trump would know what an electromagnet is.
        
        0 3
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        January 10, 2024 4:22pm
      - Matt Long
        
        Because the left said GW Bush was a monkey? You remind me of the people who said Henry Ford was an idiot.
        
        1 0
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        January 10, 2024 8:58pm
- virtualmark
  
  After all, Trump is well known for his truthfulness …
  
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  January 10, 2024 12:42pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Nobody has even bothered to downtick you for that. Here’s one from me. Happy New Year!
    
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    January 10, 2024 2:07pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Happy New Year to you too Steve.
      
      Finished with that Prado yet?
      
      1 0
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      January 10, 2024 2:55pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Yes, fucking thing. It fought me all the way. No fun with damaged ulnar nerves.
        Still wasn’t good with a flat spot at 1800RPM, and I’m thinking the timing belt jumped a notch. Finally tracked it down to the MASS Air Flow Sensor. Special clean CRC product and away we go!
        I have more HP now than ever before in the past 8 years.
        
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        January 11, 2024 8:15am
G152

I notice there are no protests against those rockets being fired into Israel and how does Aljazeera find so many ‘reporters’ to find all wrong with Israel and the innocence of hamas.
And the lights are still on and vehicles moving and noone seems to have died of starvation in 3 months
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January 10, 2024 8:17am
- Ra Henare
  
  G152
  … deleted [For someone who doesn’t live here, how about you lay off the abuse of others who do. mod.]
  
  1. Aljazeera readers/watchers are mostly ARABS. They have an English version for the rest of the world. So they report news Arabs are interested in. Just like Stuff writes for lefties and Climate change alarmists.
  
  2. They dont write about the innocence of Hamas but the plight of Palestinians being bombed and the resultant homelessness and disease from rotting bodies and lack of medicine..
  
  3. Lights still on and vehicles moving. You do know that the original tunnels to Egypt were to enable Palestinians to smuggle stuff in to occupied Palestine because Israel wouldnt allow stuff in.
  
  4. What a sad puppy you are looking for people dieing of starvation while apparently ignoring the thousands of bodies and body parts being buried in mass graves.
  
  I guess you dont understand what humanity is.
  Up to you.
  
  Of course you can spit out whatever vile things you like, after all we support freedom of speech
  
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  January 10, 2024 1:28pm
rouppe

A run on water storage tanks in Wellington because of the leaking from the pipes.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-water-crisis-residents-queue-for-tanks-more-restrictions-likely-as-citys-water-shortage-intensifies/TIL75JTAMRC6ZO4J7VKFJ7VO4U/

“We’re monitoring the situation very closely and our management team is meeting weekly to assess where things are at in terms of all the different components and factors that would influence a potential water shortage,” Barker said.

Weekly meetings. How about some crews to fix the problem?

He said the cause of the potential water shortage could be anything from the weather to how the network was operating.

I’m pretty sure the main cause of the potential water shortage is the leaking pipes.
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January 10, 2024 8:19am
- cmm
  
  Water loss rates in Wellington are about twice the NZ average.
  
  If the pipes were better maintained then Wellington could still provide water for double its current population with no extra infrastructure.
  
  But nobody is getting elected based on boring stuff like pipes and potholes.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:23am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    I can’t ever recall any local body politician, anywhere, standing on a platform of fixing or improving infrastructure. Have you ever read the booklets of those nauseating candidate statements?
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:27am
    - Taieri
      
      I can’t ever recall any local body politician, anywhere, standing on a platform of fixing or improving infrastructure.
      ———
      
      Too busy painting rainbow crossings, fighting carbon and doing away with car parks…
      
      13 3
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      January 10, 2024 10:30am
  - rangitoto
    
    Watercare in Auckland aren’t much better. I reported a leak on their side of the water meter with water running into the roadside gutter. It took them over a month to come and fix it.
    
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    January 10, 2024 10:06am
    - Dave
      
      Evidently experiences differ. Because I walk quite a bit, I’ve seen and reported perhaps 6-7 leaks in Mount Albert in the last four years, all fixed in 1-5 days.
      
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      January 10, 2024 3:33pm
    - sirknz
      
      Have a friend who contracts to them. Last time we caught up he mentioned that with all the recent rains we have had, Watercare have too much water and were basically giving it away to wholesale customers.
      
      I think that by the end of next summer we will be looking at the water saving messaging from them again.
      
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      January 10, 2024 4:49pm
  - peterwn
    
    The Middle East has a higher priority for Mayoral attention.
    
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    January 10, 2024 2:17pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Water services, Barker: “He said the cause of the potential water shortage could be anything from the weather to how the network was operating.”
  There is their problem. The man has no clue.
  My brother lives in Wellywood. He reported a leak in the middle of his cul de sac road 6 months ago. It is still spraying up half a meter. The Council put some road cones around it.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:31am
  - imalwaysright
    
    High density road cones Steve!
    Guaranteed not to float away on a current of drinking water.
    Your rates dollar at work!
    
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    January 10, 2024 5:12pm
  - rouppe
    
    I’ve had that. Wellington water prioritise based on the size of the leak.
    
    Go back to them and say it’s gotten worse, and estimate 50-100l/min.
    
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    January 10, 2024 7:54pm
- kiwikidsnz
  
  It’s the middle of summer holidays & break for most people (I’m retired). I live in Wgtn & went fishing early this morning & when I returned to the Evans Bay ramp around noon the carpark was chocker with boat trailers.
  
  Then I found that WCC had turned off all the water supply to the flushing taps & trailer wash…I don’t live far away from the ramp however my guess is that there’ll be a big bunch of p’d off boaties this afternoon.
  
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  January 10, 2024 5:02pm
- rouppe
  
  I wonder how many of those people who bought water tanks have just filled them up from the tap?
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:24pm
Chuck Bird

Did anyone see the documentary on Sky News at 10 pm about the need for nuclear power if climate change is as bad as predicted?
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January 10, 2024 8:21am
- Matt Long
  
  The Green movement has been able to leverage the Climate Crisis into a lot of power and wealth, the last thing they want is a solution.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:08am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    The Greens here and in Oz are stupid. It is a different matter in the UK and Europe. The Greens there support nuclear power generation.
    
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    January 10, 2024 4:48pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Speaking of the Greens
    
    Green MP Golriz Ghahraman stands aside from portfolios after being accused of shoplifting
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/green-mp-golriz-ghahraman-stands-aside-from-portfolios-after-being-accused-of-shoplifting/4W6WIBVHVZA2LBODLNFEEST5B4/
    
    She has yet to enter a plea.
    
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    January 10, 2024 5:44pm
- MCōs
  
  No
  My TV doesn’t pick up Sky News
  I watched David Attenborough, some cricket and The Fugitive, which was good fun
  My wife has steam coming out her ears when the cricket’s on!
  
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  January 10, 2024 11:30am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    SPECIAL REPORT: Going Nuclear – The Clean Energy Debate
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN77CqRfABg
    
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    January 10, 2024 4:58pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    MCos
    
    “My wife has steam coming out her ears when the cricket’s on”
    
    Get some copper pipe coil and wrap it round her head as many times as you can and hook it up to the hot water cylinder . Leave at least one eye uncovered and put the cricket on loop.
    Technically speaking , you now have a nuclear powered generator of heat.
    If she has a meltdown you may not be able to occupy the property for an indeterminate period.
    All the best.
    
