Given the size of them, we're perhaps lucky they disappeared.
At three meteres tall you'd want to keep well out of their way, Gigantopithecus blacki were 300 kilos & scientists now believe they disappeared due to climate change which they couldn't adapt to.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/30103812...-its-eerie

It seems extremely unlikely but then with politicians you never know. I hope they can get to the truth before too much damage to the reputations of both the Green party & the MP.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/506...ing-claims


"Police have confirmed they received a report about a Ponsonby store from two days before Christmas, after a Green MP stood aside from portfolios over accusations of shoplifting.

The Green Party on Wednesday confirmed MP Golriz Ghahraman had stood down from her portfolios, after being accused of shoplifting from upmarket clothing store Scottie's Boutique in Ponsonby.

A police spokesperson confirmed an incident was believed to have taken place on the 23rd. Police clarified they received the report on the same day. They said they were unable to confirm, deny or comment on whether a named individual was under investigation, however.  The Green Party statement on Wednesday said they were in contact with the store, but would not be commenting further.

"The Green Party is aware of allegations regarding MP Golriz Ghahraman and is in contact with Scotties Boutique to better understand and address them," a spokesperson for the party said.

"Green MPs are expected to maintain high standards of public behaviour. Ms Ghahraman will stand aside from all portfolio responsibilities until the matter is resolved.

"The Green Party and Ms Ghahraman will not comment further at this time."

Ghahraman was the party's spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Trade, Women, Justice, Refugees, Defence, Human Rights, Ethnic Communities, Democracy and the electoral system, and the Government Response to the March 15 Attack."

I was thinking about these earlier & managed to remember some, add some if you think of any.

I'll be there in two shakes of a lamb's tail.

He's just the bees knees.

He thinks he's just the cat's pyjamas.

She's a box of birds.

When our ship/boat comes in.

More of those chem trails today.

In like Flynn.

She's a Bobby dazzler.

As full as a bull/boot/the family po.

I'm full of beans.

His nibs.

I'll be there in a tick/two ticks.

She's/he's as fit as a fiddle.

So & so said.

A sky as black as the ace of spades/your hat.

He's as cool as a cucumber.

Feeling a bit browned off.

I'm as free from money as a frog is from feathers. (My Gran)

A misunderstanding she says.

https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/01/07/maggi...ymoO-xUS_A



"Former MP and broadcaster Maggie Barry says a "minor misunderstanding" on a flight led to her being spoken to by police over what Air New Zealand described as an incident involving "abusive" behaviour towards cabin crew.
To the accusation, Barry rejected the airline's assertion: "I saw no ‘abuse’ on the flight, and certainly there was none from myself to any cabin crew or passengers."
Police confirmed to 1News that they attended to the Friday incident on a plane at Queenstown Airport, bound for Auckland. The story was first reported by Stuff.

Air New Zealand chief safety officer Captain David Morgan said that the incident happened after a passenger failed to comply with the aircraft's crew.
The flight "was delayed by approximately 40 minutes due to an incident where a passenger failed to comply with our crew member instructions and responded by being abusive towards our cabin crew and a fellow passenger," he told 1News.

"Airport police were called to the aircraft. The incident resulted in the flight's departure being delayed.
"Air New Zealand expects our crew to be treated with respect at all times, and we are providing support to the cabin crew member who experienced the abuse."

Morgan did not name the passenger in his statement, citing privacy reasons.


In a statement to 1News, Maggie Barry said she had a “minor misunderstanding” onboard.
"The confusion was around my mobile phone, which I was wearing on a long strap around my neck and which was mistaken for a small bag that should be stored for the flight.
"As I’d often carried my phone that way hands-free on other flights, I wasn’t sure at first what they were asking me to do, so there was a misunderstanding initially."
She said the issue was "quickly resolved" and had "almost no interaction" with other passengers onboard the plane, rejecting any accusations of abusive behaviour."


https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/5063...bqKbjyW56g

“The former conservation minister and National Party MP was on an Air NZ flight to Queenstown from Auckland last week when she said there was a "misunderstanding" about the phone she was wearing on a lanyard around her neck.
Barry claims her phone was mistaken for a bag that needed to be stored. After a "minor disagreement", she removed the phone and put it in the seat pocket.
However, Captain David Morgan, chief operational and integrity manager for safety at Air NZ, said the flight was delayed for 40 minutes after a passenger was alleged to have become abusive towards staff and another passenger after failing to comply with instructions from the crew.”


Not the first time she's been accused of being abusive.


https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/3957...ggie-barry




https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/377...recordings



https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/377...speaks-out

Apparently, those who are generation Z have managed to annoy quite a few people.
 (Those born from 1997- 2012, aged 12 to 27)

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/30103...rest-of-us


"If there was one industry you’d imagine would suit Generation Z down to the ground, one place where the younger members of the workforce should find themselves in a “safe space” where they can really, as they would put it, “live their truth”, it would surely be Hollywood. Nowhere accommodates the egocentric quite like La La Land.

I must be one of the 2.6%
https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/ne...relevance/

He genuinely does seem to be lacking empathy.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...l-shooting


"Donald Trump told an audience at a campaign event on Friday in Iowa to “get over” a deadly shooting at a high school in the state a day earlier.



