Mask Up Comments and Opinions
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Fact, history, opinion, and sarcasm, with an occasional side dose of sass.
Primary function of being occasionally useful in between shitposting and ranting about politics! Expect bad language
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Yep, wouldn't trust any of their assurances *at all*.
This is the same lot that made *election* promises about Dunedin hospital... oh wait, until they broke them. That their tax cuts were 'definitely costed'... oh wait, until forced to admit they weren't.
On and on their gaslighting goes.
Yep, wouldn't trust any of their assurances *at all*.
This is the same lot that made *election* promises about Dunedin hospital... oh wait, until they broke them. That their tax cuts were 'definitely costed'... oh wait, until forced to admit they weren't.
On and on their gaslighting goes.
I keep thinking about how Peters said the hīkoi was a waste of time because the bill isn't going to pass. But (a) I don't trust any of these arseholes to do what they say they will, and (b) if there was no pushback I'm sure Luxon et al would happily vote it through into law. #ToituTeTiriti #NZpol
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There used to be a time when this sort of, whatever the fuck this turns out to be, would require some sort of inquiry. #nzpol
Police officers recorded 30,000 breath tests that didn't happen
Acting Deputy Commissioner Michael Johnson says the numbers are "incredibly disappointing and concerning".
www.1news.co.nz
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From the chapter in Sonja Buckley’s autobiography detailing her (& the first ever) isolation of Lassa virus, a terrifying viral hemorrhagic fever, in the “bare hands and mouth pipetting” era of virus isolation. Jesus christ.
![…the disease is not typical for an arbovirus, and we better inoculate also some cell cultures."
I had not one single "spare" cell culture available on that evening. On the following day -Friday -Elinor Gilson, my skillful cell culture technician, prepared 240 Vero cell stationary tube cultures and 70 Vero cell French square bottles…In the sixties [vero] was a commonly used continuous cell line in many laboratories for the study of viruses.
In the midst of all these preparations Wil Downs came into the tissue culture section, dressed like a surgeon with gown, mask, head cap and rubber gloves. He carried a metal rack holding numerous glass tubes labeled with the names of the three nurses (Laura Wine, Charlotte Shaw & Lily Pinneo) nature of specimens & dates of collection. I removed carefully small
amounts of fluids from each tube, just enough material for inoculation of the Vero cell cultures.
I had no mask or gloves, only the white laboratory coat as well as the sterile technique ingrained in me by my Swiss microbiology professors.
Hermann Mooser and Arthur Grumbach. I handed the samples to my longtime and trusted technical associate, Charles Mullen, trained in bacteriological techniques by Stanhope Bayne-Jones at Hopkins. He stored them temporarily in the deep freeze over the weekend.
In what kind of mental frame was I? Quite honestly, I was ever so slightly annoyed. All my experiments with tick-borne viruses were interrupted at the time. But discouraging was the fact that some of the Lassa fever specimens had been frozen and thawed many times during the transit from West Africa to New Haven. I had, therefore, no hope of isolating a pathogen. I had, however, great pride in the Yale Arbovirus Research Unit and in The Rockefeller Foundation. Thus, I was going to give "my very best shot".
Moreover, Wil Downs had told me that aliquots of the Lassa fever specimens had also been submitted for isolation attempts to 3 other laboratories. namely to the CDC, to the NY](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:kiozjehz4wovetl76xlzbex5/bafkreiha7mokqfau6xiiw2k3clzrvmye4na7luigf6ioytu73ppfwg56jy@jpeg)
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![From: https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/information-releases/cabinet-papers/2025/tightening-access-to-jobseeker-support-and-emergency-benefit-for-18-and-19-year-olds/regulatory-impact-statement-tightening-eligibility-for-18-and-19-year-olds.pdf
2
Regulatory Impact Statement: Tightening access to Jobseeker Support and Emergency Benefit
for 18 and 19 year olds
IN-CONFIDENCE
Summary: Problem definition and options
What is the policy problem?
More young people are receiving Jobseeker Support. This has the potential to negatively
impact their long-term outcomes as well as contributing to increased benefit expenditure,
which is a significant expense for Government.
What are the policy objectives?
To reduce the number of young people on Jobseeker Support, by encouraging them to enter
employment, education, or training, and thereby reducing government expenditure.
What policy options have been considered, including any alternatives to regulation?
The policy options that have been considered are:
1. Retain the status quo and make no changes to the eligibility criteria of specified benefits
for young people.
2. [Ministry of Social Development’s preferred option] Provide more education and
training services for young people, including addressing numeracy and literacy barriers to
employment, education, and training. This is the sole non-regulatory option.
3. Introduce a parental income test, which would restrict young people’s access to
specified benefits to those whose parents earn under a certain amount, assuming the
young person meets all other eligibility criteria.
4. Introduce a parental support gap test, which would restrict young people’s access to
specified benefits to those who do not have the ability to rely on their parents (e.g.
because they do not have a relationship with their parents or their parents have died),
assuming the young person meets all other eligibility criteria.
5. [Minister’s preferred option]....](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:aohvpe54mxynxokn3d76cohi/bafkreiad5l7mzxzifq6tlzibbbozg3esf2pl6dyvasmhpbjwkh63urfqoq@jpeg)
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