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    January 10, 2024 5:21pm
Tony Stuart

An excellent piece in the ODT by Pim Borren, former CEO at Waiariki Institute of Technology. He is optimistic for the future of vocational education in New Zealand with Hon Penny Simmonds as the Minister in charge:

The right person is now in charge of the vocational education sector, Pim Borren writes.
Thank goodness we finally have a minister of tertiary education who really understands vocational education.

Penny Simmonds has always been a modest leader, but she is very well known in the deep south where she single-handedly not only grew Southland Institute of Technology into a remarkable success story, but also pretty much helped save the city of Invercargill to boot.

In Southland Penny is a folk hero. And so she should be. I am not undermining the political leadership shown by Sir Tim Shadbolt, for reviving our largest city in the deep south, but even Sir Tim has always been quick to acknowledge that it was mostly through Penny’s work that we have seen the remarkable community and economic success that has occurred throughout Southland.

Invercargill in the mid-1990s was in the doldrums. Long-term population decline was causing its local GDP to be falling in real terms. Housing prices were equally in decline. To put it bluntly, the ship was sinking and the trend looked like Invercargill and Southland in general were going to spiral downwards.

But Penny became chief executive at Southland Institute of Technology in 1997, a role she held for 23 years. She was creative. She understood the tertiary funding model. For years polytechnics had fought for parity of esteem with universities for equal student component funding.

She understood that first and foremost a polytechnic is a community college. Those are the foundations on which vocational education was built.

It is a model of success. Small community colleges which stayed in touch with the skills needs of their local economy have flourished in diverse economies everywhere, whether in the US, China or India.

She brought in free fees for students and immediately there was an uplift of student numbers. She was ahead of her time in e-learning and started a huge and equally successful model of distance education, competing effectively with the NZ Open Polytechnic.

She understood competition. She understood business. And most importantly, as a true leader she understood how to get the community behind the once struggling institute to becoming the model and template for vocational education success.

She fought the Wellington bureaucrats who wanted everything to look and feel the same (a significant failing of bureaucrats not understood by the previous Labour-led government at their peril).

https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/found-pair-very-safe-hands?fbclid=IwAR3DBck0q83wXZEXRAJFL6HX4u_4uHiqXuc5Wc6hB6qOFIaIgmP6F3U_xag

Penny Simmonds is a very good operator, and she knows the people and issues with vocational education better than pretty much anyone in New Zealand, and considerably more than Chris Hipkins did. I believe that Pim Borren is spot on when he closes his piece saying that the sector is in good hands.
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January 10, 2024 8:22am
- bennerg
  
  I worked under Pim at Waiariki years back, and his comments should be taken seriously.
  
  Sadly later the Polytechnics tried to become universties, rather than focus on the community learning which is most cases was not academic per se.
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:31am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Not so much that, although it was one example of chasing the money. A good example of that would be SIT and others deciding they should compete with the Open Poly by offering cheap, crappy IT courses online.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:29am
- Grunter
  
  Another good ODT article – what’s going on??
  
  OK, I’m now convinced that Editor Paul McIntyre (ex RNZ and Stuff) must be on holiday!!!
  
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  January 10, 2024 8:40am
- Southtop2
  
  Agree Tony – Penny is focused and tenacious. Penny will flush Te Pukenga and hopefully also structurally change education in NZ. We have Uni’s and Poly’s failing and thing must change. I would:
  Stop all Poly’s with a university in their city deliver above level 6 (no degrees)
  Standardize the degrees in the regional polys
  Stop the secondary schools doing trades training past year 11.
  Currently we have ITPs competing with Unis, and ITPs competing with Schools – doesn’t make sense for a country this size.
  
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  January 10, 2024 10:55am
Opie

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/crime/kiwi-spearfisher-kills-gus-the-groper-sydney-s-iconic-blue-fish/

Oops.

Strange because we are constantly told that maoris are the ones to best look after the environment and protect species etc, yet here we are hunting and killing a protected species in someone else’s country.

And then of course once the locals advised him of his wrongdoing he hurled abuse at them.

Nice.

If that was here he would claim he is entitled to fish wherever and however he wants and to say otherwise is ignorant and racist.
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January 10, 2024 8:24am
- Ghost
  
  Nothing to do with his race, he was a fucken idiot.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:18am
  - Ghost
    
    Oh and just to add, it may not be Gus
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/beloved-blue-groper-killed-by-nz-spearfisherman-not-gus-shock-claim/OMVOGHW52FBUVJMIUDOY3HAW4Y/
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:29am
    - Opie
      
      I did wonder how they knew it was a specific fish. Did it wear a name tag?
      
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      January 10, 2024 9:38am
      - Colville
        
        Grouper are territorial. They will live under the same rock for life if unmolested.
        
        I have seen the same Black Spotted Grouper 3 times over a 10 year span at the Poor Knights… about 1.5M long. A mouth you could put your head in!
        
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        January 10, 2024 11:32am
  - kowtow
    
    Race is an issue .
    
    Because as Opie has pointed out the Establishment Elites make out all the time that race matters , in fact they want to make it a central issue to everything.
    
    So if race is a factor in an issue it is only fair that that can be raised , discussed , explored . We are a democracy afterall.
    
    Goose gander and all that.
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:36am
  - Opie
    
    Are you sure?
    
    Are 53% of prisoners from 7.5% of the population just idiots?
    
    Ask the moa if they were eradicated by maoris or idiots…
    
    Show me a “pakeha” doing the same thing and I’ll retract it
    
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    January 10, 2024 9:42am
    - Ghost
      
      I know there is a push on this blog when a Māori comes up in the news, to make it about race. Don’t, it’s vile, you are no different than the Māori party when you constantly push race.
      
      How about you post the articles about the white fisherman or the Asian fisherman in NZ who poach and over fish? No, it doesn’t fit your agenda to make it about race. This is the vile part of kiwiblog, the racist undertow whenever there is something to do with Māori in the news, a racist undertow that does not exist when anyone non Māori does the same things. And instead people like you and kowtow want to claim it’s the elites caused, na, it’s you spouting the racism back. Doesn’t matter what the elite do, you are the ones pushing the racism back, don’t blame their actions for your racist replies, if you are not grown up enough to be above that then own your racism
      
      The people that killed off moa are long dead. But don’t worry we are killing off plenty of species ourselves now around the world https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66923930
      
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      January 10, 2024 10:02am
      - Dudley Quaffquaff
        
        Yup. A Maori does something bad, KB’ers are quick to ascribe it to being Maori. A woman does something stupid – women are stupid. An Asian driver has an accident – Asians are incompetent drivers.
        
        Chris Hipkins is a white man, and there were many things that he did, or didn’t, say, or do, that we disapproved of. But we never, ever said that his words or actions proved that white men aren’t fit for public office.
        
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        January 10, 2024 11:17am
      - Opie
        
        Looks like I reeled me in a big one.
        
        You are too easy ghost, but it’s still fun.
        
        I’ll stop calling out maoris for doing bad shit when everyone stops telling (forcing on) me how great they are and should get prefential treatment over any other race.
        
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        January 10, 2024 11:23am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        @Opie 11.23,
        Good fishing. Do you have a fishing license or just use your customary rights?
        Perfect example of preferential treatment over the other 160 or so cultures in NZ.(sorry, Aotearoa)
        
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        January 10, 2024 2:23pm
    - Paulus
      
      But I still do not know how many Maori there are in New Zealand as the past two Censuses have inadequate numbers who responded and we are not to be told as it is a secret apparently.
      I heard recently that due to various and immigration that the total Maori in New Zealand is about 8.9% of the total population so where does 16% come from that we are told for all recent years that that is the total.
      
