With your help, we can continue to fight for freedom. This is not possible without your generosity. Join our quest for the truth and our freedom. Simply visit www.realitycheck.radio forward slash donate to make a difference today. Right, now it's time for Cams Buddies. And this week, we'll find out what they think about the fiscal cliffs or land mines, as I like to call them, left by the Labour Party. My producer has them all lined up and ready to go. So let's hear what Cams Buddies have to say about the fiscal land mines left by Labour. Good afternoon. Welcome to Cams Buddies, Paul. Good afternoon, Cam. How are you this day? Fantastic. I've only got one more show to go. There's a story. One, so we're gonna have to hit home runs. Oh, it's disappointing there's only one more show so far this year. We enjoy these shows. Yeah, that's a whole heap of phone bits. All right, I'll be back next year. So the topic this week is what Christopher Laksim calls the fiscal cliffs that he's finding as they open the box and realise that Grant Robertson appears to be an economic pygmy. What do you think about these fiscal cliffs, in particular the land mines or cliffs that they found in the Three Waters legislation? Well, I think a lot of this is quite interesting because is it stupidity or is it deception? For example, if we were to cancel the Three Waters project, the theory is you save 300 million. But is it 300 million that they've allowed for or is it 300 million that they were going to allow for? So in fact, the hole's still there whether you get the saving or not. And for when our finance ministers see that he's what the books look like but he hasn't actually factored in all the things that he was going to do because he's only done it on a temporary basis. I look at that and think that doesn't seem like he's naive. It seems like he's deceptive and I'm always concerned about such things. I mean, they do things like we haven't funded what we're going to do next with Pharmac because it's under the hospital boards as opposed to under our Pharmac provisioning or something like that, they move it around and then it's ignored in both camps and you think, yeah, interesting. Now you used to sit on the board of a public company. If you booked expenditure but no revenue for that and then no ongoing expenditure for that capital expenditure, what would the financial markets authority in the stock exchange say about that sort of behavior? They'd be none too impressed I can tell you and there would be these regulations and laws that stopped you doing that and you get to go to jail if you play hide and seek with the truth and financials of public companies. I know we had to be more open and open and more honest than honest and it gave in some cases your position, opportunities to look at what was happening and they wanted to print your staff. They knew how much the most expensive staff and your company got within certain brackets and all this sort of thing, but this is the law. And so when I see that they've done these sorts of things like light rail, if they shut that project down what do they get a hundred million or so? Yeah. But is it being allowed for? Or is it just another, the things that we could shut down they weren't allowing for them anyway because that's next year's, coming out of next year's funding and so they're saying we're at this position at the moment, I think there's quite a bit of deception that's going on. And I think also some of these food programs in schools again in cybersecurity in schools these are all things that are gonna cost someone money at some time, but they haven't allowed it in because they just said when they funded it this year they're gonna relook at it and see if they wanna fund it again next year. And any time you fully depend on some of these things there's a hue and cry like we've never heard before. But I guess the benefit that they've got is the number of billions that were spent in the last half a dozen budgets that they did. I think there's got to be some things there that you can take away. I think they spent an additional spending of over 50 billion in the six budgets. So I think there must be ways to get three, four, five billion out of that boy shutting some of those projects down because they're not necessarily necessary. Well, I reckon that we know a guy that we go fishing with who's a ninja with spreadsheets. I reckon the government should hire him, pay him half a million dollars a year and let him go at it at the government accounts and find all the holes that could be filled or carved out. I'm pretty sure he'd be able to find several billion dollars that could be saved. Exactly. It's a bit like that when the president on some movie was looking like he was going to pass or they put some other bloke in place and he got his mate from down the corner. But he's at the accountant to have a look at it and he came up with a number of ways to save money. If you just get Joe's visit in the street at this at accountant, who just from nowhere in particular, they would look at this and say, this is ridiculous in a number of areas. In fact, with the limited budget, I don't have a different finances that I've looked through different companies. I could give them some good places to start. Yeah, I mean, the three waters one is astonishing. They hired something like 400 people, put them on five year contracts at the time when it looked like the Labour Party was going to lose the election anyway. And I'm heading towards this as mischief because I think the Labour Party assumed the National Party wouldn't do anything because it'd be too hard to unravel it. But they seem to have grasped the nettle and wanted to actually start unraveling this.  But the problem with landmines is if you leave them in place, well, they tend to blow up sometime down the future. Exactly. And if you set people up on five year contracts when you've only got a three year term, I think there's a degree that you could call those folk back and say there was outside your delegated financial authority to do that. Unless you've got a consensus over a multiple, you know, like over all the government options. So in other words, if the people from each of the parties say, yes, we can all agree by part of them that will work, then you can sign up such things on five year contracts. But if you've got something that we, one part of the government is saying, or the opposition is saying, we don't like that and we won't do that and we won't be continuing it. And then you sign the folk up on five year contracts. It's like, should they be signing the charter schools up on 20 year contracts, so that they can make sure that they get some longevity because last time people invested in the education and we're doing a fantastic job with many of these students, then Labour came and said, oh, because the teachers union doesn't like the way you've authorized different teachers, doesn't matter that they're doing a good job, we'd better get rid of them all, even though the poorest in our communities were doing the best in such schools. Now, we can't have that. So they shut it down. Well, who wants to be a charter school operator and try round two if you can't get a long contract? And because Labour have proved that they can give a five year contract when the opposition is saying, we don't want to do that. And it's really a three year maximum contract they should have and only one left or a one plus three. If giving a contract out in the last year of their term, I do think it's very mischievous. Yeah, by design, I think it's completely dishonest though of the Labour Party that they were gaslighting everybody telling us that they were good economic stewards. They were poo-pooing anything that Nicola Willis said. They especially derived anything that David Seymour says. Turns out that Nicola Willis and David Seymour were bang on the money that there was these massive holes that needed to be filled. You know, I think we're steering down the barrel of Grant Robertson taking over from Robert Muldoon as the worst finance minister we've ever seen. Well, it's looking very much that way. And even then Muldoon put in place some quite lead-ups that think big projects that are still infrastructure things that they've done today. What Labour's done in the last six years is just spend money so that people are all happy not on things that count, not on infrastructure they've made our roads with the help of our councils and stupidity narrower, nowhere to park and nothing to see when you get there. You know, they've made every road a choke point I hear just on the way home today. It takes an hour and 20 minutes to get from the city to jury, which at a good time you can do in 25 minutes.  I mean, that's a bugbear that I've got having lived on the North Shore for quite some time. They spent seven years, millions of dollars on three kilometres of road, if that, making it five lanes either side. But at either end of it, it's two lanes either side. So you've got three kilometres of smooth flowing traffic that comes running to a standstill at the end of it. And it doesn't seem that there's any joined up thinking in any of these infrastructure projects. And there's certainly not any joined up thinking with the finance minister we've had for the last six years. Exactly. I've just had my sister over from Australia and she was saying, I can't believe how many road cones there are. There's just road cones everywhere. Did you tell her they were more than road cones? She's telling me there was plenty more where they came from. Maybe we should be selling those to try and help for the school bit that we'd like to be flying ourselves and my sister could probably sell road cones to help. Maybe we should put the road cones in the potholes. That's easy to say. Yeah. All right, Paul, thank you very much for your thoughts on that. And we'll talk next week for the last show. OK, take care. Good afternoon, Jack. Welcome to Cam's Buddies. Hello, Cam. I always resist the temptation to say hi, Jack, because that'd be funny. You've probably heard that a million times. And more. Not on an aeroplane, though. I'd never do it on an aeroplane. No, you wouldn't. I'll be your host. This week's topic, Jack, is the landmines, as I call them, or fiscal cliffs, as Christopher Luxem calls them, that they're discovering in the government's books, standout things are treasury identified, a whole lot of infrastructure projects where there was capital expenditure booked, but no ability in the workforce to deliver it. There, of course, is three waters where they've signed up staff members on five-year contracts when it was apparent that the government was going to lose office, and there's many more happening on a daily basis. We've got unfunded pharma stuff going on. What are your thoughts on these? Well, it's the same old story when the government changes. The incoming blames the outgoing for everything. And we knew it was going to happen. Now it's happened. I'll just wait for it to blow over. Some of those things didn't need to have any ongoing funding because it may not have been required. But really, it's just a standard sort of response that every new government makes when they come in. So I don't think too much about it at all. I think let it all wash out and let's see what happens. Yeah, some of these things catch you up later. Like, I mean, Auckland Council's got some classic examples, like the central rail loop, which the government funded 50%. But what they didn't fund and aren't going to fund and will fight funding is the ongoing maintenance costs and annual costs to keep it running, which is eye-wateringly expensive, something like $220 million a year needs to be found by Auckland ratepayers. And there's only a projected, which means it'll probably be half that, but a projected income stream of just 30 million. Yeah. And Auckland Council don't need any more problems like that. I'm just glad I'm not running it. Yeah, you've got these ridiculous situations where with the Three Waters legislation, they were funding the Commerce Commission to conduct oversight of the setup of it, but they only gave them one year's worth of funding. And it's gonna run out and like I think it's in April, it runs out, the funding for that. Nationals, of course, repealing Three Waters, putting in place their own strategy, but it's gonna require funding from the Commerce Commission to actually oversee those anyway. But this is the sort of stuff that Labour left unfunded at all. Some time ago, I said to my brother-in-law, who's the CEO of Watercare, hey, this is a wasted exercise. It's not gonna happen. I can't even remember his response, but I'll be catching up with him soon on Christmas Day in fact. So that'll be interesting. Find out what the hell's going on. You don't mention my name to him. Why not? I mentioned your name to everyone. Ha, ha, ha. You'll get a stone-cold silence coming out of his... Do I? Yeah, well... Do I care? Do I look like I care? No, you don't.  