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EveryTrail – Find the best hikes in California and beyond
Went to Arrowtown and Glenorchy yesterday. Arrowtown is lovely and did a quick 5 km walk alongside the Arrow River, which is above. Lots of people out enjoying it.
Then headed back to Queenstown and down around Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy.
A sunbathing platform out from the wharf.
The view across Lake Wakatipu.
Glenorchy itself. Not a lot to do here, but a few cafes and some great views. Worth a visit.
The Greens want NZ to print more money, on their orders. Labour wants the Reserve Bank to print more money – but on its own initiative under new targets they will set. So who are the wnners and losers from quantitative easing. The Telegraph reports:
Saga, the pensioner lobby group, has claimed that QE has contributed to a 9pc drop in real incomes among the over-50s since early 2008. And the Bank has conceded that the beneficiaries of QE have been the investor classes while those relying on income have suffered
So the victims of QE are pensioners and employees basically. So much for the left standing up for the working class!
So who does well out of QE?
Last year saw a resurgence of some of the biggest and best-known hedge funds in the world, according to the latest figures collected by HSBC.
Crispin Odey, the boss of Odey Asset Management, generated 26.6pc returns at the end of November, turning his flagship fund around from a heavy loss of 21pc in 2011. Lansdowne Partners, the London-based fund that correctly forecast the banking crisis in 2007, made 16pc on its $6bn equity diversified fund and 14.8pc on its global financial fund.
So QE is great for hedge funds. The currency speculators will also have a field day from speculating on exactly how many new dollars a left Government would print.
But how about aspiring home owners? Labour tells us they want more affordable housing.
The Bank has pumped £375bn of money into the economy since the start of its QE programme in 2009, while central banks in America and Japan have unleashed hundreds of billions of dollars in a radical global bid to jump-start the economy. The effect has been to boost the price of assets, from equities to houses, and reduce gilt yields, according to analysis by the Bank.
As someone who already owns a home and has a few equities, I could do very well out of QE. But couples saving for their first home are likely to get clobbered as their income will be devalued, and house prices will increase.
It looks like there will be an agreement to avoid the so called fiscal cliff. That is good in the short term for Americans, but the deal looks like it will do little to reduce the deficit – which is why such an unpalatable fiscal cliff was designed – to force the President and Congress to make their own steps to reduce the deficit.
AP reports:
The contours of a deal to avert the ‘fiscal cliff’ are emerging early today (NZ time), with Democrats and Republicans agreeing to raise tax rates on family income over US$450,000 a year, increase the estate tax rate and extend unemployment benefits for one year, officials familiar with the negotiations said.
That side of the deal seems like a reasonable compromise on both sides. In reality come 1 January all the Bush tax cuts had expired anyway, so for the Republicans they are no longer voting for any tax increases – they are just voting for what tax cuts to reinstate. There is a significant difference. They can not get the numbers to reinstate all the tax cuts – so the tax side of the compromise seems okay.
But with a midnight deadline rapidly approaching, both sides were at an impasse over whether to put off automatic, across-the-board spending cuts set to take effect on January 1, and if so, how to pay for that. Democrats want to put off the cuts for one year and offset the so-called sequester with unspecified revenue.
The Republicans are proposing just a three month deferral of the spending cuts. I think a year delay means they will never get agreement on a sustainable plan to reduce spending, so the US Government can live within its means. They need the pressure of a looming deadline.
Greg Ansley at NZ Herald reports on some interesting Australian views during the US and NZ stand off on nuclear ships.
“Several Nato and Asean countries have said to us that, while disturbed by New Zealand’s policies, they regard the Americans as having over-reacted and as running the risk of creating a ‘laager’ mentality in New Zealand,” it said.
This is basically correct. The NZ policy was wrong, yet the US reaction was over the top.
Canberra did not accept New Zealand’s belief that it was not affected by a global superpower threat and that regional security did not require a nuclear capability.
With more than 40 per cent of its combat ships nuclear-powered – and “almost all would assuredly be nuclear-capable” – the US could not be expected to maintain two navies, one for global security and another for regional stability.
A fair view.
The Cabinet was reminded that the (former) Soviet Union was trying to gain a foothold in the Pacific and had turned New Zealand’s policies to its propaganda advantage.
The USSR was delighted by the anti-nuclear policy. It weakened the western alliance, and gave them hope the West would crumble. As it turned out, it was the USSR which crumbled as it was unable to keep pace with the West.
I’m in Wanaka from 2nd to 5th or 6th of January and it seems Wanaka is one of those places easier to get into than out of.