After offering sympathy and emotional support for the victims of the shooting in Perry, Iowa, and their families, Trump said at the event in Sioux Center: “It’s just horrible – so surprising to see it here. But we have to get over it. We have to move forward.”
Trump’s comments on the shooting that occurred about 36 hours earlier were the first he had made addressing the violence.
Friday’s remarks were not the first time in the last year that Trump has apparently tried to deflect from having a substantial conversation about gun violence in the US. During a speech in April 2023 to the National Rifle Association, Trump argued that the long history of deadly school shootings in the US is “not a gun problem”. He instead blamed the issue on Democrats, mental health issues, marijuana and the transgender community.

Trump’s recent comment on the Perry shooting was criticized by the Democratic Super Pac American Bridge.

“We knew Trump lacked empathy for others, but no one thought he could go this low and tell Iowans to simply ‘get over it’ as they grieve from a situation communities across the country know all too well,” the American Bridge presidential campaigns communication director, Brandon Weathersby, said in a statement on Trump’s comments. “This is beyond the pale, even for Trump.”

Not a lot of fun for those poor people but they landed safely.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67903655


"The US airline regulator has ordered the grounding of some Boeing 737 Max 9 jets after part of one plane fell off during an Alaska Airlines flight.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the inspections would affect 171 planes.

On Friday the Alaska Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing after take-off from the US state of Oregon.
Removing some of the aircraft from service is expected to cause about 60 cancellations on Saturday, the airline said in a statement.
Earlier, the FAA said it would "order the temporary grounding of certain Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft operated by US airlines or in US territory".

Required inspections will take around four to eight hours per aircraft, it said.
In Friday's incident, the Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California, had reached 16,000ft (4,876m) when it began its emergency descent, according to flight tracking data.
The airline, carrying 177 passengers and crew, landed safely back in Portland.
Images sent to news outlets showed the night sky visible through the gap in the fuselage, with insulation material and other debris also seen.




Passenger Evan Smith said: "There was a really loud bang towards the left rear of the plane and a woosh noise - and all the air masks dropped.

"They said there was a kid in that row who had his shirt sucked off him and out of the plane and his mother was holding onto him to make sure he didn't go with it."

This is some of the most positive news in battery development I've seen.
Still a long way off mass production but great that we actually have the technology demonstrated that it works.
Most stuff I've read has all been clickbait and theoretical technology or batteries with low capacity. 
https://au.pcmag.com/cars-auto/103280/no...300k-miles

Fascinating piece on hookworms & how they can help humans...who knew.
 If there turns out to be some merit in this then it could perhaps mean an end to Crohns disease, allergies & various other things.

 People have apparently being sharing hookworms in order to rid themselves of various things such as asthma & multiple sclerosis.
 


https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/5061...od-for-you

"Ten minutes after gauze is applied to his arm, Christian Williams feels an unusual pinching sensation.
"I didn't feel them again for another month or so," Williams says.
The "them" he's referring to are hookworms trapped under the gauze, and the mild rash he is left with marks the beginning of an epic journey for the 30 larvae the Malaghan Institute has infected him with.
A touch of awe creeps into Malaghan Institute gastroenterologist Tom Mules's voice when he talks about a human hookworm's life cycle. The parasite is an "amazing organism," he says, built to only infect humans and with a "perfectly shaped mouth" to latch onto human anatomy.
To get into the body, "they've got these heat sensors that can find their way to your bloodstream." The pinching sensation Williams felt is a result of the hookworms detecting blood and swiftly burrowing under his skin.

From the bloodstream they wend their way to the lungs and crawl up the windpipe. "Without even knowing it, you swallow them, and they end up going down through your stomach," Mules says.
Passing through one of the harshest environments in the body, the tiny worms survive stomach acid to reach the small intestine. This is their home for the rest of their lives, which lasts at least four years. Here they latch onto and graze on villi - the small finger-like structures that line the intestine - and "cruise around looking for other hookworms of different sex that they can mate with".

Hookworms can lay thousands of eggs a day, but these are expelled in faeces and don't hatch inside your body. In places with plumbing and where shoes are commonly worn these expelled eggs are doomed, but in countries with poor sanitation people walking barefoot can pick up more larvae. This is how the parasite has earned its bad rap: when people are continually picking up more larvae they can end up hosting hookworm populations in the thousands, potentially causing anaemia and malnutrition.
So why is Williams voluntarily playing host to them?

It's because plumbing and shoes may have created a different set of health issues. There's a "hygiene hypothesis" that when countries improve sanitation and children grow up in more sterile environments, they also become more susceptible to allergies. The "old friends hypothesis" goes further, suggesting that erasing parasites like hookworms, which humans evolved with, leads to overly sensitive immune systems.

One school of thought is that there might be an infection sweet-spot, where just the right number of hookworms hanging out in your small intestine, cruising for sex and sucking your blood, might be an infection with benefits for both host and hookworms. Hit this balance and the relationship might be more symbiotic than parasitic.
It's a theory with a community of DIY advocates who share hookworm larvae and stories. Many say that after infecting themselves, their health improves dramatically and conditions plaguing them for years reduce or vanish.

The study Williams joined looks at how a small number of hookworms affect healthy people. His sister has Crohn's disease - just one of the conditions from allergies to asthma, multiple sclerosis, celiac disease and diabetes that hookworms might help with - so Williams is happy to nurture a colony of hookworms to move research along. Plus, he's a little curious.

There's a range of ideas about how hookworms help humans. One theory is that hookworms release compounds which dampen the body's immune response just enough for the worms to stay alive, but not enough to make their meal ticket defenceless. An analogy might be installing pet-friendly motion sensors on a house alarm: the alarm can still detect a burglar, but a pint-sized pooch can happily scamper about without setting off the siren.
This could mean small things, like dust mites, pollen, or pet hair, might not trigger an allergic response."