I treat everyone on faith value, whoever they are. Yeah. And then what comes out of their mouth if it's sensible or not? Yeah, exactly. Unfortunately, people are not sensible. No, that's right. You're your own man and so am I. But anyway, pass on my kind regards to then see what happens. Yeah, no, look, it's all... Let's just wait and see what happens. There's all this stuff about we borrowed too much. Borrowing's good. I love borrowing. I've heard my company 50 years and I've been in debt the whole time. I borrow everything, just the way I operate. But lending money is just a business. So you've got to keep those people in business. How do the Jews make money? Well, the thing is... They lend it out. Yeah, the thing is, though, Jack, there's good debt and there's bad debt. And the previous government spent eye-watering sums of money on borrowing billions upon billions of dollars, which they then effectively threw into a fan outside of a window and blew it out into the economy, of which we have nothing to show for it. We haven't got any infrastructure projects that are completed. We haven't got any fixes in things that are seriously in need of repair, including the health system. We didn't get anything for it. The last people that ever made in the infrastructure for the things work were Muldoon and Bill Birch and everyone sort of like the Muldoon at some sort of crackpot that ruined the economy. It was the best one. We haven't had anything since. Well, I like pointing out to people who drive EVs that all their power comes from the big projects that they all opposed. Yes, exactly. Exactly. And you know, Manipuri Power Project, which I know intimately, having worked on it, when the people of New Zealand decided not to finish the project, in other words, raised the lake to the intended level so we could get full power. Look at all that work, all that money that went in there and only half the power was produced. We could change that now by raising the lake. It's one of my pet hobby courses. And I know, yes, it's a long way down there and to get it up, there'd be losses, but it'll still be an easy thing to do and a very cheap fix, relatively speaking, to get more power. Well, the trouble with the power is it's at the wrong end of the country. Yes, that's what I just said. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we make all this power in the South Island, but it's all needed in the North Island. We need to perhaps have some power solutions that aren't reliant on wind or sun in the North Island. But maybe we could put a new... Was it you that were saying the cost of putting another line across the Crook Strait, the price was astronomical? Was it you that said that the other day? Yeah, absolutely. It's billions of dollars to put a new cable across. Yeah, so maybe my idea is not a good idea. Well, it might be a good idea if people wanted to live in the South Island a bit more. Maybe we could send some of the rap bags in Auckland down there. What do you mean? Are you talking about me? Oh, definitely not. Can't have you in the South Island.  You can always fly up for lunch on Monday. Hey, look at the weather around Wellington at the moment. You wouldn't want to be flying through that, would you? No, the best seat in Wellington is the seat on the 737 just after they close the door and push back. Yes, that's dead right. It's a horrid place. There's only Qantas flying 737s out of there now, but that's good. Oh, that's right, they're all airbuses, aren't they? Sorry, I'm arguing with an airline expert. Yes, you're saying everyone should be going to Australia. Yeah, dead right. That'd be a good start. Get all the civil servants living in Australia. Oh, that would be good, wouldn't it? It would. Don't get me started on that. Well, my solution is to move them to Waoru. Just build some, you know, Russian-style, utilitarian bunkers for accommodation and set up all the civil servants living in Waoru. We wouldn't need to do that. Just hire some of the army barracks there. If you've been down there, you have. You actually lived down there, didn't you? I did. My goodness, it's croaky. That deserves some respect. That's the coldest place ever. It's horrible.  But we had heaps of fun blowing things up. So anyway, it was all good. Of course. I wanted to make a man out of you. Yeah, exactly. All right, Jack, thank you for your comments. And we'll talk again next week for the last show of the year. Sorry, I was useless tonight. I'm so sorry. Oh, well, you'll have a fan out there that'll say you were wonderful. I bet you. It might be your brother. It's not likely to be your brother, though, is it? No, no. All right, thanks for your call. Welcome to Cams Buddies, Jimmy. Good, I can't tell you today. Yeah, good, mate. So the topic this week is these fiscal cliffs that Christopher Lux and Nicola Willis describe. I prefer to call them fiscal landmines. But we've got all of this unfunded and costed spending by the previous government, like things on three waters, like five year contracts for staff. You've got the Fire Mac funding that isn't being funded, a whole lot of other things like that. What are your thoughts on those? Well, is anyone surprised? No. I mean, this was to be expected. I mean, there'll be loads more for another 12 months of all this unexpected stuff that the government we just got rid of was so unbelievably fiscally reckless that it's just not a surprise. And things are going to have to get real tight to pay for all this. So it's going to be a difficult year. And I guess Nicola's going to do a mini-budget before Christmas. So we're going to see some of the damage that's going to be caused in nationals' plans. They're going to have to probably cut back some of their plans, pay for it all. It's not a surprise whatsoever. I think they're going to have to take an axe to all the spending. I mean, there was billions upon billions of dollars spent, but we haven't got anything for it. We need to cut that as quickly as possible. Yeah, well, you just can't spend like that. It's insane. It's why we have so much inflation and high interest rates. And it's really hurting people. There was things that government did when they knew they were going to buy the factory in Kingsland for the light rail. They knew that was going to be canceled. And they still went ahead with the purchase. I mean, it's just completely morally reckless. Forenders, it's amazing. They can't be held to account for it. Well, that's the problem with politicians is we've got laws that are in place, like the Fiscal Responsibility Act. But it doesn't appear to be any penalties for reaching the act. I talked to earlier to Paul, and he was saying, this looks like mischief rather than mistake. Well, yeah, exactly. I mean, if a CDO acted in this way, that they could be quite easily charged with financial crimes or misleading. It's horrendous what's happened. And the fact that Graham Robertson still sits in Parliament questioning and laughing and mocking the new government is just mind-boggling, actually. More stuff's going to come. Like, there's been way more spending in other areas. Like, I know that New Zealand Housing Agency has got spent billions. There'll be heaps of bombs out there, won't there? They're like IEDs, terrorist Jews. And they just sit there lurking, waiting for a small child to pick them up, or in this case, Nicola Willis. Well, the government's just going to inherit them all over the show. It's going to be really hard to govern, because they'll say one thing, and they'll discover some more plan or just keep destroying their budgets all over the show. And it'll be hard to deliver what they promise, and then the media will attack them for it. So, but I am quite pleased with how the new government's going. I see this week that the lower speed limits across the country just wiped off, fantastic. Yeah. That's the road to zero, Don Berger.   I mean, the only thing that zero represented was the political future of Michael Wood.  To get to zero road toll, you'd have to massively sacrifice productivity, you know, have cars going at 10 kilometers an hour or whatever. So, people will suffer in other ways. It's unmeasurable. You know, whereas all they're focused on is this big zero dumbest picture, and it just makes no sense. They're not prepared to have a proper discussion around the trade-off versus policy outcome of particular policies, you know? We saw it right through that whole government, particularly around COVID, say, just lockdowns. It's also really bad in local government. I mean, I was talking earlier on the show to Daniel Newman, and he was aghast at the ongoing costs of the central rail loop, which is something like $220 million a year. And the revenue potential is only about $30 million. I mean, which morons voted for that? And can we hunt them down and put them to work trying to pay that off? How does the train going round and round in a loop cost $270 million per annum? There's no business case. There's no business case for that. It was like the business case for the bike bridge. There was no business case for that. There was no business case for light rail to the airport. Thank God that's being canceled. I mean, there's several billion dollars there that's being canceled, even though we've spent tens of millions of dollars on feasibility studies and other nonsense. I know, I just can't. But what's interesting to me is that they couldn't get that across the line, even though they had a majority. Why didn't they just start? Order some diggers there and start? Like, they're so literally incompetent that they couldn't even start a project where they had the full majority. They couldn't even get their own business cases past themselves. Well, that's the problem with socialists, right? They believe in a command and control economy. And they think if they issue commands and control the economy, then magical things will happen. It's like Phil Twyford saying, we're going to build 100,000 new homes. Well, they didn't even get to 3,000. That's six years and they didn't even get to 3,000. Well, Phil Twyford had a blinder through that six years. He started off at number three or four. Now he's number 50 and he only just got his seat by 120 votes. Yeah.  Yeah, barely functional. I mean, he's just completely in it and he was ahead of KiwiBuild. Yeah.  I mean, there's some great videos of him, you know, bloviating about how fantastic this KiwiBuild is and, you know, you've just got to do it. It's the right thing to do. And out of that he goes on and on and on. Someone should resurrect all of those videos, put them all together into a classic hits of Phil Twyford or classic hits of Grant Robertson, classic hits of Chris Hipkins and play it back to these fours. Well, from the politicians, they just don't seem to care about that, hey? They don't have any much accountability. They just laugh and say our thing to change and move on. Yeah. I mean, most politicians in Parliament would have said things five, 10 years ago that they don't agree with now and they just, they don't seem to have much principles. They don't have any principles. They're not principled like you, mate. They don't stick to the same beliefs over years and years. Well, you know, if evidence comes up to suggest that I might have been wrong and the unlikely event that I was wrong, then I'd change my opinion. But, you know, I'm not often wrong. Oh, geez, here we go. Anyway, the, but this new government's term has started well. I mean, it really is like sticking to the principles. It's so unlike any politics I've seen in my lifetime, more than I can remember. I just love watching the Parliament on Tuesday when Rauri Waititi bangs on in Maori and Winston Peters refused to answer the question.  