Aurora Energy at ODT 24.2.17 follows #LGOIMA

Broad spectrum (?!) LGOIMA request from earlier this week and interim acknowledgement:

From: Elizabeth Kerr
Sent: Monday, 20 February 2017 7:24 PM
To: Grady Cameron
Cc: Elizabeth Kerr
Subject: Aurora Energy Ltd – Official Information Request (LGOIMA)

Attention Grady Cameron
Chief Executive, Aurora Energy Ltd

Dear Grady

How is Aurora Energy Ltd funding the $30million pole replacement programme you speak about – from capex (capital expenditure), opex (operational expenditure), a combination of the two? or by other means? (please state)

Will Aurora Energy Ltd attempt to raise line charges for Otago power consumers, to achieve the number of (dangerous) pole replacements required in the next 3-5 years – how soon will line charges increase and by how much given regulatory scrutiny by the Commerce Commission?*

Is Aurora Energy Ltd solvent at this time? Explain.

Please provide any financial detail(s) salient to these matters.

Sincerely

Elizabeth Kerr
Dunedin

*emphasis added 24.2.17

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From: Grady Cameron
Sent: Wednesday, 22 February 2017 1:02 p.m.
To: Elizabeth Kerr
Subject: Aurora Energy Ltd – Official Information Request (LGOIMA)

Dear Elizabeth

Thank you for your enquiry. We acknowledge receipt of your official information request received by us on 21 February regarding Aurora Energy (our reference 0945).

We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible and in any event no later than 21 March, being 20 working days after the day your request was received. If we are unable to respond to your request by then, we will notify you of an extension of that timeframe.

Kind regards,
Glenda

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Received.
Fri, 24 Feb 2017 at 1:58 a.m.

[click to enlarge]

ODT 24.2.17 (page 4)

ODT 24.2.17 (page 5)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

New media, participation

[cyberwarzone.com]

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Links received from Martin Legge

1/12/2016 12:11 p.m.

Cereal maker Kelloggs has announced that it will no longer advertise on Breitbart.com claiming that the conservative news site’s values are not the same as its own and it is not the only brand to pull its advertising.

### whaleoil.co.nz
Advertising is New Media’s Achilles heel
By SB on December 1, 2016 at 10:00am
Make no mistake New Media is going up against the establishment and it’s success with the public is tempered by its vulnerability to attacks on its advertising revenue. Breitbart News is the new News sheriff in town and is expanding rapidly but the establishment who preferred the old News sheriff still have a few bullets in their arsenal. If they can’t beat the new News by being better they will instead try to beat it by crippling it economically. It is a bit like the ageing Sheriff with arthritis trying to get rid of his rival not in a gun fight but by talking the local store into refusing to sell him any supplies for his ranch. He might be the better gunslinger but how long can he last without any supplies?
Advertising revenue is Whaleoil’s Achilles heel too, which is why we have introduced our new subscription model.
Read more

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24/11/2016 10:42 a.m.

Independent media are in the ascendance. Understand that. Recognise it. The impossible is happening. Fake news sites? Please. The major media are the biggest fakes the world has ever seen.

### activistpost.com [via zerohedge.com]
Major Media Crash: They Need a Scapegoat
By Jon Rappoport on November 20, 2016
They kept telling the American people Hillary Clinton was going to win the election; and in every way they could think of, they told the American people this was a good idea. Then, on election night, they, the media, crashed. The results came in. The media went into deep shock. As protests and riots then spread across America, the media neglected to mention a) they’d been bashing Trump because he said he might not accept the outcome of the vote, and b) here were large numbers of people on the Democrat side who weren’t accepting the outcome of the vote. A new campaign had to be launched. Suddenly, on cue, it was: Hillary Clinton lost because “fake news” about her had been spread around during the campaign. Fake news sites. That was the reason. These “fake sites” had to be punished. Somehow. They had to be defamed. Blocked. Censored. Here is an excerpt from a list of “fake news” sites suggested by one professor. The list is circulating widely on the Web: Project Veritas; Infowars; Breitbart; Coast To Coast AM; Natural News; Zero Hedge; The Daily Sheeple; Activist Post; 21st Century Wire. Free speech? Bill of Rights? Never heard of it.
Read more

█ The author of three explosive collections, The Matrix Revealed, Exit from the Matrix, and Power Outside the Matrix, Jon Rappoport was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world.

