https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/558057/...-t-or-else

It looks very much as if this delightful govt may intend to privatise health. Questions are met with poli-waffle & avoidance.

At its heart, privatising health would effectively mean that poor people would be unable to afford medical care, & therefore will be left to suffer & die - as quietly as possible of course, so as not to disturb wealthy people.
That sound callous, & similar to the dire American system which has caused people to become bankrupt in order to afford treatment -  and of course, die once they can no longer afford it.
But it does appear to be their goal, & you have to wonder how many charity hospitals we'll have before the cruelty of Neo Liberal,ism is finally removed from this country.



Three so far.


https://www.odt.co.nz/the-star/opinion-g...bTh-XRsnLw

https://i.redd.it/z01fp2u9pfue1.jpeg

One of my favorite artists & children's book authors has died - I just bought two of her books for the great grandkids the other day, they're really good & beautifully illustrated, so she's a massive loss to her field.




https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2025/04/12/re...s-aged-87/

For Afghans & Cameroonians.
The man's a monster; those people for whom it was unsafe to return to their country will now have an uncertain future. For Afghans it could mean  persecution if they return to Afghanistan.

The sooner they remove Trump from power,ther better.


https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/12...Kk4TWM4uqQ

American judge says it's 'extremely troubling' that the Trump admin cannot tell her the location of a deported man, despite a court order. The supreme court also said the Trump admin also needed to take steps to facilitate Abrego  Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador, saying that the govt continues to deny, obfuscate & flout court orders while a man's life & safety is at risk.



https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/557947/...ported-man

I Dont normally post anything about advertisements, but one from Firetrust ( Mailwasher) is quite good. (All about Scams)

Originally designed by a Christchurch Guy Nick Bolton, around 2000. Been using it myself since then, its brilliant for catching spam and god knows what else.

 In most Spam emails, you get to see the actual address it comes from. Eg: if it says its from the IRD -- You then see the real address -- Yeah not IRD  

Firetrust Advert

Edited: For people who don't know what it is or how it works, heres a video on YouTube: How MW Works

I use it slightly differently, same result -- when open, tick the check box "Select All" Then scroll through and untick the ones I want to allow.

Another way of doing business. In the Basque area of Spain created an industrial corporation back in 1956 which is still going & is one of the largest co ops in the world. All the workers share in both profits & losses & there are now 81 autonomous co operatives within it.

No system is ever going to be perfect but this seems like a more humane, fairer way. The world could certainly do worse - & has.



https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...n-a-living

This is something Ive just observed for the first time, but according to google, this has been happening since around 2020.

About a week ago I set up a newly purchased laptop and transferred the data across, etc.
I uninstalled the preinstalled office 365 and reinstalled and reactivated office 2016 with the users current licence.

This was the home and student version so was just word and excel.

About a week later the user called me and complained that their office was not the "same" as before and could not save documents, etc.
Was only letting them save to one drive, I smelt a rat and suspected this sounded like 365 to me, but thought the user could not find the browse button.

I took a look at the computer and low and behold the thing was running 365, but still was listed as 2016 in the apps list.
I was doubting myself at this point, because I was sure I had left it with 2016.

Anyway, I suspected it was an update that did this and I was correct, I thought it may have been a free upgrade with the added benefits until I discovered the major issue here, it only lets you save to onedrive!
Even if i went to change the default save location, this thing pops up with the message along these lines "this free version of word can only save documents to onedrive, please purchase a subscription to unlock all its features"

I was gob smacked, Microsoft has the audacity to "upgrade" your older version of office to 365 which is a subscription based model and then expect you to pay to unlock features you had already paid for.
Anyway, I ended up removing and reinstalling it twice, first to test if the updates were causing this, which I was able to confirm it was, so I had to reinstall a second time and disable the automatic updates in office itself.

My question was why it was running OK on the old PC running windows 10? I didnt see any automatic updates disabled on that machine.
And if its correct that this has been happening since around 2020, then its not a windows 11 thing either.
It also appears its not just the home and student version affected. Am interested to hear if others have encountered this before.
Ive reinstalled older versions of office a bunch of times on newer computers and never encountered this before, or at least never had any users complain!

Unbelievable! The idiot wants living migrants declared dead so that they'll 'self deport.' He should be removed from power as quickly as possible before he does more harm.


https://wjla.com/news/local/social-secur...s-benefits