@mick-gold-coast-qld said in NZ Politics:

@smudge
This coming from a palooka who comes up with "I think I've come up with a word to describe the fatigue one suffers from reading too many columns on Ardern: Jaundicinda."?

Peddle your hypocrisy to anyone but me, boof. You are stupid enough to vote for the evil fraud - live with it.

Key difference there, champ. That's a play on words on the fact I was tired of the number of columns fawning over her a while back, not a personal attack on her appearance.

Secondly, my comments in that post should probably give you the hint I'm not her biggest fan and most certainly did not vote for her party last year.

20210722_201834.jpg

@nzzp said in F off with the damn PC Brigade:

@mariner4life said in F off with the damn PC Brigade:

@williethewaiter bet he did nazi that coming

I actually chortled out loud. Well played fella, that's so bad it's good.

I sat here for a minute and decided m4l was minced and there was misplaced or missing words 😔

Only realised when I saw your post. Today is going to be a bad day.

1997? .... Was he thinking about Christian Cullen at the time?

https://gizmodo.com/australian-prime-minister-says-he-didnt-shit-his-pants-1847296767

@jc said in British Politics:

@majorrage The biggest difference between Patel and Mings is 30 IQ points in her favour.

Bearing in mind the anti - Asian racism in English football (which to their credit the FA recognises), the big difference between Patel and the players and pundits attacking her, could be said to be their lack of awareness...

@snowy said in Is this thing sustainable?:

Landing a rocket thing, and using it again? Fuck.

alt text

https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/860326-doubts-cast-over-meghan-and-prince-harrys-marriage-over-lack-of-compromises

"Nah bro I just want to play back in Aust- sorry phone call... How much? Yeah alright no worries - they have tax-free religious status in Japan, right? Cool"

Blind Items Revealed #19 - Reader Blind

February 21, 2021

It all started decades ago when an A+ singer in an A+ band grew burnt out and tired of his life. He was doing drugs and drinking heavily and not healthy. He knew he needed a change but a very radical one. At the time, he was in a foreign country so he bribed a few people and his death was announced but this was fake.

The singer in a phony identity adopted a gypsy lifestyle traveling around the USA. Not long after he befriended a well to do family in a midwestern state. This family had a problem. Despite the prominence and success of many members, one of the current generation was a n'er do well and one day under the pressure of succeeding he committed suicide.

The patriarch of the family made a deal with the former singer. Having a loser son who committed suicide was not in the cards so even though the singer was a little older and a couple inches shorter, the patriarch asked him to assume the role of the son which he did. He and the son did have very similar facial features, slightly different accents but similar tones to their voices as well.

After this, the singer in the role of the son got interested in a career the son was pursuing in. For a number of years he slogged in partial anonymity until he achieved A+ level success under his new identity. This was not a serious expression of who he was but an identity that hordes of people could relate to.

His recent death may expose all of this. Look at the singer's face and who he became and listen to their voices - Granted it has deepened over age,

Jim Morrison-The Doors/Rush Limbaugh

@mikethesnow said in Black Lives Matter:

Sacre Bleu or is that Blanc

https://twitter.com/i/topics/news/e-2048935924?cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email

Can only read the first couple of paras (paywall) so so if I'm missing context so be it. Seemingly sums up the madness.

I see Titania has added it to her list.

@frank said in Trans in sport / Laurel Hubbard:

You know things have got a bit too woke when a Guardian writer is against Hubbard being able to compete.

Interesting admission by Serena Williams halfway down the article. I guess John McEnroe was right.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2021/jun/22/by-conflating-gender-and-sex-we-undermine-sporting-competition

Great article

The 100m stat is crazy

@paekakboyz said in Hong Kong:

@majorrage bro that is really sad to hear, also terrifying 😞

I keep wondering how many people will leave, and how many want to but can't. Haven't seen as much about the business side of things. Like will big global companies leave or ?

Business won't leave. It's still a great access point and (as far as I've seen anyway) the best place to live in China. Shanghai is an incredible vibrant city, but it's no world city. Beijing isn't even comparable.

Don't get me wrong, both are incredible, massive, fast, exciting cities. But if you had to choose to live in one of them or Hong Kong, 99 out of 100 people would choose Hong Kong.

Hence, given its' access to the colossal economic powerhouse of China, it will be fine. The percentage of gweilo though will (and has) diminish.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/14/ukraine-biden-nato-press-conference-494460

For a few short minutes, it appeared Ukraine was on the path to NATO membership but that was not to be.

Happy Birthday, Phil.

The great news is you miss all the mawkish celebrations!