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      January 10, 2024 1:57pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        My son is on the Maori Electoral Role (fuck knows why) because my ex-wife is 1/32nd Maori (maybe)
        
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        January 10, 2024 2:28pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIX2nXeKW0M
The Breakdown of the Republican Coalition (Trump’s Fault?) || Peter Zeihan.
Trump can’t win. Take it to the bank -;)
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January 10, 2024 8:27am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Seems there are more RINOs than originally thought. Not crooked enough to run for the Democrats so they bullshit their way into the Republican Party. So Trump is fighting them too, and he will win.
  The media are not showing the size of his support at rallies.
  Media accusing him of not attending debates. They just want Trump away from the Courts and crooked Judges.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:59am
  - sungsamning
    
    I think Mr Zeihan takes some positions in order to keep the speaking gigs coming. Nobody will disinvite him for saying ‘Orange man bad’.
    
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    January 10, 2024 3:54pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2Z5JlC_SeI
Seymour 1 RNZ 0.
In this video I respond to the debate between ACT’s David Seymour and RNZ’s Mihingarangi Forbes.
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January 10, 2024 8:27am
- Grunter
  
  Barely a debate – RNZ doesn’t do debates. The interviewer, if you can call the that, was pathetically lost and hopeless. I think Seymour realised that and got out a few statements and gave up on a proper debate.
  
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  January 10, 2024 1:45pm
- OlderChas
  
  I wonder if Forbes will ever invite Seymour back to her ‘show’ lmao.
  
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  January 10, 2024 2:30pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    It is a show? Who knew?
    
    4 1
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    January 10, 2024 3:32pm
  - sungsamning
    
    The Minister of Broadcasting could easily save the requested $1.5 billion by deleting ‘news’ and ‘current affairs’. After a while New Zealand’s collective IQ would rise a few points.
    
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    January 10, 2024 3:56pm
kowtow

Yesterday someone here posted that Plod don’t use disproportionate force against innocent people.

I disagree . Throughout the west police have been politicised and weaponised against open democratic society .

We saw it here during lockdown.

Watch this from Canada. A trumped up and false arrest of a Rebel news reporter.

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2024/01/08/watch-trudeaus-police-arrest-rebel-news-reporter-for-asking-a-question/
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January 10, 2024 8:53am
- Local Miller
  
  The post wasn’t about innocent people, it was about people of colour. The contention was that police response was much more strongly impacted by the behaviour of the public than personal opinion. As a general rule this is still true.
  
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  January 10, 2024 1:15pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

I had to laugh. Listening to the BBC’s Climate Question wrap of 2023 (ex RNZ), a question was asked as to what percentage of global energy is solar.

Guesses by the panelists ranged from 30 to 50%.

The correct answer is 3% (12% of electricity, which is 20% of energy usage).

Cue much wailing and rending of clothes by said experts.

Me, I can’t understand how “experts” can be so ignorant of the basic facts. I hope they reflect on the effort & cost required to move the needle on solar.
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January 10, 2024 8:54am
- Blog-aholic
  
  If they are ignorant of basics, they are not experts. Simple.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:22am
- cmm
  
  How much of the reliable (dispatchable) energy is solar?
  Zero.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:26am
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  I’ve begun asking friends, when chatting, for data to support statements. For example yesterday a discussion about rest home subsidies and non subsidised costs (Sad, I know.) I asked if anyone knew what proportion of those in rest home care are govt subsidised and how many pay for themselves. No-one knew but amongst us, with 4 deceased parents who had been in rest homes, all were paying the whole cost.
  We have the impression that all ‘elderly’ have wonderful lives in retirement villages, actually it’s around 10% of the over 70s.
  My point is to always look for the underlying data. News media and promotional material always spin the truth.
  
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  January 10, 2024 11:18am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Early nomination for 2024’s #MeToo award.

RNZ report on SH potholes being dangerous for cars. Up pops the cyclists’ self-appointed spokesman, who adds that pot holes are dangerous for cyclists also.

The fact that cyclists would be unwise to pedal at speed on a state highway seems to have escaped him.
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January 10, 2024 8:58am
- Paulus
  
  My recent pothole crunch cos $720 to replace the tyre.
  
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  January 10, 2024 2:20pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    $720 for a cycle tyre?
    Shit, I can get a Bridgestone AT 265.65.16 tyre set for $1200, on my Prado.
    
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    January 10, 2024 3:37pm
wisteria

And Erica Stanford might like to have a close working relationship with her too.
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January 10, 2024 9:03am
- pdm
  
  `Her’ being Penny Simmonds I presume.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:33am
Matt Long

Looks like at least some the fascists regard themselves as Socialists.
“He claimed that the UK Labour Party was pursuing policies of “international socialism”, while fascism’s aim was “national socialism”.[48″
Oswald Moseley Wiki. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Mosley
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January 10, 2024 9:18am
- cmm
  
  The Nazis and Italian Fascists were definitely socialists.
  
  The word facist comes from fascine (or something like that), meaning a bundle of sticks – ie a collective, ie. socialism.
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:34am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    The fasces are a symbol of authority, hence adopted by authoritarians.
    
    4 9
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    January 10, 2024 9:59am
  - Cassandra
    
    cmm: you are totally wrong. Rods bound to an axe, a symbol of Roman Imperial authority. Nothing to do with socialism. And the Nazis didn’t own anything – Krupp etc did. The only thing socialist about the Nazi Party was its name and its desire for control.
    
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    January 10, 2024 11:03am
    - Che Guava
      
      The notion that control is only exerted in a “socialist” system is just silly. It betrays a kind of thinking that I will unpack for you.
      
      Without exception, there has always been the few who are in control the many. The only variable is whatever label that is put on the system of control.
      
      If there is a society, control of it is sought by any group who, when they achieve control, ipso facto become an elite in that society.
      
      We have an elite who controls us: they do it through the justifying ideologies of “liberal democracy” “capitalism” or “individualism.” Ultimately, there’s always someone at the top of the heat steering society.
      
      You are living in a system of control right now, just as much as anyone else throughout history. It’s an inescapable socio-historical fact. The distinction comes in the form of the effect that a system of control has on society: there is no reason why control must be deleterious to those who live in a given social order, but it often is. It really depends on the moral character of the controlling parties.
      
      To a greater or lesser extent, those living in modern technologically advanced society are controlled by advertising and by popular culture (i.e. what you think and believe), the financial system (i.e. what you can do) and the liberal tenets that delineate the “acceptable” bounds of thought and action. The fact that you probably don’t even realise the extent to which you have so little true agency and are being directed shows how effective the mechanism is. It has become the more ubiquitous and total to the extent that the state of technology has allowed it.
      
      Covidmania gave us a sustained look behind the curtain, and it has woken many people up. This should have dispelled any lingering doubts.
      
      Ultimately, you cannot truly be free until you start to appreciate that you are effectively a slave who is convinced that they are not.
      
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      January 10, 2024 1:33pm
- Che Guava
  
  The difference between “national” socialism (fascism) and “international” socialism (Marxism) is significant. The mode of socialism determines its “leftness” or its “rightness,” not the socialism itself.
  
  The confusion comes from the contemporary but false definition of “the right” which has replaced the former denotation that existed pre-1945: “right wing” (in its original meaning) isn’t egalitarianism, free markets, individualism and low regulations – that is liberalism. “Right wing” used to denote instances like absolute monarchies, the Roman Empire, Hindu caste systems, or, yes, National Socialism – hierarchical and illiberal.
  
