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6:00 am, March 6th, 2026 - 27 comments
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Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Step up to the mike …
It would be great if someone in the media would ask how much this has cost the tax payer, I live in this area and drive this road most days, the 100km speed limit is ridiculous (Previously 80km) and after it changed, all the signs had to change and that lasted about 2 months as it was then temporarily reduced back to 80km again because of the expressway construction, So again all the signs changed. I will assume the govt knew about the expressway construction as they have giant signs up congratulating themselves for starting it, so one can assume that someone already knew the speed limit would have to be 80km whilst construction is ongoing. morons!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/588778/nzta-considers-u-turn-on-100k-speed-limits-for-sh1-sh57-south-of-levin
" if someone in the media ".
Why not do it yourself? There is a thing called the Official Information Act that you could use to ask for the information yourself. Why should it be a question of getting someone else to do it for you?
Because I do not get paid to do it, my point is, if you are in the media, maybe ask some hard questions? or do you think that they shouldn't do that and we can all just spend our time going through the OIA process which as we know will just be redacted.
Do you somehow assume that 'the media' are watching The Standard – so your message will get through?
Perhaps you could try sending an email directly to Stuff or The Post (or whichever newspaper covers the area concerned). It would be more likely to reach someone with the capacity to launch the investigation that you're seeking.
Shall we all email all the newspapers every day then? what a fucken stupid comment
Of course "the media" read the Standard, as it is a resource such as Reddit, xTwitter etc. Sometimes being contrary comes across as just plain stupid.
Not at all. Only when you want a journalist to investigate something. Yanno – take some personal action, rather than just whinge.
I'm choosing to ignore your abuse, rather than contribute to a flame war.
Did make me laugh when they changed it back to 100kph. I mean, I expect it's possible to drive that road at 100 if you're out there at 2am or something, but during daylight hours there's way too much traffic – the road self-restricts to 80 most of the time, regardless of what the signs say.
I agree, I find it unintentionally hilarious to see the number of roads in Auckland with posted speed limits – as you're crawling along in 15 k/hr stop/start traffic.
Some roads have a sign saying 100km just before a corner or Give Way sign, some strange road planning. As an aside I find listening to Sly & Robbie (esp the dub albums) has slowed me right down (or maybe just hitting my 50s).
I saw one the other day which had an 80km/hr sign approx 50 metres before a mandatory stop sign. Madness!
India make the 20 over final.
First Samson won the game for England. Then Bethell cancelled that out.
The finishers with bat and ball decided it.
If Archer had came in after Jacks, he might have taken on Bumrah better than the others.
There is nothing new under the sun. Seeing the same tropes played out, different President but same media voices.
The Persian Gulf Distraction.
Bill Hicks nearly thirty years ago:
"Hicks described the American media's narrative as moving from fear-mongering to absurdity, saying, "First it was 'The Elite Republican Guard,' then it was 'The Republican Guard,' and now I think the Republicans are making this [stuff] up about there being guards out there!".
Michael Franti another US hero.
Lyric from Spearhead's Light up ya lighter.
“Tell me, President, tell me if you will
How many people does a smart bomb kill?
How many of ’em do you think we got?
The general says we never miss a shot
And we never ever ever keep a body count
We killin so efficiently, we can’t keep count
In the Afghan hills, the rebels still fightin
Opium fields keep providin
The best heroin that money can buy and
Nobody knows where Osama been hidin
The press confrences keep on lyin
Like we don’t know”
"He's going nowhere" headline from NZ Herald about Luxon facing a poll showing National under 30%. Senior MPs sayng Luxon is not going to be replaced. Good. Keep him where he is, but feel free to speculate and spread stories about how unstable his leadership is.
@SPC @ 2
Quietly confident about the final.
We are a well balanced team, both batsmen and bowling outfits in form, adjust to the conditions well and we have had India's number recently in most forms of the game.
India may have played their final, one day's less rest and the pressure. The focus on the ABs is nothing compared to the intensity the Indian team will be feeling.
Winning the toss will be important too.
It can turn on a dime. If NZ can neutralise Bumrah, and our spinners put pressure on their batters, we're in with a chance.
What do I know?
Great target from India thanks to their explosive openers, supported by good bowling.
Good to see Kirsty Noem fired.
I didn't think it was possible that Trump would fire someone who brown-nosed him to the extent that she has.
I guess that running a $220 million ad campaign starring her rather than Donald was too much for him.
Oklahoma is a State where the Governor appoints Mullin's successor, who must be a Republican, without an election. No change in the Senate is possible unfortunately.