They have no rental car agencies, and there is only one flight to Christchurch a day, costing $400!
There is a bus service to Christchurch, but I have a loathing of travelling on long distance buses.
So the purpose of the post is to see if any readers happen to be travelling from Wanaka to Christchurch around the 5th to 7th of January and have a spare seat?
Failing that my Wanaka hostess has said she will lend me a piece of cardboard and a mini-skirt so I can show some leg off and try and hitch a lift! think we can agree that is a scenario best avoided.
David Fisher at NZ Herald reports:
David Bain’s first defence lawyer has emailed Justice Minister Judith Collins to say that, in his opinion, his former client had made a “damning admission” which in his view “shatters any suggestion of innocence”.
The email was sent by disbarred lawyer Michael Guest to the Minister of Justice on September 10, just weeks after she received a report from retired Canadian Justice Ian Binnie saying Mr Bain was “factually innocent” and should be compensated.
Mr Guest’s email became a factor in the decision to have Justice Binnie’s report peer reviewed. On September 26, Mrs Collins wrote to retired Justice Robert Fisher saying Mr Guest’s email, concerns from the police and her own issues “led me to consider that I need to proceed to this peer review”.
Mrs Collins confirmed the link to the Herald, saying it added to concerns raised by herself, the police and the Crown Law Office.
Mr Guest claimed in his email he was prompted to contact Mrs Collins after reading reports Mr Bain had been found “innocent”.
In a personal email, Mr Guest expressed his view to Mrs Collins which stated “finding that [Mr Bain] is innocent is not a correct conclusion”.
Mr Guest claimed he was freed from client confidentiality because of an earlier waiver by Mr Bain. He said he was concerned because neither he nor his co-counsel had been interviewed by Justice Binnie as part of the inquiry.
I would have thought that was sensible to do, even if you didn’t treat his views as determinative.
The claims focus on whether Mr Bain was wearing his mother’s glasses the weekend before the murders – the frame was found in his room and a lens in his brother Stephen’s room.
Mr Guest said he was told by Mr Bain he had been wearing the glasses. He said Justice Binnie could have found a way to take a different view on the evidence about the glasses “but, in my opinion, it shatters any suggestion of innocence”.
There seem to be two main possibilities. Either David Bain told the truth to his lawyer Guest, and later lied about it.
Or David Bain has always denied wearing the glasses the weekend before the murders, and his former lawyer has invented the story.
I understand this story was first reported on Monday in Truth. Their website may have more details later today.
Truth has put online the documents released under the OIA. The letter from Police listing the errors in Binnie’s report is very detailed.
Elle Hunt at Stuff reports:
Travel websites have reported significant growth in searches and bookings for New Zealand this month, after the worldwide release of The Hobbit.
The flight search website Sky scanner.com recorded a 102 per cent increase in worldwide searches for flights to New Zealand this month compared with December 2011, including a 117 per cent spike in searches for flights to Wellington.
The foreign currency exchange group Travelex has reported a 26 per cent increase in pre-orders for New Zealand dollars compared with December 2011.
Air New Zealand bookings from the United States were reported to have nearly doubled on the day before the November 28 world premiere in Wellington, and increased by a third in Japan after a Hobbit promotion there.
Excellent. Let me tell you that travel industry people in Queenstown still rage about how certain groups and individuals tried to sabotage The Hobbit. And no I don’t bring the issue up.
And The Hobbit continues to dominate at the box office. Total revenue to date has been US$686 million. It currently makes up 38% of all box office revenue in the United States.
So who do people think will win the Halberg Awards? The finalists are:
Sportswoman of the Year:
My heart says Lisa Carrington but my head says Lydia Ko. Golf is a more universal sport than canoeing, and being the top ranked amateur at age 15 is amazing. All four nominees are worthy finalists.
Sportsman of the Year:
I think probably Mahe Drysdale?
Disabled Sportsperson of the Year Award:
Can only be Sophie.
Team of the Year:
I think Murray and Bond would be favourites.
Emerging Talent:
Ko.
Coach of the Year:
Probably Gordon Walker I’d say.
Make your picks below.
Two alarming things in Fiji. First:
A Fiji democracy advocate who posted on Facebook that “living in a military dictatorship sucks” was raided before dawn today by police demanding he delete his public postings.
Pita Waqavonovono told Stuff that three uniformed police officers visited him at his home at 4am and told him to take down his anti-regime Facebook messages.
The regime seems focused on suppressing dissent, rather than making progress towards democracy. Even worse is this Radio NZ report:
Constitution Commission chairperson, Yash Ghai, who was appointed by the interim government, was reportedly abused by the police as he tried to intervene at the printing shop the week before last.
