Slapping Parents Around Again?

Education Ministry officials Plan to throw book at truants' parents ... Moves being considered include more prosecutions, stiffer fines and ... giving judges powers to make erring people sit parenting skills courses to address problems such as anger management, drug and alcohol abuse, and budgeting ... really?

Yep, nothing to do with the problem (truanting) largely relating to secondary students, comprehensive trade training no longer being available in schools and raising the leaving age to sixteen (and possibly soon to seventeen).

What is it that gives professionals the feeling that it is their right to impose on others in such a grand manner given that their intent is so far outside their mandate - which one would imagine to be the education of children?

Topical Forcing ... the twilight hour (betwixt and between).

Christchurch mayor Bob Parker says he cannot recommend walking on Christchurch streets after midnight as new figures show the city is the most violent in the country ... "Walking around our streets after midnight is not something I'd recommend to people ... it's crazy out there." (http://www.stuff.co.nz/4340824a10.html).

But ... Christchurch to switch off lights ... for climate?

What of the implications?

Will this contrived crisis, token and expedient response, be sufficient to increase violence and theft (http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:B9KNM5vkdToJ:www.dnr.wa.gov/geology/tsuinfo/2007-02.pdf+blackouts+and+burglary+rates&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=nz) ... and what of conception rates? (http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/blackout.asp).

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said the event was a chance to "raise the bar" (http://www.stuff.co.nz/4341620a11.html), a definite reference to violence ... The city's key Civil Defence organisers support the initiative, which involves non-essential lighting. Street lights will not be affected ... but in those additionally created, dark recesses, behind lit streets ...

But it's OK, there would be no clash with the Crusaders - they play in Wellington on the Friday night - and at this stage all cities would mark the hour between 8pm and 9pm, although this may be adjusted in Christchurch, depending on summer twilight.

Orion chief executive officer Roger Sutton said it was appropriate that Christchurch was the first New Zealand city to sign up for Earth Hour because it was already forward-thinking.

Sooo ... it wont affect the rugger ... nor the violence, coz violence only happens After Midnight (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Midnight), coz

After midnight, we're gonna let it all hang down.

After midnight, we're gonna chug-a-lug and shout.

We're gonna stimulate some action;

We're gonna get some satisfaction.

We're gonna find out what it is all about.

After midnight, we're gonna let it all hang down.

Almost, but not quite, a 'bob each way' Parker. Perhaps our Bob is simply trying to follow in the footsteps of trans tasman Big Man, Peter.

Christmas - it means so many different things to different people.

To me, it means several weeks with minimal contact with the wider world - definitely no computer - time to reflect, to dream, to plan, to play, to enjoy (at least some) of the family... and perchance to catch a fish or two ... well just one would do, as long as it was big enough to keep and eat ... and I have been good!

The Right Thing By your Mates.

Todd doing his time at Ridge's ... and as they say, "if you can't do the time ..."

Ridge and Todd will be flatmates for the next year while Todd completes his 12-month sentence of home detention after admitting charges relating to kickbacks he received from charity gaming funds supplied to sports organisations.

For Todd, it's been a major and high-profile fall from grace.

For Ridge, it's also been a major and high profile fall from grace...

From this ...

To this ...

But then mates will do that for each other.

And they're both really accustomed to public/media attention so a little extra personal oversight, well ...

The judge in the case, Thomas Everitt, has promised he will be taking a personal interest in how Todd is dealing with home detention.
"I want to see how it's going, and how you are coping."

The Herald reports, Todd has dealt just fine with day one, ensconsed on an airbed and sun towel ...

We eagerly await the next instalment ... will he turn over? Who will turn up? Will April turn up? ... and what of the judge?

"If you can't do the time ...."

Top Scientists?

Top scientists (More than 200 experts) jumped into the political battle over global warming at a climate conference, urging mankind to make deep cuts in carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases, but the United States refused to back away from its opposition to mandatory cuts.

I think these doomsdayers should post their names, photos, credentials, research experience and statistical qualifications for all to see.

One can only assume that these people are so dependent on political funding that they are prepared to compromise basic scientific standards to achieve this, alternatively they simply do not have sufficient research/statistical knowledge to fully appreciate what they are supporting.
Intuition in this matter is simply not good enough. Perseverative thinking is contaminating their view of the world.
(contaminated = http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=145245).

