RaoulDuke

joined 2 years ago
MODERATOR OF
[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm one of the mods there haha

 

An increasingly crowded field of parties are competing to harness the vestigial energy of the parliamentary occupation.

 

Former TV presenter turned anti-vaccination campaigner Liz Gunn has launched a new political party, asking people to donate up to $1 million.

 

The government is following through on a promised ban on new coal boilers, and phasing out existing ones by 2037.

Other changes announced yesterday include new standards requiring councils to factor in climate change in decisions about consents for furnaces that burn fossil fuels.

Currently more than half of the heat used to process raw material - for example in dairy and paper production - comes from burning fossil fuels.

It accounts for 8 percent of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods said the changes would reduce emissions equivalent to the exhaust fumes from 100,000 cars a year. [...]

The ban on installing new coal heating devices kicks in from late next month, with the new nationally consistent standards for councils ready for implementation before the end of the year.

The new standards only cover devices used to generate heat for industrial processes.

Stuff had a related story this morning about the last coke-powered foundry in NZ shutting down.

 

In an analysis, academics recently found several cases of pro-CCP and pro-NZ-National-Party bias in NZ Chinese-language media. It’s long been known that China interferes in Chinese-language media here.

Interestingly, it appears the CCP and NZ Chinese-language media are currently putting their weight behind National MP Nancy Lu. She was secretly “trained as a candidate” by former National MP Jian Yang, according to a statement made by Yang in 2020. Notably, Yang used to train spies for the People’s Liberation Army before he came to NZ, and left parliament after intelligence agencies flagged him over his relationship with the CCP.

 

~~@Dave@lemmy.nz~~ @SamC@lemmy.nz already posted about this yesterday, but there's been heaps more coverage of this story. This was yesterday:

Plus a few press releases:

But by the end of the day yesterday and this morning, stories were coming out saying major job cuts will probably still go ahead:

And last Friday, before the funding was announced, The Spinoff ran a list of which university courses were likely to be dropped

 

Video by NIWA

 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.nz/post/170276

The Hākaimangō-Matiatia​ marine reserve would cover a 2350ha area northwest of Waiheke Island, but it's been stalled after opposition from the Ngāti Pāoa Iwi Trust. However, the Ngāti Pāoa Trust Board supports the reserve. This is the fourth marine reserve to be delayed or cancelled recently after opposition from iwi groups.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Good. Non-replaceable batteries benefit no one but device manufacturers and miners of lithium, cobalt, etc.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I've never heard of that. But if they did it right, I guess we'd never know.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I think the point is to go after the leaders rather than the henchmen who will just be replaced.

Usually it's not too hard to establish who the leader is, even if it's not always easy to prove. I imagine that's another reason they're allowed to go after any member.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 0 points 2 years ago (5 children)

The RICO Act itself is strange. An organisation must engage in two or more "racketeering activities" within 10 years. It's a long list of pretty much all serious crimes. It's in the RICO predicate offences section of the Wikipedia page.

If an organisation is in violation of the Act, any member can be charged with any of those offences committed by any other member. The idea is to use that pressure to get them to turn on the leaders. It also means they can go after anyone they think is really in charged. But it's up to prosecutors to make sure only those most responsible are charged.

It's far too broad of a definition, in my opinion. And it's too open to corruption and interpretation. If we were to enact something similar here, those details would need to change.

I’m keen to hear more about the “strange ways it’s been used in the US”!

Because the definition is so broad, it's been used to go after members of regular corporations, like FIFA and a healthcare provider. Whether or not those people deserved to be charged, it goes way beyond the intended scope of the law.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They do. Every time I look at them my mouth waters.

Are you a Kiwi? Come join us on lemmy.nz! We've got a post with the must active NZ communities here.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 0 points 2 years ago (7 children)

Increasing sentences is a common knee-jerk reaction to these kinds of things, but it doesn't usually play out the way people think. Humans are complex, and longer sentences usually result in higher crime rates in society. Which seems to defeat the point.

I think a better solution would be to develop some kind of RICO Act-like legislation, with various changes to avoid some of the strange ways it's been used in the US. The RICO Act destroyed the Mob's stranglehold on America, and has been used successfully to eliminate gangs and other criminal organisations since.

Essentially it would be a law that allows leaders of criminal gangs to be charged with the actions of its members, or a prohibition on being a leader of a gang. These kinds of laws allow the police to simply establish someone is the leader then put them in jail. When they are inevitably replaced, the next leader is taken out too. As this continues, being the next leader will be very unattractive, and with the good leaders gone, the organisation falls to pieces.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 4 points 2 years ago

Apparently not. But it looks like it would taste really good.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Our favourite here is garlic-infused olive oil with nutritional yeast.

It's addictive as hell. Once you get into nutritional yeast, you want to put it on everything.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 1 points 2 years ago

It would be great to be able to just swipe away posts, whether voted on or not.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That seems to depend on the community or instance. I can see them on some, but not others.

[–] RaoulDuke@lemmy.nz 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

If they'd put her in a morgue's freezer she would have just died without anyone knowing. It's disturbing.

At least they didn't bury her before she started knocking.

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