A senior military officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mosese Tikoitoga, told the Fiji Times they stopped the printing of the 600 copies because the documents’ distribution by the Constitution Commission is illegal.
However, a commission member, Peni Moore, has confirmed that the draft document will be released on its website within the next few days, after earlier versions were distributed via the internet.
So why is the regime trying to suppress the proposed draft constitution? Because it doesn’t keep the military as the unelected overlords of Fiji.
Radio Australia has fuller details of the Police action.
Stuff reported:
The new constitution’s explanatory notes said it ”emphasises that the military does not have any role as a guardian of the constitution or conscience of the nation”.
It said the military’s role was to protect the country ”from external threats” and was under civilian control through the elected parliament.
The post of president will no longer be termed ”commander in chief” and security force members must not obey manifestly illegal orders.
”But it is of particular relevance to the military, especially in a country with a record of coups,” the notes said.
A manifestly illegal order ”includes carrying out a coup”.
The new constitution also said there would be no justification for a coup and warned no immunity would be granted for any coup.
But it contains a continued immunity for Rabuka and now Bainimarama, both of whom could face treason charges under previous constitutions.
Immunity would only apply to people who take an oath which says that they accept the sovereignty of the people.
This is how it should be, and must be. I agree with the immunity for past actions – however the coup culture must come to an end. It is a basic human right for people to be able to elect and sack a Government.
[There are NO spoilers here: we all know the story of The Hobbit].
I took Domestic Goddess to see this last night. We watched the 48 frames per sec 3D version (there are three options) and this is the way to go, although 3D gives some people a headache. I loved it, there is no going back, and 3D/48 is the future (like talkies and colour TV). The future is full immersion with the audience ‘inside’ the movie using 360 cameras (now achievable) and being able to shift yourself about as one of the characters with different perspectives (10 years time?). I have already seen this done in live theatre with wrap around screens, projection and live performance.
Far o’er the Misty Mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.
I WAS STUNNED. This is the best cinematic experience I have ever had. Peter Jackson is brilliant. I’ve had occasional doubts about him (Lovely Bones) but this proves (or reproves) he is a true genius and can do anything with film. I have no hesitation calling him the greatest filmmaker and story-teller alive. Guillermo del Toro (Hell Boy, Pan’s Labyrinth) also a great director, was originally hired to direct, but moved on after the union delays. I am so glad Jackson was hands-on here to complete the tale in his characteristic style. Hobbit #1 is another stunning classic in the canon of film and will forever be the crossover movie into 48 frames. Andy Serkis (Gollum) managed the second film unit, so establishes himself as a close Jackson colleague, having starred in many Jackson productions.
Sequel Syndrome Challenges
Telling The Hobbit on the tail of LoTRings is a daunting task. Most sequels flop or arrive as re-hashed re-grooves. But The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a completely new experience, with a different but complementary ‘feel’ to LotRings. It is doubly awkward, because it comes before LotRings, so Jackson is working backwards with characters and plot. He fleshes out the Shire and Rivendell more within their contexts. Gandalf is more wizened here and quirky (less the austere all-powerful wizard) and a maia with much more personality and obvious weaknesses. There are five mysterious maiar in Middle-Earth: Gandalf the Grey, Radagast the Brown, Saurman the White and two unnamed others.
Pace
The movie starts slowly as narrative, but this is fine, as we spend 20 minutes establishing rich characters (Bilbo and the dwarves). Jackson fleshes out the Hobbit dwarves more deeply as a people (tinkers, tailors, toy makers, their lust for gold, their vulgarity and stubbornness) in contrast to the lithe gracefulness of the elves. Hob1 is perfectly paced, with action, back story, flashback, and appropriately placed drama roller coasters. One is never bored.
Characters
Martin Freeman (Bilbo) channels Ian Holm (Bilbo in LoTR) to create a seamless transition between the two actors. Ian Holm is in this too, as the older Bilbo in the first 20 minutes, along with Elijah Wood as Frodo to establish the latter’s connection to the earlier story, when in the book he is not present. Freeman is perhaps best know to us from The Office (UK). I was dubious about his casting at first, but he is fantastic. Hugo Weaving returns as Elrond and Cate Blanchett as the magnificent Lady Galadriel with gorgeous dresses.
Thorin II Oakenshield, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, King Under the Mountain has a nemesis. Azog is a pale, scarred orc captain who rides a warg, visceral and threatening, like some zombie SS Einsatzgruppen at work in Poland. His son Bolg features later in the Hobbit story.
Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield (so-named after fighting Azog with a real log of oak) is perhaps a little pretty for me here, with his Jesus eyes; he also sounds very like Boromir which I found distracting. I would have cast him more bulbous-nosed, stumpy and war-scarred (not Fabio meets Conan). Bombur looks like a cartoon Obelix, but otherwise the dwarves are brilliant, with Mark Hadlow of Christchurch the dwarf with plaited white hair. Jackson captures the essence of Tolkien’s dwarves, with their Celtic livery, accents and roguish lustiness. I love their head-butting greeting. They are best characterized as a dwarfish army in a flash back to a great battle with the orcs, where we witness classic Tolkien epic brought to visual extravaganza. The allusion of the dwarves to the Jewish Diaspora is obvious (which I have written on elsewhere) as well as the adoption of Jewish mythical “golem.”
Barry Humphreys (Dame Eda) unrecognizable as the Goblin King is brilliant with his hideous neck goiter. His voice and dialogue is gripping, and ghastly, evoking chilling isolated terror of being caught down there in his kingdom with nowhere to go, in the hands of some psychopathic serial killer who will kill you long and slow. Ugh. (“Be good children, or the goblins will get you!”). His demise by Gandalf is apt. The variety and design of the goblins is great. I loved the messenger goblin with deformed feet on a flying fox. The goblins (small orcs) with their long ears are well characterised (if moving a little too quickly for my eyes). I would have preferred more medieval hoods and armor much like they were portrayed in Labyrinth (David Bowie) but this is Jackson’s style.
Gollum is a real star in this, and obviously should be. His character and schizophrenia are crafted more and he is portrayed a little blacker than in LotRings and slightly more dangerous, perhaps with the added confidence of having his Ring. The riddle scene with Bilbo is critical and Jackson carries this off. There is a gut-wrenching scene where Gollum has lost Precious (after 500 years) and is arched, gasping desperately at the water’s edge, lamenting the loss of his everything and all.
I don’t know what happened to Christopher Lee’s Saruman in this movie, he is pallid and ordinary, like a school headmaster lecturing a student on his way to a fancy dress party.
Special Effects CGI
The special effects are amazing, but 48 frames a second is unforgiving and a few fakes are evident.
However, the covering of horses in wool and packing them out to make them seem like little ponies as the company ride out of the Shire is brilliantly convincing. I am not a huge fan of CGI. Most CGI creations move too quickly, to mask the limitations of the technology; I would have liked the orcs and wargs to slow down a bit so I can take them in. The underground dwarf kingdoms contrasted with the ramshackle maggot labyrinths of the goblins, also underground, are among the most startling special effects and cinematography of the film (and rival LotRings) are gob dropping in their sweep and creativity.
Jackson does well to restrain Smaug in Hobbit #1; we get only tantalizing glimpses, and never a full view, but enough to evoke the terror and power of this Fire Drake from the North, of which more later.The three stone trolls are brilliant and just how Tolkien wrote them. I enjoyed this episode for its humor and fleshing out trolls more as viable creatures with personality rather than as mindless oxen of LoTRings.
Gawihir Windlord and his wonderful giant eagles are again the cavalry hooray factor, and they play across the other star in this show, New Zealand, with gorgeous sweeping vistas and landscapes (no need for CGI here). Jackson uses visual hyperbole: precipices drop not hundreds of feet but thousands, toppling trees hang inches from chasms, destinations lay on horizons swathed in mist, etc.
Drama
There are moments of real dramatic pathos here, although the film lacks a romantic element (like Arwen and Aragorn) hinted at only slightly by collegial affection between Galadriel and Gandalf. The two moments that stand out for me, are:
1) BIlbo invisible with the ring on about to stab Gollum through the throat, who cannot see, but senses the hobbit. They stare at each other full of loss, hatred, desperation, fear, loathing, compassion all-in-one. This evokes the central line of the movie, spoken by Gandalf at the beginning, “true courage is to know when not to take a life” obviously setting up Gollum’s critical role in the whole long epic. Frodo confronts the same crossroads. Bilbo’s insight and compassion are moving, a lesson to us all.
2) The second scene is similar, as Thorin and Azog eye each other up in the dramatic forest burning scene. Thorin heir of Durin marches magnificently towards Azog through fire, like the Terminator, to avenge his fathers, a gripping moment of goody vs baddy that ends not quite as you expect.
Weak scenes
A few implausible scenes that bordered on the annoying rollicking of Tintin:
1) Toppling down in to the goblin tunnel that no one would have survived. Not one compound fracture; are dwarves made of concrete?
