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5:30 pm, August 10th, 2026 - 16 comments
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Daily review is also your post.
This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
A useful summary of the NZ election numbers:
Voters' digest: Election 2026 by the numbers | RNZ
Note that the government's deliberate exclusion of thousands of voters will have no effect on the time taken to count the votes. Which was the flimsy pretext …
Hundreds of thousands of voters affected by planned electoral changes – Newsroom
"He [Goldsmith] said it took too long to get the final results and then form a government, following election day."
(prediction: we won't have a government sworn in before Christmas. Far-fetched? Well, the result won't be known until Nov 27. Then the serious talking starts …)
The stuff of movies and nightmares? No, it's here and real right now:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/361018263/ai-built-virus-could-kill-billions-kiwi-expert-warns
Brought to you by your local data centre/gentailer collab.
No, brought to you by the nearest bioweapons lab. It would need to be synthesised and multiple variants tested on animals.
What's worrying is that the recent US legislation passed for full cooperation in war research with Israel included 'biotechnology'.
Bioengineered weapons should be off the table internationally. But with all the overturn of the international order recently, I predict that Israel is playing with as many cards as possible, including novel biowarfare agents. After all, we all know they have illegal nukes. China may also be a player.
The issue for designing bioweapons is to have the 'goodies' protected, while 'baddies' die. That means immunisation studies must run alongside any agent development. AI is very powerful in predictive stats, but that is only step one.
Viruses are incapable of self-replication. They require host cell biochemistry to replicate. This study was not designed to create a pathogen, it was designed to explore a possible tool to combat a pathogen (E. coli in this case). The AI employed in this instance was laser focused on infecting bacteria. We tell AI what to learn, not the other way around. Bacteriophage have been relentlessly studied for a long time. We don't know enough about other viruses, such as COVID, to be able to train AI to circumvent vaccination. Not a problem. This is a positive use of technology towards treating antibiotic resistance and such like.
https://election2026.nz/
This site is an independent site summarising polls, with heaps of graphics and data, plus plug in your own numbers.
Lots of options you can fiddle with, eg Labour wins all Māori seats.
Looks like OP have sucked off Labour rather than rw voters from the site graphic.
Odds at the moment 45% rw return (likeliest), 24% chance of lw only, 24% of lw +OP, 4% OP decides, 3% stalemate.
Seymour dumped on Willis today…where is the headline "Seymour says Willis' tax cuts caused huge deficit blow out" **
This came from an interview on Midday Report, where Guyon Espiner explained to Seymour that the CoC had borrowed to pay for tax cuts and he asked Seymour did this make sense.
Seymour's answer was that ACT did not agree with the tax cuts and only agreed to them because it was part of a coalition.
**remembering that the Nats had promised to balance the books by 2026 but has actually ended up borrowing at a faster rate than Labour)
Most teachers do not support the changes in Year 12 and 13 (changes away from NCEA 2 and 3)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/education/951701/most-teachers-want-ncea-to-be-improved-not-removed-survey
This speaks volumes about how Luxon views working people and capital:
Here, he's admitting that the famed trickle-down effect of the free market works primarily in introducing costs to low income families rather than benefits.
Any tax by his definition is paid by working people. That is quite an admission.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/950118/christopher-luxon-suggests-fuel-excise-tax-rise-accommodation-levy-if-national-re-elected
How is a Capital Gains Tax a tax on working people if capital gain by their ideology is not income?
It's like the mis-argument they had for killing interest deductibility rules for amateur landlords. RWs claim amateur landlordism is a business like any other and so interest costs should be able to be deducted from taxable income.
But when it comes to the revenue from a sale outside the bright-line, oh no, that is not like a business, that is just simple people saving for retirement.
Well, which is it?
As a sole trader, I know that when I sell a piece of equipment, what I get for it counts as income. An accountant could tell me I'm wrong but why is the same not applied to rental property sales?
Sometimes First Dog nails it.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2026/aug/10/meme-factories-are-churning-out-pro-one-nation-ai-slop-on-facebook-im-frightened?
Looks like a possible Nat Party leadership change is coming.
From NZ Herald tonight.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/national-party-discontent-simmers-with-mps-believing-change-is-possible/R4IJL3VPBJHWTACTTQIIGBRU7A/
The article is paywalled but that's what the headlines seem to be saying.
Not paywalled right now.
Coughlan usually has good sources in National, so this might be something more than gossip.
Righties on twitter hinting hard something is going down.
A leader getting replaced isn't new, but a leader getting dumped just 2 days after announcing the party list … that's got to be a new record!
Everyone goes up one place?
someone needs to look up the rules for lists. There must be a final cut off point for the EC in terms of preparing for voting.
https://elections.nz/guidance-and-rules/for-starting-a-political-party/key-dates