I mean, everybody will be going, that's why we voted for you, Winston. That's exactly what we want you to do. Well, I see that there's a poll out on Tuesday and Winston's gone up. Yeah. We need a poll. Why is anyone surprised about that? He's bashed the funny thing was this little Thomas Coglin who wrote the article has a little snide comment at the end of the article saying, you know, the poll was taken during the first week of the new government and Winston Peters attacked the media. Hello, Thomas. Hey, he went up in the polls. You all whined and moaned and complained and said he was wrong and it wasn't true and we're not biased and we're not bribed and we're not bent. And everyone else said, yeah, we like, what Winston says? Well, that's the thing, he's gone from 6% to 8% in a month, whatever it is. In a month? Yeah, and he's going to read that. He's wise enough to go, well, I'm just going to keep doing this. So you're not going to see him stifling. Didn't he insult Madam of Davidson on Tuesday in the house as well? Yep. David, I think he called her something about a woke lefty shill. And that's enhanced today. Yep, yep, that sure is. And I think Jerry Brownlee pulled him up and said, you realise, of course, to the members that what you say here is recorded in the hand side.  He's probably already jumped up another point, Kev. Probably. From Tuesday to something. Look, I'll tell you what, if the Maori Party and the New Zealand First spend the next three years fighting, it can only be good for both of them. Well, I did see the Maori Party had gone up in that poll as well. Yeah, well, the thing is, they're fighting doing their stuff. That stops Labour winning those seats back again. And New Zealand First opposes it, and they go up. And so they look like they're going to, you know, if they keep going up and they keep on hitting home runs like they are, then they could be increased in the next election and be hilarious. It's good to see not just two massive parties dominating. I mean, they're still massive compared to the rest, but, you know, it would be nice to get to the point where it wasn't just either Labour or National, it could be a combo. If you remember rightly on one buddy's thing a few months ago and I asked what's your ideal party structure. And I said what mine was. Mine was that we had a three-way coalition with National Act and New Zealand First with Act and New Zealand First on about the same amount. Well, you're there. Pretty much came true, didn't it? Oh, well, you must be happy, mate. You must be enjoying life, reading the book, left howling on Twitter and loving it. Yeah, I'm loving watching them all, you know, especially Simon Wilson, he writes an article on the National Party's role on Tuesdays.  Maybe your Lycra is pinching you.  Oh, I like reading Russell Brown's tweets. He can't get more outraged. He was strangely silent for six years, though. Oh, yeah.  I kicked them just as hard as I would other parties. No, no, I always liked that approach of your political writing, Cam, was that you bash both sides. And that's the way we all should be. We should need to lose the partners in this. If your team's been crappy, you need to abuse them. If they're doing good things, you need to applaud them on both sides. Because all politicians are terrible. You know, they're mostly in it for themselves. People used to say to me, you know, Cam, you're attacking the National Party, you know, you need to dial it back and do the right thing. And I'd say, no, I want them to be better. That's why I'm criticising them. I want them to be better. And it's the same reason why I criticised the Labour Party or I want them to all be better, try harder. Yeah. And I think generally people are aiming for the rule, aiming for the same thing in the end, you know, less human suffering, more, more, you know, better outcomes for people. It's just the pathway to get there. We fight over. Yeah. So really all of us should bash both sides. Metaphorically bash both sides. Yeah, they need to be fighting. All right, Jimmy, thanks for your thoughts this week. And next week's the last week of the crunch for this year. And but we'll be back next year. But I'll pull you up next week as well. Thanks, mate. No worries. Thanks. Welcome to Cam's Buddies, Marcus. How was the sailing trip on the weekend? It was fairly sprightly on Sunday on the way back and beating into wind all the way. We got shook up a little bit. It was awesome. We had a great time. We know it's a white hecky and hang out there and drink a bit of whiskey and smoke a few cigars. Should be any, mate. Yeah, I should have. I was a bit busy on the weekend. Well, talking about beating into the wind, it seems the government is discovering all sorts of fiscal cliffs and landmines and all these sorts of things. The great financial genius of Grant Robertson is being exposed on a daily basis. What are your thoughts on those? Well, I mean, they're a bit silly if they're surprised by it, to be fair. Weird, well, I mean, I knew that all the promises I'm making couldn't be funded. I mean, what I understand the majority of it is that we just short funding. They haven't promised it all the way out. So they're going to pay for a certain policy for a period of time. I mean, then after that, who knows? But they're always planning on running them all the way through, so they're always short.  I think the only politician who said anything before the election about this was Winston Peters. And he kept saying in his meetings and speeches and interviews, well, we can't agree to anything until we see the box because we don't know what the state of the box is. But it appears that it's not good. And it seems that he was right on that. I think David Seymour was making some noises as well. And Nicola Willis was, I think, as well. But basically, yeah, Winston was obviously a bit more cagey about the whole thing. And like you said, he didn't want to do any grander promises because he didn't know what the books were like.  If you have a budget, you have to be open and honest in the budget. And that means being clear about what you're planning to spend over the next forthcoming time and not hiding it away in the pages of the budget and making it difficult for anyone to see. The whole point is it's supposed to be nice and clear. So everyone knows what's going on. And the previous government just has been anything but transparent. And this is just another example of that. You know, these guys, they're trying to be clever. And no one likes anyone that's clever, you know? Tricky Dickie. Or Tricky Grant, as the case may be. We got laws that were put in place in 1990 after National took over and opened the books and found there was a massive, you know, the BNZ was tipping over. There was just a whole lot of stuff that was going on then. That was bold, wasn't it? Yeah, and they passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act. But there's no penalties. There's no danger for a politician who cooks the books. And Grant Robertson's been cooking up a storm when it comes to the books. Like I said, mate, it's fraud. If I ran my business that way and was trading in solvent, then I don't have the luxury of just printing more money. You know, I have to actually answer to shareholders and likes. They're off.  And these guys should be held under law. Just because it's government. Why are they not held the same law as commercial businesses? I mean, you mentioned there, the BNZ, they were bailed out way back then from my memory.  Yeah, so all of our tax money, all this small business owners and that sort of money, all of that money went to pay off another private company. And then they sold it and basically got all that money for free and it's just fraud. The whole thing is fraud, you know?  It really irritates me because money in my business, I have to be fiscally responsible because I've got no backstop, you know? If I make bad decisions, then those bad decisions will come back and bite me in the arse. And cash flow is always a problem. It seems that these government types, they just don't care about cash flow. They just get more cash, you know? Just print some more. That's why we're in a state we are in the world today, you know? And that's a hard point about the CBDC because these guys, they'll have a party specifically because they're all following the world economic forum mantra and they all want to go to digital accounts and they want the US and the NZ dollar to crash and all fed money around the world to crash. And this is just a mechanism they're using to make sure that happens.  We have to abide by the rules. We have to do the right thing, otherwise we get hauled up before the courts and bankrupted. But no, no, if you're in the government, it's all good. Don't worry, like you said, there's no penalty for these guys to be shysters and hide the books, which is exactly what Grant Robinson's done. There's no doubt about that. I mean, I think possibly there's a little bit of policy can go on with regards to national as well. Obviously, this was always going to be the line. They were going to drum out afterwards because I can look a bit better. They'll put in, I understand you're doing another little budget before Christmas to show the true side of the finances. But I mean, I doubt that this is such a surprise for Nicola Willis. I'm pretty certain she knew all about this, but she's playing the politics and this is the way to do it. Anyway, it's all smoke and mirrors and these guys are just the elites and us little fellows will just keep doing what we're doing. Well, yeah, I mean, I guess we just have to grin and bear it and hope that the government are smart enough to back us out of ongoing costs, minimize the expenditure of the existing stuff and start getting the economy actually back on track. They just need to cancel the money.  We're saving money because that's exactly what they were supposed to be doing. They got voted in to be fiscally more responsible with our money and that doesn't mean printing more. So they've got to do that. They've got to actually halt it and say, no, we're not doing this anymore. This particular project, I mean, I had a look and some of it was Farmac, I think, and I mean, Farmac, they don't need any more money and transport, I mean, transport does, but they just need to be a little bit clever about how they're going to spend this money and make sure that we've got the money to spend rather than just printing it. And the way that they do that is to support SMEs, supporting SMEs to make more money because if they're making more money, you're getting more tax, therefore you can actually work your way out of the hole as opposed to just digging the hole deeper with a spade, you know? Exactly.   