2) The collapsing platform inside the goblin kingdom with everyone onboard, after mass slaying of goblins, is too Indiana Jones. We need plausibility to create real terror throughout the epic. If they survive anything, it becomes ho hum. Good fantasy is ‘real.’
3) The Stone Giants scene was a bit slo. mo. Transformers for me, and the characters hanging on to them as Ragnarock is played out, might have been best edited out of the movie. Although, how can you omit the Stone Giants smashing mountains?
Myopic
Somewhat contradictory, I still enjoyed the Disney-esque rabbit Santa sleigh of Radagast the Brown. He is a wonderful character, and adds breadth to Gandalf’s valar order. Radagast played by Sylvester McCoy (the 7th Dr Who) is reminiscent of Catweazel played by Robin Davies. I especially enjoyed the assault on his quaint dilapidated forest cottage by large shadowy spiders, a hint of things to come. He adds real humor while contrasting completely the sinister yet mysterious Necromancer in the ruined tower (the Witch King of Angmar returned) that preoccupies Galadriel so much.
There is no Jackson cameo here, that I could see. Also, Radagast is using Gandalf’s staff from the LotRings movies. I don’t know if this is significant to later Hobbit films, or whether it was an unnoticed prop share between the actors (unlikely). So watch for that in Hob#2.
Music and Title Lettering
Light reflecting across uneven (ie handmade) brassy title lettering in Tolkien script, tick. Theme sung by Neil Finn, excellent. I liked how Jackson sub-titled his movie “An Unexpected Journey” about 20 minutes in, the dual titles and how they fitted with LotR three sub-titles was always going to be problematic. Jackson’s ability to chop visual story-telling into related and coherent chapters is one of his strengths.
Length and How to End Hob#1?
I wondered how Jackson could spin this out across three movies, but he achieves this admirably. Hob#1 is a coherent self-contained movie in its own right, but obviously part of a whole. It has its own drama (fights, the riddle episode, the three stone trolls, the burning forest, the goblin kingdom) and we await so much more: Beorn, the Battle of Five Armies, Smaug, Dale, the Lonely Mountain. This is such a rich and deep tale that it can easy stretch three movies (good on New Line Cinema for agreeing to that).
But how to end Hob#1? I wondered as we drew to a close how Jackson might do this. I won’t spoil this for you, but let’s just say it is a genius segue to LotRings but using the context of the Hobbit with an eye for detail. Nuff said.
This was so good I would go back the next day and watch it all again. Enthusiastic 10/10. I recommend 3D 48 frames version (take your glasses to save $1).
Looking forward to Hobbit #2 next Christmas.
BASIC STORY for the Uninitiated: Hobbit #1
He finds a magical invisible-making ring, the possession of Gollum for 500 years.
The Fairfax gallery team put up 20 political predictions at the start of each year. I like that they are game enough to do so, as events can be hard to predict.
They have scored their 2012 predictions and got 126.5/200. Their best prediction:
3. Former forecaster Brendan Horan will prove to be NZ First’s own weather bomb.
Soothsaying at its very best. The embarrassing allegations about his use of his dying mother’s money, and his expulsion from NZ First speak for themselves. He was the party’s weakest link, goodbye. We thought it was worth a good 10/10 but the auditor gave a generous 12.5/10 noting it was “luck bordering on genius”.
A good call indeed. Balanced with:
17. NZ First will pick former North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams as its deputy leader.
Winston Peters is still teasing that an announcement will be made “soon” but after a year we are still waiting so . . . 0/10
I think they will annoint one in 2013, and it will be Tracey Martin.
In Queenstown for New Years, staying with a friend. The last time I was here, I had the nonovirus and spent it in the bathroom of my hotel room. So far, has been much more enjoyable this time.
On Saturday headed to Milford Sounds on the Milford Sound Select Bus. Not normally a big bus person, but this was a great trip. The driver was superb – knowledgeable and friendly, and we had lots of stops for photos.
<a Lake Wakatipu just out of Queenstown.
On the road from Te Anau to Milford. Spectacular field. They must have shot some movie scenes here at some stage.
The hills reflected at Mirror Lakes.
Note the way the sign is written so it only makes sense in the reflection.
A field of lupins.
One of the many bush covered valleys heading into Milford Sound.
A small waterfall.
At one of the stops, there was a kea. He happily walked around in front of everyone and then without concern, jumped up onto a car behind and started nibbling at the rubber around their window.
Mr Kea then jumped onto the roof for an even better perch.
The lower end of the mighty chasm.
And the upper end. Not a place to try going over in a barrel!
