The Daily Blog Open Mic – Saturday – 11th April 2020

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Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.

Moderation rules are more lenient for this section, but try and play nicely.

EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist language, homophobic language, racist language, anti-muslim hate, transphobic language, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.

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11 COMMENTS

  1. I’ve tweaked the jokes ,,,

    1) Boris had a near miss with the corona virus ,,, Thankfully he’s made it back to good health ,,, unfortunately his brain was starved of oxygen and suffered irreparable damage ,,,,, thankfully nobody can tell.

    2) While largely immobile in bed Boris slipped the Woman in the Matrons uniform 50 quid to spank his arse with a studded paddle ,,, he wants his money back, Thanks .

    3) While he was lying sedated and delirious in hospital,,, Theresa May and David Cameron sneaked into Boris’s room ,,,, Theresa may mounted him, and hissed ” I should still be leader”, all while giving him a darn good pegging… When she was finished David Cameron stepped up and repeatedly called him a traitorous backstabber ,,, while treating poor Boris like a pigs head in a initiation ritual . Afterwards when Boris was recovered and out of hospital ,,, he confided in mistress, that when he was at his most gravely ill ,,,, he’d had amazing vivid dreams of his old boarding school ,,, with the headmaster and school priest in them.,,, ” It was so real I could feel them “, Boris said…… His mistress was so shocked,, she dropped the paddle ,,,, killing their favorite Gerbil.,,,,

    In more brighter news ,,, Gerbils seem immune to corona virus.

    Another comedy set where Boris gets a mention somewhere ,,,
    https://youtu.be/Xd0UYyxo158

  3. Two NZ corona deaths – a woman in her 70s with underlying risk conditions (I seem to remember emphysema) and another in her 90s. It could be said that Coronavirus can hasten deaths in people over 80 and those being kept alive with medical skill. That would express the reality well. There are still old people dying as would happen normally. It is normal to die when you are old, and necessary if the world is to continue to keep ticking over for younger people.

    Make the most of your life then, make it rich with loving family relationship, with children guiding them with words and discussion and by your own good and fair behaviour and support for others, provide a satisfactory dwelling and resources for your family and enjoy their life stages, have interesting and amusing friends, community, enjoyable and kind thoughts, giving and taking, laughter and music, drama, ar and activity. Soon then draw up your will and accounts, plan what to do with your body, talk to your kids and tell them what you want, keep taking the minimum medication to stop pain, and enough to prevent a non-fatal heart attack that leaves you paralysed, and be prepared to die in good order.

    This morning Kim was interviewing 80 year old writer Colin Thubron who writes travel books and novels and personally gets the experience he writes about. One he didn’t like was where his spine was damaged or broken, and he had to lie and just think for quite a while. He thought, and changed the way he wrote. He said that a period of inactivity leaves your mind free to go ranging and dreaming (I think those were the words he used).
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018742331/colin-thubron-travel-writing-off-the-beaten-track

    We can do the same with Covid-19 lockdowns. What is best for us in the future? What different things can we do? I have noticed how few people read books when I pull mine out at the airport and prepare to wait for my plane departure. Most people seem deep in thought, or are peering at their cellphones. It would be good to put those away, and manage the waiting time with a book giving a break from personal thought and worry – something simpler, and on a more human level, not filtered through extravagant networks bouncing off satellites in the sky.

    Something I am going to do is talk to some family members I have disagreed with, which they found disagreeable, and I found upsetting. I am going to explain myself so they know I am not being malicious.
    There are some things I would like to achieve for a better world in the autumn of my years. I may not achieve a lot, but it might result in a seedling growing to something larger and noticeable. And I would like a ‘nice’ death, like just going to sleep while waiting for my plane departure – to an unknown destination.