I'm going to start calling you on it because you haven't come over yet. No, that's right. Yes, you do. Once my head clears and I've got a bit of bandwidth and we'll definitely do it. I'm not going anywhere over the Christmas break. So maybe we can catch up during then. All good. Yep. All right, Marcus, thank you for calling. All right, buddy. See you. Good afternoon, Miles. Welcome to Cam's Buddies. Good afternoon, Cam. How are you today? Box of birds. Getting better and betterer. Betterer and betterer. Well, at least it's betterer and betterer than the landmines that are currently exploding. Well, that's exactly what I want to talk about with you, the landmines or fiscal cliffs, as Christopher Luxem calls them, that the government is discovering on almost a daily basis and what your thoughts are on those. Well, let's take a little walk down memory lane. It's 2008 and Helen Clark is about to have an election in November and Finance Minister Cullen of Rich Prick's fame suddenly buys Kiwi Rail, a stripped-out Kiwi Rail, stripped out of all its cash producing activities from toll, and he spends 690 million doing it. And this is four months, yes, four months before a general election, which would turf Helen Clark and the left, including Finance Minister Cullen out of power. So he spent 690 million, and that we haven't even added the $140 million worth of debt and the promise that the tracks needed for $60 million worth of upgrades. So financial vandalism is not unknown to the left. They've done this before. It's despicable. Yeah, I understand toll holdings has a party every year on that date, celebrating how much they ripped off the New Zealand government. Because Price Waterhouse, who are not slow with these things, valued it a mere few months later at 388 million. So that's just economic vandalism beyond belief. And so that's memory lane, John Key's government subsequently spent $3.5 billion on the railways. So let's consider this current government. This current government has come into power a few short weeks ago. And before they came into power, even when there was a caretaker government, contracts were being signed by bureaucrats that actually were going to rear up their ugly heads and hobble the so-called changes that the National Lead Coalition wanted to do. And the point I'm trying to make is that this has happened before in New Zealand and it's solely sheeted home to labor. And if you look at three, five, 10 waters, and the fact that people have been signed up to five-year contracts and let alone all the buildings and other infrastructure needed, it begins to make me feel very, very sick.  Labor does have a habit of doing this. And I think what they've done is they've banked on National being the party of the status quo, which of course they usually are and they're not unwinding anything because it's too hard. But it seems to me that Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis are prepared to grasp the nettle and yank it out by the roots and start a bonfire on all of this ridiculous expenditure. And that is pleasing to see. Oh, look, we need it. We desperately need it. It's better to lance the boil. These costs that labor has tried to make permanent are things that are going to cripple the country in the long term. And I commend National. I think that we are seeing some real steel here and they're prepared to actually pay the price to pay these people out of contract. And I think that any contract signed by a caretaker government which basically labor was while the coalition negotiations were going on, all those contracts need to be scrutinized because I don't think they had the authority to sign them. Well, that's right.  And the government should say, well, okay, we're going to sack you all. Here's a month's pay. See you later. And if you don't like that, well, Sue us, we've got lots more money because we've just saved it from all of your salaries. Yep, and it's not only the poor people that got sucked in by labor trying to embed things. It should be the civil servants as well. They should be paying the price for this. I'm extremely angry that civil servants were signing contracts right up into the last few days and even after the election, that affected outcomes years in advance. And I think they knew that to get out of these contracts, there was going to have to be some sort of payment of, and I just find that really irresponsible. It's totally irresponsible, but that's what Grant Robertson has done to us. Him and Ardern and Hipkins have begot the nation and then gaslit us along the way saying that they're good custodians of the New Zealand economy and the evidence suggests that they're not. Yeah, everything we heard is, oh, yeah, this is great. And listen, I lay the blame fairly at the feet of the mainstream media as well. What on earth sort of a job they were doing? I'll tell you what job they were doing. They were just singing the praises and they weren't doing their job looking into it because the other thing that I'd like to raise is not only the land mines where contracts were signed for people's employment with the likes of Three Waters and other ideological pushes like centralizing the polytechs and instituting a Maori health authority. All of that was ideological and contracts were signed so that it was going to be very difficult, if not impossible to go back. I'd also like to look at some of the funding decisions that Robertson made. He's clearly short-funded a lot of projects and what this means is that projects were set up, funded for a year or some other short term and then in the economic statements, the funding for these in the long term wasn't taken into account simply because he had set up a project but only funded it for a short time and that's the other sort of economic vandalism. It's just big as belief really. Well, it big as belief but it doesn't really. That's the thing. I mean, Grant Robertson I think is going to go down in history as New Zealand's worst finance minister which is really saying something because Rob Muldoon made a pig's ear of finance when he was the finance minister and for Grant Robertson to do worse than him is quite some achievement. It's shocking in fact. It seems that everywhere that you look, there's been financial mismanagement of the economy and is it any wonder we're in the doldrums? All this money is being shoveled into non-productive areas. I mean, we need to actually hold our heads up, bite the bullet, get rid of all this ideological clack-trap that Labor tried to implement with the polytechs, with the three, five, 10 waters and with the health authorities. We need to actually get rid of that and get back to basics with actual value propositions and measurement of successes. I mean, don't forget one of the first things that Labor did when they took over in the healthy area was remove all those measuring sticks which used to be published so that you could tell how good your DHB was doing against targets. Well, that all went. We can't have those targets ideologically. It's not right. I mean, good Lord. What gets measured gets done and if you're not measuring it, nothing gets done and we've seen that the health system go backwards despite multi-billions of dollars. When we did the $1.9 billion for mental health go, is anything being built? Have we got anything extra for it? I think they've got a very flash building in Gisborne that added, I don't know, two beds for millions of dollars spent. I mean, look, it beggars belief and everywhere it seems that you look in the economy, the government has pursued an ideological pathway and that ideological pathway has been poorly thought out and poorly funded in many cases and this is what I'm calling the fiscal cliff. The landmines are the likes of three, five, 10 waters where contracts have been signed but fiscal cliffs are where the money literally runs out and you've got all this infrastructure and people but no budget going into the future. I mean, how on earth is that not economic vandalism? Yep, well, I'm starting to have a serious thought that we need a rewrite of the Fiscal Responsibility Act with some pretty hefty penalties and I'm not talking fines because they always mitigated and talked their way out of it. I think the penalties should be prison and prohibition from holding public office ever again permanently if they cause fiscal mischief like these guys have done. And it's not the first time, that's my point. In 2008, Cullen did a very good job of spending every last red cent. And he gloated about it too, he said we've spent it all, the cupboards beer. And that's right and how on earth did he get away with that? And John Key's government was on the back foot from the very beginning and austerity programs, et cetera. So guess what's going to happen now? We're on the back foot economically speaking right now and the national government is going to work with its partners and act and its partners in New Zealand first and they're going to deliver a program and it's going to be tough and you could call it austerity but it's going to be economically responsible and we're going to get New Zealand back on track. And then everyone's going to go, oh man, those years were tough but we're doing well now. And guess what? Oh, they're going to try and elect a Labour government again because the mainstream media is going to once again highlight people living in cars. Something they never did under the Labour government. No, all living in motels as they are now. I mean, that's the thing is that the media are part of the problem. And I guess that's why- That's exactly my point. I guess that's why Reality Check Radio exists. And Reality Check Radio is a naveling message of economic vandalism to get out there and people can really think about whether their taxpayer money is getting value at the level of, say, for example, the Polytex where my dollars have gone to spend on a centralized management system, flash salaries, new cars. And what about the courses on the ground? I'd rather do something to improve productivity. What about welding courses? What about mechanics courses? No, no, no. The money's gone on three bureaucrats and however many brand new cars.  And there's all these brand new masters running around all signed written up. That would have cost an absolute fortune. I'm not sure how all these Polytex need to have all these people with cars. And the funny thing is, they're not actually part of the Polytex, they're part of some sort of ideologically centralized management group. It's just exasperating in the extreme. And there's our favorite bug bear, T-Tari Pu-Ricky, the Tari Pukeko, as I like to call it. The firearms authority that spent millions of dollars on branding and everything.  And that's another thing where there are some real fiscal clicks in that firearm safety authority. Is there any funding for it to continue? I seriously doubt it. And the problem that they're going to get is they've seriously underestimated the amount of budget they need. And this is reflected not only in this department, but in many other of the ideologically driven schemes that Labor has, or centralization schemes that Labor has instituted. And I'm afraid to say that I think that this is going to hurt a lot of people. And a lot of people are going to be angry because you can't change these schemes without affecting people's jobs. And that anger should rightly be directed at Grant Robertson, Jacinda Ardern and Hipkins. And I hope, and this is my fervent belief, that these people never touch the range of power again. Well, let's hope so.  And I hope that Christopher Luxon, as the Prime Minister, doesn't shirk his responsibilities in holding those responsible to account. I think that there is going to be some steel needed. And I think there's going to be a lot of squealing because I'm sorry to say, I think people are going to suffer because they are going to lose their jobs because it's been poorly thought out by the left. It's, as I said, I'm harping on. It's an ideological project and the centralization hasn't worked. It's cost more money and much more money than any purported savings. And like I said, there's fiscal cliffs where the money will just run out and it's going to be terrible. And I think you're absolutely right. And that's about all we've got time for today with Cam's buddies. So we'll be having one more show next week and we'll have some sort of, I don't know, Christmas and New Year type topic for the buddies. What do you think? Sounds fantastic. Let's have a, what are you doing on your holidays topic? Something like that. Something a bit light rather than the serious stuff. Yes, indeed. All right, thank you. And I'll talk to you next week, Miles. Thank you. Thank you. My buddies just awesome. They never ever let me down. And there's a few cold hard truths there for sure. Tell us who you think is the best of Cam's buddies and why by emailing inboxatrealitycheck.radio or text to 2057. Thanks for tuning in to RCR, Reality Check Radio. Do you like what you're listening to or dislike what you're listening to? Either way we want to hear from you. Get in touch with us now. You can text us with your message to 2057. That's 2057. Or email us at inboxatrealitycheck.radio. We'd love to hear from you. So connect with us today.


