Posts by izogi
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According to court documents, the man “threatened expressly to endanger the safety of any person, namely infants, by releasing infant milk formula into the Chinese market contaminated with traces of 1080, with intent to cause Federated Farmers Incorporated to act in accordance with the will of [the man] to cause Federated Farmers to pressure the New Zealand Government to stop the use of 1080 in New Zealand ”.
That part about method sounds new, though. At least I hadn’t seen it expressed that authoritatively before. What’s still not clear is why he wanted 1080 use to be stopped, and there are several possible reasons which opposing factions will probably champion against each other (as has already been happening) until it’s made more clear.
I also hadn’t previously noticed any info that he was specifically threatening to release it into the Chinese market, which the above seems to be suggesting.
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Access: How many agencies does it take…, in reply to ,
The piece of medical kit should have a back up battery built into it.
In recent times I’ve only experienced the delivery and post-natal areas of Wellington’s DHB, but my impression of that was that much of the equipment was dated and not always working reliably. In all the times we visited it was common to see staff grab a machine from the corridor which didn’t run properly, push it out the door and find (or wait for) another one known to be more reliable.
Later we spent a night in NICU. The stay would have been longer in quieter times but trying to handle 40-something babies at this time of year when it’s only funded for about 3/4 of that meant we were bumped out to a ward, as for us it was still possible to do the necessary monitoring remotely. We didn’t feel there was an unusually high risk, but mostly because the whole experience was taped together by a highly professional expert staff, who knew how to work with the often-flaky resources they had. Many of those staff, especially the likes of midwives, probably cost the DHB much less to keep around than purchasing, maintaining and eventually replacing reliable specialist equipment.
If that experience was anything to go by, I could easily imagine that DHB purchasing equipment with backup batteries or UPSs, but maintenance would be lacking. Sooner or later half of it wouldn’t work properly, and those machines would forever be allocated to less critical scenarios or sitting in a queue of machines in a cupboard somewhere waiting for maintenance.
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Hard News: The good guys, in reply to Bruce Hopkins,
The other was that the ‘Supervisor’, which is the word that was on the security guards jacket, seems to have watched way too many such tackles in news reports, what the hell was he thinking he would achieve with such an aggressive intervention on a kid. I imagine his life will be altered for some time to come by this.
I’m undecided what to think about this. On the face of it that tackle was harsh, but London’s also a city that’s seen some bad terrorist attacks in recent decades. With the height of the event, 14 year old kid or not, I’d have thought he was doing as instructed according to whatever security plan was in place. It was cool to see Williams et al being so accommodating, but not so much to read his later comments about how he’d have happily given the guy a hiding.
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In court. There's not much new published here yet, though.
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Envirologue: 1080, "eco-terrorism" and agendas, in reply to Joe Wylie,
SHOT’s Laurie Collins doesn’t let the issue’s importance distract him from keeping things narrowly partisan: “Only NZ First has had the guts to stand up on behalf of the increasing numbers of Kiwis opposed to the destruction 1080 causes the ecosystem.”
NZ First is also highly opportunist and has spotted a niche for potential votes. Considering the three largest parties in parliament are strongly convinced of using 1080 in its current form, I can’t see how NZ First would make any practical in-roads in changing that policy. I think it’ll just take the votes and run. Never say never, though, I guess.
At best I think it’ll get a symbolic victory that can be announced that way, but would be unlikely to make a material difference to anything significant. Maybe more money will be allocated for some kind of trap research, or maybe a proposed aerial drop somewhere will get replaced with a trapping programme, or with nothing, much to the appreciation of people who’d thought there was a risk of their water supply being poisoned.
But it’s not as if all of this theatre isn’t still having an effect.
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Envirologue: 1080, "eco-terrorism" and agendas, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
Cool, thanks. I was thinking of news bulletins rather than Morning Report. :)
Also I'm not trying to apologise for the PM and friends playing politics with the immediate eco-terrorism label. That was just dumb.
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Envirologue: 1080, "eco-terrorism" and agendas, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
Hi Rosemary. Do you know which day he was quoted on the 7am news bulletin? If I can figure out how to browse Radio NZ's old news bulletins, annoyingly I can't find a nice index, I'd not mind going back to listen to what he said. I don't share the view that failure to continue giving his ideas press time amounts to Radio NZ being pressured not to air them. To me, much simpler possibilities are either lazy journalism, or that someone at Radio NZ (and a heap of other outlets) decided that he wasn't a great source of information.