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Disconnected [mitpress.mit.edu]

“Fresh from a party, a teen posts a photo on Facebook of a friend drinking a beer. A college student repurposes an article from Wikipedia for a paper. A group of players in a multiplayer online game routinely cheat new players by selling them worthless virtual accessories for high prices. In Disconnected, Carrie James examines how young people and the adults in their lives think about these sorts of online dilemmas, describing ethical blind spots and disconnects. Drawing on extensive interviews with young people between the ages of 10 and 25, James describes the nature of their thinking about privacy, property, and participation online.”

█ Carrie James is a sociologist and Principal Investigator at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She was co-director (with Howard Gardner) of the Good Play Project, which collected the data that inform Disconnected.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Ratbags for your avoidance #elections

█ Placement! Who is paying for online ads at Whaleoil, none other than the plodding lesser Stains of Dunedin.

There’s ultra-supreme love for the whole wordy splash:

### whaleoil.co.nz September 3, 2016 at 7:30am
New Zealand’s Dodgiest Local Government Politician Awards
By Cameron Slater
With two weeks until the local government voting papers are mailed out it is time to kick off our dodgiest local government politician competition again.
Who are the rooters, boozers, money wasters, drink drivers and assorted criminals who think they should stick their nose in the public trough?
Who are the incumbent candidates who are so useless that they couldn’t get a job in the real world and only stay standing because they need the money?
Who are the people with appalling records in business or with public money who want to get their hands on more public money?
If you want to nominate a ratbag for the competition please email the tipline.
We already have some nominees, and we are working on a boozy mayoral candidate who made an arse of himself in Japan, and a boozer and a rooter who played away in Hong Kong.
Whaleoil Link

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Mayoral redundancy – His Delta Noble-ness of Yelledhearse

Exhibit A | The Star 1.9.16 (page 4)

Exhibits B and C | ODT 3.9.16 (page 2)

Exhibit D | Did someone mention flood, honestly ?

First line/pledge "no more flooded homes"

One of the greatest acts of political vandalism i've ever seen #Dunedin pic.twitter.com/cOuwjp6Mza

— Paul Le Comte (@five15design) September 3, 2016

█ How are we feeling now ? edified ? gutted by lack of real choice ?
Then, in came someone new called …….

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Election Year. This post is offered in the public interest.

ODT circulation mutterings

L A S T ● W E E K ● T H E ● O D T ● P A Y W A L L ● H I T

This week a new reader at What if? Dunedin, Jonathon O’Donohue, mentioned he’d heard that “ODT circulation has dropped 40%”.

With no timeframe to qualify that, we rang around only to be told that “at peak” (whenever that was ?) ODT had had a circulation of 55,000 —now dropped to about 33-34,000.

Welcome to the Internet.

Interestingly, this came to one of my Twitter accounts yesterday from ODT’s Chris Morris. Thanks! Depressing graph [click to enlarge].

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█ Find out more at the New Zealand Audit Bureau of Circulations Inc (ABC):
http://www.abc.org.nz/about.html
http://www.abc.org.nz/ (magazine and newspaper circulations)

█ For more at What if? Dunedin, use the search terms *allied press*, *odt* or *editor* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Election Year. This post is offered in the public interest.

Dunedin Airport dunnies —on approach or the quick sail/sale

Received from Jeff Dickie
Fri, 23 Oct 2015 at 6:59 p.m. and 7:03 p.m.

█ Message: I spotted these corny ads at the Dunedin Airport loo the other day. It may not be possible to flush anything more down the dunny given the quantity of ratepayers’ funds already being flushed!

Sat, 24 Oct 2015 at 5:13 p.m.

█ Message: The advt says “seated”! I for one would not want to be seated in front of this urinal!

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin Venues Community Events Fund 2015

ODT 31.1.15 (page 4)

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### dunedintv.co.nz February 2, 2015 – 5:57pm
Community groups and organisations invited to use Forsyth Barr Stadium
Dunedin community groups and organisations are invited to apply for funding to use Forsyth Barr Stadium. Each year the company that runs the stadium has to allocate $750,000 in funding for community use. That’s part of its agreement with the Dunedin City Council. The money covers the cost of using the stadium for non-profit groups and charities. It’s for events which encourage community use of the facility, resources and equipment. Funding is now available for events in the second half of this year. A second funding round, for next year’s events, will open in September.
Ch39 Link [No video available]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DVML: New monthly updates in local press

HOT page 5 beefcake.