  We commonly hear from people who don’t know what they are talking about that “Mussolini (etc) was a socialist, therefore he was a leftist.”
  
  If anything, when socialism from the left (Marxism) was seen to be a failure, many Marxists turned to socialism from the right (fascism, national socialism). What was the difference? Marxism was an abstraction (“the New Soviet Man” grounded in the idea of the “perfectibility” of man – a deeply liberal idea – where the most important distinction was between classes: completely superficial and not a principle on which to structure society.
  
  Fascism was much more concrete and based on something perennial to mankind and something around which the people can actually coalesce – tradition, race, nationality (“blood and soil” in other words). That is, the antithesis of “internationalism” and “the new man.”
  
  WW1 proved that the nation was the driving motivating factor, not class – rich and poor fought and died alongside each other, because they were (generally)of the same race and from the same nation.
  
  This is Hitler on the distinction between National Socialism and Marxism:
  
  “Socialism is an ancient Aryan, Germanic institution. Our German ancestors held certain lands in common. They cultivated the idea of the common weal.
  
  Marxism has no right to disguise itself as socialism. Socialism, unlike Marxism, does not repudiate private property. Unlike Marxism, it involves no negation of personality, and, unlike Marxism, it is patriotic.
  
  We are not internationalists. Our socialism is national.”
  
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  January 10, 2024 11:26am
ClanMcleod

Love this, classic Greenie. Man bun/pony tail, ‘manly’ beard. Decides to take action against the German farmers protest and tries to tow the tractor away with his (presumably) environmentally vehicle.

https://x.com/Phillyb60192622/status/1744809209278132294?s=20

I don’t have to spell out how this turned out. To say it made my morning would be an understatement. 😊
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January 10, 2024 9:20am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Not too bright that boy. No towbar so he used lashing eyes and shit binding straps.
  But hey, at least he was on camera for his girly-men mates to see!
  
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  January 10, 2024 10:17am
cmm

Out of touch city people….

OMG!!! Imagine the trauma if a child sees a dead possum!!!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/133537926/three-dead-possums-and-a-roundabout–the-disturbing-story-freaking-out-a-christchurch-suburb
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January 10, 2024 9:42am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  “just left there like garbage”
  They are a pest!
  Bet this silly woman does not take her kids near the supermarket dead animal meat section.
  
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  January 10, 2024 10:24am
  - OlderChas
    
    She wanted to give them some dignity. So she walked back to the roundabout from her home in her pyjamas. Very dignified!
    
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    January 10, 2024 2:34pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      She’s all class!
      
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      January 11, 2024 8:20am
rangitoto

Car window? Must be a first.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12941871/Alexander-Rybin-Russian-war-journalist-dead-roadside.html
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January 10, 2024 9:55am
Tauhei Notts

I have been reading a bit about Britain’s Post Office Horizon IT Scandal, and I am confused.
If any whizz on this site can give us a succinct summary of what went wrong and how come it took so long to be sorted, I would appreciate it.
I get the impression that it is a huge information technology fuck up. I had been told many years ago that anybody can have a mess up BUT that it is impossible, unless you have a computer involved, to have a fuck up.
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January 10, 2024 10:00am
- mikenmildagain
  
  The post office had a faulty computer accounting system. Despite knowing this, senior executives chose to pretend discrepancies in funds were the result of deliberate fraud by sub-postmasters. Many were prosecuted, and some imprisoned, for imaginary crimes.
  Succinct account here:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Post_Office_scandal
  
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  January 10, 2024 10:12am
  - Tauhei Notts
    
    Mikenmildagain,
    I have very critical of many of your posts in the past, but in this instance you are brilliant.
    Thank you.
    
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    January 10, 2024 10:55am
  - Martonman
    
    Well worth watching the ITV mini series Mr Bates V Post Office
    
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    January 10, 2024 7:03pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  This might be of some use? I’m not completely au fait with the finer details though, just looking into it myself.
  
  https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/my-14-year-fight-for-the-cruelly-mistreated-sub-postmasters/
  
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  January 10, 2024 10:21am
- slightlyrighty
  
  https://youtu.be/d4UYP8JP61A?si=cqyKMZ_t_Dl_hUtG
  
  There is a 4 part Docu Drama that ITV has just broadcast in the UK. I’ve watched 3 of the episodes last night.
  
  It’s a shocking story. 4 Sub-Postmasters have killed themselves over this.
  
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  January 10, 2024 10:53am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  There’s more to come:
  
  A public inquiry into the scandal has been under way since February 2021, and will resume on Thursday following a break over Christmas.
  
  Fujitsu – the Japanese technology company that manufactured the Horizon system – has been invited to answer questions from MPs next week.
  
  The Business and Trade Select Committee says Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake has confirmed he will attend the evidence session on 16 January.
  
  Paula Vennells: Ex-Post Office boss handing back CBE over IT scandal
  
  https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-67925304
  
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  January 10, 2024 10:59am
  - Jack5
    
    How Fujitsu got involved with British post offices … it’s to do with its takeover of the UK computer firm ICL in the 1990s:
    
    https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61020075
    
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    January 10, 2024 11:47am
    - Jack5
      
      Update:
      
      1. Gareth Evans, who as a senior computer engineer at Fujitsu designed the Post Office system, is demanding immunity before agreeing to appear at the public inquiry.
      
      2. Paula Vennells, the former Post Office chief executive who presided over the scandal, says she is handing back her CBE
      
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      January 10, 2024 1:56pm
- kowtow
  
  TN
  
  This scandal has been in the news for quite some time .
  
  It has always been reported but has got no real traction until now , after a tv series !
  
  Mr Bates v The Post Office.
  
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  January 10, 2024 11:00am
- Spring Bank Westie
  
  Watch out for the 4 part Miniseries Mr Bates vs. the Post Office and the documentary with the same name plus “The Real Story”. Very well done.
  
  We watched it last week while in Australia, and GB News were commenting on the latest updates at the same time, so even though this has been going on for years it seemed like it was all unravelling in real time.
  
  Latest report we saw was that the Metropolitan Police were considering fraud charges against the Post Office, and there were calls for the Post Office CEO at the time to be stripped of her CBE.
  
  Fujitsu seem to be getting off lightly at this stage, but I suspect that they will be thrown under the bus by the PO and will struggle to get more major contracts from the British government.
  
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  January 10, 2024 11:04am
Surely Knott

Article about Anglican Church lodge tripling rent and Winz not providing more customers who need housing as they’re al unhappy about the impacts of homeless , mentally unwell, and parolees on their local shops. Tough luck. Shouldn’t Parnell take thei fair share of people with social problems? Aren’t churches given charitie status exempt from tax because they do this work of providing support to the troubled souls. Not charging commercial rates for inner city to run an inner city hotel.
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January 10, 2024 10:28am
- peterwn
  
  Prior to Covid the business owner (who leased the land off the Anglican Church’s Auckland General Trust Board) ran a fairly upmarket guest house. Covid drained his business. The Board reached out and offered ground rent relief but the business owner did not provide accounts and other information for the case to be assessed. Seems he then lodged homeless people referred by WINZ but for whatever reason that business dried up (perhaps the number of people requiring emergency accommodation has diminished. It is not the job of the Trust Board to run charitable operations, indeed if it did it would become hopelessly conflicted. The Anglican Diocese provides welfare via the Auckland City Mission and other channels.
  The fundamental problem is the business owner made poor decisions. It seemed he grossly underestimated what would happen to ground rents four years and then 11 years after he purchased the business, so he sunk $1.5M into a business and has nothing to show for it after 15 years. Indeed he now owes the Trust Board about $1M. He would have been better off if he had walked away from the lease at the first sign of serious trouble (the Trust Board would probably released him from lease obligations then). Also when he was facing impending disaster he seemed to take no realistic steps to deal with it – he seemed to be almost on another planet, for example he thought he could walk away from the rent review arbitration. He tried to sell the business but prospective buyers did due diligence and found the figures did not stack up. If he had done proper due diligence when he purchased the business he would come to a similar conclusion. Whoever he purchased the business from would not have believed their luck (just like when Air NZ purchased Ansett).
  