Browsing forums like the 1080 Eyewitness facebook group alongside any of the anti-1080 media around, I've seen plenty of noise about inside jobs. Without meaning disrespect to individuals, the movement as a whole is fragmented. It attracts anyone and everyone who dislikes 1080, for whatever reason, and with any number of ideas of what they want to see, not always overlapping: more trapping near populations, more trapping everywhere, job creation, alternative poisons which are allegedly more humane and claimed to be as effective, specifically no aerial drops because they can't be trusted, give up and let the pests win because we're wasting our time, and so on. Fair enough to have concern, but it also means there's no strong coherent voice. Conclusions are often built on unsupported subjective observations ("I always hear birds and then I went into the same bush and didn't hear anything. 1080!!!"), anecdotes without references, and misinterpretation of existing scientific literature. There's also no shortage of conspiracy theories being aired about everything at every twist and turn, most if not all of which go unchallenged within the movement (question at your peril). It's not always easy to separate whatever signal might exist from the noise.
When expressed there, at least until recently, the "inside job" thing has casually been tied to obvious motives which involve someone inside one of these horrid and vile, hated government or government-congratulatory organisations trying to frame and discredit the anti-1080 movement. This means someone in DOC, or the AHB, or Forest & Bird, or the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (who was the great hope for salvation until she reached the wrong conclusions and became just another part of the corrupt establishment). Or if not in that allotment, one of the indoctrinated scientists whose research is government funded, or they're otherwise just a poison-pusher based on conclusions they've reached, and thus automatically untrustworthy.
It's great that Police have apparently found the person responsible. If people have issues with how they've been treated during the investigation then they should definitely make noise, and Police should be dealt with if they acted unreasonably. Maybe some of the above will be shown to be true once the facts emerge. But as far as media coverage is concerned until now, if the only speculative motives anyone could invent were that either some especially crazy person was trying to bring negative attention to 1080 by threatening to put it in baby formula, or that there was a conspiracy by a pro-1080 official from the "inside" somewhere to frame those who hate 1080 by making it seem like a crazy person was among them, I'm not surprised that the latter was given limited media attention, purely on merit.
Or it might just be a 60 year old independent businessman with an isolated poison product who had some as-yet undisclosed way of getting a high grade of 1080 poison, and who through some type of sociopathic insanity, implemented a plan for selling more of their product by threatening babies. Does that count as an inside job? The narrative I'm now seeing is that if it's anyone who has some stake in any kind of poison, it's an "inside job" and they (whoever "they" is because it's so fragmented) were right all along. Unfortunately whatever it turns out to be, this whole thing is more about people's hate and distrust of each other than about the actual merits (or not) of using 1080 in the way it's being used.
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Envirologue: 1080, "eco-terrorism" and agendas, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
It’s more Scoop publishing a press release from the Sporting Hunters’ Outdoor Trust. It makes Bill Benfield wonder if there’s a conspiracy of the government controlling National Radio, I imagine.
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Polity: Forty, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
If you manage the first part (and I suspect that most people with the aptitude could learn coding at home for negligible outlay), then you’ve got to work out how to convince employers.
Finding out there's even a job to apply for can also be a useful thing.
My perception could be biased through my own experiences, but over time I've found for me that knowing people is frequently a huge factor in landing jobs, probably moreso than being the most highly skilled person possible. Employers often seem to be more comfortable with someone they know plus often that's quicker and easier and less expensive than going through a recruitment process, and many jobs are never advertised. The path for getting into many workplaces is completely unfair.
It doesn't necessarily have to be people from prior workplaces, though, even though that's largely what it's been for me. My wife was finding that her involvement in Toastmasters, which attracts some very diverse crowds, was a factor in where she found out about potential job opportunities. Just from people who knew people who knew someone who was looking for someone, and so on.
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On Morning Report about 8.45am’ish (paraphrased from memory as they don’t yet have it online here):
Susie Ferguson, from multiple attempts: "What will actually happen if teenagers read this book?"
Bob McCoskrie, eventually: "They will be confronted by it and …get upset … and they may not actually get past some of the pages."
Finally, I understand!