Amen to that! I won't easily forget how she fronted a presser after the Renee Good shooting. True she was in Texas at the time, but after such an unnecessarily tragic event, turning up kitted out in khaki as a Western sheriff, complete with Stetson hat, demonstrated a truly dreadful lack of sensitivity and decency.
& then she went on to misquote George Orwell.
Hahahahahahahahaha draws breath hahahahahahahahahaha
I went to see Gary Stevenson talk on Wednesday and he basically predicted this sort of centrist reaction.
The inability of these two dudes to understand anything is incredible.
Was planning to watch this later today since I've already used up most of my daily video watching allowance with last night's Novara show. Thanks for not spoiling it. I think of Alistair and Rory as the "posh boys" (Cambridge Modern Languages and Oxford PPE). Undoubtedly clever, but with minds that seem to run unshakeably on predetermined rails.
Good on Kieran McAnulty for again challenging Chris Bishop on the number of social houses this Government has funded. As earlier reported by various media, of the more than 7,000 houses built over the past two years, most were commissioned and funded by Labour. Only a few hundred have been funded by this Government, which cancelled hundreds of projects, including plans for 3,500 new homes.
https://hansard.parliament.nz/hansard-transcript/2026-03-05/start-of-sitting-day-karakiaprayers
Question No. 11 Hon KIERAN McANULTY (Labour) (14:56) to the Minister of Housing:
"Does he stand by his statement that “there are 7,000 more social houses in the country”; if so, how many of these additional houses were funded in Budgets 2024 and 2025?
Hon CHRIS BISHOP (Minister of Housing) (14:56)Yes. Since this Government came into office, over 7,000 net new social houses have been delivered. Of those, 308 were funded in Budgets 2024 and 2025, and, of course, we’ve funded lots more social and affordable homes that are under way…".
Nicola Willis has repeatedly distorted truth about this issue, omitting facts, details and generalising, as with her 2023 initially promised tax cuts of $250 per fortnight for families, before adding the words "up to", and then being unable to confirm that any family had received this amount.
Simon Watts claims importing LNG could save households $50 in energy costs, often omitting "per year". As power bills are received each month, some voters might interpret this as monthly savings. However, costs for consumers might increase.
by Marc Daalder 10/02/2026 …"According to Watts, the scheme will save $265 million in power costs per year. Households could expect to see about $50 in annual savings, compared to a modelled scenario where an LNG facility wasn’t built. Exactly how those numbers were arrived at is unclear, with the advice underpinning the Government’s decision yet to be released."…
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/02/10/why-the-new-lng-terminal-could-raise-not-lower-your-power-bill/
Megan Woods 03.03.26: …"New Zealanders are being put at risk, New Zealand households and businesses, from high energy prices if we rely on this form of energy, which has such volatile price spikes that we're seeing today."…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/588528/no-change-to-government-s-lng-plans-after-global-price-spike
Exposing the Government's inaccurate/dishonest statements could encourage supporters to question their loyalty.
It seems that the US used Claude AI to do intelligence data crunching in its targeting selections when it attacked Iran.
We need to know if AI targeting was responsible for the strike on the Sharjareh Tayyebeh school that killed 165 children.
The pattern of AI being used to justify the slaughter of children is disturbing similar to the indiscriminate targeting of civilians in the Gaza gencide by the Israeli "lavender" AI.
Machines do notshield humans from war crimes trials.
Interesting background on this. It appears that Trump has ordered the military to stop using Claude – following Anthropic denouncing the use for military purposes (in Venezuela, not Iran)
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/01/claude-anthropic-iran-strikes-us-military
For Iran, the military were reportedly:
'Help select targets' would appear to me to involve the identification possible targets – for review by humans. The description would not cover a list of targets, which were automatically transmitted with no human oversight (nor would I think this at all a likely scenario – everyone is aware of the AI hallucination issue – no one is going to trust it to that extent).
I don't know how we'd be able to determine whether or to what extent AI was used in the specific targeting which resulted in the accidental school strike. Targeting data is absolutely going to restricted during an active conflict (they're not going to publish this information, so their opponents can benefit from it). It's possible that, post war, this information will be released, and evaluated in detail.
War crimes are generally only considered when something is an active policy. e.g. the organization concerned is deliberately targeting a non-military target. Accidental misses (i.e. the target is missed, and something else hit) are generally not considered to come into that category.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/israel-gaza-ai-database-hamas-airstrikes