At Milford Sound, we went out on a boat. It was pretty wet but the seals didn’t mind.
A bit of rain on the lens, but still a nice shot of the greenery that grows on often sheer cliff faces there.
Advancing towards the falls.
And then the boat approaches them head on and pushes the bow just under the falls, nicely spraying those of us up on top.
Was a great day. I’ve been to Milford Sound a couple of times before, but it never gets old. Has reinforced my determination to do the Milford Track in the next couple of years.
On the bus trip back to Queenstown, they played The World’s Fastest Indian. I’d not got around to watching it previously. Was a very appropriate film to view in Southland.
The full list is at DPMC. Two new Dames.
DNZM
To be Dames Companion of the said Order:
The Honourable Justice Judith Marjorie Potter, CBE, of Auckland. For services to the judiciary.
Ms Wendy Edith Pye, MBE, of Auckland. For services to business and education.
Potter has a distinguished legal career. Dame Wendy Pye’s honour is well deserved. Her education business (yes how evil – a private company making money out of education) has helped illiterate children learn English around the world (and here), and has also been an export earner for New Zealand.
KNZM
To be Knights Companion of the said Order:
Mr Owen George Glenn, ONZM, of Auckland. For services to philanthropy.
Mr Robert Anster Harvey, QSO, of Auckland. For services to local body affairs and the community.
Mr Paul Scott Holmes, CNZM, of Hastings. For services to broadcasting and the community.
The Honourable Justice Mark Andrew O’Regan, of Wellington. For services to the judiciary.
Mr Julian Stanley Smith, OBE, of Dunedin. For services to business.
Mr Mark Wiremu Solomon, of Christchurch. For services to Māori and business.
Mr Mark James Todd, CBE, of Swindon, United Kingdom. For services to equestrian sport.
Seven knights here. Justice O’Regan has also had a distinguished career. Sir Owen Glenn has had his share of controversy, but he has been a very generous donor to many NZ causes and is currently putting a lot of time and energy into initiatives to reduce child abuse. He has of course also had a stellar business career.
Bob Harvey is a former Labour Party President, but his service in local body politics sees him as Sir Bob. No one can say that this National Government has discriminated in their honours. In June Cullen also got knighted!
A lovely tribute to Sir Paul Holmes, as 2012 was his final year as a broadcaster. He changed NZ broadcasting. He has also been a vigorous supporter of many good causes such as the NZ Paralympics team.
Sir Julian Smith is the effective owner of the ODT, which has been with his family for five generations. A prominent businessman in Dunedin.
Sir Mark Solomon is Ngai Tahu’s Chairman, and Ngai Tahu have continued to grow and prosper.
And Sir Mark Todd needs no introduction. A legend who won’t give up.
Also congrats to John Slater for his ONZM for services to the community. John, with support from Margaret, has spent decades supporting charitable organisations such as Presbyterian Support Services.
Lester Levy’s CNZM also well deserved. Has made a huge contribution to the health system. Also Anthea Simcock’s ONZM for her pioneering work as a child abuse educator.
Vicki Hyde gets a MNZM for services to science, and hopefully debunking frauds as a sceptic.
I guess this is what happens when the media fellate you continuously (witness the masses of stories written just about a tweet announcing a press conference in a month’s time!). Comparing yourself to Jesus, especially at Christmas time, is rather over the top.
Hat Tip: Keeping Stock
Stuff reports:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill which bars Americans from adopting Russian children, provoking anguish among US families that have been waiting months, and in some cases years, to complete the process.
The legislation caps a year of increasing Russian hostility toward the United States, stoked by Putin, but taken up with unexpected gusto by members of parliament.
A series of measures has taken aim at what is perceived to be — or characterised as — American interference in Russian concerns, from political organizing to the defense of human rights.
The adoption bill is seen as retaliation against a US law that targets corrupt Russian officials.
Passage of the legislation is a benchmark in the deterioration of Russian-American relations, and unlike some of the earlier, symbolic moves, it has real consequences.
Over the past 20 years, 60,000 Russians have been adopted by Americans, and officials said the measure would block the pending adoptions of 46 children.
It’s pretty despicable to use orphans as a political weapon. It’s also very stupid. It will not harm the US Government. It will harm the orphans, devastate the potential adoptive parents, and just reinforce the growing view that Putin is an intolerant authoritarian ruler who should not be trusted.
Olivia Wannan at Stuff reports:
A Wellington marine centre lost over half of its marine life in a devastating act of vandalism overnight.