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  January 10, 2024 3:01pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

https://stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/media-corruption-set-to-continue-here-is-why/
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January 10, 2024 10:46am
krazykiwi

Dr Antony Fauci, the evil narcissistic gnome, is currently being roasted by the US’s House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

“Dr. Fauci’s testimony today uncovered drastic and systemic failures in America’s public health systems. While leading the nation’s COVID-19 response and influencing public narratives, he simultaneously had no idea what was happening under his own jurisdiction at NIAID. Dr. Fauci signed off on all domestic and foreign research grants without reviewing the proposals and admitted that he was unaware if NIAID conducted oversight of the laboratories they fund. Clearly, the American people and the United States government are operating with completely different expectations about the responsibilities of our public health leaders and the accountability of our public health agencies.

It is also concerning that the face of our nation’s response to the world’s worst public health crisis ‘does not recall’ key details about COVID-19 origins and pandemic-era policies. Nearly 1.2 million Americans lost their lives to a potentially preventable pandemic. I look forward to asking Dr. Fauci further questions about mandates, his role in prompting the ‘Proximal Origin’ publication, and his policy positions related to masks and lockdowns. Tomorrow’s testimony will continue the Select Subcommittee’s effort to deliver the answers Americans demand and deserve.”

I fear he’ll get away with his stonewalling, and selective memory but a government change in November should see him stripped of his federal protection team whereupon I expect him to flee the US.
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January 10, 2024 10:52am
- Grunter
  
  So far he has answered more than 100 questions with the same answer….
  “Sorry, I don’t recall…..”
  
  Maybe he will be the next President – they seem to elect fools with dementia.
  
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  January 10, 2024 1:53pm
Chris Nisbet

I heard on the news that every single day last year was at least 1 degree C warmer than the same day 150 years ago. This is nonsense of course, because we have no idea what the daily temperature of the globe was 150 years ago (and the idea of it doesn’t even make a lot of sense now), but they were reporting this as though it’s a bad thing that we’ve been warming at a rate of about 0.01C/year since the depths of the little ice age.
Me, I tend to think of how much better life is for us all now that we’re all a ittle warmer.
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January 10, 2024 10:55am
- A Nonny Mouse
  
  So it is warmer now than during the “little ice age” in which the Themes regularly froze over.
  
  Huh – who’d have thought?
  
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  January 10, 2024 11:35am
- NothingLeft
  
  +1°C is the same as moving about 130km north in NZ (temperature change in temperate zone of southern hemisphere is 0.86°C/degree latitude), which of course most people would quite like.
  
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  January 10, 2024 11:37am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Which is what people do, which is one reason why NZ’s population is concentrated north of Taupo
    
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    January 10, 2024 4:54pm
- Grunter
  
  And all that pesky extra CO2 – feeding our plants and making them grow faster!! We should tax the polluters…….!//
  
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  January 10, 2024 1:56pm
  - cmm
    
    Wait for it… Plant obesity.
    
    All that extra CO2 will make the plants fat and that’s our fault.
    
    Thank goodness for the Fat Studies people who assure us that’s not a problem.
    
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    January 10, 2024 4:07pm
- peterwn
  
  Even 150 years ago temperature and weather records would have been kept at various sites (eg botanic gardens) and records maintained. A clergyman kept daily records of the level of Lake Taupo in the 1800’s and these records helped the assessment of hydro electricity on the Waikato River. Do not underestimate technology of the 1800’s where there were people with enquiring minds who were great problem solvers.
  
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  January 10, 2024 5:50pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/133541132/swiss-tourists-fined-bikes-confiscated-after-cycling-the-tongariro-crossing
Two Swiss tourists incur the wrath and weight of NZ Law .
But if they were Mongrel Mob bikies blocking highways and disrupting thousands, not a peep would be heard.
Typical life in NZ these days.
30 2
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January 10, 2024 11:21am
- Inandout
  
  grey, they were disrespectful to the toanga ($$$$) of the esteemed tongariro track. Also MM don’t ride pushbikes, too taxing.
  
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  January 10, 2024 11:28am
- Jack5
  
  The caption of the photograph says: “the two tourists were disrespectful toward the sacred taonga”.
  
  FFS! Not damaging the environment, but disrespecting the “sacred taonga”.
  
  And this is enforced by taxpayer-funded DOC!
  
  Can tourists find such hokum anywhere else apart from Saudi Arabia and New Zealand?
  
  Oh that’s right, Saudi Arabia is opening up its tourism. Public beheadings are gone, and who takes bikes to Mecca?
  
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  January 10, 2024 11:33am
  - rockape
    
    I thought they were looking at using the skiing resources for mountain biking in summer ?
    
    6 1
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    January 10, 2024 1:09pm
- Colville
  
  Cops have no choice. Allow them to get away with it and its on YouTube next day and every piece of Lycra wearing scum is trying to do it.
  Just put boots on and walk it FFS!
  
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  January 10, 2024 11:37am
- kowtow
  
  yep , “low hanging fruit”.
  
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  January 10, 2024 11:56am
Jack5

Big gold strike in Central Otago.

But the Aussie mining company’s talking about including cyanide-leaching recovery.

I don’t know if it’s been used in NZ, but it’s potentially drastic on the environment.

Otago gold strike:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/9-billion-central-otago-gold-discovery-largest-in-four-decades/65Z2Z25KERG7RLKALQUXVOT3I4/

A Green view of cyanide leaching:

https://earthworks.org/issues/cyanide/#:~:text=Cyanide%20is%20highly%20toxic%2C%20and,supplies%20and%20harmed%20agricultural%20lands.
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January 10, 2024 11:24am
- nz_aj
  
  2.3g/t is not low grade by modern standards.
  Cyanide has been used at Waihi since 1988, I don’t recall any problems there. https://www.waihigold.co.nz/environment/environmental-management/cyanide-and-acid-drainage/cyanide/
  This is certainly a good news story for NZ.
  
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  January 10, 2024 2:43pm
- Lance
  
  I was on a ‘robust and resilient electronics industrial design’ course a while back.
  A real example was on site slurry pump control at an open gold mine in Australia that used Cyanide-Leaching.
  It was important the system was relaible as to go out to the pumps was so dangerous, due to the toxic environemnt, full sealed suits had to be worn (like Astronauts suits).
  Bugger that
  
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  January 10, 2024 2:51pm
  - cmm
    
    Perhaps it really is that dangerous, but perhaps not.
    Often safety gear is way OTT. Just look at how they dress people up for asbestos.
    
    A fatal dose of cynide would seem to be around 1.5mg/kg, so call that 120mg for an 80kg person.
    
