I really must finish Accelerando. I have it on my phone, along with Some of Joe Haldemans best. And the Cory Doctrow Overclocked books I have just finished I Robot. And have I Row-Boat and When Sysadmins ruled the Earth on the go. So there’s my weekend’s spare time taken up.
I really must finish Accelerando. I have it on my phone, along with Some of Joe Haldemans best. And the Cory Doctrow Overclocked books I have just finished I Robot. And have I Row-Boat and When Sysadmins ruled the Earth on the go. So there’s my weekend’s spare time taken up.
This is the second try at posting this as I got a 500 error again.
Catch up on the newspapers and listen to Verdi and Brahams .Sunday, Labour stall in Cambridge.Come and buy a raffle ticket if you are in Cambridge . 50cents off for Standard subscibers.
Reading Alan Bennett’s hilarious book “The Uncommon Reader.” In which Queen Elizabeth in her old age, discovers the joy of reading books for the first time. And this upsets the System by shifting the way things are done. The System tries to obstruct her reading by hiding her books or sending the young man who was her expert accessor of books for her to read, off to a distant university. Imagine the effect when the Queen instead of enquiring about the name and hometown and other inconsequential bits, she starts asking her lined up subjects what books each one is reading – chaos.
It did occur to me to wonder if Her Highness’s legs were shaven and if so, did she do so herself or did one of her staff do so? Bennett has this effect.
Thanks for the heads up ianmac. Sounds like a book worth reading. I hope it’s available in the local library.
Btw, it’s Her Majesty! Goodness me, you’ll be tried for treason.
Are you sure queens and princesses have hair like the rest of us mortals? Anyway, she’s old enough now for them to have disappeared – off her legs anyway.
My weekend will consist of watching the test, which the Aussies just won, and inviting some people around for a Brazilian dinner tomorrow. I’ll also surf the net a bit and think about what it would be like being well enough to catch a plane back home. I might walk a couple of kilometres tomorrow if I’m up to it. Today I managed to get far enough to see yachts on the river.
I will not look at any conspiracy sites on the internet, but I will communicate with people and possibly make a few donations. If I can help someone by providing a listening ear when they’re struggling, I will. I might read a physics article or two if I come across anything interesting, and may even check a few calculations.
Next weekend, and all weekends for the foreseeable future, will be much the same, so those of you who have your health, make the most of it. Go fishing, fly a kite, hug your children, grow some food, and think how we can all build a better world. I’ll do what I can, and I hope you guys will too.
I was lucky enough to read Sister Pauline O’Regan’s “Miles to Go” last weekend. A lovely treatise on age, wisdom and spirituality; and very funny. I am still thinking about it. Yesterday and today, the muse struck and I’ve spent hours writing poetry derived from the experiences of last week-end which I spent travelling from Wellington to Palmerston North and back.
“The beast feeds upon itself.
It slouches slack-arsed toward Bedlam
Its black time come.”
Weekend social 19/10 is out for the long weekend perhaps.
There are a couple of things I have seen that might interest.
From NZ Listener 5/5/12 Quips and Quotes
“You cannot hope to bribe or twist/ Thank God! the British journalist,
But seeing what the man will do/ Unbribed, there’s no occasion to.”
Italian-born English poet Humbert Wolfe (1885-1940)
And quoted by tree planter and environmentalist Richard St Barbe Baker (died 1982)
by Californian poet of the redwoods Stanton A. Coblentz
Songs of the Redwoods –
Long have I felt all gracious trees to wear
The looks of comrades; but I never knew
Even the flowering almond calmly fair
As these whose pillars climb the templed blue.
Colossus-footed, with green heads aloof
As tapering hills that mock at human-kind,
They rear a feathery-leafed, tremendous roof
As though to keep our noblest dreams enshrined.
I think that could the weary world but know
Communion with these spirits breathing peace,
Strangely a veil would lift, a light would glow,
And the dark tumult of our lives would cease.
In his 1944 book ‘I Planted Trees’ he reports the redwoods reached by Redwood Empire Highway as being unbelievably huge. One he paced around took thirty paces, and he thought that fifteen men with outstretched arms might have encircled its great trunk.
It towered to 280 feet but was not the tallest.
By international standards the New Zealand healthcare system appears satisfactory – certainly no worse generally than average. Yet it is undergoing another redisorganisation.While doing some unrelated work, I came across some international data on the healthcare sector which seemed to contradict my – and the conventional wisdom’s – view of ...
When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he knew that he was upending Europe’s security order. But this was more of a tactical gambit than a calculated strategy ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Over the last year, I’ve been warning about Luxon’s pitch to privatise our public assets.He had told reporters in October that nothing was off the cards:Schools, hospitals, prisons, and ...
When ASPI’s Cyclone Tracy: 50 Years On was published last year, it wasn’t just a historical reflection; it was a warning. Just months later, we are already watching history repeat itself. We need to bake ...
