Peter Bradshaw, at the Guardian, reviews Michael Moore's movie Sicko: Last week in this paper, Seumas Milne reported on the boa-constrictor-sized parasites of US private health insurance seeking to get their fangs into the British NHS. This magnificent new film from Michael Moore is a…
There's a new Roy Morgan out today. It covers the date range 1-14 October 2007. Gary Morgan said of the result: As was suggested in the previous New Zealand Morgan Poll, National Leader John Key's recent policy gaffes have handed Helen Clark and her Labour…
So now Tariana is calling for a police probe into the Mallard/Henare incident. Mallard came clean yesteday about his role in the incident but we still haven't heard much in the way of detail from Tau bar this kind of thing: "He just said to…
You've probably heard of the battle raging accross the ditch. You've probably even heard of the one in the Parliamentary lobby. In California they're still fighting fire. Here's a challenge that might be new to you. It's a an attempt to draw the world's superest…
The Australian Council of Social Services has highlighted an update on the numbers living in poverty. New figures released by Australia Fair show that the number of Australians in poverty increased from 9.8% to 11.1% of the population between 2003-04 and 2005-06. This is based…
Bob Hawke still tells it like it is; watch his devastating rebuttal of the Liberals' attempts to demonise unions here. He points out how the union movement was crucial to Australia's successful economic transformation in the 1980's. Labour in Australia in 1983 and New Zealand…
The Dom yesterday ran a front page story by Tracy Watkins which used National Party figures aimed at showing that "Joanna Average" isn't much better off than seven years ago despite significant wage rises. Turns out that neither Bill English nor John Key got the…
The Guardian has launched a three year aid project with the objective of 'together, lifting one village out of the middle ages'. The village is Katine, located in northern Uganda. The challenge is to see whether a newspaper, its readership, a bank and an NGO…
Liberal Party advertising in the Australian election looks desperate, and judging by the polls is ineffective. Witness this effort, using the old demon-union-official smear. It's a Tory hoary, and while it might have worked for Muldoon in 1975 with the dancing cossacks, it looks dreadfully…
The Press reports that Trevor Mallard allegedly slapped or hit Tau Henare after the National MP made references to Mallard's personal life in the Debating Chamber. Henare yesterday wouldn't say whether he had been struck or not. The PM was reportedly unimpressed and commented "both…
The NZ Institute needs to look a bit more closely before leaping into print. The strangest thing about its exhortation that NZ should be a climate change 'fast follower' is that is precisely the position we're in right now. The government has announced its emissions…
The Guardian reports that "Six Asiatic wild elephants were electrocuted as they went berserk after drinking rice beer in India's remote north-east". No word as yet on whether or not the surviving elephants have laid charges against 'pot smoking youths' known to frequent the area.…
With the British conservatives looking strong (and Labour embarassed by the costs of an election that never was) and the fresh new blood surging ahead across the Tasman (noting that the polls continue to be against Howard despite their proposal for a massive tax cut)…
Some server issues outside our control caused a bit of an outage this afternoon. We're up and running again now though, as you can see. Thanks to all those who wrote in to make sure we were ok, and our apologies for any inconvenience.
Lights Out San Francisco is a citywide energy conservation event next scheduled for March 29, 2008. On this night, they invite the entire city of San Francisco to install one compact fluorescent light bulb and turn off all non-essential lighting for one hour. Below are…
The New Zealand Institute has come out imploring us to be a "fast follower" rather than a leader in the race to reduce greenhouse gases. John Key was predictably on the spot to take the credit, claiming that the Institute was essentially "making the same…
We love remixes (well all except those German house ones of classic 80's pop). Imagine our delight when we found this in out inbox this morning - tempered only, of course, by the fact the Iraq war is still on. (Hat tip: youknowwhoyouare)
FreeRice is a vocabulary game. For each word you correctly identify, they'll donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger. We are not sitting on a pile of riceâ€â€¢you are earning it 10 grains at a time. Here is…
In an effort to play an even larger part in the fight against global warming the New Zealand government today announced the purchase of 20 specially produced Toyota Prius Hybrid limousines. These fuel efficient, environmentally friendlier vehicles will gradually replace the current crop of Ministerial…