The Daily Blog Open Mic – 2nd August 2025

1. Some good news

   I like what Bryce Edwards is up too.

   https://theplatform.kiwi/podcasts/episode/bryce-edwards-on-why-the-integrity-institute-funds-newsroom

   https://theintegrityinstitute.org.nz/

   But Cameron Slater isn’t too happy about it.

   https://theplatform.kiwi/podcasts/episode/cam-slater-on-bryce-edwards-the-integrity-institute-funding-newsroom

   And Sean Plunket wants in on the funding.

2. With so many smart women coming out of university, entering fully into life outside the home, managing their own affairs – which was the result of 6s-70s womens lib – how come wee end4ed up with tight and unreasonable and even unfair property and family matters making problems in changing relationships? Where was the overview to ensure fairness and prevent predatory behaviour from either partner in break-ups?

   https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/568784/can-a-partner-claim-part-of-my-house-if-we-never-lived-together-ask-susan
   ,,,I recently separated and managed to buy the house and own it myself with a mortgage … I have been seeing someone that I don’t plan to live with. So my question is if you have a relationship with someone for a length of time that you don’t live with or share bills with do I need to protect myself with a prenuptial agreement? When does the relationship need to have documentation of what I own and never want to share?

   People normally think of relationship property issues arising when a couple lives together but you can sometimes be captured even if you’re living apart.
   Otago University law professor Nicola Peart said this question came down to whether a relationship would qualify as ‘de facto’.
   She pointed to the Property Relationships Act, which sets out a definition of a de facto relationship.
   But she said none of the criteria were essential to decide that someone was in such a relationships.

   The act says that the things taken into account include the nature of the relationship, the extent of common residence, whether you have a sexual relationship, the amount of financial interdependence between the parties, the ownership and use of property, the degree of mutual commitment to a shared life, the performance of household duties and the public aspects of the relationship, as well as the care of children.

   So it’s possible you could tick off those factors while still maintaining separate homes.
   “Not living in the same house or not sharing finances does not exclude the possibility that a de facto relationship exists. If in doubt, contract out to preserve separate property,” Peart said…

   My partner of 11yrs received his inheritance last September. Just wondering if I’m entitled to any of it … we split up just five weeks ago due to an argument. ?
   It sort of depends what he did with it when he received it.
   If it went into a joint bank account you both contribute to and pay bills from, or into a mortgage on your family home, for example, then it’s likely to have become relationship property and you would be entitled to a share of it.
   But if he has kept it separate, you might not be….

   An example of a real lack in the law despite what I think of as too extensive and lavish considerations, I knew a woman who had put up with a husband who became an alcoholic and once retired, got so bad that he would crawl along the hall to bed, and urinate into the wardrobe. She finally had enough, divorced, and he died a year later leaving her nothing in his will. Was that a reasonable outcome for her?
   I don’t think so.

3. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/568794/lack-of-planning-led-to-kaitaia-s-aquifer-project-budget-blow-out-and-delays-review-finds
   Oh blast, sad for Kaitaia and sad for Northland’s need for better services. With all the officious officialdom we have, it is a pity there isn’t priority given to people who serve the people.

   We need to spend money on basics, and give the finger to the middle class wanting things like cycle ways, quoting huge figures for the earning and tourist benefit. And then the ways go bellyup washed down the hill along with half of it because they have disturbed the unstable slope.

   We can get water where we don’t want it, water that is dirty or polluted with shit or man-made chemicals, but contained healthy water to our taps – well? And what is the water like that gets exported ? Perhaps we could start polluting the premier drinking water so that there isn’t a sale for it. Let’s all have it – equality again.

4. For those with curiosity and keen for ideas of how we can manage our future as humans in a more intelligent way. Ever wondered if we can learn to live without wanting war revenge and general destruction of other people within our society who are wanting to make change, or are different, or on other societies who have something that we want etcetc

   How can we stop the cycle of wars and retaliation. Greed and boom and bust etcetc.
   Work on genetics looking at how foxes can be gentled to get on with humans. Compare them to dogs. Can we breed ourselves without coldly turning ourselves or each other into lab animals? We can look on internet for medical help, go to GP to make changes, empathise with someone who has problems. In other words we can think and take steps to make changes intentionally. Do we have to do that now?

   What we have accomplished till now seems a cycle of learning and advancement, followed by devastating war that takes us off the tracks we had been running on, and onto others that lead to more problems. Example – the end result of long term antipathy to Jews culminating in the outrageous acts of WW2 and since, more war development and the growth of bloody mindedness arising from the awful behaviours. Compare this to the dreadful WW1 stalemate for the western nations which I think was the Somme front. The soldiers were faced with awful conditions in trenches for a long time. But the people enforcing that were on their own side so the resentment didn’t go so deep. But what if we could avoid such things happening altogether?

   What if we could use our knowledge of genetics in a mild way on ourselves? Perhaps limit the number of children born to people who had violence in their family background? And of course children would be brought up by their parents in a happy environment enjoy learning things that would help them through life. We apparently can’t leave it to nature; evolution of humans seems to show individualism, being self-centred and materialistic grows as conditions improve.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftjN2BQL_HQ 19.24m
   CARTA: Domestication & Evolution – Anna Kukekova: Fox Domestication & Genetics of Complex Behaviours
   (Visit: http://www.uctv.tv) Anna Kukekova (Univ of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) discusses the genetics-centered view of domestication that was supported by the experimental selection of farm-bred foxes (Vulpes vulpes) at the Russian Institute of Cytology and Genetics back in the 1950s. The selection of foxes, some for tame and some for aggressive behavior, yielded two strains with markedly different, genetically determined, behavioral phenotypes. These fox strains have provided a rich resource for investigating the genetics of complex social behaviors. Recorded on 10/10/2014. Series: “CARTA – Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny” [Science] [Show ID: 28896]

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFClIlkLoVA
   Russia’s Experiment turned wild foxes into pet dogs in 60 years
   841,530 views Jan 31, 2025 18.25
   In 1959, a Soviet scientist did something that would change our understanding
   of evolution forever. .

5. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/568768/libertarian-tech-titan-peter-thiel-helped-make-jd-vance-the-republican-kingmaker-s-influence-is-growing
   POV – point of view or Protect Ohio Values. Whatever!

   …The decline of US elites (and by extension, the nation) is supposedly a result of technological stagnation: declining innovation, trivial distractions, broken infrastructure. To make the nation great again, Thiel believes, tech should come first, corporates should be unshackled, and the state should resemble the startup…
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel

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