We're back. We're alive and she's back. Petty Fryer is back. Petty Fryer, a professor of geology and geophysics at UH Minoa in the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology right here among us. Welcome back, Petty. Oh, well, thanks for having me on the show, Jay. This is a continuation. This is research in Minoa, and that is submarine research discoveries in the Marianas part two. And as we left this exciting story, we had these things on the table and I'd like to review them because because one of the staff members came around later he said that's the most unusual rock I ever saw. So wait a minute, that's not a rock. No, no, no, no. What is that? What is it? Oh, a very heavy thing. No, this is a bit. And this goes on the bottom hole assembly, basically on the, there are four of them, that go surrounding a hole in the metal pipe that grinds out the material on the seafloor as we drill. This is used when we're drilling through really hard material, but in order to get really full cores and when they use these they also have to circulate drilling mud and water and so it kind of washes things out of the hole and if you were to do this into soft stuff you'd be losing a lot of material. So what they do instead is initially they just use a pipe with kind of a beveled edge at the tip and it goes through the center of the drill bit and pushes ahead of the drill bit, no actually it's not turning and that's that's the critical thing. They use, they actually use a piston and the piston is released and suddenly the whole core shoots down into the formation and brings back most of the time 100% of the soft material. Then we keep doing that until we can't get any further and then we go to what's called an extended core barrel, so an XCB and this is kind of like what's not really a bit, well it is a bit, but it's got a little, yeah it's got a little teeth. Yeah these are, these are steel ones. Yeah the outside is steel and these guys are, I think they're tungsten and I forget exactly what they are. But they will then rotate and basically drill into the slightly harder material. So this is for the harder material this is for the softer material. No this is for the very hard material. Okay. I didn't, I don't have anything to show you for the advanced piston coring which is just, it's just a metal pipe with beveled edges on the top to make it a little bit sharp. And then inside all of this both the piston coring device and the extended core barrel device there is a metal pipe and then inside that there's a PVC pipe. And the thing about the advanced piston coring is that it's so powerful that it can shoot as much as nine and a half meters into soft material. But if it gets a little bit harder strange things happen. Like, like, like, can you folks see this? This actually is a piece of PVC pipe and it was twisted like this when, when the piston shot out. Because the material was so hard. The material was too hard and there was so much friction that the PVC pipe got very warm.  Just sometimes it's amazing. Yeah, melted it and twisted as pipe rotated. Can we get a shot of this? Okay, that's the that's the the PVC pipe which is which is plastic transparent plastic. That's right. Yeah, we put we put these marks on the side so we'll be able to saw it in half exactly. So you can see exactly what happened to the material. Yeah, and you can look through and see. I didn't, you know, you're very strong. Although I noticed your hands were shaking a little with the weight of this. But I would have a problem lifting it up. I'm gonna try to lift it up now. Okay. Heavy or yet. So this thing, gee, this must be almost 3040 pounds. It's really heavy. Probably 25 30 25 30. Okay, and if you look if you can look into the that thing that's that's where the what what goes in there the shaft this actually we have a couple of pictures that I can show folks these this sits on basically on holders there are four holders around the center of the drill pipe and there's one of these on each and they're facing inward so they face inward like this and then they grind away on the rock as as the drill is pressed. So interesting the outside is you know rough and tough with all these dots on it. We we decided by the way this was reminiscent of a candy. Oh yes way back when we had a three inch strip of paper and then there were dots of sugar sugary stuff on it and you'd peel off the dots with your teeth and eat some of the paper the paper came off yep and the FDA would never prove that today but never never not with all the mercury in the paper the paper is the problem anyway I'm getting my arm is getting tired I'm sure I can hold this okay so this is really this oh and by the way what makes it exciting is this one of those dots in the top that the very top one seems to be worn down can imagine the pressure involved yeah that's true what is something like that cost any I mean the whole operation okay this comes with it yeah yeah I don't know how much the bottom hole assembly is all together cost this is not as heavy this is yeah this is a little lighter yeah the beautiful machine machine working it's a beautiful piece of gear it certainly when we can't use it anymore you could make something out of it maybe a lamp I certainly could yeah this is paper weight for my office yeah you can have you can have as much paper as you want for sure that's right nobody comes and messes with my parents no what's what's the head this thing this is a standard styrofoam head and I usually use these things when we have open house at the University and up at HIGP in fact we're gonna have open house this October so people can come in I hope you let us come with a camera great okay this was a normal size you know head and this one I put this in a remotely operated vehicle that went to the Challenger Deep which is the deepest point in the Mariana trench and of course it was just totally shrivel so the the kids that come and look at this I'll just feel feels like you know when you pick up a styrofoam head it feels really light and you know the kids always think that that weighs more because it's compressed it just feels it's denser you know so they think it weighs but it actually weighs same amount exactly yeah it's an interesting what did Liani isn't it not sure take a look and see if you agree that it's more deeply any okay certainly it's it's it's not Venus de Milo so how many feet how many atmospheres down there oh it's about what we said this last time imagine 16,000 pounds per square inch so you know it's either an SUV or an elephant on Pogo stick on your big toe and all over your body so that's how many how many meters or feet down below that's almost 11,000 meters it's 10,924 meters meters that's just over seven miles seven miles yeah and so this is at the bottom these guys are these guys can the drill string on on the joyous resolution can go to 10,000 meters and then it can go I think about a thousand meters it has that much pipe when it when it's fully loaded it has that much pipe but they're the deepest that I know of in terms of touching the seafloor is in the Mariana Trench at about about 8,000 meters deep I think that's about what it was but there there may have been deeper drill sites elsewhere that I'm not aware of just wondering you know if a ship say an 18th century ships any ship yeah was crossing this area and for some reason a storm who knows what yeah it you know it lost its watertight integrity and sank right would it go to the bottom and what would happen to it on the way sure it would and anything that had air in it would be crunched you know any any hollow more more sort of more like that I got it screwed on I think that's what I think Patty is trying to tell me we need to take a break we take a short break a little water we'll examine the bottom more carefully okay and then we'll be right back that's patty fryer we'll be right back you're watching think tech Hawaii which dreams live on think tech Hawaii comm uploads to YouTube and broadcast on cable OC 16 and a lullo 54 great content for Hawaii from think tank freedom is it a feeling is it a place is it an idea a dive heart we believe freedom is all of these and more regardless of your ability dive hard wants to help 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paperweights out of them this one was used on the mid Atlantic Ridge on expedition 305 and we were coring through very very fresh unaltered and extremely hard rock that's the same kind of like hard rock you'd find on the surface like granite for example yeah yeah just so you have some photos that we sort of you know show this and demonstrate exactly what it looks like when we try the photos okay let's do that yeah the the very first picture is of the ship itself sailing out of Honolulu and occasionally it does come here and if folks want to visit the ship they can if you know if they're not incredibly busy offloading and stuff they do have tours of the ship on occasion best to get in touch with somebody from the University and that tower is the tower is like an oil well tower because it's sinking the pipe it's turning the pipe it's it's the Derek so if we look at the next picture well that's the two chief scientists that were out on cruise 366 that's me in a pink shirt and my buddy Jeff wheat who is in the other shirt so we were making decisions as to where to go after spending almost 13 years discussing with the drilling program the the protocols that necessary data and so forth that's what they call operational control of the vessel yeah maybe a scientist and they may be a captain but you're telling him where to go that's true but he's telling me yes or no if the waves are bad or the weather isn't cooperating and the second the second picture that we saw was of the drill floor itself can we where the pipe is put together and then the next picture shows oh yeah there we go there's the drill bit before all these little nubbies get worn off and that dark like something out of a transformer movie yeah exactly it was really mean so the the black thing coming up through the center of the drill bit is the advanced piston coring pipe so you can see the beveled edge at the top so that's that's upside down when it's actually operating the next one is the drill bit that's used for just one more look at that look at you know it looks like it's smiling teeth are it's got a smile yeah anyway yes and the teeth are somehow coordinated they moving or what yes they will they will rotate and as they do they grind away the rock and they leave the area right in the center of the four bits that's the core that we recover as the drill pipe advances down into the sea floor so the the motion of those three wheels yeah is caused by the motion of the pipe itself there's no motor or anything oh yes there is oh yes these rotate as the entire drill string rotates and that is controlled within the Derek by the drillers can you see what as a scientist you know with operational control this can you see it is there a camera or something down there how do you know what's going on the drillers tell you there's all kinds of things that they're measuring I'm measuring the pressure on the formation they're measuring the resistance of the drill bits to the material that they're they're penetrating and and they have all this arrayed on just a huge digital screen that they've got you know every single aspect of what's going on down there yeah the heave of the ship all of that is controlled by the the the top drive and the heave compensation system which is bunch of bunch of tubes with the area in them that try to keep the pipe from you know crashing into the the sea floor every time we take away and so they're reading the heave yes and then compensating and that's done that's done basically automatically they're not controlling the heave the heave is controlled by by what is actually happening on the sea floor how do I get on this ship you know what do I have to study who do I have to call or write to anybody absolutely anybody can write a proposal to take this ship out to sea and collect core samples and what you have to do is you have to fill out all of the appropriate forms of course right and then then you write a rationale for why scientifically this is important and that proposal then goes through a whole series of scientific advisory panels that are staffed by people who have similar interests people who have very different interests scientifically people who have experience with the drilling program itself and having gone to sea on the drill ship and know whether things are going to