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Here's everything you need to know about the long-awaited New Zealand border reopening, which is happening in five stages.

Our friends across the pond are finally re-opening their borders after Jacinda Ardern snapped them shut when the pandemic first began in March 2020.

Excluding the short-lived trans-tasman travel bubble, which was derailed by the pesky Omicron variant, Australian's haven't been able to enter New Zealand for close to two years.

At long last we can rejoice! Australians will no longer be banned from visiting our island cousin, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern unveiling a five-stage plan for the country's reopening.

Speaking to both nations on Thursday, Jacinda Ardern revealed it's finally time for New Zealand to open back up:

“With Omicron’s arrival, we pushed that change in border settings out – to give ourselves the chance to roll out boosters – a chance most other countries never had.

With our community better protected we must turn to the importance of reconnection. Families and friends need to reunite. Our businesses need skills to grow. Exporters need to travel to make new connections.”

While the Ardern government will scrap mandates for managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) from February 28, 10 days of self-isolation will still be required for all people entering from abroad.

While the road looks long, here's the exact timeline for New Zealand's phased reopening:

Stage one - February 28

New Zealanders and eligible travellers from Australia will be able to enter New Zealand.

 

Stage two - March 14

New Zealanders and eligible travellers from everywhere, along with skilled workers and working holiday visa-holderswill be able to enter New Zealand.

 

Stage three - April 13

Offshore temporary visa holders, up to 5,000 international students, other critical workforces, sports teams and athletes, and some cultural performers will be able to enter New Zealand.

 

Stage four - by July

All travellers from Australia and other visa-waiver countries will be able to enter New Zealand.

 

Stage five - October

Border opens to the rest of the world and all visa categories will be fully reinstated.

So, who else thinks its time for a holiday across the Tasman?

Image: Vitaliy Mitrofanenko / Pexels

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dog food taster

If you’ve ever accidentally (or on purpose - we won’t judge you) eaten a dog biscuit or your dog’s chocolate treats in the fridge and thought “hmmm, tastes pretty good”, then this story might not gross you out.

But for the rest of us…

It turns out there are people - actual humans - who taste pet food for a living!

Yes, they put cat or dog food in their mouth and review it for taste, texture and smell.

Which is fascinating, because if you’ve got a dog, you know they will eat anything if given half a chance. Not just yummy human food like cheese and roast chicken snatched from your plate when you're not looking, but disgusting stuff like another animal’s poop, slimy worms and even their own vomit.

So it would be fair to say they’re not fussy right?

According to website Career Match, pet food tasters make sure that dogs will like the foods being made for them and that humans won't gag at the smell as they dish it out. They don’t just sit around eating pet food all day either; tasters are also looking for ways to come up with new recipe ideas that taste great and are nutritionally sound.

Because even if dogs are prepared to eat crap, they really shouldn’t live off a junk food diet.

Do you think you could work as a pet food taster?

First thing to know is that pet tasters usually spit out the food rather than swallowing it. So if you're used to gargling wine to taste it, this might not be very different. 

Actually, you probably need a slug of wine at the end to wash the taste away.

But if you think you've got a stomach for it, and you want to know more, check out this clip from a documentary at a pet food factory in the UK. Quality Manager Joe does some taste testing of cat food - with humans and cats both eating from bowls!

It does seem that dog food brands are getting fancier and starting to include ingredients like quinoa, kale, veggies and duck eggs, so chowing down on some dog food might not seem too horrid actually.

There’s a whole host of videos on TikTok with chef-prepared pet meals that look like they belong in a restaurant! Dumplings anyone?

@chefsanddogs Reply to @xxrobloxforlifexx57 yes chef 🥟. #asmr #dogdad #dumplings #friendshipgoals #masterbowie ♬ original sound - Chefs and Dogs

Time to come back next lifetime as a pampered pooch with a chef as a human we think. These dogs eat better than us!

