The Labour party opposes Charter Schools because there is no requirement to register teachers…they say the kids will be at risk at those schools.

In todays Herald on Sunday we read about a teacher who preyed on children at school, entered into sexual relations with them…and he was registered.

Shamefully the Teachers Council continues to protect this sexual predator by refusing to name him despite one of his victims calling for his naming.

A woman who, while a teenager, was preyed upon by her physics teacher for sex during extra-curricular sailing classes is pleading with authorities to make details of the case public.

She says publishing the man’s name may encourage any other victims to come forward.  Read more »

While the government moves to ban K2 and other synthetic cannabinoids there is some evidence too that dope growing is bad for the environment. Which is going to put a dampener on Metiria Turei’s assumptions that the far north maori weed growers are entreprenuerial heroes, when the reality is, it appears, that they are environmental. vandals

This news is sure to send the Greens into a weed induced tail spin.

Talk about sitting back and watching the grass grow. Greens and government officials in Washington State are normally fierce towards carbon emitters, pioneering tough standards on power stations, for example. But their principles go to pot when it comes to cannabis growing.

The practice, legalised there by a vote in last year’s presidential election, is immensely polluting. Growing just one kilo of marijuana, a study concluded last year, releases as much carbon dioxide as driving across the United States seven times. This is because it is mainly cultivated indoors – with bright lights, air-conditioning, fans, dehumidifiers and even machines specially generating the gas to produce more potent puffs.

Normally keen green groups, such as the Sierra Club and Conservation Northwest, have dopily told The Seattle Times that they have other priorities. Governor Jay Inslee – who hails Washingtonians as “the people who are destined to defeat carbon pollution” – declined to comment. And the City of Seattle, despite aiming to be carbon-neutral by 2050, is producing new zoning regulations to permit plenty of indoor reefer ranching.

Let’s see how the Greens deal with this shocking news.

It’s on indeed.

Welcome to the brave souls that have entered this weight loss challenge.

Remember:  This will be the only time you will see right wingers celebrate that everybody is a winner.

There are 16 of us, and as a rugby team, we weigh in at 1662 kg.

Our scrum weighs in at 843 kg.

12 weeks ahead.

I like to repeat this caution:  Do not starve yourself.  Any weight loss after 12 weeks is a win.  Eat a balanced diet and perhaps pop a few multivitamins to keep things in balance.

Each week we’ll report the week’s loss, total loss and percentage loss for each person.  We will also make a big deal out of the people with the most loss for the week, most loss so far, and the largest percentage loss so far.  And although a pointless statistic, we’ll also track the total loss as a group.

Read more »

I know the Mythbusters proved that you can polish a turd, but there is no way you can polish a turd the size of Palmerston North.

Ok Palmy, let’s just get it over with.

Let’s put behind us the shame of John Cleese and his “thoroughly bloody miserable time”, and the pride at Jeremy Clarkson’s assertion that if God had got it right then “Jesus would have been from Palmerston North”.

Let’s forget about Lord Palmerston, the man who gave you that great name and let’s move on. To Manawatu City.

Yes, you heard correctly, the city at the heart of the Manawatu wants to name itself after the province. Well, at least the deputy mayor does. Again.  Read more »

Normally I’m not the sort of person that modern art speaks to, but this one I really like.

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Matt McCarten has a column in the Herald on Sunday where he claims his budget would do the trick. What would he know about budgets, he doesn’t even pay his taxes, or even file his tax returns.

There is a slight problem with Matt McCarten suggesting any sort of budget…he can’t even run his own union, stealing PAYE and Kiwisaver contributions which as far as I know he hasn’t yet paid back. If we all ran our households and businesses like Matt McCarten runs his union there wouldn’t be a cent in tax for him to spend in his budget.

A real game changer would be to get all tax cheats like Matt McCarten and lock them up in a debtors prison, until they cough up what is owed. Until he pays what is owed Matt McCarten should really shut the fuck up.

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It has been no secret that Piers Morgan is a big opponent of guns and the Second Amendment, but for a fleeting second it almost seems as though the irritable whinger ‘gets it’. Almost.

I’ve had some of the pro-gun lobbyists on here, saying to me, ‘Well, the reason we need to be armed is because of tyranny from our own government,’ and I’ve always laughed at them,” Morgan said last night. “But, actually, this is vaguely tyrannical behavior by the American government. Read more »

As a an independent software developer I sit on my backside all day in front of a PC and should be 30 or more KGs lighter than I am.

I saw your 12 week Blubbergeddon challenge and figured that as technology is what has made me fat (well actually I alone did that but its nice to be in denial), I thought I’d see if I could use technology to help me fix it.

After a little googling I found this article http://goo.gl/T1Y06 on LifeHacker saying scientists claim to have discovered thesingle most efficient exercise technique that burns the most amount of fat with the least amount of work.

According to the article I could get fit and lose weight if I do just one hour of exercise each week for 12 weeks .  Indeed they say doing 1 hour of the exercise technique provided burns as much fat as jogging for 5 to 7 hours!

Hey and there’s even an app for it: http://goo.gl/YrHrK 

Read more »

It is bad enough being French so there has to be some blessings…champagne is one…foie gras another…but for the kids it seems they don’t have much incidence of ADHD.

In the United States, at least 9% of school-aged children have been diagnosed with ADHD, and are taking pharmaceutical medications. In France, the percentage of kids diagnosed and medicated for ADHD is less than .5%. How come the epidemic of ADHD—which has become firmly established in the United States—has almost completely passed over children in France?

Is ADHD a biological-neurological disorder? Surprisingly, the answer to this question depends on whether you live in France or in the United States. In the United States, child psychiatrists consider ADHD to be a biological disorder with biological causes. The preferred treatment is also biological–psycho stimulant medications such as Ritalin and Adderall.

French child psychiatrists, on the other hand, view ADHD as a medical condition that has psycho-social and situational causes. Instead of treating children’s focusing and behavioral problems with drugs, French doctors prefer to look for the underlying issue that is causing the child distress—not in the child’s brain but in the child’s social context. They then choose to treat the underlying social context problem with psychotherapy or family counseling. This is a very different way of seeing things from the American tendency to attribute all symptoms to a biological dysfunction such as a chemical imbalance in the child’s brain.  Read more »