RIP

@majorrage said in Brexit:

@pakman said in Brexit:

@victor-meldrew 46E21D86-2588-489A-8DEF-6DE62EEDFF1E.jpeg

page 48, bottom right corner I bet ... Fucking media.

Bottom right column third page of business section. Bit like BBC's 'apology' to Dyson.

Latest Economic Quarterly from Akl Council includes some analysis on zoning implications

https://mcusercontent.com/b43f285355c582c3f958c1c0c/files/e9283d7b-f6f5-3c44-92ed-1e2d76032c56/Auckland_Economic_Quarterly_May_2021.01.pdf

It also references this report https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/about-auckland-council/business-in-auckland/Reports/does-the-rub-impose-a-price-premium-on-land-inside-it-20-Feb-2020.pdf

which determines that the Rural Urban Boundary is not raising land values within the boundary

@no-quarter said in Israel, Iran, Syria, and the rest of the ... Middle East:

Hamas is more than happy to use theirs as human shields.

You are probably correct but that doesn't appear to work. Israel are O.K. with collateral damage it seems, in order to get at Hamas leaders.

All a complete clusterfuck.

@kruse said in Ricky Gervais At Globes:

@nostrildamus said in Ricky Gervais At Globes:

@kruse he was a late late night show host-James Corden took over.

That is truly hard to decide if they traded up or down.

He is an acquired taste, I grant you, but if you really think "fat pussy" James Corden is his equal, I have to differ.

@voodoo said in Gender Pay Equality:

Is that fair though? Are there really as many males studying teaching and trying to be teachers? Is 50% a realistic target?

It's the same in finance, we tried our nuts off to get females into our front office, and constantly battled. There just aren't as many candidates, and tjebknes that are there, have the typical spread of talent that you'd expect.

Having 50% representation in any particular single industry seems to me to be a misguided target

Yep, there's absolutely no way of achieving 50/50 targets across different sectors. It just isn't possible, because (shock horror) although there is some overlap, males and females have different interests overall. Which is just bloody self-evident if you actually live in the real world, but for some God forsaken reason a bunch of idiots have decided we must achieve 50/50 in roles of their choice (which surprisingly excludes all of the dangerous/disgusting jobs men undertake).

Which was the point of me posting that tweet/article. It isn't discrimination stopping women getting into certain areas, it's just that in a free and affluent society they actually get to pick and choose which jobs they apply for just the same as men.

Scarcely believable what's going on in Canada right now.

Lockdown totalitarianism, Bill C10 to censor YouTube creators, locking a pastor in maximum confinement for exceeding 15% capacity of church goers for 35 days awaiting a trial with charges that don't enforce a jail term.

According to one correspondent the government either owns or subsidies 99% of the media so the push is to regulate individual content as though it were legacy media.

It seems the Canadians are too Canadian (polite and considerate) to kick up much of a fuss, but one gets the feeling that patience is wearing thin.

Really really strange and ominous carry on in a democracy with a reputation of being very functional.

@mokey said in NZ Judiciary:

@tim I hate stories like this to the maximum, and also judges who insist that criminals not being able to do their first choice job is a cruel and unusual punishment. Oh, he couldn't be a pilot if he was convicted of molesting teens? Fucking good!
Gah. Now this sack of shit skips away, but those teens have to live with the fallout of sex offences against them. So much for victim-centred justice.

I would hope that this one is being contested. Judge seems to have put way to much weight on the perps future as opposed to the victim.

@gt12 said in Zac Guildford:

@booboo said in Zac Guildford:

@rancid-schnitzel said in Zac Guildford:

@yeetyaah said in Zac Guildford:

@rancid-schnitzel I understand why you're pissed off about the Wheeler situation but that's a ridiculous comparison and dramatic to suggest he's been "cast out of society."

Seen Joe Wheeler on TV recently?

Thankfully no.

He's on right now.

Hopefully the “Karens” are alerted to his presence and ready to complain on behalf of everyone......

@snowy said in Climate Change:

@majorrage Excellent. I'll have a look, thanks. I wasn't quite sure if you were being facetious or not. I take the piss so often on here that I assume that everybody is. More than happy to have a look and see what they say.

Yeah, just read my original post. It does look rather facetious, especially given it came from me.

@kirwan said in Is it War Time?:

@antipodean said in Is it War Time?:

@mariner4life said in Is it War Time?:

@antipodean well that was depressing

Quite the opposite, I'd say it's optimistic. I'm more worried about whether we'll ever see growth not driven solely by immigration. Or the rise of Cyberdyne...

Or massive unemployment due to automation before we become a post scarcity society.

The Universal Basic Income question is pretty interesting

@snowy they've made asses of us!?

