All Blacks thumped by the Springboks at Twickenham

This might be one of the All Blacks’ darkest days in the Ian Foster era. –Finn Morton

By Roger Childs

By Roger Childs

There was one highlight for the New Zealanders in their record 7-35 defeat at the hands of South Africa. Late in the game replacement half- back Cam Roigard ducked under a tackle just inside the All Black half, then beat three defenders in running 50 metres to score by the posts. It was the try of the match, but unfortunately it was the team’s only score while the Springboks got five.

There were 80,000 spectators at England’s home ground Twickenham, but sadly they were treated to a one-sided clash because of the ill-discipline of the All Blacks, the red card to Scott Barrett and some pedantic rulings by English referee Matthew Carley.

Nonetheless, the Springboks were superior in all aspects of the game and understandably took advantage of the All Blacks errors, ill-discipline and loss of Scott Barrett.

Refereeing decisions go against the All Blacks

The Springboks were hot on attack in the first quarter and the All Blacks were warned after infringing three times. When the next penalty was awarded, Scott Barrett was given a yellow card as punishment for the team, not because he committed any offence. Then some minutes later captain Sam Cane was sent off because of an infringement. Surely it should have been just a penalty as the team had already been punished for the earlier issues.

Then later in the half after Barrett had returned, Referee Matthew Carley gave him another yellow card for a shoulder charge into a ruck. Two yellow cards for committing offences usually means a red card and banishment for the rest of the game, but Barrett’s first yellow was against the team, not him personally. However, Carley’s ruling stood and the All Blacks played the entire second half with fourteen men.

Against a team as strong as the Springboks you can’t win with a player less, and if it is a forward, your scrum with one short is going to pushed all over the place and be penalized almost every time.

The All Blacks thought they had scored late in the first half when winger Will Jordan crossed the line on the left flank. But the officials ruled that there had been a knock-on when Mark Telea gathered the ball from behind the ruck at the start of the movement. It was another debatable decision. If the try had been allowed, it would have been 14-7 at half time not 14-0.

Looking ahead

The defeat at the hands of the Springboks was not the warm-up to the September – October World Cup that the All Blacks had been wanting. This was a poor performance by the New Zealand team and the only player to come out of the game with any credit was replacement half-back Cam Roigard and he was only on the field for about 15 minutes.

There are very clear lessons to be learned from the Twickenham match. Obviously there is a need for better discipline, reducing mistakes and the need to realize that northern hemisphere referees may make different rulings compared to the men who adjudicate matches south of the Equator.New Zealand’s first game in the World Cup is against favourites France on their home turf in Paris. The team showed occasional glimpses of what they are capable of in the Twickenham match, but unless they can keep 15 players on the field for the entire 80 minutes they don’t stand a chance.

from Margaret, Waikanae

Our Alice’s Restaurant has the consistently lively patronage of Tui’s. It is a delight to watch and listen to them.

Video of the event as recorded by Mana News: https://www.facebook.com/mananewslive/videos/258659277035338/

“Kainga Ora is spending quarter of a million dollars of taxpayer money every month to lease an apartment building, only to leave half the flats completely unfilled. They’re burning taxpayer money without even doing their job,” says ACT Deputy Leader and Housing Spokesperson Brooke van Velden.

“Kainga Ora started leasing the 104 units at 11 Church Street, Wellington, in late 2022, following the planned demolition of the Dixon St flats. Since then the building has been largely unoccupied, only half full recently and only 10-20 per cent occupied most of this year. Considering the emphasis on housing vulnerable people following the Loafer’s Lodge tragedy, it’s hard to believe Kainga Ora has been sitting on so many empty units for so long.

“In total Kainga Ora has lost $3,512,151.67 since December 2022 on the unoccupied units between their lease costs and the market rent they have not received.

“OIA’d documents show the Prime Minister’s Office knew about the empty units, with correspondence to his office from the Project and Facilities Manager complaining about Kainga Ora’s inaction. The correspondence from May 2023 says: “the government/KO have had 104 fully operational apartments all with appliances provided that have been leased (paying over $250k per month) since July 2022 and so far have less than 15% of them occupied… there are literally dozens of empty, clean, healthy home compliant apartments that KO cannot seem to prioritise to fill.”

“The Government has spent a fortune on these apartments just for them to sit empty. They’re failing taxpayers and they’re failing vulnerable people who need a roof over their head.  “The incompetence is mind-blowing. During a housing crisis, the New Zealand Government is leasing homes only to have them sit empty. New Zealand deserves better, New Zealand deserves Real Change in two months’ time.”

They just need to pretend it’s Russia.

…and an ideal Leftist: “I love the smell of Napalm in the morning!”

The more they can control you, the better.

from thebit.nz

New Zealand has become the first nation in the world to have all of its local Councils join the Smart Cities Council (SCCANZ).

