Posts by Alfie
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to Rob Stowell,
There's a certain irony that the man who expressed a desire for NZ to be the Jersey of the South Pacific hand picks the man who will run the inquiry, then defines the terms of reference so narrowly that the result is predetermined. A whitewash in plain view.
And hey, that technique worked for Judith Collins. She was "completely vindicated", wasn't she?
-
Another classic Fairfax fail. Whenever you browse image libraries they have these helpful little keywords to assist in your search. Good stuff. However cut & pasting all of them for reuse as your photo caption is not usually recommended.
And nobody at Fairfax noticed. Doh!
-
Paul Mason was formerly the economics editor at Channel 4 News in the UK. During the Grexit he and fellow BBC-trained journalist Theopi Skarlatos gained inside access to the Tsipras government and produced a 4-part crowdfunded doco series called This is a Coup.
That's his credentials... he resigned from Ch4 in February and now writes on Medium. While this story relates to Tata Steel, Mason blogs on neoliberalism in general and suggests that while journalists are fed the odd tidbit, most generally know very little about what is really happening in the world.
Steel crisis: they do not give a shit
You’re about to get a textbook lesson in neoliberalismInterview with Mason - The Intercept
The four part doco is available free at the bottom of this page. -
Hard News: Dirty Politics, in reply to Sacha,
Thanks for the link Sacha. I read the Fairfax story this morning and thought, 'What a grubby little hatchet job'. It's good to see that the Herald story is less biased.
When I was working for TVNZ News, Maramena Roderick and Jodi Ihaka were great friends. So it's surprising to see Maramena in her role as interim head of news and current affairs for Maori TV on the wrong side of this affair to Jodi, who tweeted:
kia kaha: we know who has integrity & honesty & who doesn't. That attack is utterly shameful.
While Mihi Forbes revealed corruption within Maoridom and the subsequent coverup by Maori TV was publically exposed, there is no need for them to sink this low. Whatever happened to mana?
-
This report reaches the MSM and its figures (based on n=12) become fact.
-
Steve Braunias -- Secret Diary of The Panama Papers
-
Silly question... who is the report's author, Dr Michael McFadden of the "McFadden Consultancy". Google doesn't turn up anything in NZ for either the man or the company.
-
Hard News: Labour's medical cannabis…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
…ate more than the recommended amount and ended up jumping off a balcony?
So the cause of death was almost certainly injuries caused by the fall. Or at least the bit at the bottom where he stopped falling. If the kid had instead downed a bottle of Jack Daniels, I wonder if that would be counted on official stats as an alcohol-related death?
There’s a reason there is no maximum dosage for cannabis… it’s almost impossible to overdose because people fall asleep well before reaching any lethal amount. That’s why I’m questioning the 32 NZ deaths mentioned in the report. It sounds like complete nonsense to me.
Unless they were caused by synths, in which case that's a major flaw in the report.
-
Speaker: Are we seeing the end of MSM,…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Meanwhile back at the NZ Herald slackness still rules the roost two of their ‘name’ columnists turn in poor work..
Barry Soper fails again.
Their sharp as a tack, pinstripe suited minister Chris Finlayson conjures up the image of an MI5 chief, which gleaming shoes fit for a phone...
The word you're looking for is "with", Barry. How hard is it to read through your finished copy and spot the obvious clangers before they're published?
Time to bring on the subs.
-
While ignoring alcohol and tobacco and lumping synthetic cannabinoids in with cannabis shows poor judgement in an academic study, I’m more than a little surprised by table six on page 21 which records 32 (presumably NZ) deaths per year from cannabinoids.
Seriously? I’ve always understood that nobody has died from smoking cannabis. In the whole world. Ever. Do I have that horribly wrong, or has the author of the study played fast and loose here?
Here’s the stats for all 2013 deaths in the US. The usual suspects like cardiovascular disease and motor vehicle accidents are well represented. But scroll down to the bottom of that table and you’ll see cannabis deaths total a nice, round zero.
Norml’s figures reinforce this view.
Around 50,000 people die each year from alcohol poisoning. Similarly, more than 400,000 deaths each year are attributed to tobacco smoking. By comparison, marijuana is nontoxic and cannot cause death by overdose.
The HuffPost also concludes "…not a single person has ever died from a weed overdose."
I understand that some people who die may have traces of cannabis in their system, but it is duplicitous to suggest that was the main cause of the death. Forgive me if I lack knowledge in this area, but the author’s approach seems rather disingenuous in this regard.