Now, Who Said Crime Doesn't Pay?

& what of that olde adage, 'loyalty amongst thieves?'

Icons and beliefs ... two 'birds killed with one stone.'

Graham Henry is the head coach of the All Blacks again

Henry's results were among the best in All Blacks history.
Henry said he is grateful for the chance to continue. He said lessons had been learned from the 2007 Rugby World Cup campaign.
Eagle said the union "accepts it was jointly responsible and accountable for the [World Cup] result and the planning that went into the campaign".





So what of the 'people's choice?'

Deans has been the No 1 choice of Australian rugby supremo John O'Neill ever since they started casting their net for a new Wallabies coach.

He had, and still has, the look of a man confident that he would achieve what he wanted.

So either he has 'salved his conscience' and can coach the Wallabies with no regrets (he's been rejected) - and they will contract him until after the next World Cup.

Alternatively the Rugby Union has offered to pay him handsomely, offered him all they possibly can in respect to those lesser status coaching roles, as a means of retaining him here. The two year contract for Henry would suggest something akin to this.

This was always to be a 'win/win' situation for Robbie.

Interesting And Useful Stuff.

Helical auxetics.: are materials that become thicker perpendicularly to the applied force when stretched.

This material has other uses beyond terrorist attacks or battle scenarios, said Dr. Hook. The fabrics can "provide sustained protection and gives emergency services extra time to rescue trapped or injured people," and can offer effective protection against natural forces like hurricanes, as well as be deployed in containment systems, military tents, ballistic mosquito nets and body armor ... and it is low cost.

Nowhere to stay

The community he was bailed to did not accept him.

This is an interesting juxtaposition of pictures in Stuff.

It is quite likely that always including pictures of both the alleged perpetrator and victim(s) would mobilise community feeling about certain crimes through maintaining the association. It is probably far too easy to separate the person from the alleged crime otherwise and hence sympathise with any personal predicament they may find themselves in after the event ... not so some though.

Dr Connolly and Mr Doolan.

The Government's top social workers say a "culture of blame" over child abuse is driving social workers into taking children from their families to avoid any risk of being blamed if things go wrong.

Now this would really suggest that our social workers do not have sufficient ability, and/or confidence in their ability to realistically and reliably identify potential for harm.

They say "sensationalist" media coverage of high-profile child deaths is making social workers less willing to trust the families of the children referred to them.

Again, 'trusting families of children?' What is required is having the ability and confidence in their ability to reliably discriminate potential cases of child abuse and act on this.

They call for a move away from the "culture of blame" to what they call a "public health model of welfare" which targets the whole range of factors that lead people to harm children.

The number of children and young people in CYFS care has risen by half this decade, from 3533 in 1999-2000 to 5191 at the end of last year, despite an actual decline in child deaths from 1.07 a year for every 100,000 children in the 1990s to 0.79 a year in the first five years of this decade.

Now, I don't think that CYFS have ever been solely judged on child deaths ... more for the quality of their employees, separating families, inappropriate placements ... CYFSwatch would, I believe, attest to this.

This sensationalist reporting has largely, if I recall correctly, related to those cases already under CYFS care, associated with or that have been investgated by CYFS, that have resulted in deaths. That is, it has been indicative of a failure to adequately appraise the situation or assess the risk - a lack of confidence in their ability, or lack of ability, to reliably discriminate potential cases of child abuse and to act on this.

Dr Connolly and Mr Doolan say that every high-profile child death review has led to tightening managerial controls over social workers which have made them less willing to risk leaving children with their families ... But wait, these are the two top social workers, presumably those very people who have driven the policy to tighten managerial controls and over include as a means of protecting themselves and not the children and young persons that they are mandated to protect.

Is this really anything more than a means of avoiding addressing what have become seen as systemic problems within this service. Further abrogation of responsibility and this at a time when the situation has been absolutely simplified for them by the Bradford 'bash the parents' bill - which of course was also driven by their (CYFS') incapacity to reliably discriminate potential cases of child abuse and act on this with minimal over inclusion.

So ... still trying to 'protect their backs?'

'Grubbies.'