  4. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/414018/new-zealanders-on-cruise-ship-in-uruguay-to-be-evacuated
    …Australians and New Zealanders will be repatriated on a chartered medical flight to Melbourne. It is due to leave Uruguay later today, and arrive in Australia early tomorrow morning.
    Aurora Expeditions said the plane would be divided into risk zones, with passengers seated according to their test results and the level of care required.
    Once they have landed, the New Zealanders will be transferred to a flight home.

    The cost of the flight is being covered by Aurora Expeditions’ insurance, so there is no cost to passengers.

    …In late March there were 372 New Zealanders still on board 30 cruise ships throughout the world, but early this week that number fell to 58, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said…

    The papers had been filled with full page advertisements attracting NZs to visit overseas, and finding takers, while we have people sleeping in cars and at their wits end how to manage. Surely a very unbalanced society and economy! Now the cruise ships can’t be allowed to continue as they soon become vectors of sickness, they are their insurance brokers will be bankrupt. So they won’t advertise any more, so the papers won’t get the benefit of that income.

    The stuff paper group will become cheaper; if any of those wealthy people with money to spare for staring at the rest of the vanishing world, would look at NZ, and like to put it into a trust run by the government so we have a NZ owned press, and we could have NZ shareholders say up to a quarter so they don’t get groups that are too influential, Now Is The Time. Are there any Awake Rich NZs in name, word and deed ready to back the hapless government trying to breathe life into this near-corpse still called New Zealand, or has it lost its zest for life along with all the old greedies, and needs to be renamed with something more attractive than Old Zealand?

  5. We will become more reliant on shipping.
    Fast shipping to and from NZ.
    https://www.ship-technology.com/features/featurefossil-fuel-free-environment-shipping/
    (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qipWHayS-c
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Pearl_(yacht)
    Cargoes around the world https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/map-lets-you-visualize-shipping-traffic-around-world (massive)

    Great ships the schooners (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFZpHXKSBO0
    The tea race https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Tea_Race_of_1866

    NZ marine activity: https://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/marine/issue-3-our-activities-sea-are-affecting-marine-environment
    Sailing lore: https://www.maritimenz.govt.nz/commercial/safety/crossing-the-bar/default.asp
    Remembering: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-last-cruise-of-mikhail-lermontov/

    Info about NZ winds, currents and position:
    http://www.seafriends.org.nz/oceano/special.htm
    https://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/content/why-is-nz-so-windy-we-explain-the-roaring-forties
    https://www.cruisingworld.com/pacific-passage-planning/
    https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/691-ocean-motion
    Last – sea level rise map – look: http://www.musther.net/nzslr/

  6. Air travel. What will happen there. I have been listening with amazement for some time as business forecasts for the next thirty years are made showing growth and not mentioning climate change, competition for fuel and price rises, depletion of earth reserves.

    Now with coronavirus the Taranaki airport plans have been shelved after being talked up so long.
    Taranaki is being warned of austerity setting in.
    Mayor Neil Holdom said council venues usually generated $6 million in revenue annually, while the now mothballed airport contributed $5m and its property portfolio $4.5m. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/414035/new-plymouth-residents-told-to-expect-service-cuts-due-to-covid-19-crisis

    The airport had some criticism for being too costly. The choice for New Plymouth’s new airport terminal could come down to a $13 million functional building or an “iconic” design worth up to $22.2m.
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/84644677/functional-or-iconic-option-for-the-new-new-plymouth-airport-expansion
    Then:
    New Plymouth District Council initially approved $19.3m for a new terminal but increased that cost by $9.4m to $28.7m in April when a recommendation was made that the terminal’s footprint be made bigger. (Went up to three times bigger.) https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/90819710/new-plymouth-new-airport-terminal-could-get-even-bigger-and-cost-50-per-cent-more
    Passengers were up : new record for a 12-month rolling period of 433,961….Overall profit before tax was $628,321, $136,749 above budget, https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/104550826/airport-cost-towards-top-of-budget?rm=m
    The possibilities of a downturn wasn’t looked at in the modelling apparently.

