Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
The Editor doesn’t moderate this blog, 3 volunteers do, they are very lenient to provide you a free speech space but if it’s just deranged abuse or putting words in bloggers mouths to have a pointless argument, we don’t bother publishing.
All in all, TDB gives punters a very, very, very wide space to comment in but we won’t bother with out right lies or gleeful malice. We leave that to the Herald comment section.
EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist abuse, homophobic abuse, racist abuse, anti-muslim abuse, transphobic abuse, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, Qanon lunacy, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics, 5G conspiracy theories, the virus is a bioweapon, some weird bullshit about the UN taking over the world and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/522531/catastrophic-universities-plead-for-more-government-subsidies
May be new disciplines should take precedence over past studies. Things like how to lobby, how to present plans for new projects in the minimum number of words that government advisors recognise and respond to, how to sell and advance a counter-culture that suits government requirements, how to apply for finance from government departments and admins. These are all for instance, as highly intelligent and wily people will surely be able to think up globally applicable ideas.
Perhaps all entrants should watch this vid ‘If” spoken by Sir Michael Caine and written by Rudyard Kipling. Presents some new values conserved from the past, to aim for. Discuss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqOgyNfHl1U
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2407/S00030/tony-blair-profiteer-and-emissary-of-artificial-intelligence.htm
Is Tony Blair like something out of the Wizard of Oz; the Tinman, the Scarecrow or the Lion without real human substance?
(Perhaps Blair is secretly driven as the Lion is in this summay : While the Lion appears frightening and ferocious at first, it soon becomes clear that he believes himself to be a coward. Despite the other animals treating him as the king of the beasts, the Lion is secretly afraid of most of the creatures he encounters.
https://www.litcharts.com › the-wizard-of-oz › characters
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/522573/bring-the-karens-back-the-name-going-extinct
Here’s a bit of non-news, trivial from RadioNZ about names using the word Karen to catch the mind. It is labelled NZ and World News. No wonder we haven’t room in our heads for actual thinking, sorting, analysing, learning. and flights of fancy worth noting. But it will be helpful to those so keen to follow trends that they don’t want to think up a name for their child. (Note: Giving children the names of countries has already been done eg India. Why not birdnames or flowers, insects? They had a Ladybird in the USA).
Now for those who ask ‘why’ sometimes and find out.
Meaning and use
Kansas State University professor Heather Suzanne Woods, whose research interests include memes, said that a Karen’s defining characteristics are a sense of entitlement, a willingness and desire to complain, and a self-centered approach to interacting with others.[8] According to Woods, a Karen “demands the world exist according to her standards with little regard for others, and she is willing to risk or demean others to achieve her ends”.[8] Rachel Charlene Lewis, writing for Bitch, agrees, saying that a Karen does not view others as individuals and instead moves “through the world prepared to fight faceless conglomerate of lesser-than people who won’t give her what she wants and feels she deserves”…
Origin is not clear –
In African-American culture, there is a history of calling difficult white women or those who “weaponize” their position by a generic pejorative name.[6] In the antebellum era (1815–1861), “Miss Ann” was used.[7] In the early 1990s, “Becky” was used.[8] As late as 2018, before the use of “Karen” caught on, alliterative names matching particular incidents were used, such as “Barbecue Becky”, “Cornerstore Caroline”, and “Permit Patty”.[9] Linguist Kendra Calhoun connects “Karen” stereotypes to the older “soccer mom”… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_(slang)
What do men who behave like Trump get called? He sounds like a male equivalent to the described women in the above paragraphs.
Try this for size.
We have a situation where the indigenous minority are being told by an even smaller political minority that their legal rights will be decided by an electoral majority whipped into hysteria by the very same political minority and call that ‘democracy’.
from Martyn Bradbury on – https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2024/07/18/waatea-news-column-david-seymour-and-the-minority-tyranny-of-the-majority/
It has a certain rhythm, almost a heart beat.
AI coming – some trenchant criticisms.
,,,The report features an interview with MIT’s Daron Acemoglu, who estimates that a mere quarter of tasks subject to AI “will be cost effective to automate within the next 10 years, implying that AI will impact less than 5% of all tasks.” In his interview, Acemoglu observes that numerous tasks currently being performed by humans “for example in the area of transportation, manufacturing, mining, etc., are multifaceted and require real-world interaction, which AI won’t be able to materially improve any time too soon.”
The GS Head of Global Equity Research, Jim Cavello, is even less impressed, noting that AI technology, to be viable, must be able to solve complex problems. AI technology is not the holy grail of company valuations, being simply too costly in terms of building critical products such as GPU chips and unable, so far, to “replicate humans’ most valuable capabilities.”
There you have it. On the one hand, the flowery promises of AI benefits and savings arising from a fierce embrace of technology by governments, as put forth by Blair and his institute. Then we have Goldman Sachs, similarly famed for its ruthless tailoring of advice to swell monetary returns. Neither is encouraging, but Blair’s offerings always come with a barely concealed odour of self-interest masquerading as human salvation.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2407/S00030/tony-blair-profiteer-and-emissary-of-artificial-intelligence.htm
Has this guy got a big white horse, wearing fancy armour and carries a sword called Excalibur?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/what-you-need-to-know/522539/missing-mayor-record-rates-rises-and-tauranga-s-election-what-s-going-on-with-councils
“I’ve long argued there should be a test for people standing for council, because so many people don’t know how it all works and they’re in it for the wrong reasons.”
Asquith, who has stood for election to local councils twice in the United Kingdom and in 2019 in Palmerston North, said there’s “every danger” Tauranga will re-elect councillors who aren’t motivated by the right reasons.
“I hope I’m completely wrong,” he said. But on local government, the country needs “a whole mindset change”…
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