Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
The Editor doesn’t moderate this blog, 3 volunteers do, they are very lenient to provide you a free speech space but if it’s just deranged abuse or putting words in bloggers mouths to have a pointless argument, we don’t bother publishing.
All in all, TDB gives punters a very, very, very wide space to comment in but we won’t bother with out right lies or gleeful malice. We leave that to the Herald comment section.
EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist abuse, homophobic abuse, racist abuse, anti-muslim abuse, transphobic abuse, 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.
Barbara Edmonds was named by Christopher Luxon as the one Labour MP he would like to have on his team.
Myrtle rust is becoming more noticeable. It should be in the news often but not where I go regularly – hoping to get facts rather than dental advertisements. Latest:
Webinar series – Beyond Myrtle Rust
Landcare Research
https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz › ecosystem-resilience
3 days ago — Webinars focussing on the behaviour, ecology, and impacts of the disease myrtle rust in New Zealand.
UAVs For Pest Control Take Off
Scoop – New Zealand
https://www.scoop.co.nz › stories › uavs-for-pest-control… (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle )
13 Feb 2024 — As climate change increases the risk of invasive pests reaching our shores and affecting New Zealand’s multibillion-dollar primary sector, Scion …
Beyond Myrtle Rust
Landcare Research
https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz › ecosystem-resilience
30 Nov 2023 — Beyond Myrtle Rust aims to study the behaviour, ecology and impacts of the disease myrtle rust in New Zealand.
May 2023 https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/490015/remote-sensing-technology-used-to-detect-myrtle-rust-days-before-signs-of-infection
(Sounds like a good excuse to give some tech octopus a chance to sell us surveillance stuff as really being good for us. Money no probs.)
https://myrtlerust.org.nz/news-and-media/ – goes back to 2020
Myrtle Rust Sentinel – Auckland Botanic Gardens 2022
2022 An update on our myrtle rust research
Landcare Research – Manaaki Whenua
https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz › news › an-update-o…
21 Nov 2022 — Beyond Myrtle Rust aims to study the behaviour, ecology and impacts of the disease myrtle rust in New Zealand. Project · Biosecurity ·
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/510088/wellington-city-council-set-to-finally-discuss-secret-32m-reading-cinema-deal-in-public
More spending by our effective, efficient replacements in authority instead of our ineffective, inefficient government?? Have you figured out what this neoliberal revolution was all about. It seems to have very costly panaceas for running the country better, and whether the money is poured in the best, most useful projects is questionable??
The panacea or recipe seems to be immersed in loading debt on the country enabling projects that may be too expensive in their charges for most of us to use, or only rarely. Do we choose to be plunged into debt for somebody else’s satisfactions. Sort of like building pyramids, modern-style. (Is there tautology in this comment? – you can say that again!)
Some interesting internet loads:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YMxpqYEjyo
Short intro – Who I Am 1.06
Peter Hadfield, fact-checker, geologist with widened interests
Awareness of this new virtual wave will fascinate you and…
The Murder Game Revolution That Has Gripped China 32.30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_dlxbGUNNQ
A Virtual Murder Mystery Game: A Library of Secrets 0.52
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwzOpzrTL_o
If people want to get a feeling of what could be considered a good society based on human values and how to arrive at it, try R.F. Delderfield’s three-part series of books named The Horseman Riding By. They are ‘warming’ stories and absorbing.
Was made for tv – synopsis here:
What is the plot of The Horseman Riding by?
Having been invalided out of the Boer War, Paul Craddock buys Shallowford, a manor house and estate in Devon, with money from his late father’s scrap-yard business. He soon becomes a much-respected “Squire” who is determined to treat all his tenant farmers fairly, unlike his predecessor.
A Horseman Riding By (TV Series 1978) – IMDb
imdb.com https://www.imdb.com › title
Miner’s son David Powlett-Jones returns from the carnage of the Western Front in 1918, shell-shocked and bitterly hardened by the violence of war. He begins life again as a master at a remote Devon school, controlling the destiny of boys barely his junior.
