The Silver Fern

@Bones said in NZ justice system 2.0:

@gt12 said in NZ justice system 2.0:

Yikes.

Crowbar and a hammer and you don't get time. WTAF NZ?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300888716/youths-who-beat-78yearold-in-home-and-left-him-for-dead-avoid-jail--heres-why?fbclid=IwAR3n5c3ne2NL2mE7jKc0E90yFMs995H8HknrhhR5HRKMMKObj8PGb032Vm4

Lock them up, they only get out when the fella dies of natural causes. Fair to everyone.

Perhaps when the youngest of his children dies, and I’d consider that a reasonable deal.

I seriously can’t fathom this one, they attacked him because they thought he was a nark, and the authorities rewarded them with no time in jail.

I'm a little sceptical of GDP but it seems far more useful and transparent than many surveys of happiness.

GDP – is it really the best measure of wealth?

@Tim said in British Politics:

@Victor-Meldrew

I would almost say that the failure to transform British science into industry in the postwar period was an all time historical tragedy.

British science and engineering were exploding with new results. Antibiotics, Jet Engines, Electron Microscopes, DNA, nuclear power, applied mathematics to materials science, electronics, computers, you name it. They needed a DARPA and a West German style industrial re-investment programme.

Recommend Corelli Barnett's The Lost Victory (if you haven't already read it). Governments, Unions & much of industry were more concerned with keeping smoke-stack industries & coal mines running rather than encourage investment in new industries and products.

Some truly insane stuff went on like still designing new classes of steam engines into the 1960's. Add in 95% tax rates on profits from investment (yes, really) and you had a recipe for disaster.

@Tim

You should enjoy Godfrey Elfwick's classic troll of The Guardian
link

He’s clearly a little piston wristed gibbon but chief piston wristed gibbon has given him an even bigger platform by having him on his show.

Piers has just made it infinitely worse.

Ignore them. That’s the worst thing that could happen. For them.

@MiketheSnow said in Transgender debate, in sport, in general:

@voodoo said in Transgender debate, in sport, in general:

Could be the wrong thread, apologies if so.

Actually, apologies even if not, just for making you watch this.

WT actual F

You need a fern red card for sharing this @voodoo. Jesus Christ.

@Victor-Meldrew No, not really. When he found they lied to him how many bots they had on the service, he tried to pull out of the detail but it was going to cost him something like a billion.

Kind of amazing to put together a deal worth 44 billion and not do a detailed review of what you were buying. All seemed rushed for reasons we may never know about.

@canefan said in Royal drama:

Another thing the poor boy Meghan hasn't thought thru

FIFY.

Oh FFS. Why don't you all just grow up?

May 18 RFU to fly pride flag over Twickenham in response to Israel Folau playing there RFU to fly pride flag over Twickenham in response to Israel Folau playing there

Folau will play for a World XV team against the Barbarians and has stated previously he believes gay people will go to hell

@Tim said in Jeffrey Epstein:

Very funny that Chomsky, who made a career out of apologizing for Pol Pot and every communist dictator, had been hanging out with Epstein, telling the press that "in America a man served his time and his slate is cleaned", and also had a $270k transaction from him.

Hope that swapping notes with Woody was worth it.

He really is just a ridiculously pompous old tankie . A lot of people I respect like Matt Taibbi beclown themselves treating him like some sort of god. I’d imagine they are tying themselves in knots over this.

If you didn’t already have enough contempt for him reading him trying to dodge questions about his genocide denial when George Monbiot asked him about it should really seal the deal .

May 20, 2012 Correspondence with Noam Chomsky Correspondence with Noam Chomsky

This is supporting material for the article See No Evil. Posted on monbiot.com, 21st May 2012 From: George Monbiot Sent: Monday, June 13, 2011 10:10 AM To: Noam Chomsky Subject: foreword to Politics of Genocide Dear Noam, I hope you are very well. I’m writing a column for the Guardian today about...

@Tim Not even a mention of Darvaza.

Fuck I loved Turkmenistan... so much bat-shit crazy... 2nd only to North Korea.

@antipodean said in Steven Crowder:

@No-Quarter said in Steven Crowder:

The knives are out for Crowder alright, the left doesn't have to do anything, nearly every political commentator on the right is absolutely tearing him to shreds.

Good. If the bedrock of your political philosophy is family values, then a bloke being a massive fluffybunny to his pregnant wife is something that should be easy to criticise.

Yeah 100%, but it's even more than that, loads of them have met him and it's like they were waiting for their chance to go to town on the fuckwit as they've hated him all along.

So I went through the process of getting PR about 18 months ago. Fuck. Do I get a refund?

@broughie said in Dalai Lama:

@Bones Catholic Church, Protestants, Epstein, Micheal Jackson, my grandfather etc. Basically a representation of humanity. No one has a mortgage on the subject.