work the way the person is proposing it sets or hopes that it will work and once you have gone through all of that you go to a safety panel that evaluates whether or not there are any potential dangers or problems with actually drilling also whether or not this is an area that's protected either environmentally or just that it's you know somebody else's backyard someone someone else's sovereign economic so I know you wouldn't do this in the South China Sea for example actually they are doing it right now the Chinese or no with the drill ship okay yeah they had actually get permission yes and we have partners now who contribute to the funding of of the expeditions and we had two Chinese actually three Chinese scientists on the cruise that I was coaching so you not only have to you know get permission to get on the ship to I guess lease the ship or rent the ship you won't have to pay to rent and that's another whole issue about getting funding for what did you say a hundred thousand dollars a day for the minimum yeah right give a take yeah so you have six there's two applications involved that's true and because this is an international program and we have partners from a variety of nations they all chip in to help pay for the ship so the ship is leased to the international ocean discovery program now I ODP and then from each country that contributes a certain number of scientists can be invited from countries that contribute more more scientists can be invited yes it is a great privilege and tremendous amount of fun you see you can have both at the same time honor privilege and fun oh yeah so we only have a couple minutes left and I want to get into the question of what you pick up there yep and what you do and I know there's a lot of material to discuss in a few minutes but pick one pick one kind of material that opened the Proustian keyhole for you okay I'll pick two I'm not going to take these out because they're really muddy but if the camera can get a look at this these these are bits of the material that came out of the coral anger when we were coring at the mud volcanoes that I'm interested in this material is basically bits of the hydrated mantle of the earth and the rocks and the mud that we were recovering tells us about the the physical composition that we can measure temperature down the hole we can drop instruments down the hole once it has been cased with a pipe and leave them there for years on end and determine what the characteristics of the contact zone between the subducting plate and the overriding plate are and that's where the biggest earthquakes on the planet occur what can you learn from that I mean you know to me you know you take a little sample yep a little experience like this it's this big but it is miles high in terms of its value and the kinds of things you what can you learn well this is the only way that we can learn about what the physical characteristics of that contact zone are because we have no technology that can drill down 18 kilometers into the area where the down going plate actually touches the overriding so you can learn about the mechanics of the subject yes and what it does to the material that's being subduced is that the right word no but that's a nice word we can deduce what the seducing seducing here you go watch it again that endangers family show yeah what we can tell from this are the temperature the pressure the chemical composition of the contact zone where these major earthquakes are taking place and some of the rocks that we brought back that were were dragged up basically erupted from that contact zone we can see the nature of deformation within those rocks we see cracks in the rocks we can see what filled the cracks you know what what minerals what are what are the characteristics of those minerals do they slide easily do they not slide easily would they help or would they preclude earthquakes you know there's just so much information that we can get out of just tiny little pieces of rocks geologists paradise dream come true dream come true you can not only find the rocks we can you can figure out what forces what have to do to change that how that how they react to heat how they react to pressure all those things that's right now what does this tell us for example about other subduction zones or other you know geological phenomena one of the things that we're very interested in is the fact that on the east side of the Mariana trench there are a whole lot of ancient seamounts big big seamounts I mean you know three thousand and four thousand meters high and these things are being subducted and there's a lot of argument in the scientific community right now about whether or not they cause earthquakes or whether they stop earthquakes by changing the physical characteristics of the surrounding stuff so these things are being subducted all over the subduction zones around the Pacific and Atlantic I mean all over the world so what does this lead us this is the is to understand earthquakes more yes definitely so theoretically we could we could put sensors gonna sensors is all the technological rage these days and science put sensors down there or somehow sense what's what's happening in zone B not in Mariana but zone B sure and see what the the readings are and then figure out what is going to happen or what is happening right now right in that's in the subduction possibilities of that second area that's correct what we can do as soon as we get instruments down in the cased holes that we left in the Mariana region we'll be able to follow the changes in chemistry of fluids that are coming up out of the down-going plate we can collect them in these tubes that just collect them for years and so then we can slice the cube the tubes up and figure out okay does the composition of the fluids change when there are earthquakes that will tell us what mineral phases have released fluids we'll be able to tell by the composition okay so then if we have a seismometer anywhere near this area there's an earthquake we can determine whether that produces a pulse of fluids does that help earthquakes everybody thinks that the more lubricated a fault zone is the more likely it is to give way and so if we can we can track those kinds of changes we'll know a whole lot more about the instantaneous changes that are required in order to create an earthquake and that and my goodness we have earthquakes yet yet to come here in this planet of ours sure do that could be devastating so we need to know more about them to deal with that devastation or that risk of that earthquake absolutely yeah what about minerals and vegetables what about new compounds new rocks that you haven't seen before what about you know the cure to cancer is it down there can you find new yeah we think so of course we think so we need more funding I'm teasing you but but yeah indeed the microbiologists who were on this expedition were incredibly interested in finding out because these mud volcanoes can tap the most unusual chemistry that we've ever found in the oceans and how does that affect the parameters of life the limits of life can animals actually live down there one of the questions we have is we know that there are microbes that are going down the subduction zone and the microbes that we find in the mud volcanoes some of them are unique but some of them look an awful lot like the ones that are going down with the subducting plate and so one of the questions one of the microbiologists is pursuing is whether or not the animals the microbes are able to ride the plate down and then come back up the plumbing system of the mud volcano and how they do that because they may be you know mechanisms biological mechanisms that allow them to do things that we haven't figured out yet that's for sure it's a whole new world it's goes way past captain Nemo indeed yeah but you but you are right you know both things like cancer and Alzheimer's are things that people who are interested in pharmaceuticals from micro organisms or from macro organisms on the sea floor are looking into I mean the fish that we talked about last time that can survive at pressures that will do this to a styrofoam head the these animals have chemicals in their bodies that protect their tissues from those kinds of pressures and those are the same kind chemicals that people are using now to treat Alzheimer's so how can how can we springboard off discoveries such as that in order to be able to help chemical that protects you from water pressure also could help you from Alzheimer's but there it is I mean so you you know you find one magical compound somewhere it could have implications there somewhere you never and so this is a world of research to be done by fire oh so much it's we're only at the very beginning research so little time well we'll have to continue this discussion but the last question I want to ask you is so suppose you know I was watching this and I am watching this and I got very interested in this sort of thing and I wanted to I wanted to be a student I wanted to be a person I wanted to just like you oh my goodness how would I do that how would you do that have to go back a few years well the the most important thing I think for any scientist is never to forget to be curious and I know that you're curious Jay and that's a good start to understand all of you know the materials the background in terms of the science in school and joy school whatever topic you enjoy follow that through for me it was rocks from the very beginning but but you have also to be persistent and there are a lot of things that that get in the way of people advancing you know through through their interests to a career and the most important thing I think is to love what you do you know and make sure that you do what you love and once you decide that you're in the great dichotomy it's the follow-through and the others two kinds of people in the world the ones who follow through on their dreams their aspirations their passions and the others follow your career and all these fabulous discoveries you know to make it oh well thank you Jay that would be fun come back soon this is Patty Friar she's a professor of geology and geophysics at UH and she's in a wonderful place for professor of geology and she there was an article what I saw in the last day or two about how UH had incredible research facilities we don't realize I mean the population the people of Hawaii don't realize all the incredible things that UH is doing this is one of them you're welcome any time


Hey everyone, this is Abhishek. Welcome to Sist Week. Today we are going to get rid of some unwanted applications on your MacBook. Dragging an app through the trash bin on your MacStream isn't enough for an installation process. Today I'm going to tell you how you can get rid of the residual files that is taking unnecessary space on your MacBook without any hassle. So let's not waste time and get on to our case app. Uninstalling apps manually by going through folders of residual and cache files is hectic, it's time consuming and not to mention completely annoying. It's always better to use an uninstaller application and make this process much more comfortable. TuneUp My Mac is the best deal you'll get to automate the uninstallation process and relieve yourself of all these stress it causes. In the uninstallor module of the TuneUp My Mac, you'll see all the apps installed on your system listed in order.  Once you give the command for uninstallation, TuneUp My Mac will kill and dispose of all the remains of unwanted apps on your system.  So don't waste time sweeping through folders on your system. Start using TuneUp My Mac, save yourself some precious time and optimize your PC right now. That's it guys. Please like and share this video. Do give your feedbacks in the comment section and for more solutions to detectribles, hit subscribe and stay tuned on Cystrik.


This article emphasizes the importance of understanding sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values in screening tests and provides clarification on their definitions and misconceptions. It suggests that sensitivity and specificity should be used in relation to a reference standard, while predictive values are more appropriate in actual screening contexts. The article also argues that adjusting the sensitivity and specificity of screening tests can be beneficial in certain situations and encourages researchers to provide information about all four metrics for effective interpretation by consumers of health research. This article was authored by Robert Trevephin.