Arriving to the centre at Wellington’s historic bait shed at about 10am, Island Bay Marine Education Centre discovery programme manager Julian Hodge found the water system had been dosed with chlorinated detergent, poisonous to many of the marine species in the tanks.
”I found a whole load of bubbles coming out of our tanks and gutters and a whole lot of our fish were dead, and many were in the process of dying.”
While immediate attempts were made to move distressed fish to uncontaminated water and centre staff, volunteers and the Fire Service were called in to flush out the tanks with fresh sea water, many marine animals were lost or had to be euthanised.
”We expect over the next two or three days, there will be quite a few more casualties as well.”
The centre’s larger animals, plus the starfish, seahorses, and crabs, mostly survived though others, like the pipe fish, had not.
”We’ve lost fish here that have been with us for 16 years.”
What sort of sadistic bastard poisons the water at a marine centre? The Island Bay Marine Education Centre is a great resource, and I can’t believe anyone would target them deliberately But if it was a so called prank, it was a nasty sadistic one.
Stuff reports:
A woman whose gang rape provoked protests and rare national debate about violence against women in India died from her injuries, prompting promises of action from a government that has struggled to respond to public outrage.
The unidentified 23-year-old medical student suffered a brain injury and massive internal damage in the December 16 attack and died in hospital in Singapore where she had been taken for treatment.
Protesters rallied peacefully in the capital New Delhi and other cities across the country to keep the pressure on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government to get tougher on crimes against women. That was in contrast to the pitched battles protesters fought with police last weekend.
I wasn’t previously aware that India was so backwards in its treatment of sex crimes against women. I was aware how barbaric it was in certain Middle Eastern countries and parts of Africa. But this case has really shone the light on India.
Most sex crimes in India go unreported, many offenders go unpunished, and the wheels of justice turn slowly, according to social activists who say that successive governments have done little to ensure the safety of women.
Political leaders vowed steps to correct “shameful social attitudes” towards women in the world’s biggest democracy.
The details of the attack are gruesome, made almost unbelievable that it was allowed to occur on a moving bus for an hour – and no one called the Police.
“For some reason, and I don’t really know why, she got through to us,” well-known columnist Nilanjana Roy wrote in a blog on Saturday.
“Our words shrivelled in the face of what she’d been subjected to by the six men travelling on that bus, who spent an hour torturing and raping her, savagely beating up her male friend.”
Sonia Gandhi, the powerful leader of the ruling Congress party, directly addressed the protesters in a rare broadcast on state television, saying that as a mother and a woman she understood their grievances.
“Your voice has been heard,” Gandhi said. “It deepens our determination to battle the pervasive and the shameful social attitudes that allow men to rape and molest women with such impunity.”
The victim and her male friend were returning home from the cinema, media reports say, six men on their bus beat them with metal rods and repeatedly raped the woman. Media said a rod was used in the rape, causing internal injuries. Both were thrown from the bus. The male friend survived.
Absolute animals. I hope they are found guilty and never freed.
A global poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in June found that India was the worst place to be a woman because of high rates of infanticide, child marriage and slavery.
New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India’s major cities, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, according to police figures. Government data show the number of reported rape cases in the country rose by nearly 17 per cent between 2007 and 2011.
And that’s just reported ones.
Amy Maas at Stuff reports:
A recidivist drink-driver who blew it on his fifth offence is the first person in the country to have a court-ordered breathalyser installed in his car.
Two years ago, Orean Te Amora, 28, sculled back six beers before getting behind the wheel and driving to the gym. It was part of his “daily routine”. But this time a police stop on Auckland’s North Shore had him working up a sweat when he blew three times over the legal limit. …
At sentencing, offenders are ordered to apply for a $200 Alcohol Interlock Licence. The pink licence means they can only drive a car that has the breathalyser device fitted.
The device is then installed by Auckland-based company Draeger and works in a similar way to a car immobiliser. Before the car can be started, a person must blow into the device and it has to give a zero-alcohol reading.
The licence must be held for a minimum of 12 months. However, if drug and alcohol tests come back clean after six months, and the court approves it, the device could be removed.
I think the interlocks have the potential to make a significant difference. The absolutely hard core recidivist drunk drivers will find a way around them by stealing cars and the like. Nothing short of jail will tend to stop them. But the interlocks should make a difference for some repeat drunk drivers.
Anne Gibson at NZ Herald reports:
If you’ve ever visited Cape Reinga, the Bay of Islands or even the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, you have a lot to thank Darcy O’Brien for. Anne Gibson meets the quiet public servant who bought large chunks of these precious coastal areas for the public good.