This means that councils across the country will be given the opportunity to engage in the most up-to-date smart-city information and have the opportunity to develop their cities into more user-friendly models that are both sustainable and easy for citizens to live in. “We are excited to continue to build and showcase to other nations how New Zealand is using technology and data to enhance liveability, workability, and sustainability,” says New Zealand Director for SCCANZ Jannat Maqbool.

What is a Smart City?

A smart city is designed to make the most comfortable living experience for its citizens, utilising collected data to design a workable and sustainable community. While NZ is still in the early stages of developing smart cities, Singapore leads the race, as the number one smart city in the Top 50 Smart City Governments.

Singapore is currently building a ‘forest town’, called The Tengah project, which will include five residential districts (Garden, Park, Brickland, Forest Hill, and Plantation) across a 700-hectare site which will incorporate suburban living “at home with nature,” with citizens enthused to ride their bikes and walk wherever they need to go. The heart of the city will be ‘car free’, with only pedestrians and cyclists allowed. 

What was formerly a military-restricted area, will include a natural forest, computer-simulated buildings which optimise wind flow and minimise heat, smart lighting – which will react to human movement and automated waste collection, utilising pneumatic waste conveyance systems or high-speed air to transport household waste down to the main waste areas. 

New Zealand 

The Hamilton City Government was recently placed 21st in the Top 50 Smart City Governments of the world.  Only two other cities applied, including Wellington – which was placed 33rd and Christchurch, 10 places back at 43rd out of 230 municipalities around the world. While Hamilton hasn’t quite made it to such lofty heights as Singapore’s Tengah Project, it is living up to its futuristic name of ‘Hamilton, City of the future’, by making some progress, in terms of sustainable infrastructure. The city has rolled out LED lighting throughout the city, cutting down on the cost of replacement, while lowering the light pollution that spreads to neighbouring homes, by installing ‘warm-light’ LED bulbs. Trials have also taken place for ‘smart parking’, with sensors installed on all metered parking bays, giving citizens the chance to link their smartphones to the Pay My Park app, which allows users to check parking availability, get reminders when their parking is due to expire and pay for parking via their mobile device.

Last year, Hamilton City pitched the idea of a 20-minute city revamp, which is about linking existing destinations with walking, cycling, and public transport connections, creating a city where “most residents can safely access most of the things they need within 20 minutes, without relying on private vehicles,” says Chair of the city’s Infrastructure Operations Committee – Cr Angela O’Leary.Christchurch has made the most of the earthquake rebuild by developing a variety of smart-city programmes including EQRnet – which was developed by Canterbury Seismic Instruments Ltd (CSI) and includes sensor stations positioned 200 apart which allow for EQRNet to estimate the intensity of the shake, how it affects certain buildings and when evacuations should take place if an earthquake was to occur.  Sensor stations positioned within 200m of each other allows EQRNet to confidently and accurately estimate shaking between sensors. Real-time information can be sent to building managers as well as a ‘shake map’, which both emergency responders and the general public can access. Auckland was recently awarded Outstanding Smart City Project for Smart Buildings, in the IDC Smart City Asia Pacific Awards, for the Auckland Hospital Digital Twin project, which uses smart technology to create a ‘digital twin’ of the hospital and all of its assets, to enable hospital managers to work out what resources they need to carry out the best care to their patients. The system was developed by Microsoft and Asbuilt and captures data from the intelligent Internet of Things (IoT). 

Read more

from Statistica.com

Following the 15th annual BRICS summit, which was held in Johannesburg, South Africa this week, the bloc of five major emerging economies has announced the admission of six new members. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates are set to formally join the group on January 1, 2024 to expand the bloc’s footprint in the Global South and grow its economic and political clout on the world stage, establishing a real counterweight to the Western-dominated G7.

The new bloc will represent roughly 46 percent of the world population, account for 29 percent of the world’s gross domestic product in nominal terms and 37 percent of global GDP at purchasing power parity. Interestingly, the new additions don’t move the needle too much in either category, as the new BRICS which will continue to be dominated by China and India, both in terms of population and economically. Combined, the six new members will account for roughly 10 percent of the group’s aggregate GDP, as Saudi Arabia is the only trillion dollar economy among the new entrants.

“We shared our vision of BRICS as a champion of the needs and concerns of the peoples of the Global South. These include the need for beneficial economic growth, sustainable development and reform of multilateral systems,” South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said at a press briefing announcing the outcomes of the summit. He also indicated that the addition of the six new members is just the beginning of the bloc’s expansion process. “As the five BRICS countries, we have reached agreement on the guiding principles, standards, criteria and procedures of the BRICS expansion process, which has been under discussion for quite a while,” he said. “We have consensus on the first phase of this expansion process, and further phases will follow.”

How are your sanctions going Joe?

Paradox

1. (such as a person, situation, or action) having seemingly contradictory qualities or phases;

2a: a statement that is seemingly contradictory or opposed to common sense and yet is perhaps true;

b: a self-contradictory statement that at first seems truec: an argument that apparently derives self-contradictory conclusions by valid deduction from acceptable premises.