Today, we're making an almost no-bake cheesecake, which is key lime, and it is gluten-free. We're going to be using some C8 Day cookies, they're shortbread cookies, to make the crust, which is really delicious. It's got a hint of cinnamon in it. And we're going to be using some Stevia to keep the sugar low. And we're going to be using some yogurt and some cream cheese together.  I'm Rockin' Robin, and I'm going to show you how to do it right after my chef joke. Okay, we're going to start off here with chef joke number one, that means number two will be a little bit later. All right, here we go. What do you call limes that can open doors? Key Limes. I said this was an almost no-bake cheesecake, right? Well, this is the part that needs to go in the oven. We're going to do a little bit of baking. We're going to make our crust and pop it in the oven for maybe nine, ten minutes, and that's it. The rest of the cake is going to go in the crust, and then we're going to just put it right in the fridge. So I have my springform pan here, if you've never used one, it has a little buckle right there, and you're going to just open that up, and the bottom just slips right out. You can use a pie plate if you don't have one of these. I'm going to line the bottom of the pan with some parchment paper to make the cheesecake easy to get out. So I'm going to use the bottom of the pan as a template, and I'm going to make a line around it so that I know where to cut. So now I'll place the bottom piece with the parchment paper right in the pan and buckle it up. Now the pan is ready for the crust. So I have a scale here, and I am measuring out six and a half ounces of the Siete shortbread cookies. Place the cookies in a ziplock bag, seal it up, and then pound the you-know-what out of it, not just cake. Just pound them until they're crumbly. I'm going to pour the cookie crumbs, the smashed ones, into a bowl, and we're going to add some melted butter. Pour that a nice stir and mix it up until it looks like wet sand. And then we'll just pour the crumbs into our springform pan, or if you're using a pie plate, just pour it right in. And then you want to spread it out, try and get it as even as you can. And you can use your hands to make sure they're clean, of course. Kind of even it out. I like to get it as even as I can first before I start pushing on it with a glass. So take a glass and use it to press the crumbs down nice and firm. Once it's nice and firm, it's ready to go into a preheated oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about nine or 10 minutes. The crust cooked for 10 minutes, and so we're pulling it out. I'm just going to set it here on the stove and it needs to cool completely before we can add the filling. We're going to start on our filling by zesting our limes. Now just do one swipe and then rotate so that you don't go too deep into the white area, which is bitter. All right, now that we've zested all the limes, we're going to squeeze them. We're going to juice them up and just measure out about a quarter, somewhere between a quarter and a cup and a third of a cup. So just depending on how tart you like it. You always want to zest first because it's always easier to zest and then juice. So I'm going to measure out my lime juice, and then we're going to heat it in the microwave. I don't want to get this too hot, so I'm going to place it in the microwave at 50% power for about 20 to 30 seconds and we'll see how warm it is. Next, I'm going to add one package of gelatin to our lime juice, and then we're going to mix it up until it's dissolved. To prevent lumps, you want to add just a little bit of the gelatin at a time. I really like using this little mini mixer as it really works great to mix it up. I'll leave a link in the description if you want to pick one of these up. So in a medium-sized bowl, we're going to be adding some Greek organic yogurt. And to that, we're going to add a brick of cream cheese that has been sitting out to soften. And I'm going to take my hand mixer here and give it a whirl. We want it to be nice and creamy and smooth. Now we're going to add that lime juice with the gelatin. Now I'm going to add some stevia, but you can use regular sugar if you really want to.  It just depends on your taste buds and how tart or sweet you like it. And lastly, we're going to add that lime zest that we did earlier. And then we're going to mix this up until it's well combined. Now at this point, I recommend tasting it and seeing if you need to add more sugar or more lime juice or both. Now I'm ready to pour the filling into the cooked crust that's been cooled. Take your spatula and then just smooth it out so it's nice and even. This is going in the refrigerator for at least four hours and preferably overnight. Okay, so it must be time for Chef Joke number two. Here we go. Why was the lime fired from the juice factory? Because he couldn't concentrate. Okay, so I let the cheesecake sit in the refrigerator and chill up really well overnight. So here we go, we're going to serve this up. Now with a springform pan, you're going to want to take a knife and just release the edge. And we'll take this little buckle here, that's what I like to call it. And just pull it back. And it makes the circle get bigger so that we can then lift it off. We're going to jazz up our pie a little bit with some fresh zest and a slice of lime and some whipping cream. I use only the best here, so check out those ingredients. To the whipping cream, you're going to want to add a little bit of vanilla extract and some sugar. Whip it up until it's nice and firm and then we're going to place it into a Ziploc bag. I don't currently have a pastry bag, so I'm going to use a Ziploc bag and you can do the same. And then push all the cream into one corner and then snip off the end with some scissors and start piping some little dollops on your pie. I'm no pastry chef, but I think this looks fine. Now visually we can show people what kind of pie this is by slicing up a little bit of lime into a nice thin slice and then we're going to cut it halfway through so that we can stand it up on the pie like this. To finish it off, all we need to do is zest a little more lime on top and it gives it a little bit of color and a little more flavor. Time to cut out a slice and give it a taste. Check out this crust. It's nice and buttery and delicious. This pie is creamy and not too sweet and not too tart. This is such a refreshing dessert I'm going to go in for another bite. If you like citrusy types of desserts, then you might want to try my lemon curd homemade. So I'll leave a link for you right here on the screen. Check it out and go make that. You will enjoy it and can use it in many different ways. Thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed today's video, smash the like button for me and leave me a comment. I always love to hear from you. Thanks again and we'll see you back here next week for another rock and recipe.


The Quenmar package provides a set of tools for detailed development of ecological niche models using MaxENT, enabling rigorous calibration, selection, creation, evaluation, and extrapolation risk analysis. The package takes advantage of the versatility of R and MaxENT to facilitate efficient processes of model calibration, final model creation based on significance, performance, and simplicity, and model transfers to multiple scenarios with assessments of strict extrapolation risks via MOP and MESS metrics. This article was authored by Marlon E. Cobos, A Townsend Peterson, Naraini Barba, and others.


Mr Speaker, permit me this opportunity to extend and to join with the Prime Minister and extend condolences to the family of the bereaved health worker who passed earlier today. Mr Speaker, on Sunday 6 November 2022, St Lucia experienced a serious and unusual weather phenomenon which was caused by an upper-level trough, an isolated incident triggered by low-level moisture in the atmosphere. The Department of Meteorological Services indicated that this low-level moisture in the atmosphere, together with a suddenly wind flow, created the ideal conditions for such an event, which escalated into two hours of torrential rains, concentrated in the north-eastern quadrant of St Lucia, first resulting in flash flooding and destruction of private and public infrastructure. Mr Speaker, though the forecasts for that weekend advised caution in anticipation of scattered showers, thunderstorms and flooding, there could not have been a more precise or accurate prediction in such circumstances in which the wind direction altered towards the north of the island at a given time of day. Mr Speaker, in more recent times and in such circumstances, we have seen a plethora of armchair engineers, self-proclaimed meteorologists and disgraceful politicians, along with their circuits, acolytes and rumour mongers deliberately attempting to fabricate theories intended to misguide the general public. Mr Speaker, following the November 6 flash flooding caused by the unusual weather pattern, the surrogates aided and abetted by the rumour mongering machinery propagated that the cause of the flash flooding was as a consequence of the failure on the part of this government to desilt the country's rivers. Mr Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth, but what can one expect from the strangers of the truth? Mr Speaker, allow me therefore to dispel the fabrication, the lies, the deceit, and the attempts to discredit a government of credibility and transparency. Mr Speaker, let me present the facts on this administration's annual river desilting program for the last three quarters of the years 2021-2021. Following the last July general elections, for the quarter of October to December 2021, the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, the Honourable Philip J. Peer, if I should be allowed to mention his name, conscious of the necessity for adaptation and mitigation measures to cushion the negative impact of climate change, allocated four million dollars to implement a number of programs throughout the country. If I should repeat, following the last general elections of July 2021, for the quarter of October to December 2021, the Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, the Honourable Philip J. Peer, conscious of the necessity for adaptation and mitigation measures to cushion the negative impact of climate change, allocated EC four million dollars to implement a number of programs throughout the country. They included improvement to drainage systems, retaining structures, desilting and cleaning up of communities, and sanitation programs in all of the 17 constituencies on this island. This was followed, Mr Speaker, by a second stage, by what we call the pre-hurricane program in May of 2022, undertaken by the Department of Infrastructure and aimed at further clearing waterways, drainage systems on clogging culverts and channels throughout the island. The cost of that initiative was 498,967 dollars and four cents according to the financials and every constituency benefited, government and opposition. Thirdly, Mr Speaker, there was a third program which was implemented in the second quarter of the year, the annual desilting program and that program entailed heavier desilting of the major rivers and waterways throughout the island. The program ran through the quarter as to as recent as September, the value of which was EC two million dollars and again it targeted the entire country. Mr Speaker, I'm obliged to reiterate those initiatives to bring home the point that this administration is a responsible, caring, transparent and accountable administration but further to dispel the lies the fabrication and the propaganda being spread every day of the week by individuals who have absolutely nothing constructive to do at this time. Notwithstanding, Mr Speaker, following the destruction caused by the intense rain and the associated flooding, the Department of Infrastructure has been conducting its reconnaissance to determine the extent of the damage caused to the public infrastructure and the consequential estimated costs of cleanup, cleaning roads, culverts, waterways and removal of slides and debris to reinstate infrastructure