    If the stuff is being used at 2.3g/ton then you’d need to eat 50 kg of the treated slurry to get to a fatal dose.
    
    Of course if there is a spillage etc then it would be more concentrated, but still…
    
    Seems to me that pretty minor PPE is all that is needed.
    
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    January 10, 2024 4:02pm
    - Jack5
      
      My only experience with cyanide in gold extraction was a visit to heap leaching at a Queensland mine.
      
      Cyanide solution was continuously sprayed on heaps of crushed ore. Drains led to collection ponds for processing and re-use.
      
      Mine managers were emphatic about strict control measures they met.
      
      Regardless of true levels of any danger, this type of mining is highly likely to encounter a fight with Green-led locals. The Otago gold is close to booming tourist areas.
      
      Here’s an incident of leaking from cyanide leach mining on Indian tribal land in Montana. I think this is the case where it polluted the drinking water of the town of Zortman in the 1980s:
      
      https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/fbf427f8ad474999a5d82c184afdc27e
      
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      January 10, 2024 11:32pm
greybeard

In August 2019, Waka Kotahi changed the order of its name to emphasize its Māori language name “Waka Kotahi.” The logo was also changed to reflect this change of order. Kane Patena was appointed the first Director of Land Transport for Waka Kotahi from 1 April 2021.
I’ll bet that they have spent more money ( i.e. wasted more money ) on the rebranding, advertising, maori language lessons, etc than they have done on fixing the potholes since that time.
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January 10, 2024 11:29am
- Jack5
  
  The web site of the outfit includes this on Patena:
  
  “Kane’s extensive senior leadership experience includes his role as General Manager Strategy and Governance at Wellington City Council, where he played a key role in building the Council’s partnership with iwi.”
  
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  January 10, 2024 11:37am
- Inandout
  
  grey, 10 more days before the debating chamber awakens.
  
  6 2
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  January 10, 2024 11:37am
  - peterwn
    
    Yes, Chris Luxon is back in Wellington today and Cabinet meets Monday. The ‘100 day’ tasks need to be completed.
    
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    January 10, 2024 5:57pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  How much do you want to bet?
  
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  January 10, 2024 11:46am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    FWIW, for you to be confident of winning a bet you would need to show that Waka Kotahi spent over $2 billion on ‘rebranding, advertising, Māori language lessons, etc’ per year.
    
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    January 10, 2024 11:53am
    - Jack5
      
      Take a bet with a troll? 😄😁😂😂
      
      16 3
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      January 10, 2024 12:10pm
NothingLeft

Ray Epps, Man who got very busy trying to encourage people to enter the Us Capitol building on Jan 6 2020 has been fined $500 and given a year of probation and 100hours community service.

In contrast to multi year sentences being handed out to people who were less active on that day, and some who weren’t even there, that’s about as clear a declaration as is possible that he was a Federal agent, and that the ‘insurrection was a substantially manufactured event by Democrats/’deep state’ through their control of FBI and DOJ and agent provacateurs in their employ.
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January 10, 2024 11:41am
- newview
  
  Maybe a little more proof required than you have offered otherwise just another conspiracy theory.
  
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  January 10, 2024 2:30pm
ClanMcleod

There’s a short monologue talking about the current crop of protesters plaguing the planet with mindless monotony.
I’ve said for a while, they are basically beige nonentities with nothing in their lives. They hate themselves and have zero ambition, they despise anyone who looks happy or successful.

This monologue says it way better than I ever could. Worth watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5kLB2q7Dow

No, the Wellington protest was a completely different beast.
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January 10, 2024 12:31pm
Swifty

Nice.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12943829/social-worker-suspended-gender-belief-wins-landmark-claim.html
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January 10, 2024 1:23pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Woman assaults woman at a roundabout.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/01/woman-reportedly-pulled-from-car-assaulted-for-some-minutes-in-gutless-auckland-road-rage-attack.html

We are told the race of the victim
the attacker got out of the Commodore and “began to punch the Asian woman in the white car through the driver’s window”,

but there is no mention of the ethnicity of the attacker.

Is this deliberate?

Are we meant to think that the Asian driver deserved the bash…. because…as we are told:

the victim appeared to be “driving slowly and cautiously”?

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2024/01/woman-reportedly-pulled-from-car-assaulted-for-some-minutes-in-gutless-auckland-road-rage-attack.html

Anyone got any other idea as to why the race of the victim is mentioned here?
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January 10, 2024 1:36pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  At least they decribed it as gutless…..
  
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  January 10, 2024 1:39pm
- JFAP
  
  To be fair to Stuff, which is not something I enjoy being, “Asian” was used by an eyewitness and was not part of the reporter’s own text. Therefore there’s no need for the reporter to comment on the ethnicity of the perpetrator. But it would be good to know . . .
  P.S. I love your posts, Maggie.
  
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  January 10, 2024 2:23pm
  - JFAP
    
    Whoops. Sorry. It was Newshub I needed to be fair to!
    
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    January 10, 2024 3:14pm
  - Biscuit
    
    I truly detest the use of ‘Asian’ in pieces like this.
    
    Last time I looked, 4.75 billion of the folk on this planet are ‘Asian’.
    
    A group that includes, oh, everything from Arab to Chinese to Indian to Malay to Japanese. And many other ethnicities in between….
    
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    January 10, 2024 4:02pm
  - cmm
    
    I bet the eye witness also said fuck & (inaudible) a few times too, but they managed to clean that up.
    
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    January 10, 2024 4:10pm
- MCōs
  
  ‘Asian’ is not a race or an ethnicity for that matter
  
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  January 10, 2024 2:23pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    ‘Asian’ is used heavily in England as a euphemistic cover by sensitive bureaucratic apologists to hide crime by west asian muslims (mostly pakistani), who have a culture that permits them to treat infidels atrociously. Eg all the ‘asian’ grooming gangs of 10 years back – lumping them in with indians, thai, vietnamese, chinese etc. But everyone in England understands the game being played.
    
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    January 10, 2024 3:58pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Oh, thanks for the reminder….///
    
    Please feel free to inform our Academics:
    https://www.ehinz.ac.nz/indicators/population-vulnerability/ethnic-profile/#:~:text=70.2%25%20European%20(3%2C297%2C860%20people),%25%20Pacific%20peoples%20(381%2C640%20people)
    
    and Stats Department
    https://www.stats.govt.nz/tools/2018-census-ethnic-group-summaries/
    
    etc, etc.
    
    (I think I’ve made it clear enough on a number of occasions that I consider the concept of race as applied to Homo sapiens sapiens to be a crock).
    
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    January 10, 2024 4:00pm
    - MCōs
      
      Ethnic group is not ethnicity
      It’s just a convenient way of lumping, in this case, those indigenous to one of multiple Asian countries together
      Ethnic Chinese are not ethnic Iranian for example, but they are Asian
      
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      January 10, 2024 4:46pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        It’s just a convenient way of lumping,
        
        Indeed…but to what end?
        
        You would have thought after all the eugenic /ethnic disasters of the 20th Century that we could have advanced beyond the desire to lump folks into groups based on ancestral origins.
        
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        January 10, 2024 4:55pm
  - Biscuit
    
    Oops, MCōs, I hit ENTER on my post without espying your point.
    
    100% with you there….
    
