Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
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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, Qanon lunacy, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics, 5G conspiracy theories, the virus is a bioweapon, some weird bullshit about the UN taking over the world and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.
Thinking about chocolate and Easter and Cadbury in Dunedin selling out and people there trying to retain jobs and the business they had in NZ hands. Turned into Ocho Chocolate. https://ocho.co.nz/collections/new-chocs/products/easter-gift-pack
Chocolate fish
https://ocho.co.nz/collections/new-chocs/products/chocolate-fish
Good RNZ enquiry.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/lobbying/486670/lobbyists-in-new-zealand-enjoy-freedoms-unlike-most-other-nations-in-the-developed-world
One lobbyist –
NZCF, which buys land and grows pine (and other species) for the carbon credits, was deeply opposed to the policy.
NZCF owns or leases around 90,000 hectares of land with more than 60 million trees and is the largest provider of carbon credits in Australasia.
Carbon farming is now big business. According to a 2022 Cabinet paper “economic returns under the ETS for permanent exotic forests are now significantly higher than sheep and beef farming”.
Golly gosh. A parent, so sacred. When a parent is short of money for essentials, that reality conveys no sense of importance on the ‘bludger’ but looking at naked bodies which in art has been given licence to break through the prudish, religious and respectability barriers – well the artificial proprieties win. And the USA has been a leader, Hollywood some decades ago could not show a married couple in bed together. We are led to sanctify ourselves, or turn our bodies into lewd objects, so weird and unhealthy; out-of-balance behaviour which is behind sweeping social demands that have become OTT.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/486715/principal-fired-after-florida-students-shown-michelangelo-statue
Wish this away. SEP. Rationalise how we are too small to be affected.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/486263/the-deadly-cyclone-that-lasted-more-than-a-month
…Malawi, Madagascar and Mozambique are reeling from the effects of Tropical Cyclone Freddy.
More than 400 people have been killed and thousands of homes destroyed…
Freddy has finally been declared over by the French Meteorological service. The storm was named by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology on 4 February and and finally came to an end on 14 March.
It was strong enough to be officially classified as a tropical system for at least 36 days.
However, we need to wait for confirmation by the World Meteorological Organization before we can say whether it is officially the longest-lasting recorded storm.
What is interesting about Freddy is how far it has travelled. It began its journey off the coast of north-west Australia, crossing the Southern Indian Ocean from east to west, one of only four storms in history to do so.
A practical concern for the Deep South is needed. Better funded medical, hospitals as well as special climate-concerned assistance – almost a dedicated official to act as lobbyist and troubleshooter for the region.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/486732/extreme-summer-has-southern-farmers-feeling-ignored
Recent rainfall has alleviated drought concerns in Otago and Southland, but it’s been another tough summer for southern farmers.
Hot and dry summers had been the norm in recent years, raising questions about what the future holds.
Hillend farmer Stephen Jack said since about mid-January, he had been staring at the dusty bottom of creeks and dams.
Still thinking about environment. Beauty in nature – hold onto it and in ourselves!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/486729/kiwis-urged-to-show-some-love-to-native-butterflies
Drought – this from August last year – did you read this or hear about it or were we woking instead of waking!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/473387/europe-experiencing-worst-drought-in-500-years-report
Two-thirds of Europe is under some sort of drought warning, in what is likely the worst such event in 500 years…
Compared with the average of the previous five years, EU forecasts for harvest are down 16 percent for grain maize, 15 percent for soybeans and 12 percent for sunflowers….
The ongoing heatwave and water shortages have “created an unprecedented stress on water levels in the entire EU”, Research Commissioner Mariya Gabriel said….
The ongoing heatwave and water shortages have “created an unprecedented stress on water levels in the entire EU”, Research Commissioner Mariya Gabriel said…
Beauty in nature. Brings emotion, something we need, but need to control as well.
Watch ‘Equilibrium’ film. Stark but the guy in white wins over the black, shoots them all etc.
Great fight choreography. But not totally imaginary – has child reporting on a parent as in Nazi Germany pre and WW2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilibrium_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunger_stone*
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/473387/europe-experiencing-worst-drought-in-500-years-report
,,,The latest report from the Global Drought Observatory says 47 percent of the continent is in “warning” conditions, meaning soil has dried up.
The report warns the situation is worsening in countries including Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Romania, Hungary, northern Serbia, Ukraine, Moldova, Ireland and the UK.
The researchers’ stark warning follows rapidly-sinking river levels across Europe which have exposed relics of the past – including so-called “hunger stones”* warning of potential famine and the sunken remains of WWII Nazi ships.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/486739/putin-says-moscow-to-station-nuclear-weapons-in-belarus
This constant stirring and poking between countries brings to mind the great Brit monologue, ‘Albert and the Lion’.
…There were one great big lion called Wallace
His nose were all covered with scars
He lay in a somnolent posture
With the side of his face on the bars.
Now Albert had heard about lions
How they was ferocious and wild
To see Wallace lying so peaceful
Well, it didn’t seem right to the child.
So straight ‘way the brave little feller
Not showing a morsel of fear
Took his stick with its ‘orse’s ‘ead ‘andle
And shoved it in Wallace’s ear.
You could see the lion didn’t like it
For giving a kind of a roll
He pulled Albert inside the cage with ‘im
And swallowed the little lad ‘ole…
(to be continued).
https://monologues.co.uk/Albert-and-the-Lion.htm
Politics even affects cockroaches – eg in Europe:
The German cockroach was named because of tensions between European neighbours in the 1700s. The Germans, incidentally, call it the Russian cockroach or French cockroach while the Russians call it the Prussian cockroach, according to ‘Cockroach’ author Marion Copeland in 2003.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/97574229/misunderstood-the-cockroach-is-more-important-than-we-think
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/486683/nz-needs-to-distance-itself-from-australia-s-anti-china-nuclear-submarines
Good points Dr Bryce Edwards.
Where is our anti nuclear stance?