The Anti-Targ Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 20 hours ago, Padraig said: Now this is depressing. https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/02/02/global-democracy-has-a-very-bad-year It's measures, especially regarding steps taken to manage the pandemic are pretty dubious. It conflates democracy with freedom far too much. No one is completely free in a properly functioning democracy, we all give up part of our personal sovereignty as part of our democratic contract. So part of a democracy is the govt doing what's necessary to deal with emergency situations, within the rule of law. The measure of a democracy is whether the democratic processes are functioning: rule of law, elections, freedom of speech, freedom of the press. New Zealand was marked down, though still one of the most democratic, because we had lock-downs. Excuse me, that's ridiculous. Although for 2 weeks the lockdown was not lawful because the govt did not pass the necessary legislation until the after lockdown was initiated. BUT the govt got taken to court over it (which is a very democratic thing), and the court found that it was unlawful (also democratic that there is a clearly independent judiciary), but decided to let the govt off with a warning because the action was necessary and proportionate to the emerging crisis. And this was all published in a free and independent media; which also published op-eds by libertarian nutjobs in the middle of the lockdown who wanted the country and the economy to be completely open and allow the virus to do its thing. I won't talk about popular support for policies, because we all know democracy can die while the crowd cheers on its murderers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loge Posted February 6, 2021 Share Posted February 6, 2021 The doctor who treated Navalny has died. No windows mentioned. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/04/europe/russia-navalny-doctor-maximishin-dies-intl/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anti-Targ Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 Our food future has arrived: http://www.micausa.org/first-cultivated-ribeye-steak-revealed/ Quote fleischwirtschaft.com — ISRAEL, Rehovot. Aleph Farms has in cooperation with the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology, successfully cultivated the world’s first slaughter-free ribeye steak, using three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting technology and natural building blocks of meat — real cow cells, without genetic engineering and immortalization. The photo of it looks rather unappetising, but for the first one ever it's a pretty good start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anti-Targ Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 Today I read a very disturbing account of the extent of racism here against South Asian people here. I am shocked and appalled but not entirely surprised. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/124183678/new-mp-reveals-death-threats-racism-from-top-paediatric-surgeon-in-maiden-speech Quote ...new MP Dr Gaurav Sharma has revealed how he suffered months of racial persecution from a top surgeon while at university. Sharma, who made the revelations during his maiden speech to Parliament on Tuesday night, was immediately embraced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern following the delivery of his at-times confronting and emotional address. He was one of several newly-elected MPs to make their speaking debuts in the House that night. “When I was at university a prominent paediatric surgeon bullied me for months and said ‘You people come to our country. I will kill you and ruin your career’”. “In 2017, I found some people who refused to shake my hand, not because they did not believe in my political ideology or that of my party's policies but because my skin tone did not match theirs. “In the more recent election, I woke up one morning to find out that one lovely Hamiltonian was harassed and verbally abused by two sets of people for having signs supporting ‘a curry candidate’. Racial discrimination is not new to me. Neither in politics nor in other spheres of life.” One likes to pretend one's country does not have such brazenly racist people, but sadly we still do and I must not forget that. It's just that I never see it, because I'm of the race that is the abuser 99% of the time, and I happen to move in private and professional circles where if there are racist people they are smart enough to keep their racism in check. I hope that surgeon no longer works anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 Don’t know if this is UK news or International but the BBC has been banned in China for reporting fake news Probably nothing to do with the UK regulator not allowing China a licence for its state sponsored news agency to broadcast in the UK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anti-Targ Posted February 12, 2021 Share Posted February 12, 2021 It's official, I work at the wokest place in New Zealand, across both private and public sector. Our ministry just won a national HR award for best workplace diversity and inclusion programme. Possibly at about the same level of wokeness as I am, so I'm glad to know I would not be happier, on a wokeness scale, being somewhere else. I know I have some colleagues who will not be very pleased about working for the wokest organisation in the country, but at least they know if they decide to move on they won't go anywhere worse than us (from their perspective). So I call that a win-win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DireWolfSpirit Posted March 6, 2021 Author Share Posted March 6, 2021 Pope Francis continues to be an improvement over some of his recent predecessors, at least from my decidedly secular views . He is to be visiting Iraq March 5-8. Choosing to visit the ancient city of Ur, a cradle of civilization and revered by Muslim, Jews and Christians alike as the birthplace of Abraham. He will also be meeting with Shia leaders and promoting interfaith cooperation between the faiths. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/6/pope-francis-meets-iraqs-shia-leader-al-sistani Francis is aight for a religious guy, I believe he's a man of peace. He also seems to have an intellectual curiosity, which again is refreshing to see for many of us when we continually read about fundamentalist and evangelical loons that promote anti science ideologies here in the U.S. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/5/pope-to-visit-ancient-city-of-ur-the-cradle-of-civilization Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 If the product is currently available, should one be purchasing / ordering anything one really needs right now? "I’ve Never Seen Anything Like This’: Chaos Strikes Global Shipping The pandemic has disrupted international trade, driving up the cost of shipping goods and adding a fresh challenge to the global economic recovery" https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/business/global-shipping.html? Quote ....Containers that carried millions of masks to countries in Africa and South America early in the pandemic remain there, empty and uncollected, because shipping carriers have concentrated their vessels on their most popular routes — those linking North America and Europe to Asia. And at ports where ships do call, bearing goods to unload, they are frequently stuck for days in floating traffic jams. The pandemic and its restrictions have limited the availability of dockworkers and truck drivers, causing delays in handling cargo from Southern California to Singapore. Every container that cannot be unloaded in one place is a container that cannot be loaded somewhere else. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Lars Mikael Jensen, head of Global Ocean Network at A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company. “All the links in the supply chain are stretched. The ships, the trucks, the warehouses.” Economies around the globe are absorbing the ripple effects of the disruption on the seas. Higher costs for transporting American grain and soybeans across the Pacific threaten to increase food prices in Asia. Empty containers are piled up at ports in Australia and New Zealand; containers are scarce at India’s port of Kolkata, forcing makers of electronics parts to truck their wares more than 1,000 miles west to the port of Mumbai, where the supply is better.... ...No one knows how long the upheaval will last, though some experts assume containers will remain scarce through the end of the year, as the factories that make them — nearly all of them in China — scramble to catch up with demand... The pandemic has disrupted every part of the journey... “Everybody wants everything,” said Akhil Nair, vice president of global carrier management at SEKO Logistics in Hong Kong. “The infrastructure can’t keep up.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord of Oop North Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 1 hour ago, Zorral said: If the product is currently available, should one be purchasing / ordering anything one really needs right now? "I’ve Never Seen Anything Like This’: Chaos Strikes Global Shipping The pandemic has disrupted international trade, driving up the cost of shipping goods and adding a fresh challenge to the global economic recovery" https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/business/global-shipping.html? Domestic / US Shipping has been especially challenging for us over the last year. I use both rail and truck, with the latter having already been experiencing a major driver shortage across the continent. Rail has been working good from Toronto to Vancouver. Strangely enough, I have had no issues with international. Some of my key vendors are in Spain (Basque and Leon), and I regularly import at least a container per week from either. Some product I have comes in from Germany, but not as much. Other than the strike at Port of Montreal, the issues have been minimal. I can get containers on time from Europe, but I can't find reliable drivers to go 4.5 hours from Toronto to Ottawa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zorral Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 7 minutes ago, Lord of Oop North said: Domestic / US Shipping has been especially challenging for us over the last year. I use both rail and truck, with the latter having already been experiencing a major driver shortage across the continent. Rail has been working good from Toronto to Vancouver. Strangely enough, I have had no issues with international. Some of my key vendors are in Spain (Basque and