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    January 10, 2024 4:03pm
- nz_aj
  
  Either don’t open your window and lock your doors, or get out before before your vehicle is approached.
  I can only hope that Singapore justice is introduced
  
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  January 10, 2024 3:00pm
  - MCōs
    
    $SGD1,500 ($NZ1,800) fine for jay walking
    
    Bit harsh
    
    4 0
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    January 10, 2024 4:50pm
  - peterwn
    
    Males over 50 and females are not sentenced to that traditional Singapore punishment.
    
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    January 10, 2024 6:10pm
- thirteenstars
  
  Similar to a story I heard on the news this morning:
  
  A man standing on the jetty off Oceanview Parade was approached by another man and his two sons.
  
  The first man was subsequently assaulted by the second man, and at one point was thrown off the jetty and held underwater, the police spokesperson said
  
  The nature of injuries led to the victim being hospitalised.
  
  Police would like to speak to anyone who may have witnessed this incident or who has phone or CCTV footage of the incident and/or the offender.
  
  Police are now searching for a man who is approximately 2 metres tall, with a solid build.
  
  He has waist-long dreadlocks, held back with a black cloth, full sleeve tattoos on one or both arms, and was wearing a white singlet, black shorts and jandals.
  
  They seem to have a pretty specific description of the assailant yet no ethnicity is given, and regardless of which ethnicity he is, it is a pretty important part of the description.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/crime/man-thrown-off-jetty-and-held-underwater-in-vicious-new-plymouth-assault/OUIW67EIBJGNRCSRNESNYCHP6U/
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/506368/man-thrown-off-a-jetty-and-held-under-water-in-attack
  
  Same on the Police website:
  
  https://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/information-sought-following-assault-new-plymouth-0
  
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  January 10, 2024 3:30pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  The headline stated that a woman was attacked, but you had to read several paras down before her assailant was referred to as ‘she’.
  
  A reader less diligent than myself might have come away assuming the assailant was male.
  
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  January 10, 2024 4:59pm
- wilderbeast
  
  You’re onto something there. It used to be common to describe assailants as for example “a Maori or Polynesian approximately 5’ 10” with facial tattoos” but no longer because I suspect the allegation is “institutionalised racism”. Shaming victims and treatment of Asians in NZ on the other hand….
  
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  January 11, 2024 5:42pm
Damocles11

‘Former National Minister Alfred Ngaro, his wife, his son, his brother and his nephew have all been cleared of assault claims made by a sibling, Cook Island police have revealed.

A police spokesman told the Herald no charges were being pursued as there was a lack of evidence.

Ngaro was initially interviewed by police after a family feud allegedly turned violent as the coffin of his late mother was being carried into her Pacific Island home last week.’
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January 10, 2024 1:54pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  Who’d have thought given the MSM put the boot in quite deep over this as he was once upon a time long ago a — wait for it—– National MP……..
  
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  January 10, 2024 2:54pm
- Lance
  
  I await the MSM grovelling appology for the deliberate smear on the National Party….
  
  //Sarc
  
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  January 10, 2024 2:54pm
  - MCōs
    
    Let’s not look for any opportunity to be outraged
    
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    January 10, 2024 5:29pm
Biscuit

Things to be grateful for thus far in 2024:

My name hasn’t (yet) appeared on any List of Shame to do with Epstein Island

Ratana and/or Waitangi haven’t yet happened

Liverpool are still on top of the Premier League

Great fields (the Telegraph, surprisingly, excepted) for the first day this Saturday of the Wellington Racing Club’s 2024 Cup meeting

The All Blacks are now unbeaten for over 100 days
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January 10, 2024 4:36pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Yes Biscuit, but you’re keeping fairly quiet about your invitation to the wedding of the weekend.
  
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  January 10, 2024 5:01pm
  - Biscuit
    
    Heh heh, NMTB…
    
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    January 10, 2024 6:36pm
Tasman devil

Imagine if a Green MP was investigated for theft from a woman’s clothing boutique.

I think the reaction would be Golly G!
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January 10, 2024 4:59pm
- newview
  
  Golriz and Tory. Green peas in a pod.
  
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  January 10, 2024 5:44pm
- Hollyfield
  
  To me, the most interesting part of the Herald article is:
  
  “In a statement, a Green Party spokesperson said the party was “aware of allegations regarding MP Golriz Ghahraman” and was in contact with Scotties Boutique to “better understand and address the situation”.”
  
  The Green Party wants to “address the situation”. Why? How? Surely it is up to the Police to investigate whether this happened or if it was an error and the accusation is not founded. And if there was some kind of misunderstanding, mistake or forgetfulness it is up to the individual to contact the shop and pay for the items in question. I do applaud the Green Party for taking swift action with the MP while this is being investigated, but getting involved directly with the shop sounds dodgy.
  
  Also funny that the Herald brought into the article that the shop is “in the electorate of fellow Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick.”
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/green-mp-golriz-ghahraman-stands-aside-from-portfolios-after-being-accused-of-shoplifting/4W6WIBVHVZA2LBODLNFEEST5B4/
  
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  January 10, 2024 5:49pm
  - newview
    
    Hollyfield of course I’m stirring a bit here but equally if there is genuine questions that need answering the Greens or any other political party for that matter are going to try and shut it down. I’m enjoying this because the greens generally push their supposed high moral values as being superior. In their own minds of course. We know how the media would react if it were a National MP. Let’s see what eventuates.
    
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    January 10, 2024 7:28pm
wilderbeast

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/weather-hottest-day-of-summer-recorded-in-canterbury-auckland-to-see-high-humidity-return/

The National Institute of Atmosphere and Research and Newstalk between them claim that the hot weather will make Aucklanders “cry for mercy” and “even Dunedin will hit 28*C” amongst other hyperbolic statements.

Actually Dunedin’s hits 28*C in an average January and went as high as 36*C in 1981. Auckland, where the NIWA chap claims 27-29*C is “certainly noteworthy” gets into that range in an average January.

But yup, it’ll be hot, it is January after all!
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January 10, 2024 5:01pm
- thirteenstars
  
  NIWA is certainly leading the climate alarmism in NZ and such emotionally-charged statements are not appropriate for scientists.
  
  That said:
  
  “Brandolino, who is with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa), said: “For Cantarbians, for example, the upper 20s is a warm spring day; in Auckland, 27C, 28C, 29C is certainly noteworthy.” ”
  
  That’s true. South Island temps get far hotter than those in the North save parts of the east coast. It also gets far colder. The upper north tends to have very consistent warmth and very mild nights combined with humidity that the SI rarely sees.
  
  But it’s all perfectly normal.
  
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  January 10, 2024 6:00pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Have you noticed that so many weather spokespersons simply do not possess many years of lived experience of NZ weather?
    
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    January 10, 2024 6:37pm
    - thirteenstars
      
      Good point. Being born in England’s green and pleasant land does not exactly prepare one for the warmth of NZ or its vicious sun.
      
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      January 10, 2024 6:54pm
    - wilderbeast
      
      Very good point. NIWA is increasingly staffed by young, foreign trained meteorologists who are here five minutes before they are rolled out to lecture Kiwis on the vagaries on NZ weather. I’m not sure what happened to the meteorology school at Victoria University….
      
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      January 11, 2024 5:44pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Burn!

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/506410/green-mp-golriz-ghahraman-stands-aside-from-portfolios-after-being-accused-of-shoplifting
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January 10, 2024 5:06pm
- thirteenstars
  
  Seen online:
  
  “From the river to the sea, designer clothing will be free”
  
  Explain the shoplifting, then explain the designer clothing choices, then the lead-by-example justice spokesperson bullshit.
  