Jeepers

@Victor-Meldrew
Nah he moved to the Moon before it hit and has been in isolation ever since growing prize winning Petunias. In the Moon's lower gravity the flowers grow to the size of a Forest of Dean cat.

Joey B Toonz is doing a great job of documenting the downfall of western civilisation.
Now that the war in Ukraine is a year old let’s look at the outpouring of narcissism that accompanied it.

I can’t believe I forgot about that poem . It’s like something out of Don’t Look Up .

@nzzp said in Jacinda resigned:

@canefan said in Jacinda resigned:

They assume to know best

... And don't want to relinquish control. Hence an initial centralized vaccine rollout that ignored GP and other medical facilities.

And the failure to talk to iwi and other ethnic leaders to try and get buy in grossly hampered vaccine uptake. I had to regularly explain to people why we weren't open during the early lockdowns despite being considered emergency services, sort of. And don't get me started on PPE.....

@Crucial said in Reparations for blacks:

@MajorRage said in Reparations for Blacks:

@Crucial said in Grumpy Old Man:

@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Grumpy Old Man:

@Higgins said in Grumpy Old Man:

I'll bet there will be a fair few grumps when the bill for this lands on someone's desk to pay.

San Francisco reparations panel proposes $7.8m to every eligible back resident, total debt forgiveness San Francisco reparations panel proposes $7.8m to every eligible back resident, total debt forgiveness

"Racial disparities across all metrics have led to a significant racial wealth gap in the City of San Francisco."

So what happens if you're mixed race? Do they divide it by fraction of black?

To answer this question for others, the explanation is in the article.

Interesting concept, trying to monetise societal impacts. Obviously done with knowledge that it wouldn’t fly but to show the impacts of the past.

The impact of the past is 7.8m per person?

You can’t tell me you believe that.

I don't have too. I wouldn't have a clue what their calculation methodology was.

I don't really understand this comment.

I get your point of what they are trying to do, but I guess I misread your previous post talking about impacts of the past that you may have thought it was potentially justified.

I am far from discrediting the idea (although if it were to come in, I'd GTFO San Fran as quickly as I could) as income disparity there is horriffic. You have Silicon Valley, perhaps the headquarters of wealth on the planet these days, and then the streets of San Fran are literally filled with homeless. It's truly terrible, and a very very bad look for your average capitalist.

However, 7.8mm per person would put your average black household of 2 adults into the wealthiest 1% in one of the wealthiest cities (by average) on the planet.

It makes the whole exercise look like nothing more than a cash grab / hand out. And that is truly terrible.

@Kiwiwomble said in Musk & Twitter:

@antipodean have to say I just don’t know enough about how the algorithms work, I don’t use Twitter much but what I do see seems more right wing…but then others see mostly left wing…almost like it’s showing you the opposite of your own view point to get reaction

What better way to drive engagement than facilitating the perpetually aggrieved?

https://archive.ph/ANQ3R

@Crucial said in Brexit:

@MajorRage said in Brexit:

@Crucial said in Brexit:

@MajorRage said in Brexit:

Country can thrive, but won’t, because too many don’t want it to. It’s that simple.

An opinion.

I keep out of this board mostly as it is just polemic and even if you try to be open to both sides and ask for an opposing view supported by fact you get accused of having made your mind up.

Not attacking you or your comment but I'm not stupid enough to think that people's opinions aren't tainted. I actually like to hear both sides and make my own mind up. In this day and age that gets very difficult

Apologies, that posted sound more aggressive than it meant to.

I agree with your response entirely.

The point I’m making is that we will never know the true truth about Brexit. Is the economy down vs Europe since Brexit? Unequivocally, yes. Is it Brexits fault? Yes, and no.

In my view, it’s down more because of the pandemic. An underbelly of this country has been exposed. It has a very large, extremely lazy, sub section. They were lazy before, they got lazier under govt support snd they fight going back.

The thought of picking up the slack is non existent. Blame the govt, instead of working harder. Jobs are EVERYWHERE for the poor. Because people left after the pandemic and the Poms didn’t pick up the slack. They moaned, they whinged …. Then sat on their arses as the vacancies piled up. The media has ploughed so much negativity that ppl have lost faith, and the will, to improve.

It’s sad. Under a United country, it would thrive. Properly. But there are too many who would rather piss, whinge, moan than take advantage of the opportunities.

Back in the early part of this thread when debating/arguing sides this very outcome was predicted. I have worked in environments where it was Euro immigration doing most of the grunt work and on the rare occasions a local would try out they would be gone in hours as it was too hard (or easier not to work).

I think you've highlighted precisely one of the things which is badly wrong with the UK and why so many businesses supported Remain and advocate re-joining the EU.