To Serve Them All My Days – Amazon UK
amazon.co.uk https://www.amazon.co.uk › Serve-Them-All-My-Days
Amazon.com: The Green Gauntlet (A Horseman Riding By)
https://www.amazon.com › Green-Gauntlet-Horseman-Ri…
The Green Gauntlet is the third novel in R. F. Delderfield’s saga A Horseman Riding By, (which begins with Long Summer Day and continues with Post of Honour).
https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/r-f-delderfield/the-green-gauntlet/9780340922934/
1942-1964
Paul and Claire Craddock have grown older in years – but not in spirit.
The turbulence of war is followed by a penurious peace. Changes are taking place in the countryside, from the way land is farmed to the hopes and expectations of the men and women who live there. Paul Craddock’s livelihood, his peace, and his vision of a good and noble way of life in Shallowford are all threatened.
With the help of his children and his children’s children, Paul starts to adapt his dreams in order to preserve the farm. To his surprise and pleasure, in doing so he comes to discover deeper, richer ties with those around him – ties that hold a ripe promise for the future.
‘Mr Delderfield’s manner is easy, modest, heartwarming’ – Evening Standard
Fire – pressing concern.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/510133/port-hills-small-crew-keeping-fire-from-reigniting
Water – not to be given, sold etc. We knew that 25 year licences or such would be a mistake but there’s an old saying that applies to foolish. that they are ‘queer in their attic’. Good one.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/510134/water-meters-identify-major-leaks-postpone-new-plymouth-district-council-pump-station-upgrade
Installing water meters has allowed the New Plymouth District Council (NPDC) to postpone a $4 million pump station upgrade for Urenui and Tikorangi in north Taranaki.
Meters have identified so many leaks in the area – including one property using 60m3, or about 450 bathtubs a day – that once they were fixed, demand dropped to the point where the upgrade was not needed…
(Maybe go ahead with the work and have it ready when needed. Getting materials may not be possible when actually needed. Don’t last-minute things.)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/510140/australian-homes-destroyed-in-bushfires-extreme-heat-ahead
Australian land and water innovation needed badly. We need to keep a watching brief; thinking farmers could have a separate group from NZ Fed Farmers, to ensure that the rural people are up with the latest problems and smarts.
Problems in Oz though from authorities without understanding or motivation to act in real time.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-11/mulloon-creek-rehydration-initiative-faces-planning-hurdles/102063778
Regenerative farming project to restore Mulloon Creek stalled by planning problems.
Regenerative farming in Australia is being held back by bureaucratic red tape, according to one of the nation’s leading farm advocacy groups.
Key points:
Environmental advocacy groups warn government red tape is stalling plans to boost biodiversity and spread groundwater
Landholders along NSW’s Mulloon Creek want to restore the natural function of the waterway disrupted by farming
There’s a push for a new national planning code to make regeneration projects easier
The not-for-profit Mulloon Institute was named by the United Nations in 2015 as one of five global demonstrators of sustainable, productive and profitable farming.
But its flagship research initiative has stalled because of planning laws.
*The group’s Mulloon Creek Rehydration Initiative aims to install 90 creek-bed structures along 50 kilometres of degraded catchment in the southern tablelands region of New South Wales, south-west of Sydney.
*The so-called “leaky weirs” slow water flow, promote more biodiversity and spread groundwater into the surrounding floodplain.
Is this top priority? Getting plants with low flammability established would be better wouldn’t it? Perhaps the other species would provide shade for a young replacement shrub/tree?
INS – Invasive Native Species – can they be compared to Wilding Pines (which are exotic).
Landcare Australia – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ntQO5UNvdg 7.30m
and Pest problems:
Regenerative Agriculture Alliance – has a Facebook page
⚠️ Fire ants have removed livestock from infested paddocks and decimated entire native ecosystems. ⚠️ Queens can move up to 30km to build new nests when …