  It could only get better if Swarbrick was fencing the stuff for her at the Otara Market.
  
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  January 10, 2024 6:58pm
  - thirteenstars
    
    The irony thickens. Turns out Ghahraman’s malfeasance was within Swarbrick’s electorate.
    
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    January 10, 2024 7:42pm
Bernard Black

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/green-mp-golriz-ghahraman-stands-aside-from-portfolios-after-being-accused-of-shoplifting/
Paywalled but apparently when Golriz is not busy hugging Hamas she is busy shoplifting
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January 10, 2024 5:08pm
Swifty

What the hell has Golriz been up to?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/green-mp-golriz-ghahraman-stands-aside-from-portfolios-after-being-accused-of-shoplifting/4W6WIBVHVZA2LBODLNFEEST5B4/

I sincerely hope this is all some sort of misunderstanding, if she in her position is tea leaving from shops, I presume there is some sort of sickness involved – but hell, if it’s true then that’s one hell of a downfall isn’t it? Especially as she has for years constructed a political career on her occupying all sorts of moral high ground, lecturing to us all how flawed and failed we are and how we must all do better.

But at least we don’t pinch from hard working shop keepers!
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January 10, 2024 5:08pm
- MCōs
  
  To quote Lance above
  “I await the MSM grovelling(sic) appology(sic) for the deliberate smear on the Green Party”
  
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  January 10, 2024 5:37pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I presume there is some sort of sickness involved
  
  I’m not making excuses for her… but MS is a nasty disease.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300374149/golriz-ghahraman-i-was-told-by-a-doctor-to-be-rational-when-trying-to-get-a-diagnosis-for-multiple-sclerosis
  
  I’ve known a couple of folks afflicted with this disease and for at least one of the sufferers, her behaviour was sometimes (? often) irrational.
  
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  January 10, 2024 5:46pm
  - Swifty
    
    Yes, that was in the back of my mind.
    
    Oh well, we’ll see how it all develops I guess.
    
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    January 10, 2024 5:52pm
  - thirteenstars
    
    Problem is, Maggy, how many other MS and similar sufferers have not done likewise, and how many have been in such highly-placed positions?
    
    And if such diseases excuse such behaviour–or at least provide some emotionally-charged political escape mechanism–should she even be in such a position? She sits on committees, holds portfolios, makes highly-charged statements in the house about her opponents, yada-yada.
    
    I had a father and sister who were severely tested by and died with MS, so I have some close experience, but I can’t recall such accusations being made towards them, they being regular folks without hypocrisies to indulge.
    
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    January 10, 2024 7:10pm
    - newview
      
      I agree. I have a sister who is severely affected with MS and the only noticeable difference in behaviour is the irritability that comes with periodic exhaustion. Golriz may have a medical reason if these allegation’s are true but doubt it’s the MS.
      
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      January 10, 2024 9:29pm
Maggie Pie

Just packing up the Q7 and heading back tonite.

My partner’s mum just txt…..

“Iranians, Mexicans, they’re all the same. You can’t trust any of them”
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January 10, 2024 5:08pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Golly!
  
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  January 10, 2024 5:20pm
Inandout

Alleged.
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/politics/green-mp-golriz-ghahraman-stands-aside-from-portfolios-after-being-accused-of-shoplifting/
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January 10, 2024 5:10pm
- Prince
  
  Expect this to be spun as political activism.
  
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  January 10, 2024 6:07pm
rockape

Shoplifting from a store the offender had shoulder length dark hair, olive skin and of slim build. When challenged she said, “ don’t you know who I am “.
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January 10, 2024 5:10pm
- Mobile Michael
  
  When interviewed by Police, she said she had to as an MPs salary of $160k per year plus free travel, phones, internet, rent and everything else isn’t enough to survive on.
  
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  January 10, 2024 5:22pm
- Swifty
  
  Did she blame poverty?
  
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  January 10, 2024 5:23pm
  - Biscuit
    
    All of the Green Members of Parliament pay a tithe towards Party funds, Mobile Michael, so maybe GG is struggling on what’s left from the salary you cite….
    
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    January 10, 2024 5:52pm
  - Rich Prick
    
    Materia has already played the poverty card. I believe it can only be pulled once.
    
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    January 10, 2024 10:43pm
- sht1971
  
  Not sure if I am incensed more by the ‘alleged’ shoplifting or the fact it is a high end store stocking goods that probably go against green ethics…
  
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  January 10, 2024 5:26pm
  - Inandout
    
    sht, it does however have green stuff growing on the shop frontage.
    
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    January 10, 2024 5:43pm
  - Hollyfield
    
    I’d never heard of Scotties Boutique but after reading your comment I had a look at the website out of curiosity. The most expensive item is a black dress that looks like a large sack with smaller sacks for sleeves for the bargain price of $6995.00, from a brand established by Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen (of “Full House” fame).
    Or a Greens minded person could shop from the recycle section (ie secondhand) if the budget runs to only $1500 or less.
    
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    January 10, 2024 6:05pm
Tasman devil

Sense of entitlement is ok in NZ…… if you shoplift in Iraq your hands are amputated.
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January 10, 2024 5:37pm
Fisiani2

She should apologise and resign
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January 10, 2024 5:42pm
Jethrod

Golly Moses!!!!!
Holy chimoly
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January 10, 2024 5:53pm
Jethrod

Golly Moses!!!!!
Holy chimoly!!!
Watch an 1800 news!!!
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January 10, 2024 5:54pm
Jack5

https://www.emojisky.com/desc/3215318 TVNZ news tonight was practically inciting revolution against the new, democratically elected Government.

Underpants Morgan holding forth, a train load of Maori to go to Wellington to lean on Parliament, a swag of Maori legal challenges, and a reporter warning the Government has “serious problems”.

The State’s TV network cannot accept the people’s democratic choice. Can the network be saved, or should it just immediately be sold?
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January 10, 2024 6:27pm
- Jack5
  
  TVNZ 1, Jack5 0 …
  
  Sorry, I was trying to start that post with an appropriate Hammer and Sickle emoji.
  
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  January 10, 2024 6:41pm
- rouppe
  
  You need an “img” tag which is blocked probably to prevent bad actor injection
  
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  January 10, 2024 9:18pm
- Rich Prick
  
  Ummm, the highest court is in fact Parliament. They’re barking up the wrong tree.
  
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  January 10, 2024 10:38pm
fernglas

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/301037886/coroner-reinforces-water-safety-messages-in-report-on-2018-rangitkei-river-death
Why does it take a Coroner 6 years to release a report on a simple drowning? I know they have a backlog, but that is ridiculous.
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January 10, 2024 6:32pm
Hollyfield

Samoan artist shows support for Palestine in unique flag design.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/talanoa/samoan-artist-shows-support-for-palestine-in-unique-flag-design/LK77A3LP6VBE7KPLAIMAMYTGBQ/

His Instagram post says:

“From the river to the sea!”
Palestine will be free!

And then quotes Emma Lazarus: “Until we are all free, we are none of us free”.

This last sentence is something I’ve heard Israelis say over the last 3 months when talking about the hostages that Hamas kidnapped, so I googled Emma Lazarus. I wonder if the Samoan artist (as the Herald describes him) is aware that he is quoting a Sephardic Jew who also wrote the famous poem “The New Colossus” inspired by the Statue of Liberty and the plight of refugees to New York who had fled antisemitic pogroms in eastern Europe, (“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Lazarus
https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/colossus.htm
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January 10, 2024 6:40pm

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