Comments on: The Daily Blog Open Mic – 15th May 2025

By: Greywarbler

Greywarbler — Sun, 18 May 2025 02:07:04 +0000

I’ll just add this from Ian Rankin. Writers of series have to imagine their characters and after a while they are like someone you know that lives in another part of the country.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/books/why-do-humans-do-terrible-things-ian-rankin-is-still-finding-out
…For Rankin, crime novels are the best vehicle for commenting on and investigating moral questions, social issues and political issues.
A police detective is a good character through which to analyse a national culture, he says, but Rebus himself has “stuck around” this long because he happens to be a very interesting person.
“The only way I could find out more about him and what makes him tick, try to get to the heart of the man, was to keep writing books.
“About nine books in, I thought, ‘This is me. I mean, I’m married to this guy now, basically.’
“The first book was published when I was 26, and I’m 65 so basically he’s been in my head for 40 years, and he just refuses to leave.”,,,

By: Greywarbler

Greywarbler — Thu, 15 May 2025 10:57:05 +0000

This sounds so light you might float, could be what is needed.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/screens/tv/seven-takeaways-from-the-new-zealand-episode-of-conan-o-brien-must-go
You probably saw the headlines when US late night talk show host Conan O’Brien made his way to New Zealand last year.
There was his cameo on Shortland Street and he was one of thousands that came together to help take the haka world record from France. In the New Zealand episode of Conan O’Brien Must Go, we learn the US comedian was lured here by the hunt for a guy named Riley who lives in a converted shipping container in Hokitika and poops in a bucket….
And wait there’s more.

By: Greywarbler

Greywarbler — Thu, 15 May 2025 02:25:23 +0000

https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/wellbeing/working-long-hours-it-could-be-altering-the-structure-of-your-brain-new-study-says
This is relevant, and consider allows more time for brainwashing to occur with no room fr questioning oneelf or the methods of the task.
and
https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/wellbeing/cognitive-shuffling-a-mental-trick-to-help-you-quiet-racing-thoughts-and-fall-asleep
I suggest get your random words from reading a book written by an author who has clever plots and a bit of British 20thC humour. Try Terry Pratchett’s Discworld for either sex. And British detective stories not grim, try ones from the ‘golden age’ mainly women, and Josephine Tey. Or Edward Marston both train and other ‘lines’, Michael Gilbert, Michael Innes, Ruth Dudley Edwards, C.P.Snow serious style on uni/political matters. RF Delderfield series A Horseman Riding By, and the Roberts – Harris, Goddard, Barnard. Your mind has a holiday in another space.

By: Greywarbler

Greywarbler — Thu, 15 May 2025 02:00:43 +0000

What’s this – where’s the catch?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/561104/nz-launches-world-first-anonymous-reporting-platform-to-combat-foreign-bribery

By: Greywarbler

Greywarbler — Thu, 15 May 2025 01:31:25 +0000

In reply to The Chairman. Hear, hear, another workable idea from The Chairman. If we all have just one, chosen from the hundred at the back of our minds, we would have the manifesto of a new Party, partly!

By: The Chairman

The Chairman — Wed, 14 May 2025 20:35:52 +0000

Now that the warnings have been made public, will the MSM hold National to account?

Simeon Brown has questions to answer

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/561035/public-doctors-will-quit-if-easy-operations-are-outsourced-to-private-hospitals-radiologist-says

Hey Labour, this would be the time to announce the party would undo this as soon as you get back into power