Open mike 09/01/2021

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, January 9th, 2021 - 71 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

71 comments on “Open mike 09/01/2021 ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Ad 1
    9 January 2021 at 8:14 am

    Try out the Catlins good people.

    Sealions and Terns.

    Rata in bloom to the roadside.

    • Stuart Munro 1.1
      9 January 2021 at 8:39 am

      Paua & turban shells if you know where to look, fossils at Curio Bay. Fine trout in the Tahakopa too.

  2. Anker 2
    9 January 2021 at 9:47 am
    • Yes Caitlin’s amazing part of the country. Amazing waterfalls. When we were there, many many tourist camper vans. It would be interesting to know how crowded it is now
    • Koff 2.1
      9 January 2021 at 10:35 am

      I first cycled the Catlins coast in 1986. Rough gravel roads, plenty of punctures, sea lions and yellow eyed penguins / hoiho. No tourists, though! My brother in law is heading there soon who usually heads overseas, so guesss it will be crowded (comparatively).

  3. Treetop 3
    9 January 2021 at 12:12 pm

    Can Trump be managed for the next 10 – 11 days?

    Andre you were spot on that Trump was going to do something unusual regarding the inauguration.

    • ianmac 3.1
      9 January 2021 at 12:19 pm

      Some wonder about the Inaugaration in two weeks. Trumpians are taking weapons and Biden may be at risk.

    • NZJester 3.2
      9 January 2021 at 9:35 pm

      News sites are saying that top Generals of the US armed forces have been spoken to and have agreed not to accept any orders to invade another country or launch any nuclear bombs, or other reckless acts without first getting permission from both houses of their government.

      The Dems are also meant to be launching a second impeachment attempt on Monday US time. They have also asked the vice president Pence to maybe invoke the 25th amendment to remove him instead.

  5. Phillip ure 5
    9 January 2021 at 3:39 pm

    and in vegan-curious news:

    I can report that the dairy-free almond-studded magnum..

    ..totally nails it…

    ..in a blind-test..you would swear it is cow-based..

    dunno how they did it..

    ..but did it they did…

    • Andre 5.1
      9 January 2021 at 3:44 pm

      I'm not sure yours is the most convincing endorsement.

      How long has it been since you've had an in-depth comprehensive acquaintance with the delights of dairy products?

      • Ad 5.1.1
        9 January 2021 at 3:51 pm

        Vegan boysenberry Trumpet works ok.

        • Andre 5.1.1.1
          9 January 2021 at 3:55 pm

          Lemme guess – lotsa boysenberry stuff in it?

        • Sacha 5.1.1.2
          9 January 2021 at 3:56 pm

          I'm impressed with such mainstream plant-based options. Our volume-oriented dairy industry really is screwed.

          • Phillip ure 5.1.1.2.1
            9 January 2021 at 4:23 pm

            @ sacha..

            pretty much…

            all of these meat/dairy products can be made locally..

            no need for them to be shipped around the world..

          • weka 5.1.1.2.2
            9 January 2021 at 6:00 pm

            I'm guessing the ecological footprint isn't that much better when compared to relocalising food. It's a very industrial product and as such needs big industrial processes, plus the whole global food supply issue. It's a good for vegans and others avoiding dairy, not so good for the environment.

            NZ's industrial dairying issue is one of capitalism and export. We could raise enough cows in NZ regeneratively to meet our domestic dairy needs.

            • Sacha 5.1.1.2.2.1
              9 January 2021 at 6:02 pm

              The business case for local manufacturing might change when carbon is at full price.

            • Sabine 5.1.1.2.2.2
              9 January 2021 at 6:21 pm

              +1

            • Phillip ure 5.1.1.2.2.3
              9 January 2021 at 7:20 pm

              your guess there on the environmental footprint is way out..

              It is much smaller than meat…

              but I still think the tipping points will be with duplicate vegan options ..

              then you have to insist animals must suffer/die..

              when the cheaper duplicate cruelty-free kobe-beef/whatever..is sitting next to it…

              that cruelty-free option will become the new norm…

              and yes..as already noted our animal-based export industries are on a road to nowhere. .

        • Phillip ure 5.1.1.3
          9 January 2021 at 4:12 pm

          @ ad

          I have been told the vegan trumpets are good..

          I am yet to try one..

          I also never really was a big fan of the trumpet..

          ..it always seemed to be trying too hard.

          ..and just ended up too busy ..

          the magnum is quite simple in comparison..

          the creamy vanilla centre..

          and almond-studded chocolate..

      • Phillip ure 5.1.2
        9 January 2021 at 4:08 pm

        about 23 years..