ODT advert 2.9.14 (detail)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: whatifdunedin (cameraphone)

ODT “stories” —parochial sun rays

Email received from Grahame Sydney
Saturday, 27 April 2013 1:22 p.m.

re ODT

My heart goes out to the loyal reporters at the ODT having to file garbage promotional stories extolling the fabulousness and phenomenal success of the Plastic Stadium, most of which “stories” are given front page treatment: since when did a “story” on the Aerosmith gear-haulage convoy rate as front page “news”, let alone the disgraceful banner headline and page-wide photograph of the band performing (“SILVER SPANGLED SPECTACLE” -Thursday 25 April) ? Is there no limit to the depths to which the editorial staff at ODT will sink in order to underwrite the foundering stadium, at the cost of editorial integrity ?

But while such transparent commercialism makes the opening of the ODT an increasingly difficult daily ritual, testing to the limits one’s own parochial tendencies, and the assault of full-page advertisements (7 in the first 22 page section today, not counting half-page ads…) makes the reading an habitual speed-read, is there any explanation for the strange appearance on page 12 today (27.3.13) of a colourful little child’s world picture of six happy Small People, one on a bike, one with a pet dog, two with a ball, all beaming innocently as yellow sun rays glow from a distant unseen horizon and five dinky, driverless vehicles crowd the streets ?

Below this merry fantasy is the exhortation: “Spend QUALITY TIME” at Dunedin’s intersections… there’s so much to see !”

No clue offered as to who is responsible for this mysterious insertion, nor why, what it might mean, or who it is aimed at. If it’s the DCC Traffic people, the message is highly questionable. Perhaps it’s the start of a new branding exercise, in the “It’s All Right Here” mould. If it’s a new campaign from the city’s tourist promotional wing, embarking on a bold new initiative to identify the REAL attractions of the town – I can see the entrance billboards and the bumper-stickers now: IGNORE THE HOTEL: COME AND EXPERIENCE OUR INTERSECTIONS !” – then someone needs to be singled out and front-paged for their imaginative genius.

It’d be a change from yet another damned propagandist sell on the Stadium, if nothing else.

[ends]

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Dunedin city was ranked at the top of the agency’s [NZTA] list for urban intersection crashes causing either fatal or serious injuries during the five years from 2006 to 2010. The city also featured in the top five for the crash categories involving pedestrians (second), motorcycles (third), older drivers (third), cyclists (fourth) and young drivers (fourth), and ranked sixth for accidents caused by distracted drivers. ODT 24.3.12

Dunedin is ranked the third-worst local authority area in New Zealand for fatal and serious injury crashes, statistics in the NZTA’s “communities at risk” register show. The NZTA has compiled lists ranking local authorities across 12 categories, although there is some contention about the methodology used to record the statistics. ODT 23.10.11

Related Post and Comments:
6.2.13 Editorial bias

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

ORC’s bus stop chaos – mediated

There’s the large matter, in Dunedin, that Otago Regional Council can’t afford to provide new bus shelters. Actually, it seems totally unable to provide timetables at bus stops so why are we surprised.

The twentyfirst century hasn’t arrived at ORC, or the bus stops – other New Zealand cities have digital read-outs at their stops to tell you how many minutes away the next bus is.

Ah, but this is the Deep South of presbyterian economy – no flashy gadgets here for punters, no seats, no shelters, “no change – get off” if you flash the bus driver a ten or twenty dollar note to pay your fare.

To soften this misery, to raise hope of salvation one day, here’s a collection of bus stop advertisements to inspire! The bus shelter designs aren’t bad either.

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Thanks to Paul’s (five15design) twitter feed, a mediation:

### http://www.designussion.com January 2, 2010
Inspiration, Showcases by Designussion
30+ Creative Bus Stop Advertisements
Modern advertising developed with the rise of mass production in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and since then we have not looked back. Everywhere we look today there is some form of advertising trying to persuade its viewers, readers or listeners to take some action. Due to the huge increase in advertising, companies have been forced to produce creative and unique advertising which takes a twist on original advertising to beat their competition.
Designussion Link + Images/Youtube videos

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In brief, something about ‘quality of design’ and city regeneration…

### http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk 4 January, 2010
Design team sought for new Stoke bus station
By James Pallister
Stoke-on-Trent City Council has launched a search for a design team to build a new city centre bus station.
Read more

Post by Elizabeth Kerr