Survey reveals Britain’s dirty habits. Not a great survey, but Hygiene and sterilising experts Milton have decided to air Britain's dirty linen in public ...

36% of the UK population - that is 21 million people – said that they do not take a bath or shower every day, while 6% - 3.6 million people – bathe once a week and, rather shockingly, 1% - or 600,000 people – said they take a bath or shower just once a month.
The same number of people also said they only change their underwear on a monthly basis.

Now 1% isn't a great proportion of the population, but 600,000 'great unwashed' is more than the entire population within the Canterbury region.

Just another thing to be taken into account when working out those prenuptials.

Let's Spin Chris.

NZ kids among smartest ... but reading a concern. Yes and also with their teachers, and indeed with their minister... and about 15 per cent of Kiwi kids scored at level one or below.

... and 11,000 maori truants a week, total 43000 truants a week and 20% of maori kids leave school before the age of fifteen ... Oh.

Oh, Chris, so most of our failures had already left the education system.

"The new curriculum focuses on literacy and numeracy as key areas where we need our young people to achieve and we must continue that focus," Mr Carter said.

Aha ... but the new curriculum also focusses on 'reframing failure as success.'

But then, appearances are so important, Chris.

But really Chris, would you be able to tell?

Appears you may just have been one of the products of that 'context reading' experiment that proved such an impediment to so many New Zealanders being able to 'acquire that mandated education,' those 'victims' that are now educating our youngsters today... perpetuating this 'cycle of abuse.'

It took generations to create and will take the same to remediate ... so let's not pretend that our 'information economy ' is just round the corner. It is passed time the charades should cease ... and the crass alternatives on offer, the ability to pass NZCEA by text messaging language, just simply 'don't cut the mustard.'

All teachers should reach a criterion perfomance before being 'set loose' on classrooms, all teachers should be registered ... that a further three year moratorium has been granted on registration is absurd - this largely affects Kura, those that simply require the best teachers to succeed ... to pretend this is 'maori for maori' service is offensive.

But perhaps we are seeing the initiative being taken by universities, perhaps they are 'fed up' with the devaluation of degrees and again placing more importance on the attainment of a criterion level of performance prior to admission ... finally.

Oh Dear.

Patients at Rotorua Hospital are so revolted by hygiene standards they are rolling up their sleeves and scrubbing the toilets themselves.
Hospital officials have apologised for the conditions experienced by patients, and admitted it was "unacceptable" for patients to clean toilets themselves.

This requires somewhat more than an apology, quite simply it is unacceptable. It is probably this dereliction of basics in respect to health that has contributed to the spread of infections in our hospitals. Arguably it is hygiene, plumbing and sewage, that has made the biggest difference to human health and longevity ... medicine has, aside from antibiotics, ridden on the 'back' of this ... so how can they now, 'hop off the back of the golden horse' that has served them so well?

Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health desribes how the US health care system may contribute to poor health ... The Third Leading Cause of Death in the US
ALL THESE ARE DEATHS PER YEAR:
12,000 -- unnecessary surgery
7,000 -- medication errors in hospitals
20,000 -- other errors in hospitals
80,000 -- infections in hospitals
106,000 -- non-error, negative effects of drugs
These total to 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes!!

Little wonder that noro virus has infected so many of our hospitals, and those in our hospitals.

Simply Wanking.

There was a time when black was black and white was white, and going to prison meant you lost the rights you had as a law abiding citizen ... those freedoms that you should have considered prior to incarceration, those freedoms that should you have considered and valued greater than the punishment for the crime you intended to commit, you would not have committed and lost.

If your wife wanted another child it required broadening the genetic base ... but not anymore.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Britain had breached the rights of a murderer and his wife by denying them access to artificial insemination.
Kirk Dickson, 35, wants to have a baby but will not be released from prison until 2009 at the earliest. By that time his wife Lorraine, 49, of Beverley, East Yorkshire, who already has three children from other relationships, will be 51.

So it is a right now in europe to artificially inseminate one's partner from behind bars ... in New Zealand this still requires sleight of hand in the broader sense, prestidigitation if you prefer.

Either way, the more rights that are granted to our 'sufficiently serious criminals that require incarceration,' the less the deterrent effect imprisonment must have. It is little wonder that corrections departments have the reputations they do ... they have earned it, at their own direction, the direction of the justice system and politicians.