        I rank it up there with the fake meat that fools carnivores..

        as a major step forward..

        a landscape changer..

        ..the ideal situation as I see it would be each meat-based option having also a vegan option..

        indistinguishable from the animal-based one in taste/texture..

        costing no more and hopefully costing less..in all ways..

        ..then the choice will only be whether or not the consumer insists on an animal being hurt…

        then we will see some serious change…

        • McFlock 5.1.2.1
          9 January 2021 at 4:40 pm

          Had those plant based burger patties a few months back – I had the "beef" and compadre had the "chicken". I found the "beef" oddly gritty, and the "chicken" was just mediocre at best. The vegan technology is now at the stage of approximating the worst cuts of actual meat cooked badly.

          And yet folks still claim it to be "indistinguishable". Do the taste-testers get the "one animal based, one plant based, side by side – tell us which is which" test? I doubt it.

          Knowing my luck, a decent and cheap plant-based scotch fillet will appear on the market just after I drop dead.

          • Ad 5.1.2.1.1
            9 January 2021 at 4:50 pm

            Riverton Tavern pull their Blue Cod straight off the boat.

            Also you can air freight whole Stewart Island Salmon up. Wrap in tinfoil and pack half a cup of couscous around them. Its a big reveal at the table.

          • Phillip ure 5.1.2.1.2
            9 January 2021 at 5:52 pm

            @mcflock..

            did you have the 'beyond meat's ones..

            or some other approximation..?

            'cos there have always been pretend meat things..

            ..most of them crap..

            it is these new ones that are the game-changer…

            • McFlock 5.1.2.1.2.1
              9 January 2021 at 6:16 pm

              "Impossible", I think?

              Anyhow, how many of the new ones copy scotch fillet?

              • The Al1en …
                9 January 2021 at 7:04 pm

                I remember the same chatter how this was the 'game changer' five years ago.

                Apart from a few mega corp burger chains buying in for market share purposes, there's been no wholesale move to frankenfoods, and certainly none of the wishful thinking pole flip.

                Regardless, I'd still eat the real stuff anyway, as I do – Organic, free range and locally reared.

              • Phillip ure …
                9 January 2021 at 7:25 pm

                my understanding is that duplicates of all current meat-options are being developed..

                this is a huge market..

                the economic-imperatives are strong..

          • Phillip ure 5.1.2.1.3
            9 January 2021 at 7:45 pm

            @ mcflock..

            a blind taste-test was done @ mystery creek farmers thing…

            a chef cooked both the same..they were cubed/tooth-picked..

            and passing punters were asked to say which they preferred..

            from memory it was about 50/50 .,which is pretty stunning when one of those 50's was the plant-based one..

            • McFlock 5.1.2.1.3.1
              9 January 2021 at 8:00 pm

              bugger "preferred". If they're "preferred" there's a difference.

              If the question was "which one is meat?" and they only averaged 50/50 correct, that is a "duplicate".

              edit: a slightly lesser objection is that if it has to be cooked by a chef to pass muster, it’s no good to me. I’m not a chef. But for such gimmicks one does want to put one’s best foot forward – unlike the opaque milkbottle debacle when journos couldn’t taste the difference lol

          • alwyn 5.1.2.1.4
            9 January 2021 at 8:46 pm

            " approximating the worst cuts of actual meat cooked badly."

            Now that is what I call an enthusiastic product endorsement. I love the review but I think I'll give the product a miss.

            • McFlock 5.1.2.1.4.1
              9 January 2021 at 9:00 pm

              I mean, they were better than the tofu sausages of ten years ago that people were swearing were just like the real thing (when the "real thing" they were copying was 50% bread). Now they're at least almost up to something that's 100% meat.

              Bit like autonomous cars – who knows where they'll be in ten or twenty years.

  6. Ad 6
    9 January 2021 at 4:10 pm

    Just passed Bowalley Road heading on coast to Kakanui.

    • weka 7.1
      9 January 2021 at 6:01 pm

      we're still not paying attention. People are mostly writing them off as nutters, did we not learn anything in 2016?

      • Sacha 7.1.1
        9 January 2021 at 6:04 pm

        What was the lesson in NZ in 2016?

        • McFlock 7.1.1.1
          9 January 2021 at 6:18 pm

          That whackos can organise and win. We should have learned it in NZ from the US in 2016.

          • Andre 7.1.1.1.1
            9 January 2021 at 6:22 pm

            That whackos can organise and win – in a system as wildly undemocratic as the Repug primaries leading in to the Electoral College.

