Comments on: The Daily Blog Open Mic – Thursday – 23rd April 2020

By: Greywarbler

Greywarbler — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 02:28:00 +0000

Hi Fornow
19th century thinking. Don’t leave even your DNA there and perhaps the place can find a new balance left to itself. White we watch technologically, we have so many satellites up there I believe it’s almost a traffic jam.

By: Forget now

Forget now — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 09:53:42 +0000

Daughter was racing up and down the hallway before bedtime (quicker than I can move) while shouting; “I go fast window!”. I think she meant that I should watch her rapidly move from her bedroom to the front door (with frosted glass panels). However it did make me think of this old band.

One of their more straightforward songs, but quite beautiful in a late evening kind of way. Never got a music video, so it’s just the cover art from the first album:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=14r0iIACV2A

By: Forget now

Forget now — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 09:45:44 +0000

In reply to Greywarbler. Personally, I would quite like to go to Antarctica myself some day, Grey. However unlikely or undesirable that may seem. Though more the surrounding sub-antarctic islands than the continent itself. Certainly there should be a; take everything that you bring with you away afterwards (including human waste), requirement for all visitors. Which would make going there a lot more expensive! That said, the Antarctic Peninsula is really an Island under all that ice.

By: Greywarbler

Greywarbler — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 08:15:55 +0000

I got a laugh from this little person trying to sound wise on twitter under the post on Deborah Russell struggling with brave or foolhardy small businesspeople and how hard they work for such little money and are under-capitalised and perhaps should be working for someone else in the jobs that are so plentiful, and are probably working for an overseas investor rather than building up a solid home base.
Is she an academic or a financial derivative salesperson or a real estate agent in her other life?

But this – haha!
Colthe”STAYATHOME”man @Coltheman1
6h
Why is ardern butting in on medical questions? She is a blatant attention seeker.
I guess there are two levels of comment on a twitter site – the full sized twitter, and the throw-away twit!

By: Greywarbler

Greywarbler — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 04:42:46 +0000

Maybe Antarctica will get a break from everyone with spare money poking their fingers into the once fabled lands now with country’s permanent scientific and other residents, and up to now gawking humans. Leave it alone and make it an Erebus zone of remembrance.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/414905/the-nz-doctor-aboard-the-cruise-ship-with-more-than-100-covid-19-cases

By: Forget now

Forget now — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 01:52:33 +0000

The phrase; Tsunami of suffering, seems haunting but accurate. It’s not a very technical article, though it does raise some difficult issues about caring for the dying. Doctors and nurses want to make people better, having to accept that they can’t is difficult for them.

However, the standout point for me is the need to early-on ensure a good stockpile of opiates for Aotearoa. Because the price will be inflated like PPE once; nations, and other states, start bidding against each other. Some scumbags will be only too happy to buy low and sell high (making a literal killing on the deal). And while that will be merely inefficient in richer countries, it is the poor if this world who will (again; literally) suffer:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30964-8/fulltext

By: Kheala

Kheala — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 00:07:49 +0000

Last Wednesday huge waves crashed onto Wellington's south coast. Homes were damaged, people were evacuated and one person was swept out into the waves. NIWA were forecasting massive waves, two days earlier. However Wellington City Council had not signed up to get the Big Wave alerts, and still have no protocol in place to receive such warnings. Dom Post Massive Wellington Waves but Nobody Raised Alarm I'm wondering why those warnings are not sent out automatically, to every Council responsible for people living near the coast.

By: Jody

Jody — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 22:25:52 +0000

More evidence of one Covid rule for some – Air NZ don’t love their bubble

It appears Air New Zealand flight crew have been exempt from quarantine after arriving back in the country (RNZ, 2020). One would think that this cohort would be one of the greatest at-risk vectors for transmission. The Air NZ staff are said to be able to have some autonomy in their ‘self isolation’ when arriving back in the country which is in stark contrast to the militarised quarantining of the general public. This is a legal and ethical double standard which is placing the country at risk. Either the risk of harm (in the sense of contracting or transmitting disease) from international travel is low or absent (which brings in to question the proportionality of the virus response creating disruption, fear and uncertainty for citizens) or the government and Ministry of Health can now detain any citizen in this country for any reason while not detaining others for the same (with consequences for human rights, civil liberties and reputation).

RNZ. (2020). Air NZ silent about Covid-19 cases as staff fears grow over quarantine exemption. Retrieved from
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018743516/air-nz-silent-about-covid-19-cases-as-staff-fears-grow-over-quarantine-exemption