I ask you all the question I ask myself every damn day.
How much better would New Zealand be now if Clark and English hadn’t conspired to steal the 2005 election from Brash?
Such inquiries are not undertaken "lightly"
- squeeze on public spending will mean service cuts
- ''nice-to-have'' but not essential would be axed
- Government intended to continue the tight grip on public finances
- looked to repay mounting debt
- public spending restraint is no temporary aberration. It is effectively permanent
- cash will have to be found from cuts in other areas
- Something has to give, and that has to be lower-value activities the Government is currently funding
- This is not a time we can afford to indulge in a whole lot of nice-to-haves
There is no way to describe the redistribution of my taxes into ‘healthcare, superannuation, child care and family payments, including maternity allowance’ as anything other than a benefit. An unearnt benefit to the recipient.
Redistributive welfare payments dressed up as a ‘social wage’ may sound nice and touchy feely to the recipient, whereas to those that pay taxes funding such largesse, it is nothing but theft.
This is so weak and has so many logic holes only Goff and Hughes could be so lame as to try it on. Darren did something wrong. He knows it. The victim knows it, and the cops know it. That’s why Hughes resigned.
co-leader of the Maori Party Pita Sharples is declaring ‘job done’ as Parliament finally passed the controversial Foreshore and Seabed Act, and fulfilled the purpose for which the party was createdOne can only hope New Zealand is rid quickly of these racist separatists. Along with the parliamentary seats for voters of a certain race.Prime Minister John Key praised the decision in a public statement this evening, stating, ‘We really enjoyed working with the Maori Party on this important issue.
‘No, really. We are sad that they have decided not to continue in politics. Honestly.’
Maori Party elected members are assured of public appointments around the world following their stint in power.
Hone Harawira has already been offered a mediation role with the United Nations in currently troubled areas of the Middle East, using his experience of bringing people together.
Sharples and co-leader Tariana Turia are rumoured to be forming a brand new political party, provisionally named ‘Why Can’t We All Just Get Along Together’, in a coalition with Col. Gaddafi, Pauline Hanson and Mel Gibson.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is already pledging to repeal it if his party makes it back to Parliament in November
- it was a betrayal of all New Zealanders and was a back-room deal between National and the Maori Party
- will only benefit a few Treaty travellers and corporate Maori who stand to make a killing off a resource that rightfully belongs to everyone
- Access to our coastal areas is our birthright and these areas must be held in trust by the Crown on behalf of all New Zealanders in perpetuity
The feat of engineering and efficiency could be an inspiration for Cantabrians whose lives are still disrupted by their February 22 quake.
Large parts of the city centre are still cordoned off and residents and business-owners are forbidden to enter.
police are investigating an incident involving a senior Labour MPthe complainant was an 18-year-old male who has had links to Labour
Decadence is an important aspect of contemporary left communist theory
Government will cut $800 million in new spending
I wont vote for the prick again Fisiani. The shuffling through of the racist seabed deal by his little acolyte Finlayson has f**ked* him for me forever and I suspect I am not the only one.
We all know that Goofys mob will support it but I would rather see them in power with their natural supporters than watch the slimy little turd Key rubbing noses with Tarianas lot.
I sincerely hope that his beancounters have worked this out very carefully.
We won’t vote for you again Johnny Key so enjoy the limelight while you can.
MIND THE LINE, IT MIGHT SAVE YOUR LIFE
Blue lines on roads in Island Bay mark the furthest point that a worst-case tsunami has been calculated to reach.
Since the lines were painted in February, after consultation with GNS Science, almost every coastal suburb has expressed an interest in having them.
"If there was a big earthquake in Wellington, and you live on the coast and have seen that line on the street, then hopefully you grab your wife and kids and go to behind where that line is," Wellington emergency management office senior adviser Dan Neely said.
It shows which people are regarded as being the norm, the average, the ones from whom all others are different.
You people really need to get over yourselves instead of looking for conspiracies in every utterance.
The writer is probably a happily married man whose 'norm' is caring for his wife and nuclear family. And his worldview should be the gold standard, apparently being married is better for your health.
Find something real to do rather than stirring the pot over abstractions.
The group in charge of internet addresses has opened the door for websites ending with ".xxx" but delayed deciding whether to open the floodgates for other suffixes.
In December, Mr Engel warned he would stop people using his land to get to the river if the Carterton District Council forced him to break up a 38m x 14m concrete silage pad he had built on a paper road.
In early January, Mr Engel had to break up the pad ... with the council saying the matter had been resolved.
that meant there was now "zero access" to the popular spot on the river, as the publicly-owned paper road ran along a steep cliff to the river and was covered with blackberry
With a 30-minute blast from its main rocket engine, NASA's Messenger spacecraft slipped into orbit around the planet Mercury Thursday evening, becoming the first craft from Earth ever to circle the closest planet to the sun.