Leon), and I regularly import at least a container per week from either. Some product I have comes in from Germany, but not as much. Other than the strike at Port of Montreal, the issues have been minimal. I can get containers on time from Europe, but I can't find reliable drivers to go 4.5 hours from Toronto to Ottawa. With the pandemic's ever widening circles of effect (one of my local library branches last weekend, unannounced online, etc., never opened to return and pick-up materials due to "staffing shortages"), scheduling is increasingly difficult and unreliable, which is exacerbated by massive weather events of wildfires, tornadoes and hurricanes, floods, snow and ice storms. Closed schools and child care has hit employees' lives hard too. But I hope your reliable Iberian deliveries, include olive oil, olives and wine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anti-Targ Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 We have full on inter-departmental group keeping track of global supply chain issues, and shipping containers are a big part of that. the most recent briefing I read said: Quote Container imbalances and shortages continue to be an issue, particularly for refrigerated containers (reefers). Cumulative reefer imports, both full and empty, over six months from September 2020 to February 2021 have been well down on the same period in 2019/2020. 20-foot and 40-foot reefers were down by 16.7% and 8.4% on previous year levels respectively. The international shipping lines have assured us that they were looking at empty reefer imports seriously, although they qualified that this would involve a trade-off with bringing in full imports. And that's just for New Zealand. In other news. The bus drivers in the capital are finally going to be paid the living wage. In New Zealand the Living wage is currently $22.10/hr for a 40 hr week. In the highly unlikely event you don't know what the NZ dollar is worth that equates to $15.93 USD, 13.15 EUR and $20.57 AUD. Our minimum wage is I think about $18/hr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bael's Bastard Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 On 3/6/2021 at 8:48 AM, DireWolfSpirit said: Pope Francis continues to be an improvement over some of his recent predecessors, at least from my decidedly secular views . He is to be visiting Iraq March 5-8. Choosing to visit the ancient city of Ur, a cradle of civilization and revered by Muslim, Jews and Christians alike as the birthplace of Abraham. He will also be meeting with Shia leaders and promoting interfaith cooperation between the faiths. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/6/pope-francis-meets-iraqs-shia-leader-al-sistani Francis is aight for a religious guy, I believe he's a man of peace. He also seems to have an intellectual curiosity, which again is refreshing to see for many of us when we continually read about fundamentalist and evangelical loons that promote anti science ideologies here in the U.S. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/5/pope-to-visit-ancient-city-of-ur-the-cradle-of-civilization Nah, the traditional Jewish birthplace of Abraham is actually close to the borders between north Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, and although it's nice that the Pope is making nice with the Imam in Iraq, unfortunately, Iraq (like the rest of the Arab world) ethnically cleansed its entire 2,700 year old Jewish community decades ago. All these references to the significance to Muslims, Jews, and Christians ring hollow when there are literally no Jews remaining in one of the most ancient Jewish diasporas, and no Jews were permitted to participate. Which is not necessarily a criticism of this Pope, but I would think if he was worth shit compared to most of his predecessors he would have insisted on including Jews in what is supposed to be a momentous interfaith meeting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anti-Targ Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 Who knew that virtual mining is as bad for the environment as actual mining? Quote Bitcoin miners are putting as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the entire city of London for the benefit of "almost no one", a new study has found. The digital currency, which relies on millions of computers around the world running day and night in a process called 'mining', uses almost as much electricity as every data centre in the world put together, says Alex de Vries - 184TWh (terawatt hours). "That's a pretty mind-blowing number," said de Vries, a financial economist, whose latest research was published on Thursday in journal Joule. "Those data centers serve the most of global civilization, and then there's bitcoin, which serves almost no one but still manages to consume about an equal amount of electricity." That's also about 4.5 times as much electricity as New Zealand consumes, according to the International Energy Agency, and three times as much carbon dioxide emissions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DireWolfSpirit Posted March 12, 2021 Author Share Posted March 12, 2021 13 hours ago, Bael's Bastard said: Nah, the traditional Jewish birthplace of Abraham is actually close to the borders between north Iraq, Turkey, and Syria That's interesting. I wonder why so many describe Ur as his