Mind you, perhaps Britain will continue to deprive this couple of their 'human rights?'

Oh Dear.

Researchers in Japan tested three pairs of mother chimps and their offspring alongside a group of university students ... In general, the three young apes performed better than their mothers. They were also faster in their response rate than humans. The students tended to become more inaccurate as the numbers were presented for less and less time.

Experts baffled by cholesterol study - consequently findings rejected.

... analysis of 61 previous studies involving almost 900,000 adults, conducted mostly in western Europe and North America, clearly showed that people with lower total blood cholesterol levels had a lower heart disease death rate.
But the researchers found no relationship between total cholesterol levels and risk of stroke death, especially at older ages and among people with higher blood pressures.

"I don't think they [the findings] muddy the fact that statins, which lower cholesterol, do lower stroke risk," Dr Sarah Lewington said.

Caused by fatty deposits that clog arteries, coronary artery disease is a leading cause of worldwide death.
The deposits build up in the arteries that supply the heart with blood. Narrowing of the arteries and reduction in blood flow to the heart can lead to heart attack and other conditions .. like strokes.

But, In a commentary accompanying the study ... they say, a link between cholesterol and stroke risk "probably exists".
"Because most of the benefit of statins in preventing cardiovascular events can be ascribed to the LDL reduction, it is puzzling that LDL cholesterol is not associated with stroke risk," they wrote.
And further, contrary to the findings in the study, They added that "there is good evidence that lowering blood cholesterol with statins reduces stroke risk."

But no, not from this study there isn't, and no contray equivalent studies are cited.

Brave Alright.

Thieves snatched nine Victoria Crosses, including one awarded to New Zealand's greatest war hero, Charles Upham, from the Army Museum in Waiouru.

"These are iconic things. They are part of New Zealand's history."

"The theft has left many veterans ( and I am sure many others) disgusted."

It is to be hoped that these icons are not subsequently located in that mist-ridden terrorist Urawera hideaway that was once the refuge of a Colin Mcahon painting ... after all Colin Mcahon created a series of paintings depicting our whakapapa ... and these medals similarly, and more emphatically, represent the same.

Gotcha.

AMERICA has told Britain that it can “kidnap” British citizens if they are wanted for crimes in the United States ... this must also apply to New Zealand ... the law applies to anyone, so even to that nocturnal, nuclear-power hating, flightless bird ... Legal sources said that under traditional American justice, rendition meant capturing wanted people abroad and bringing them to the United States. The term “extraordinary rendition” was coined in the 1990s for the kidnapping of terror suspects from one foreign country to another for interrogation.

Should our Prime Minister and her helper Michael be frightened ... sedition ... the "notion of inciting by words or writings disaffection towards the state or constituted authority". I would have thought that on many occasion they have both passed the threshold.

Last month was extremely dry in many parts of New Zealand, especially in the South Island

Dr, anthropogenic global warming, Salinger, says there is no respite in sight ...

Meanwhile, much of the South Island is facing the definite possibility of a summer drought, with NIWA's Seasonal Climate Outlook saying La Nina conditions are in full swing.
NIWA agricultural climatologist Alan Porteous says the problem farmers currently face is that soil moisture levels in the east of the country and parts of Otago have already reached summer deficits.
Farmers could be facing a drought as devastating as in 1988/89, according to the climate outlook.
Are we to understand that Kiehl (Reference: Jeffrey T. Kiehl, 2007. Twentieth century climate model response and climate sensitivity. GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 34, L22710, doi:10.1029/2007GL031383, 2007) is arguing that the various GCMs are akin to a zero sum game in which, no matter how the key variables are changed (GCM=global climate models). The end result is always the same because the data is fitted to the “temperature record”, what ever that is ... The temperatures are not used as inputs. They are used to “check” outputs i.e. to define acceptable research... sooooo ... Jim Salinger, NIWA, perhaps Augie had more than a little insight in to your political posturings?

Now, If This Were France.

Police will examine whether an officer should face charges after a crash involving his patrol car and a motorcycle in the Upper Buller Gorge, near Murchison, on Saturday.



In France this would have evoked a response of these proportions.