The Daily Blog Open Mic – 1st June 2025

1. Idea for future direction. Looking at the man forming with civilisation from chimp-style, the last three versions are unhealthy (dare I say it obese) and not fit and alert. Can we use that progression as a leitmotif and go for the last upright sort before the mass calories and fatheads ! …
   Since HT GMO crops are sprayed with Roundup® or other glyphosate-based herbicides during the growing season, and therefore often contain higher concentrations of glyphosate residues [35,36,37,38], the herbicide (glyphosate and/or other ingredients, see [33,34]), rather than the genetic manipulation, could cause the …
   Roundup®, but Not Roundup-Ready® Corn, Increases Mortality of …
   nih.gov https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › articles › PMC678950
   .
   \https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_maize
   .
   https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/story?id=4439943&page=1
   Corn: Fueling the Fast Food Industry and Obesity 2008
   ‘”King Corn” is Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis’ new documentary, which shows how corn has turned the American diet into a fast food nightmare.’
   ‘
   Corn and Other Feed Grains – Feed Grains Sector at a Glance
   Economic Research Service (.gov)
   http://www.ers.usda.gov › topics › crops › feed-grains-se…
   17 Apr 2025 — The major feed grains are corn, sorghum, barley, and oats. Corn is the primary US feed grain, accounting for more than 95 percent of total feed grain …
   .
   https://www.fairr.org/news-events/insights/the-united-states-corn-undrum
   (First fact)
   Animal Feed: Over 95% of animal feed in the US comes from corn, which makes up roughly 40% of all corn used domestically.
   .
   AI advises on FAIRR (which I can’t find definition of easily on their page)
   so this for enquiring minds. Learn more –
   FAIRR (originally named the Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return Initiative) is a collaborative network of investors focused on raising awareness of and addressing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities in the global food system, particularly in intensive animal agriculture. It’s a project of the Jeremy Coller Foundation.
   Here’s a more detailed breakdown:
   Collaborative Investor Network:
   FAIRR brings together institutional investors to share knowledge and work collaboratively on ESG issues in the food sector.
   Focus on Intensive Animal Agriculture:
   While addressing broader food system issues, FAIRR’s primary focus is on the risks and opportunities related to intensive animal production, which can include aspects like climate change, animal welfare, and resource use.
   Research and Tools:
   FAIRR provides investors with research, data, and analytical tools to help them identify and prioritize ESG factors in their investment decisions and stewardship practices.
   Engagement and Dialogue:
   FAIRR facilitates dialogues between investors and companies in the global food and agriculture industry, encouraging open communication and collaborative solutions.
   Building Awareness:
   FAIRR aims to raise awareness of systemic risks linked to intensive animal farming practices among governments, regulators, and industry bodies.
   Empowering Investors:
   FAIRR helps investors to understand and integrate ESG risks and opportunities into their investment decisions and stewardship processes.
   Support FAIRR
   Why support us. FAIRR is a non-profit initiative that is currently solely funded by the Jeremy Coller Foundation and does not char…
   FAIRR Initiative
   (Where is the pay-off? Big organisations like this don’t do it for peanuts.)

2. For the life has-no-meaning types – spaced out on the new and science and not on humanity and our place on the planet – https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/562737/possible-new-dwarf-planet-spotted-near-the-edge-of-the-solar-system
   Isn’t that great. Now how can we use our cardboard waste pressed into sheets to make tiny houses ?

   Or, say –
   ShelterBox is a global movement, dedicated to transforming despair into hope for those who need it most. We’ve grown a lot since our simple and humble beginning but our focus remains the same – working for a world where no one is without shelter following disaster or conflict.
   International disaster relief charity – ShelterBox New Zealand
   ShelterBox New Zealand https://www.shelterbox.org.nz › Home Page
   .
   ShelterBox Emergency Disaster Relief
   https://shelterbox.org
   28 Mar 2025 — ShelterBox provides emergency shelter to families who have lost their home to disaster, enabling them to rebuild their lives. Join us.
   (As usual there was a problem with some misdemeanour relating to personnel – sexual this time. Oh Lord it’s hard to be humble, when we’re perfect in every way…Line of song. I think we need to drop the idea of perfection and go for adequate and making an effort and this group seems to offer practical help.)

3. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/562742/bee-alert-warning-after-250-million-insects-escape-truck-crash-in-us
   The madness of corporate mass sized everything. Likely to sting us all.

4. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/562506/antarctica-s-sea-ice-is-changing-and-so-is-a-vital-part-of-the-marine-food-web-that-lives-within-it
   What we should be thinking about while the politicians actually act to run the country like a funfair.

   Can we play the game. This vid explains that throwing booths all have one desired outcome – to relieve you of your cash. sounds familiar to gummint and tax.
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk5ZpF0ED54
   https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-2143310-county-fair-game-rotating-clown-heads

5. https://www.rnz.co.nz/concert/programmes/three-to-seven/audio/2018989110/the-cawthron-pipes-are-calling
   ‘Organ donor’?
   Myles Payne would like you to ‘become an organ donor’, although he really wants you to sponsor a pipe – or two.

   The director of the Nelson Centre of Musical Arts is using the slogan for a new fundraising drive to gather money to pay for the upkeep of its Cawthron organ.
   While the organ is in good shape, ongoing maintenance is essential, and costs money.

   Payne spoke to RNZ Concert about the campaign, his new job as director of the centre and what it takes to keep a one hundred-year-old pipe organ going.
   He says one of the the biggest challenges with organ maintenance is keeping it moist enough. Dry air leads to a dry instrument, and dry instruments don’t sound so good…

   To that end, he’s excited that members of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s string section will perform Tchaikovsky’s Serenade side by side with members of the centre’s own orchestra on 7 June.
   Next month will also see the centre host Kemp English, one of the nation’s top organists, showing current and potential organ donors exactly what a well-tuned organ can do.

6. This is a press release from some outfit and place under the letters DRRA.
   There is no mention of place though a lot about their problems.
   https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2505/S01003/drra-concerned-about-failing-infrastructure-in-the-district.htm

   They want others as well as government to know their problems. If they cover all their bases including where they are then they might get their case attended to. This ‘letters’ business instead of a recognisable name is stupid and distancing from the general public, corporate-speak really.

7. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/562799/cop-who-stomped-on-man-during-south-auckland-arrest-resigns-avoids-prosecution-after-police-investigation
   Not good. Is it that we have the same demeaning process as the USA — do we assess when people need restraint or will come along quietly and have a ‘discussion’ with a police office able to handle mild hysteria which is probably behind many arrests.

8. Books. I think more men will want to learn to read books about emotions, falling in love, being vulnerable and learning how to be strong at the same time. Women had a lot of help from sisters in the 20th century and were starting to spread generous help to men as well and then something happened.

   Perhaps neoliberalism so that when women went out to work after having children, they were either forced to for economic reasons or the money could draw them. It was not good to give the children only he part-time commitment that the upper class in Brit did with their young ones. Now we have the class system back, and avariciousness enters for both males and females.

   Catherine Cookson wrote about both sexes but often from female pov and the times of men being in mines or unemployed after early Industrial Revolution. Georgette Heyer wrote about what was an effete upper class, and men who had a free life to gamble, ride their horses in the hunt, shoot pheasants, fish when in season etc. One female character says the men are mostly on their country estates, killing things! Doing things was not done! But some were taking on new agricultural practices together with their tenants on estates; as King Charles has in Cornwall in backing organics.

   But I think men are the ones to come forward, are needed to go to the end of the century, considering how much change and what, so as to remain human-oriented. As I get round the town I find many thinking and pleasant men and there has been failure of women to change themselves to remain balanced – wiser to manage a job and parenting that suits (and it is important for women to work and not be regarded as lesser or unable to support themselves). I think we are back to relying on men to have a leading and caring role.

   Reading to widen the mind would be good. The net, staring at a screen, is limiting. Films are not good as only content for looking at society, too much swearing, blaspheming, violence, torture,; how can people form good thoughts after regular doses of that. OMG!
   This item on a NZ author is interesting and gives a view of how we need to understand each other, to get through in companionship as a group.
   https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/books/popular-wee-bookshops-owner-and-author-ruth-shaw-returns-with-memoir-sequel
   Also fascinating is the book Commune. https://www.pottonandburton.co.nz/product/commune/

   Syrian people found strength in books and came to recognise them as a treasure, a taonga.
   https://www.npr.org/2020/11/17/935741257/the-book-collectors-opens-the-door-to-a-secret-library-amidst-syrias-civil-war
   https://embraceme.org/blog/the-making-of-syrias-secret-library
   https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36893303 – Syria’s Secret Library

   Reading for ourselves and in a group with discussions may get us through a bit tattered, but still whole in mind and body to year 2100. And then, que sera, sera. How does that get expressed in Chinese?

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