birthplace? Where was biblical Abraham born? Mesopotamia 20th century BCE) was born in or near the city of Ur in Mesopotamia, most likely in southern Chaldea. Abraham (originally named Abram), married his half-sister, Sarah (originally named Sarai) and began a long journey from Mesopotamia to Haran, and then later to Canaan and Egypt.Jun 22, 2020 https://www.ancient.eu › Abraham,_... Abraham, the Patriarch - World History Encyclopedia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bael's Bastard Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 6 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said: That's interesting. I wonder why so many describe Ur as his birthplace? Where was biblical Abraham born? Mesopotamia 20th century BCE) was born in or near the city of Ur in Mesopotamia, most likely in southern Chaldea. Abraham (originally named Abram), married his half-sister, Sarah (originally named Sarai) and began a long journey from Mesopotamia to Haran, and then later to Canaan and Egypt.Jun 22, 2020 https://www.ancient.eu › Abraham,_... Abraham, the Patriarch - World History Encyclopedia It is based on a superficial reading of the introduction of Abraham, which mentions that his younger brother Haran was born in Ur Kasdim, which some associate with ancient Ur near the Persian Gulf. However, the birthplace of Abraham and his other brother Nahor and their ancestors is later explicitly noted to be in the vicinity of Harran (the city, not Abraham's brother) in Aram Naharayim, on the border of Southern Turkey and Northern Syria. Some traditions place Ur Kasdim itself in the same area. Others say the family traveled to the southern Ur and then returned. Travel between the areas was very common, and in fact, the "Chaldeans" were originally an Aramean people also from northern modern Iraq. In any case, there were ancient settlements and rivers with the names give for Abraham's ancestors like Terah, Nahor, and Serug around Harran mentioned in Assyrian cuneiform records. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted March 13, 2021 Share Posted March 13, 2021 On 3/6/2021 at 1:48 PM, DireWolfSpirit said: Pope Francis continues to be an improvement over some of his recent predecessors, at least from my decidedly secular views . He is to be visiting Iraq March 5-8. Choosing to visit the ancient city of Ur, a cradle of civilization and revered by Muslim, Jews and Christians alike as the birthplace of Abraham. He will also be meeting with Shia leaders and promoting interfaith cooperation between the faiths. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/6/pope-francis-meets-iraqs-shia-leader-al-sistani Francis is aight for a religious guy, I believe he's a man of peace. He also seems to have an intellectual curiosity, which again is refreshing to see for many of us when we continually read about fundamentalist and evangelical loons that promote anti science ideologies here in the U.S. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/5/pope-to-visit-ancient-city-of-ur-the-cradle-of-civilization Ah, essential travel, such a shining example to the masses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Anti-Targ Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 "Intrepid" Chinese journalists "expose" illegal farming practices: China investigates use of banned drug - Meat Importers Council of America (micausa.org) Commendable investigative journalism? I think not. What is China’s purpose in exposing unlawful farmer practices in China to the world? Ahhh, here is the reason, try to depress demand for sheep meat and hence prices. Quote Though use of the drug is likely limited, the report could have a temporary impact on consumer demand for the meat, said Pan Chenjun, livestock analyst at Rabobank. Mutton prices are at their highest levels since at least 2016 on strong demand and high local production costs. Also because of African Swine Fever pig numbers are down and people have been substituting pork with other meat, incl mutton, which is really why demand and prices for mutton are up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DireWolfSpirit Posted March 17, 2021 Author Share Posted March 17, 2021 Edit: Am taking down a crack about foods from the infamous wet markets, in light of the incredibly sad murder spree of Asians in Georgia yesterday. My condolences to the families of these innocent people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiko Posted March 17, 2021 Share Posted March 17, 2021 On 3/12/2021 at 1:43 AM, The Anti-Targ said: Who knew that virtual mining is as bad for the environment as actual mining? I'm sure Elon Musk knows. That's why his move to hoard bitcoin is so absurd. The tiny bit of environment he protected with his teslas is probably offset by the co2 blown into the air by his bitcoin transactions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted March 18, 2021 Share Posted March 18, 2021 I hadn't heard about this case before but it sounds truly horrific: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/18/firefighters-should-not-face-charge-raping-girl-french-court-rules?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1616072234 Any of our French boarders able to offer more insight on this? @Rippounet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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