The spacecraft was launched on its $446 million mission in 2004. Since then it has flown by Earth and Venus (twice) on a circuitous 4.9 billion-mile journey. It made three high-speed flybys of Mercury in 2008 and 2009 and sent back a lode of scientific data and more than a few surprises for planetary scientists.
We hit the trajectory to within half a sigma, for my engineer friends in the crowd. It was right on the money.
The Government will borrow to cover the $10 billion the Christchurch earthquakes will cost it, Finance Minister Bill English says
It's a grandiose, empty gesture starring so-called VIPs – Prince William, Prime Minister John Key, Aussie PM Julia Gillard, [Australian Leader of the Opposition] Tony Abbott and presumably other assorted boring people in suits
This post originally appeared on Morgsatlarge. It has been migrated to this location which is hosted and maintained by the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. Members of the NSE community have edited the original post and will be monitoring and posting comments, updates, and new information. Please visit to learn more.***Note that the title of the original blog does not reflect the views of the authors of the site. The authors have been monitoring the situation, and are presenting facts on the situation as they develop. The original article was adopted as the authors believed it provided a good starting point to provide a summary background on the events at the Fukushima plant.***The original post written by Dr Josef Oehmen “Why I am not worried about Japan’snuclear reactors.” are being reposted in different languages. They have not been checked / verified.
Panic swept Tokyo early today after a rise in radiation levels
All four units at the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant have now achieved cold shutdown - where coolant water is at less than 100ºC - with full operation of cooling systems, Tepco reported. All the reactors shut down automatically during last week's earthquake and have remained safe. While unit 3's shutdown went as expected, damage to the emergency core cooling systems of units 1, 2 and 4 led to the announcement of emergency status. These three reactors were prepared for potential pressure release, but this was never required. Unit 1 announced cold shutdown at 1.24 am on 14 March and unit 2 followed at 3.52 am. Tepco has now announced that unit 4 achieved cold shutdown at 7.15 pm on 15 March. Water levels are now stable in all four reactors and offsite power is available, the company said.
Tokyo officials said they detected 0.809 of a micro-sievert between 10:00 am (0100 GMT) and 11:00 am in the capital, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) southwest of the troubled Fukushima plant on the Pacific coast.
The normal level is about 0.035-0.036 micro-sieverts. A chest X-ray typically involves a dose of 20 micro-sieverts.
"We monitored a higher than normal amount of radiation in the morning in Tokyo. But we don't consider it to be at a level where the human body is affected," said Sairi Koga, an official of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
The level fell to an average 0.075 micro-sieverts four hours later, he said.
12.05pm
A blogger on the Telegraph says he's surprised that there seems to have been little or no looting since the disaster.
NIWA to axe 34 jobs - union
Anyone else think this is all because God Hates Fags?
Im waiting for Westboro to show up on the shores of Japan and start preaching their message.. I actually am praying they do. Somehow, I dont see the Japanese having much of a sense of humor over these things right now.
Friday’s quake was the most powerful to hit the island nation in recorded history, and the tsunami it unleashed traveled across the Pacific Ocean. Reports from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Italy estimated the 8.9-magnitude quake shifted the entire planet on its axis by nearly 4 inches (10 centimeters).
“How many more warnings do we before we finally grasp that nuclear reactors are inherently hazardous? The nuclear industry always tells us that situation like this cannot happen with modern reactors, yet Japan is currently in the middle of a potentially devastating nuclear crisis. Once again, we are reminded of the inherent risks of nuclear power, which will always be vulnerable to the potentially deadly combination of human error, design failure and natural disaster.”
“Greenpeace is calling for the phase out of existing reactors, and no construction of new commercial nuclear reactors. Governments should invest in renewable energy resources that are not only environmentally sound but also affordable and reliable”
... Tristan da Cunha, on the rum line between Uruguay and South Africa, where there are 300 people living on top of a volcano ...
Loxodrom'ic Line is a curve which cuts every member of a system of lines of curvature of a given surface at the same angle. A ship sailing towards the same point of the compass describes such a line which cuts all the meridians at the same angle. In Mercator's Projection (q.v.) the Loxodromic lines are evidently straight.
The chances of a broad-based Left-wing party rising from the ashes of Hone Harawira's meltdown with the Maori Party have been dashed after he made it clear that any group he led would have to be Maori-focused.
Mr Harawira indicated he wanted a "more Left-wing Maori Party"
A major investigation is underway after Velvetleaf, one of the USA's worst weeds, was found in a Waikato maize crop.The Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) warned farmers this morning to keep their eyes open for the broadleaf weed which, if uncontrolled, can reduce maize yields by up to 34 per cent.
Spread of the weed could cost the agrictulral industry hundreds of millions of dollars.
The foundation did not say where, in the Waikato, the weed had been found but it was present in both a maize crop and silage feed-out lines.