    Nelson Airport has rebuilt recently. In 2015: Rob Evans, who has a history in airport management in New Zealand and Australia, predicts the airport will need to double in size over the next thirty years to accommodate expected growth. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/277750/nelson-airport-boss-eyes-earnings-take-off
    October 2019: $32million cost. Over the last 12 months rolling to the end of June Nelson Airport has had over 1 million passengers transitting through. The new infrastructure has been designed to cater for the forecast growth to 1.4 million passengers in 2035. https://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/107699943/nelsons-airport-terminal-up-up-and-away-as-it-opens-to-the-public-for-the-first-time?rm=a

    There have been some heroic spending programs taken on by various Councils in past years. I hope they aren’t going to choke us. New Plymouth with about half the passengers to Nelson, has spent much the same on their new premises. Nelson has also talked itself up. Jetstar left as the Australian airlines seem prone to – Qantas did that and left our Origin Airlines up in the air, so to speak some years back.

  7. This pisses me off. Essential services, low-paid worker, no nice nest egg and comforts to rely on, living in the precariat class. Can government do something to help this woman and all that are caring for the vulnerable and poorly paid because it is such hasic human work, and who cares about that except for lip service. Not good enough at this point in time; at the end of the day we can’t just resort to commonplace phrases such as it’s not my job or SEP.

    In this article, the helper needs help. And she is not getting the hours of work looking after vulnerable people.
    So who is looking after them?
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/414032/covid-19-health-workers-left-struggling-to-pay-the-rent

  8. A healthy society – a vision for the future

    When the Covid subsides and things return to normal, we as a society need to implement a plan for managing communicable disease and in particular high risk groups in the community. For example health workers (e.g. doctors, nurses, disease researchers, microbiologists, laboratory workers, residential home workers, care givers, police) who work directly with the sick or a potential source of disease, might be required to wear an article of clothing in future which identifies them in public (perhaps a red cap), be required to wear full PPE in public spaces at all times (mask, face shield, goggles, apron, hair net, latex gloves, overshoes), and be required to take periodic full spectrum disease profiles while they are employed in the sector (e.g. Covid test every day). These rules would be in place for the entirety of their employment and remain in place for four weeks from their employment ceasing or them taking a break (e.g. annual leave). To minimise infectious transmission, these high risk health workers would need to follow all of the lockdown, physical isolation, social distancing and travel restrictions currently in place but systems could be created in communities so that these workers can live in parallel with the rest of society. For example health workers might have separate spaces in shops, on buses, in cafes and theatres and auditoriums and be segregated from the rest of society while also participating in it. Security guards will manage their entry into dairies and supermarkets and explain to them the need for distancing, their personal hygiene, the single shopper rule and their general responsibilities. The general public will have free access to food and supply as normal. Access by health workers to alcohol, gambling, cigarettes and pornography will be assessed by individual case. Health workers will not be able to work concurrently in any food service or supply industries or be allowed to attend church, swim, surf, fish, play group sport or congregate in groups. The vehicles of health workers shall be clearly marked and identified and can be stopped by police at any time to check for compliance. The public reserves the right to question these at-risk workers in public and ask them to produce evidence of their employer, profession and personal details. The public is encouraged to contact authorities if these workers are acting suspiciously, are not following the rules, appear sickly, or for any other matter related to their appearance, conduct, actions or location. The mainstream media will be used to inform citizenry of current infection rates and fatalities within the health sector, including daily tallies and those countries leading the fatality tables, and media will also be used to flash branded Covid warnings, rules and repercussions half hourly into the homes of health workers via television and internet. The government and approved companies reserve the right to surveil and monitor health workers and the people in their isolation bubble, without notifying the target of the surveillance, to ensure health workers are abiding by these safety regulations. Failure to abide by any of these regulations could result in health workers receiving trial by secret court and a sentence of life imprisonment in maximum security. Together we can live healthy and in harmony. We are one.

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