and mitigate against future events. Mr Speaker, the approximate cost of the initial cleanup is estimated at 1.4 EC, 1.4 million EC dollars. Mr Speaker, works are ongoing on the cost for reconstruction of roads, retaining walls and bridges and are still pending. To this end, Mr Speaker, our request has been submitted to the Minister for Finance ahead and that request is submitted ahead of the heavy rainfall and the total is approximately $7 million and is still pending. That request has been augmented or rather have been addressed to facilitate for the impact of the rains. Once the resources are identified or mobilized by the Department of Finance, the exercise of the commencement of reconstruction ahead of the 2023-24 budget is absolutely possible. Mr Speaker, in addition to the efforts of the Department of Infrastructure in the immediate response to the rainfall and flooding of November 6, the Department has responded to the citizens and business community of the north of the island, particularly the Labrilocht, Wadawaj, Khorin and Asokanal communities to look forward and deeper beyond the immediate response for adaptation and mitigation interventions which may achieve sustainable resolutions. Mr Speaker, to this end, last Thursday, the 17th November, a delegation comprising representatives of the Wadawaj Commercial Zone, a representative of the Association of Professional Engineers of St. Lucia, a senior private sector engineer, a representative of the Water Resources Management Agency, Ministry of Agriculture, the Zone 1 engineering team, the Deputy Chief Engineer, the Permanent Secretary in the Department of Infrastructure, the Parliamentary Representative for Grozily and myself, Minister for Infrastructure, who toured the affected areas in an attempt to appreciate the conditions on the ground and plan the way forward. The tour was extremely productive as we were able to identify some of the major hazards and determined some potential short, medium and long-term measures to be implemented. To this end, a technical working committee is to be constituted, comprising both the private and public sectors as an initial mechanism to formulate and chart a path forward on medium-term and long-term adaptation and mitigation measures for consideration by the Government. Mr Speaker, an inaugural meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday 23rd November, to commence the technical mission. It is hoped that this multi-disciplinary team will attempt to conduct its activities expeditiously and to advise in a timely manner. However, Mr Speaker, notwithstanding all the potential initiatives and measures that we may institute to adapt mitigation and build resilience, our citizens must change their behaviour and their culture. Climate change isn't the only phenomenon. Dissilting our rivers won't resolve the problem. While adaptation and mitigation aren't the only responses necessary, our citizens must step up to the plate and take responsibility for their survival by changing the negative ways, habits and culture. As a people, we all must take responsibility individually and collectively for our community, the environment and our own well-being. Mr Speaker, the time has come for those who are responsible for the degradation and destruction of our society by the practices to stop. Stop the indiscriminate disposal of garbage, particularly in our rivers, streams and waterways. The last event exposes our nakedness as a people by the volume of solid waste which came down with the flood waters, old stoves, refrigerators, beds, mattresses, cabinets and plastic bottles, all of which exacerbated the situation. Let's stop the rut and stop the indiscriminate disposal of waste into our rivers, rivers and waterways which don't only cause flooding but end up on our beaches and contaminate our coastal waters. I thank you, Mr Speaker.


For more videos and people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. For the first time in India, more than 10 lakh entrepreneurs of micro, medium and small enterprises went on a one-day strike across the country on 20th December 2021 against the steep increase in the prices of raw materials. After facing severe setbacks due to demonetization, ST implementation of GST and the ill-conceived COVID-19 lockdown, the MSMEs are gasping due to an increased production cost. Various organizations in the MSME sector have been seeking the attention of the union government to find solutions for the pressing issues of increased input cost and seeking financial aid for several months. It is a very sad day to witness the MSME entrepreneurs have to resort to closing their factory for a day to wake up the union government to listen to their problems. It has never been heard of in the past. Employees have gone on strike, but this is the first time employers have shut their factories down to convey their displeasure, agony, pain and the problems. If the government does not save them now, we can never see them again. It is not about the problem alone. It is about listening to the problems, listening to their views, listening to their issues. That is more important today. What is required? Affected severely by the policies of the union government and the in-plan lockdown in March 2020 and now by the steep increase in raw material costs, the All India Council of Association of MSMEs with around 170 organizations in the MSME sector have participated in the protest. The reason why we all made a peaceful demonstration is to draw the attention of the government just for the first priority is raw material, which is very, very important for us, for any small-scale industry. Without raw material, we cannot survive and usually raw material costs will vary from our product cost from 60% to 70% maximum and sometimes 50% also. Now in the present stages, it is crossing 80% and the entire value addition we are not able to absorb in the market and all MSMEs are suffering like anything and our working capital is also eroded and after pandemic COVID also, we all survived through emergency create lending only. Now due to this raw material prices, because the whole lot is now vanished. All the working capital, what we were having all due to raw material price, it has been absorbed and I will tell you two things is happening now. Due to this high cost of raw material, there is a slowdown in the economy also in November, December. We are not getting the required orders and we don't have the required working capital to operate. Before what we were operating, now only 50% we are all able to operate and the bankers are also saying as your working capital is, last year the turnover is less due to COVID, they are not ready to lend us more also due to this raw material prices. So both sides, cascading effort is very severe and our first objective is to bring back the raw material prices to April 2020 level. This is what we have requested the Honorable Prime Minister to intervene and as all the raw material suppliers are very big players in the field and we are all very very small and we have got so much affected and we depend on our survival, it's very difficult now. So what is our requirement? Please kindly intervene and have a talk with them, call us for our discussion and have some mutual concern and see to that the raw material prices which is the pre COVID level so that the inflation also will be controlled and the demand will also increase, this is one point. The second point is allow import of all type of raw material, remove the whole anti tapping duty so that the production bought the government has given the raw material that can be eliminated so that the level playing field will be there and when the demand supply is there then at least the undue increase of raw material will be controlled. From the supply chain it moves from the factory side then to the next level and before it reaches the small scale industry again there is a huge rise in the raw material prices. So this is not actually been observed in the market and we are finding it very difficult to sell our own product then if in the supply chain in many sides also there is a problem and those are supplying to all the public sector companies, government orders there is no absolutely price escalation classes. So then what can we do? Everywhere we have been hit one side after pandemic just we are able to survive and now due to this we have got affected and hope so we are expecting a very quick solution that is the reason we all closed down for one day across India. MSME entrepreneurs from more than 10 states participated in the demonstration Tamil Nadu and Karnataka saw massive participation in the protest and the strike. The MSME units in the two important hubs Chennai and Coimbatore came to a standstill on the protest day. Across India we estimate more than 10 lakh industries have participated in this and all the major associations across India were caused in Tamil Nadu, entire Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, entire Karnataka like Belgam, even Peenya industrial states, Mysore and all the industrial parts in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Pune, Gujarat where all the industries are concentrated fully, almost 7 to 10 states have been covered. The livelihood of the huge workforce directly and indirectly employed in the sector is also in trouble because of the crisis. MSMEs employ roughly around approximately 12 crore people across India and we are all interdependent on one among us and it will be more than 40 crore people, one third of population. This is what we say from MSME. We hope the concerned ministries will call the respective raw material buyers and have a dialogue with them and give us a possible solution.


My name is Tony Pazosa and I am running for County Executive and let me tell you my story. My father came from a communist country, came from Cuba. He knows what it's like to be interrogated. He knows what it's like to be starving. He knows what it's like to lose his freedom in an afternoon. And that's why it's so important to me to stand up for that. Because my father had the opportunity to flee to America when things got bad. But as Americans, where are we going to go when things get bad? We're not. We're going to stand. We're going to take a stand. That's why we have the Second Amendment to protect us from the tyranny of government. And I know all of you understand that because that's why you're here. And we have to remind Americans that's why we have a Second Amendment. Because when we go to Japan and visit, we don't become Japanese. When we go to France, we don't become French. But I can assure you when they come here, they become Americans. And that's what sets us apart from the rest of the world. And that's why we're special. And that's why I put my name on the line for County Executive. But I need your help. Because what Lisa said, boy, when she talks about Agenda 21, that makes my blood boil. Because that is a secret way of government stealing our freedoms. Stealing our liberty to live our lives according to the Constitution and according to the freedom that has been granted to us by our Creator. And I think that's so important. But I need your help. For those of you that live in St. Louis County, I need you to tell all of your friends to get out and vote. It is your civic duty to get out and vote. Too many men and women have served and given it their all. And we have Memorial Day coming up this weekend. I will be out at Jefferson Barracks with my kids who are Boy Scouts putting flags on those tombstones. And my father, who came from that communist country, volunteered to go to Vietnam. And of course he volunteered at the worst time when the Tet Offensive began. He said, he's never seen so much shelling and bombing in his life, but he said it was worth it because he loves America that much. And if my father can go through the hell that he went through to give me an opportunity at freedom, I can at least have the guts to put my name on a ballot to run as a candidate. And that's what I'm going to do. So I will be here after this meeting. Please come see me. I would love to talk to you. And if you have any questions for me, I'd love to answer them. So thank you so much for your time.