            • McFlock 7.1.1.1.1.1
              9 January 2021 at 6:27 pm

              fair call. But then complacency here leads to arms officers phoning in the character checks for an aussie firearms license applicant.

          • Sacha 7.1.1.1.2
            9 January 2021 at 8:11 pm

            But the NewCons, Advance NZ and the Pubic Party did so well at the polls..

            • McFlock 7.1.1.1.2.1
              9 January 2021 at 8:22 pm

              Because ACT and JuCo were poaching their membership.

            • weka 7.1.1.1.2.2
              9 January 2021 at 9:44 pm

              Are you saying you think there is no issue in NZ with Trumpian politics? (NewCons, Advance NZ and the Pubic Party aren't the problem, it's Nat/Act)

              • Sacha …
                10 January 2021 at 7:30 am

                I'm asking what the lesson in NZ in 2016 was. I saw one in the US, sure. Did not see a whole lot of ‘organising and winning’ here.

                • Sabine …
                  10 January 2021 at 9:14 am

                  oh there was organising and there was winning. its just that despite 2016 and the last 4 years, the party that won here is still not inclined to do anything about it, despite their clear majority and the lack of others to blame for their own inaction. Question, is the Labour Party learning? hell, no.

      • Andre 7.1.2
        9 January 2021 at 6:08 pm

        Well, by any objective assessment, they are nutters . The questions is, what to do about them.

    • The Al1en 8.1
      9 January 2021 at 5:46 pm

      Benjamin, whose son was at the protest

      Maybe didn't fall too far from the family tree

    • mauī 8.2
      9 January 2021 at 6:29 pm

      From the article:

      "I don't see how his saying he's going to contest the election is a dog-whistle for people to go out and get violent. I know that some people argue he's always emitting these dog whistles with his words, but I don't see that at all. I think he wanted to fire up the crowd… only relatively few went up to the Capitol… I think anyone who says what Trump said was sort of a coded call to violence is wrong."

      Sounds like a sensible and rational academic, who hasn't been sucked into the hysterical cancel culture to me.

      • Anne 8.2.1
        9 January 2021 at 6:42 pm

        From the article:

        "Unlike Benjamin, Dr Hoadley said the rioters were "encouraged by the President", and his attempt at defusing the situation – a one-minute video shot from the safety of the White House lawn – did little to ease tensions, starting with false claims about the election result and praise for the insurrectionists.

        "He did say the right thing that they'd made their point they should now go home… but it was a very mixed message," Dr Hoadley said.

        "It didn't indicate any remorse or any change of view as to his conspiracy theories that he continues to feed his base."

        I would rate Dr. Steve Hoadley (who is recognised as our most experienced analyst of US political affairs) as way above this Benjamin woman who I imagine is a right wing ideologist who supports the US Republican Party.

      • Gabby 8.2.2
        9 January 2021 at 9:31 pm

        Sounds like a disingenuous and blinkered adherant.

  9. mac1 9
    9 January 2021 at 7:11 pm

    And Lucy Lawless speaks truth to impotence.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/300201446/xena-star-lucy-lawless-shuts-down-former-hercules-costar-kevin-sorbo-over-farright-conspiracy-theory

    Sorbo it seems is a conspiracy theorist who commented that the Capitol terrorists were actually liberals. Lucy Lawless tells him otherwise.

  10. Stuart Munro 10
    10 January 2021 at 1:11 am

    There has been some discussion here of the need for increased aerial surveillance in response to Chinese rogue fleets operating near Torres Strait.

    But the character of rogue fishing operations is such that aerial evidence will be disputed, making such actions a farce.

    In this story, Russia and NZ in 'knock out brawl' over fishing vessel in protected Antarctic waters | Stuff.co.nz Russia defends a rogue ship fishing in our Antarctic waters, with apparent impunity.

    Fisheries protection requires the ability to collect physical evidence, and to arrest or confiscate non-compliant vessels. Pressure on these resources is only going to increase – if we mean to keep them, we'd better be prepared to defend them assertively. Russia is known to fire on trespassing vessels. Russia arrests more than 260 North Korean fishermen | Europe News | Al Jazeera

  11. Hunter Thompson II 11
    10 January 2021 at 10:07 am

    For anyone who truly cares about New Zealand and the conservation estate, I strongly suggest they Google "Lords of Water – Al Jazeera".

    It is a documentary series which screened recently, showing how business is taking control of this most precious resource.

    We don't want to go the same way in this country, although the warning signs are already there (hence the "NZ Water Forum – Bung the Bore" protest in Canterbury).

    Be vigilant and your grandchildren will be grateful.

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.