For many decades, much of the coast and so many parks and islands around Northland and the Auckland region have been available to camp on, walk around, land on from boats, photograph and generally adore. That access is something we think we always had. It seems right, it makes our lives better and we are happier for it. Maybe we even take it for granted because these areas have been our playground for so long.
But were it not for one man, it could well have been otherwise. The Northland and Auckland land may well have been the preserve of the rich, locked away from our eyes forever.
Darcy O’Brien is a quietly spoken unassuming gentleman who will only agree to tell us his extraordinary tale to honour others, never himself.
It is a story so strange, it beggars belief that it was ever forgotten.
“I’ll agree to it, for the sake of all New Zealanders and the belief in the public ownership of the conservation estate,” says the 95-year-old over afternoon tea at his Belmont, North Shore home of a request for an interview. …
Mr J.D. O’Brien – as he was known in the media at the time – was assistant Auckland commissioner of Crown lands in 1957 and, a decade later, Auckland commissioner of Crown lands, a title he held until he retired in 1976. He was at the centre of at least 40 separate purchases which gave the northern area its most precious northern conservation estate of well over 5000ha.
No other New Zealander has ever come close to achieving so much in this field, as with the support of successive governments and ministers of lands and survey, he created some of New Zealand’s biggest reserves, public land now in the Department of Conservation’s (DoC) hands.
What a great unknown story.
“Our man in the land grab” said the Herald on May 18, 1974, on his retirement and role with what was then the Department of Lands and Survey. It summed up just some of his accomplishments: creating the 9300ha Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park and becoming the park board’s inaugural chairman; purchasing Red Head Island, Urupukapuka Island, and Moturua Islands in the Bay of Islands; and buying Motukawanui Island, the largest in the Cavallis, for just $150,000.
Hauraki Gulf is iconic. Those of us who enjoy it, owe Darcy a vote of thanks.
Stuff reports:
She called it, simply, the worst moment of her life.
It came in March 1982 during the days before the Falklands War, after Argentina established an unauthorised presence on Britain’s South Georgia island amid talk of a possible invasion of the Falklands, long held by Britain.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher realised there was little that Britain could do immediately to establish firm control of the contested islands, and feared Britain would be seen as a paper tiger that could no longer defend even its diminished empire.
She was told that Britain might not be able to take the islands back, even if she took the risky decision to send a substantial armada to the frigid South Atlantic.
“You can imagine that turned a knife in my heart,” Thatcher told an inquiry board in postwar testimony that has been kept secret until its release by the National Archives on Friday, 30 years after the events it chronicles.
“No one could tell me whether we could re-take the Falklands – no one,” she told the inquiry board. “We did not know – we did not know.”
But she had faith that they could.
The papers detail how Thatcher urgently sought US President Ronald Reagan’s support when Argentina’s intentions became clear, and reveal Thatcher’s exasperation with Reagan when he suggested that Britain negotiate rather than demand total Argentinian withdrawal.
The documents describe an unusual late night phone call from Reagan to Thatcher on May 31, 1982 – while British forces were beginning the battle for control of the Falklands capital – in which the president pressed the prime minister to consider putting the islands in the hands of international peacekeepers rather than press for a total Argentinian surrender.
A rare failure of judgement from Reagan, where he went with the State Department view rather than supporting what was right – the democratic human right of self-determination.
Thatcher, in full “Iron Lady” mode, told the president she was sure he would take the same dim view of international mediation if Alaska had been taken by a foe.
Heh, wonderful.
Thatcher had huge respect for Reagan and the US. But what I loved about her is that she was no poodle. She did what she felt was right – even against the wishes of her closest ally.
The NZ Herald reports:
Fairfax Media, which publishes the Dominion Post, Press and Sunday Star Times newspapers, slashed the value of its New Zealand mastheads by more than 80 percent in a group-wide writedown of its traditional publishing assets.
The New Zealand holding company, Fairfax New Zealand Holdings, valued its local newspaper titles at $175.2 million as at June 30, down from $950.1 million a year earlier, according to financial statements lodged with Companies Office. Value is allocated to the mastheads based on how much a company expects to recover from the asset, and is reviewed annually.
Ouch. That is a huge devaluation. Realistic, but painful.
The bulk of the remaining value in its titles is in the North Island publications such as the DomPost and Waikato Times, valued at $112.5 million, compared to $564.1 million in 2011. The South Island publications, including the Press and the Nelson Mail, were written down to $54.9 million as at June 30 from $343.2 million, while national publications such as the Sunday Star Times and Cuisine magazine, were valued at $7.7 million from $42.8 million.
Some might say $7.7 million for the SST is still too generous!