CoveragePost
February 23, 2022
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Having watched Vladimir Putin’s somewhat rambling speech on Al Jazeera yesterday, I think we can be sure that he does have a clear ambition to create an empire based on the ethnic concept of the Viking ‘Rus’ (refer my recent Living with Ambiguity); a concept that would ideally (for Putin-supporting Russians) ... <a title="Keith Rankin – Russian Ambitions? Transnistria and Kaliningrad" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2022/02/23/keith-rankin-russian-ambitions-transnistria-and-kaliningrad/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin – Russian Ambitions? Transnistria and Kaliningrad">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
February 18, 2022
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Australasia Now that we are having to confront what a post-covid world may look like, it is important to get a sense of respiratory viruses in context, and especially to appreciate the extent that they determine the timing of our deaths; death being the great certainty of life. The first five ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Respiratory Viruses: Seasonal Mortality Compared" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2022/02/18/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-respiratory-viruses-seasonal-mortality-compared/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Respiratory Viruses: Seasonal Mortality Compared">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
February 16, 2022
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Why is Russia encircling Ukraine with what looks very much like an invasion force? The first principle in answering such a question is that one should never take the simple media-reported statements of any of the major protagonists at face value. Yesterday I argued that an important part of the context ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Geopolitics, Russia and Ukraine: Living with Ambiguity" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2022/02/16/keith-rankin-analysis-geopolitics-russia-and-ukraine-living-with-ambiguity/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Geopolitics, Russia and Ukraine: Living with Ambiguity">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
February 14, 2022
Analysis by Keith Rankin. At the heart of the present geopolitical conflict centred on Ukraine is a divergent set of views as to what constitutes a ‘nation’. Rival Views of Nationality Firstly, ‘nation-states’ as we know them today arguably date to the 1645 Peace (or Treaties) of Westphalia, which negotiated the end of the bloody ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Nations, Territories, and Conflict" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2022/02/14/keith-rankin-analysis-nations-territories-and-conflict/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Nations, Territories, and Conflict">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
February 11, 2022
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Omicron Cases. These two charts show the recent upsurge in reported Covid19 cases in the two larger countries with the most cases. (See my recent January league charts for where these countries fit in relation to others.) Both Denmark and Israel recently peaked with over 7,500 daily cases per million people; ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Covid Omicron in Two High Immunity Countries: Denmark and Israel" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2022/02/11/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-covid-omicron-in-two-high-immunity-countries-denmark-and-israel/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Covid Omicron in Two High Immunity Countries: Denmark and Israel">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
February 10, 2022
Analysis by Keith Rankin. The government’s latest scheme is a form of government unemployment insurance. Interestingly, both the anti-poverty groups and the neoliberal New Zealand Initiative think tank see this scheme as problematic, very much as a ‘solution looking for a problem’. In other words, its ideology. In this case it’s not capitalist ideology; it’s ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Unemployment Insurance?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2022/02/10/keith-rankin-analysis-unemployment-insurance/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Unemployment Insurance?">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
February 4, 2022
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Including the small countries As for most of the second half of 2021, the small principalities and territories (and former territories) of the European colonial powers show up highly in these charts of covid casualty countries. One of the great untold stories of Covid19 has been the impact of SARS-Cov2 (and ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Covid19 January league: Beginning of the End" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2022/02/04/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-covid19-january-league-beginning-of-the-end/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Covid19 January league: Beginning of the End">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
December 23, 2021
The first chart shows all countries and territories. The little places – many islands (ie with natural moats) – get their chance to compete with the big 'guys'. There has never been evidence that islands are somehow safer from Covid19 than countries with land borders.
CoveragePost
December 21, 2021
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Public policy has a number of biases. One is that certain real or alleged emergencies require (or seem to require) an urgent policy intervention. The result is a consortium of elected politicians, bureaucrat officials, and expert technocrats get on board, and assume a drivers’ role in a society which would otherwise ... <a title="Keith Rankin Analysis – Visualising a Way out of the Pandemic" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2021/12/21/keith-rankin-analysis-visualising-a-way-out-of-the-pandemic/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Analysis – Visualising a Way out of the Pandemic">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
December 20, 2021
While the Omicron strain of Covid19 was first sequenced in South Africa, it was found independently in the Netherlands in November. So, while Netherlands was one of the European countries which caught the latest sudden European wave (mainly featuring Delta), most likely the Omicron strain was already spreading there; indeed the main constraint on the growth of Omicron in Netherlands was probably Delta.
CoveragePost
December 17, 2021
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Sweden Re Covid19, Sweden remains the enigma country that almost nobody wants to talk about, because the Swedish scientists may have been correct all along (although the Swedish bureaucrats certainly had significant shortcomings in the early months of the pandemic). The first chart shows five waves of covid in Sweden. The ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Covid19: Scandinavia, Poland and Australia" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2021/12/17/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-covid19-scandinavia-poland-and-australia/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Covid19: Scandinavia, Poland and Australia">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
December 15, 2021
Analysis by Keith Rankin. United States of America The first United States chart shows both recorded covid deaths and excess deaths. (For all countries more recent ‘recorded covid deaths’ data is available.) Generally we see a broad match between the two series in terms of timing, though for the first two United States covid waves ... <a title="Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Covid19: United States and South Korea as the pandemic approaches two years" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2021/12/15/keith-rankin-chart-analysis-covid19-united-states-and-south-korea-as-the-pandemic-approaches-two-years/" aria-label="Read more about Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Covid19: United States and South Korea as the pandemic approaches two years">Read more</a>