Why bother about actually motivating your staff, increasing productivity and investing in people when it's so much easier to get cheaper labour from Eastern Europe and blame the locals for a poor work-ethic? And when the feckless, work-shy locals vote to leave the EU, it's so much easier to castigate them and call them names rather than understand their concerns rather than actually do the grunt work of getting the best out of your people. (That said, there are UK sectors with fantastic management - as @MajorRage has pointed).

For me, much of the Brexit debate is/was about making life easier for the wealthier sectors of the country rather than improving growth, productivity and maximising the potential of the whole of the UK. I voted Remain way back, but seeing the negative impact of EU membership in Cornwall (the poorest region of the UK) along with the antics of second referendum advocates, has changed my mind completely.

@Tim said in Sportswashing:

American universities are fucking disgusting, especially the bigger sports schools. just brothels by another name.

@MiketheSnow they'll eat the farmers meat but want to tax them for farting. They have no credibility.

Not sure where to put this, related to inflation, recession and politics.

What is Mozilla's leadership doing to steal money from Firefox development now?

Kevin Zawacki Mozilla launches first-of-its-kind venture fund to fuel responsible tech companies, products  | The Mozilla Blog Mozilla launches first-of-its-kind venture fund to fuel responsible tech companies, products  | The Mozilla Blog

Initial $35M will foster an ecosystem of startups that push the internet — and the tech industry — in a better direction   Industry veteran M

@chimoaus said in Tax rates:

@antipodean said in Tax rates:

@chimoaus It's hard to tax paper wealth.

No doubt, I guess I just struggle to hear the profits of the big banks being 14.4 billion and wondering if more of that should be redistributed to services and community.

Just nationalise them, wait a year or two and there'll likely be no profits at all and the problem of distributing the profits will vanish as well.

@dogmeat said in Auckland CBD:

The Mayor has very little power anyway. It's a Presidential type position leading a council that is deeply fractured. Which inevitably results in a succession of shabby compromises and very little in the way of real progress.

Grumpy old man

#VoteONELisaLewis

@Kid-Chocolate Looks like a typical noob to me.

LOL.

alt text

@Bones

I know I am but don’t care

“How did he and his party pull off this stunning recovery?”

“ … There's no doubt that his government's response to the pandemic was flawed, and that eventually dragged down approval of Ford. There were plenty of voters who wanted Ford out.

“But there's also no doubt that a significant chunk of Ontarians are tired of the pandemic and want to move on. Ford's party capitalized on that, and its "Get It Done" messaging likely resonated with those who are "done" with COVID-19. …”

“Even more remarkable — and something that should worry the NDP and its next leader — was the success of the PC pitch to workers. The party succeeded in capturing such ridings as Windsor-Tecumseh and Essex in the heart of the auto sector, Hamilton East-Stoney Creek in Ontario's Steeltown, and Timmins, a major centre for mining. “

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-election-doug-ford-pc-majority-win-1.6471963

@Tim

I don’t know the answer, but if they’re evangelicals it certainly would be unsurprising that they’re anti-vax. My mennonite relatives (new order) are absolutely the most hardcore unvaccinated people I know. I know others (especially of protestant faiths whose churchs are movie cinemas rented on Sunday mornings) who will have nothing to do with the jab. Still, I’m not convinced this makes them child abusers and molesters. You’d never know it by our modern-day guilt-by-association news and social media though, where anti-vax means pederast every bit as much as free speech means nazi. Just the way it is.

@booboo said in Black Lives Matter:

@Catogrande said in Black Lives Matter:

@booboo

Oli London or catgender person? I was referring to the former.

Oli London

Oli certainly has an interesting Wiki page and on the face of that I would say a complete piss taking troll and hats off compadre. But the radical surgery seems taking the piss taking a little far?

For an ordinary person, the unprovoked assault probably would have been home-detention worthy depending on how badly injured the female victim was and her views at sentencing.

It's not uncommon for people to escape jail on fraud charges in the vicinity of $100k , especially if reparation is ordered or they have some ability to repay the money. Also (sadly) especially if they're white and middle class.

He’s dragging this role out, doesn’t want the play to end…

Mar 16, 2022  /  Entertainment Jussie Smollett Walks Out of Jail Pending Conviction Appeal Jussie Smollett Walks Out of Jail Pending Conviction Appeal

The “Empire” actor had served less than a week of his 150-day sentence for staging a fake hate crime against himself.

We've just ordered solar with a 10kWh battery on a 5.8kWh system & a diverter to use any excess power to heat our water. It's going on a SSW facing roof. I have a personal weather station and we've used a year's solar energy data to model our savings. We'll be energy self-sufficient from April-mid November and around 60% for the rest of the year.

The big issue is the return on your investment. I think that will be around 7.5 to 8 % which is payback in around 9 years - earlier if I go for an EV in the next few years.