@majorrage said in Canadian father jailed for calling his daughter "she":

Someone with bigger balls than me can get into the aviation industry if they wish ....

Old saying - If you want to make a small fortune out of aviation, start with a large one (probably been used elsewhere too).

@majorrage said in Canadian father jailed for calling his daughter "she":

I'm more than prepared to never fly United again!

There are so many reasons to make that happen, not just the above wokeness.

just curious, in terms of breaking the law/rules, where does him running onto the field sit?

Shoplifting? Truancy? Vandalism? Trespassing?

Just that he is a 14 year old kid, in terms of the rule breaking, what punishment is going to be handed down to a 14 year old?

Right or wrong, there is very little they are going to do, or probably even be able to do about it, he is a minor, is the offence that bad that the parents need to be held liable for his actions? What if his dad had said he can't, is he supposed to have restrained him?

@MN5 do we know this kids dad didnt reprimand him for it?

@godder to the moon!!

@jc said in Tech, monopolies, censorship:

@bones Course Tim will be there. Pie loves a bit of yacht rock to work him into the right frame of mind. They lock him up like Hannibal Lecter and play Michael McDonald at him till he starts howling then push him onto the stage.

Thank you JC. Couldn't think of his name. Got stuck on Alan Patridge.

@MN5 said in Matariki Holiday:

@Bovidae said in Matariki Holiday:

Queen's birthday is irrelevant today, as is it being in June.

....not to mention her immediate family are either racist bigotted old fucks, flocking to leave the establishment or kiddy fiddlers.

Although true you need to add Queen's Birthday to the 'relevant to NZ' pile. After all she is the Queen of NZ and our head of state.
One we would lose if we became a republic.

I like the Matariki addition. All part of our growth of an identity of our own.
Would be happy for Labour Weekend to be replaced by something more relevant (would be good to clear out the religious celebrations as well as long as they are replaced)
Not a holiday but FFS, when are we going to stop 'Guy Fawkes' night as something in our legislative calendar (i.e. the timing for sale of fireworks)

@antipodean said in Solar Power and Storage - a nerd's view:

In the words of the ACCC:
"The transition from large-scale synchronous generation to variable and intermittent renewable energy resources has had a more pronounced effect on retail prices and number of offers in South Australia than any other state in the NEM."

I saw that quote in the ABC article, but can't find it anywhere on the ACCC's website. It would be nice to have that quote in context of the wider report and what is was referencing - particularly gas. From the same article, and in part to answer your question on the coal closure:

The coal closure means power generated by a more expensive fuel source — gas — is more regularly setting the price. "South Australia is now much more reliant on gas-fired generation … which is a higher cost of energy compared with what Northern used to be," Mr Evans said. "The price of gas has nearly tripled in the past few years and that has meant that the fundamentals of where we get our energy from has increased substantially."

What I did find was this ACCC report:

https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/Retail Electricity Pricing Inquiry—Final Report June 2018_Exec summary.pdf

Which refers to another reason why the number of gentailers in SA is a bad thing: less hedging, less competition, and therefore higher prices:

Wholesale hedging contracts The ACCC has also undertaken a detailed review of the hedging contract market. Apart from contracts traded on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), the contract market is generally opaque. In certain regions of the NEM, particularly South Australia, the level of liquidity and the advantages enjoyed by vertically integrated retailers make it difficult for new entrants and smaller retailers to compete effectively in the retail market

Gentailers stopped offering good prices because they could, not because of renewables. Renewables didn't drive the higher market prices - gas did, and the gentailers who had both laughed all the way to the bank.

While Environmental costs derived from supporting solar subsidies do contribute to the increase in bills, at less than 10% it isn't as big a factor as the network costs across the NEM - which thanks to NSW, QLD, and TAS gold plating their privatised networks, kicked off a round of snouts in the trough.

Given the different conversations going on about the Trump Ban on Twitter and the debate about free speech, the Joe Rogan podcast with Ira Glasser (former ACLU head) is really interesting.

TLDR/W: he's on the side of free speech (2nd video) because at the end of the day, the other side will get the power at some point (the Kirwan argument, I'll call this), but on the fence about FB and Twitter banning ppl (1st video), because they are non-government entities and have the right to limit what is on their platforms, depending on how you view them.

SE Qld getting a cyclone before us is a pretty 2020 thing

If you've got a few minutes (about 40) this is worth a listen.

Kind of like the assertion that there's no retirement plan ...

https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/frank-dikotter/11675242

@MajorRage I did read the article, and thought it was so cringe that I just posted a screenshot in here for headline lols. The part where she served fancier Japanese style fried chicken at her supper club, even though she didn't like it as much was epic.