I really don’t get this gov. Populist distraction? I guess they’re cutting health system budget by a similar amount so hoping less accidents in EDs to offset some? Ridiculous in any case. I’m all for prevention of accidents and other preventative health policies. The motivations here are blurry.
Indeed. We need to start calculating and charging/taxing for the true human cost these megacorps are fleecing us for-let alone the total actual climate cost. More so than we already do that is. We get miniscule unneeded tax cuts as a cynical carrot on a stick distraction while much needed underfunded gov services are decimated further. These types get to literally destroy our shared environment while raking it in. Disgusting
I just finished Burmese Days, and as someone who grew up in a (former) British colony, it hits hard. Orwell had his finger on the pulse of the 20th century and spoke very plainly about what he saw around him, and most importantly within himself. Something we could all do more of.
This should not be happening.
Yep. And the streaming tech bros collusion with the industry mobsters took it to another level. The people making the art are a mere annoyance to the jerks profiting from it. And yet the ai which they think saves them from this annoyance requires the art be created in the first place. I guess the history of recorded music holds a fair amount to plunder . But art - and even pop music - is an expression and reflection of individuals and wider zeitgeist: actual humanity. I don’t see what value is added when a person creates something semi unique, and a supercomputer burns massive amounts of energy to mimic it. At this stage all of supposed AI is a marketing gimmic to sell things. Corporations once again showing their hostility to humanity.
Yeh a symptom of consumerism being (or pretending to be) the antidote to everything. A solution can always be purchased.
Hadn’t thought of this. I wonder how they would tread what you’d think would be a thin line. Or are lonely people that credulous? On the other hand being provided your perfect match during the trial period and falling in love with this corporate entity which you are then made to pay for access to? Dystopian.
Current NZ gov are certainly more cozy with the US. No idea how braggable it is though. He seems to have been forgotten about after the initial national embarassment the whole fiasco was at the time. Maybe these clowns want him to quietly go away . So yeh horse trading.
“ Denis Ritchie Advance ! “, just put an exclamation mark at the end of the first line. More of a declaration .
I guess you want the internet to be a place for finding useful information, and/or the entertainment you choose to access, over it being a long uninteruptable stream of infomercials for crap products you have no interest in? Then groogle is not for you. In fact groogle is not for humanity.
I don’t have any skin in this game, but what are the Orwellian talking points you refer to? I’m curious how this term is used and develops over time.
A small addition to the discussion - I pay in advance with cash for 10 coffees at a cafe I go to several times a week. Its an informal arrangement, and a very small independent cafe (these are common in my country). If you have a regular spend somewhere ask if they could do this. Obviously it doesn’t work for all things. I wouldn’t do it as a pay later type of tab though otherwise you’re back in credit land. It works for me as its the best coffee in my area, an indie outlet, and they threw in 1 free per 10 paid for. They get my loyalty I guess and money in their bank (or cash in the till)- also bypassing the 3 or so middle men orgs between my bank and their bank by way of visa etc. which is another big motivator for me - we are being reamed in our country with up to 3% charge for using a credit card. Maybe thats common globally?
Ditch touch screen and give it physical buttons and we’ll be on to something.
I liken using groogle for finding factual information to using the yellowpages for doing the same. YT isn’t much better but it suffers many of the conflicts of interest traditional media outlets also had, depending on the corporation. In this case the almighty algorithm is the conflict of interest, though there are clever content creators out there making some good stuff, they’ll always be beholden to the owners of the platform and the true customers - the advertisers. As an advertising platform which can direct punters to actual long form content directly supported by watchers via patreon or similar, I understand why it is used : the sheer numbers using it.
That’ll help with keeping a low profile. I personally go for a red flashing clown nose, and triggers in my shoes which set off a loud explosion sound with every step. The speaker is in my ridiculously tall top hat.
Parent of a 5 year old year one student and just had first parent teacher interviews last couple days. As anecdotal as this will be, with my sample size of one, plus being in touch with other parents, this is a pointless populist move. The teachers are working their absolute arses off ensuring our kids are getting everything they can get. And already doing this needless to say. My kids teacher looks bloody exhausted at the best of times, and is made of stronger stuff than I or this highly rested smug shiny faced fake smiled property magnate. What teachers need are more resources, more time (i.e more teachers) and more pay. These useless checkbox ticking numbskulls think we fall for this empty grandstanding? Absolute wastage of resource, ironically.
I haven’t travelled to either province mainly on principle - I don’t think I could stomach it - so I cant speak on that. Though, many other locations if not the whole country, have similar history, and treatment of local minorities, culture and language.
Stick close to her and trusted family and friends. Though cash must be accepted legally , its hardly used. Getting a simcard requires registering with your passport now. If you’re okay with that, a cheap burner phone with wechat for payments and comms and standard phone number yo get hold of your family back home. Needless to say you wont be anonymous so my attitude when visiting there was kind of just accept that, and don’t do/say anything stupid. i.e assimilate temporarily with that way of life. All of these concerns are only a small part of life and of course a billion or so people are living with it. You are totally right that the place is full of interesting and amazing history, culture, food and really friendly and hospitable people despite the bs they have to put up with.
How do you know what is or isn’t of benefit to NZ unless it is disclosed? If that takes effort, then thats one of the many costs of having a (always tenuous) democracy.
Cool thing about this is they could assemble these bundles into parallel live streams we could simply flick between to find what we prefer to watch. If they run into a problem of people flicking away when ads run then just align the ads to run at the same time on each “channel” if I can call them that ?
All good questions. I’m guessing RNZ may have the police association on the blower this week. See what they have to say. After last week’s exchange with the (former) gun lobbyist MP accusing the police assoc of being a lobby group (lol), I’ll be getting the popcorn out.