@chefsanddogs Reply to @puckfeepisoffical time for another dinner 👨🏼‍🍳🐶🥩 #takeaway #dogs #dogdad #asmr #asmrmukbang #feedfreshchallenge #rawfeddog #rawfeeding ♬ Soothing Sounds - ASMR


Main image (composite): Roman Samborskyi/Annette Shaff/Africa Studio/Shutterstock.com

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viral salary negotiation advice

A freelance recruiter has caused a debate online after a post she shared about how to negotiate a salary went viral. The controversial post has now led her to lose her job.

In the original post, the recruiter gave her followers a lesson in salary negotiation with her full post saying:

"I just offered a candidate $85,000 for a job that Had a budget of $130K.

I offered her that because that’s what she asked for. & I personally don’t have the bandwidth to give lessons on salary negotiation.

Here’s the lesson: ALWAYS ASK FOR THE SALARY YOU WANT (DESERVE) , no matter how large you think it might be. You never know how much money a company has to work with. 

#beconfident”

Her post was quickly shared around social media causing a debate with most questioning whether it was the right thing to do. One screenshot shared on Twitter was quoted over 4000 times.

Many shared their opinions on the matter, some saying the situation was not something to brag about. One shared an example of another situation where one recruiter did the opposite and paid an employee the full salary.

The woman spoke to Huffpost and explained that after that job, she was let go. One person on Twitter even revealed the woman worked at the same company and was terminated because of it.

“I posted to my personal Facebook to encourage people around their worth. I never imagined it would leave my personal page… With this particular candidate, I did what the company required and I was let go,” she was reported saying.

She also took to Facebook to explain her reasoning behind the original post:

The purpose of that post was to empower others to not end up like this particular candidate. I want people to know their worth. I made that post at the risk of my job because it’s not right that many don’t know what their skills are worth. I learned a lot from my recent post. I understand and now feel how my post made a lot of people feel, especially the candidate that was directly impacted by my choice. It doesn’t feel good and this should have gone differently. She deserves to be paid what she’s worth from the company despite what she thinks the job responsibilities are worth. While this is a common practice in the hiring space, it should not have been a public learning experience, but an internal one. I hope for some it was a message about worth, but I don’t take lightly the salary disparities that happen in corporations. It is not to be made light of. While that was not my intent, I have to acknowledge the impact of my statement. I hope to one day be able to help candidates be aware of the salary ranges they should ask for before it ends with another 45K difference in pay. I’m optimistic that you will see my heart and know I meant no harm. I’m not a risk taker, but I took this risk for another person. I don’t know what race this candidate is, All I know is that this candidate didn’t realize that they were worth so much more. I just wanted to instill confidence. #worth #value #thisishonest #beconfident

Although in her Facebook apology she notes what she did was common practice in the industry, many still questioned if it was the right thing to do. 

Image Credit: (@jstTECHcharge/Twitter)

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20220204 facebook stocks header

New figures, released as part of parent company Meta's latest financial results, show daily users of Facebook fell to 1.929 billion people in the last three months of 2021, compared with 1.939 billion in the previous quarter.

Meta's shares fell 22.6 per cent to $US249.90 in after-hours trading following the announcement.

 

 

Chief executive Zuckerberg admitted the rise of rival apps such as TikTok is having an impact on Facebook, with Meta also warning of slowing revenue growth because of the growing competition and a reduction in spending among advertisers.

"People have a lot of choices for how they want to spend their time and apps like TikTok are growing very quickly," the Facebook founder said.

TikTok has become increasingly popular among younger users, who prefer the video-sharing platform over the likes of Facebook and Instagram as the way to interact with followers.

In response, Meta has introduced its own video-sharing service, Instagram Reels, in an effort to lure back the younger generation of social media users who started looking elsewhere.

As well as the competition from rivals, Facebook has faced a number of controversies across its network of apps in recent years - notably Instagram and WhatsApp - which has damaged trust among some users.

The wider company rebrand to Meta last year was seen by some as a way of revamping the firm's image as well as highlighting the company's new focus on the development of the metaverse virtual world.

In addition, changes made by Apple to its iOS mobile platform that have expanded privacy features for users has hit Facebook's advertising business.

© AP 2022