MAF, Environment Waikato and FAR are investigating how far the weed might have spread.
"Our focus is on tracking machinery and silage movements from this crop and providing recommendations to prevent the spread of seed. Urgent measures include; disinfesting machinery moving from this crop and ensuring silage from this crop is completely wrapped for at least three months," FAR said.
Diana Mathers, FAR's Maize Research Coordinator, said FAR would compile a Velvetleaf database.
"In the first instance, we would ask all growers to keep their eyes open for this problem weed and if sighted, report it to myself (027 544 2236) or Mike Parker (021 960 079) at FAR or Dr Trevor James at AgResearch. (07 838 5275)."
Things like the Auckland Festival are what's going to make us a liveable city
This year's proposal is for a $13,190,000 levy for the coming year (14 per cent up on this year) for the amenities, along with a 5 per cent increase for Auckland Museum and an 8 per cent boost for Motat.
‘He looks perfectly able-bodied to me,’ Judge Walford observed, asking his barrister: ‘This defendant is the embodiment of the welfare dependency culture, would you not agree?’
The judge continued: ‘Alcoholism is normally a euphemism for someone who doesn’t want to give up drink, but he actually has done so. It seems to me his incapacity benefit no longer should be available to him.
A jobless former alcoholic was told to stop ‘sponging off others’ by an incredulous judge who heard he had been ruled too sick to complete his community service.
Stanley Clifton, who has never done a day’s paid work in his life, was branded ‘the embodiment of the welfare dependency culture’ by Judge John Walford.
Space shuttle Discovery returned to Earth on Wednesday from its final voyage.
Discovery ended its flying career with 148 million miles and 365 days spent in space during 39 missions.
The goal is to send astronauts to an asteroid and then Mars in the decades ahead. There is not enough money for NASA to achieve that and maintain the shuttle program at the same time. As a result, the shuttles will stop flying this summer after 30 years.American astronauts will keep hitching rides to the space station on Russian Soyuz capsules until private companies are able to provide taxi service to and from orbit. NASA expects to get another nine years out of the space station.
The Government will not immediately release engineering reports on whether AMI Stadium in Christchurch can be used for Rugby World Cup games.
Executive Summary : The Western World has quietly become a civilization that undervalues men and overvalues women, where the state forcibly transfers resources from men to women creating various perverse incentives for otherwise good women to conduct great evil against men and children, and where male nature is vilified but female nature is celebrated. This is unfair to both genders, and is a recipe for a rapid civilizational decline and displacement, the costs of which will ultimately be borne by a subsequent generation of innocent women, rather than men, as soon as 2020.
Brownlee says he has no desire to "bring out the bulldozers and take Christchurch to the ground"
he believed heritage orders preventing their destruction had been "far too precious"
There were many heritage category buildings in Christchurch that were severely damaged and if I had my way they'd be down tomorrow.
decisions needed to be made thoughtfully
Bob Parker is actually right. It will be a partnership between the council and central government
It's very much going to be hand in glove with Christchurch city.
we're not taking chargeAnother gutless socialist. Too soft do what is required.
- Lieutenant Colonel Stefan Machie says ...
- Police say they will not tolerate "disaster tourists" heading into the central city areas where parts of the cordon have been lifted for residents, business owners and property owners.
- Superintendent Sam Hoyle tells Radio New Zealand that people with genuine reasons to enter the zones will have to be patient, with police and Defence Force personnel manning the cordon entry points.
- Civil Defence says the central city has been organised into four Green Zones on the outer edges of the existing cordon and one Red Zone in the very centre.
- Access to the Red Zone is restricted to emergency services and USAR teams only.
Engineers and private sector construction managers have spoken critically of the approach adopted by Christchurch City Council, described as slow and bureaucratic. Labour MP Lianne Dalziel - whose electorate is among the hardest hit - was more blunt still. "I'm over the council. They're incompetent."
We grossly under-appreciated the scale of the damage in suburban areas. The scale of the operation is so big it is a challenge to provide these services for so many people
The business-as-usual approach is not going to work
Narcissists have an inflated sense of self, lack empathy, are vain and materialistic and possess an overblown sense of entitlement
is clearly a generational shift
problem is that narcissism doesn't help you compete. It blows up in your face eventually.
The High Court has ruled Whanganui District Council's gang patch ban is unlawful.
the mayor was so excited when it was handed to him it was "like he'd won the lottery"
Irishman John Robert Godley is known as the "Founder of Canterbury" even though he lived there for only two-and-a-half years. He travelled in Ireland and North America and developed ideas about how colonies should be established and governed.
Parker said he hoped to "discover and understand the words and visions of our forebears" in the capsules.
The statue will be rebuilt, Parker said.
Quite frankly people have died in this last earthquake trying to save old buildings. We're not going to do that any more.
My absolutely strong position is that the old dungas, no matter what their connection, are going under the hammer.
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