1. Why was school lunch provider The Libelle Group in the news this week?a. Grand Winner in Pie of The Yearb. Scored a record 108% on YELP c. Bought by Oravida d. Went into liquidation2. What did our Prime Minister offer prospective investors at his infrastructure investment jamboree?a. The Libelle ...
South Korea has suspended new downloads of DeepSeek, and it was were right to do so. Chinese tech firms operate under the shadow of state influence, misusing data for surveillance and geopolitical advantage. Any country ...
Previous big infrastructure PPPs such as Transmission Gully were fiendishly complicated to negotiate, generated massive litigation and were eventually rewritten anyway. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesLong stories shortest: The Government’s international investment conference ignores the facts that PPPs cost twice as much as vanilla debt-funded public infrastructure, often take ...
Woolworths has proposed a major restructure of its New Zealand store operating model, leaving workers worried their hours and pay could be cut. Public servants are being asked how productive their office is, how much they use AI, and whether they’re overloaded with meetings as part of a “census”. An ...
Robert Kaplan’s book Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis paints a portrait of civilisation in flux. Drawing insights from history, literature and art, he examines the effect of modern technology, globalisation and urbanisation on ...
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Hi,I just got back from a week in Japan thanks to the power of cheap flights and years of accumulated credit card points.The last time I was in Japan the government held a press conference saying they might take legal action against me and Netflix, so there was a little ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on the week in geopolitics, including Donald Trump’s wrecking of the post-WW II political landscape; andHealth Coalition Aotearoa co-chair Lisa ...
Hi,I just got back from a short trip to Japan, mostly spending time in Tokyo.I haven’t been there since we shot Dark Tourist back in 2017 — and that landed us in a bit of hot water with the Japanese government.I am glad to report I was not thrown into ...
I’ve been on Substack for almost 8 months now.It’s been good in terms of the many great individuals that populate its space. So much variety and intelligence and humour and depth.I joined because someone suggested I should ‘start a Substack,’ whatever that meant.So I did.Turning on payments seemed like the ...
Open access notables Would Adding the Anthropocene to the Geologic Time Scale Matter?, McCarthy et al., AGU Advances:The extraordinary fossil fuel-driven outburst of consumption and production since the mid-twentieth century has fundamentally altered the way the Earth System works. Although humans have impacted their environment for millennia, justification for ...
Australia should buy equipment to cheaply and temporarily convert military transport aircraft into waterbombers. On current planning, the Australian Defence Force will have a total of 34 Chinook helicopters and Hercules airlifters. They should be ...
Indonesia’s government has slashed its counterterrorism (CT) budgets, despite the persistent and evolving threat of violent extremism. Australia can support regional CT efforts by filling this funding void. Reducing funding to the National Counterterrorism Agency ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Resource Management (Prohibition on Extraction of Freshwater for On-selling) Amendment Bill (Debbie Ngarewa-Packer) The bill does exactly what it says on the label, and would effectively end the rapacious water-bottling industry ...
Twilight Time Lighthouse Cuba, Wigan Street, Wellington, Sunday 6 April, 5:30pm for 6pm start. Twilight Time looks at the life and work of Desmond Ball, (1947-2016), a barefooted academic from ‘down under’ who was hailed by Jimmy Carter as “the man who saved the world”, as he proved the fallacy ...
Foreign aid is being slashed across the Global North, nowhere more so than in the United States. Within his first month back in the White House, President Donald Trump dismantled the US Agency for International ...
Nicola Willis has proposed new procurement rules that unions say will lead to pay cuts for already low-paid workers in cleaning, catering and security services that are contracted by government. The Crimes (Theft by Employer) Amendment Bill passed its third reading with support from all the opposition parties and NZ ...
Most KP readers will not know that I was a jazz DJ in Chicago and Washington DC while in grad school in the early and mid 1980s. In DC I joined WPFW as a grave shift host, then a morning drive show host (a show called Sui Generis, both for ...
Long stories shortest: The IMF says a capital gains tax or land tax would improve real economic growth and fix the budget. GDP is set to be smaller by 2026 than it was in 2023. Compass is flying in school lunches from Australia. 53% of National voters say the new ...
Last year in October I wrote “Where’s The Opposition?”. I was exasperated at the relative quiet of the Green Party, Labour and Te Pati Māori (TPM), as the National led Coalition ticked off a full bingo card of the Atlas Network playbook.1To be fair, TPM helped to energise one of ...
This is a re-post from The Climate BrinkGood data visualizations can help make climate change more visceral and understandable. Back in 2016 Ed Hawkins published a “climate spiral” graph that ended up being pretty iconic – it was shown at the opening ceremony of the Olympics that year – and ...
An agreement to end the war in Ukraine could transform Russia’s relations with North Korea. Moscow is unlikely to reduce its cooperation with Pyongyang to pre-2022 levels, but it may become more selective about areas ...
This week, the Government is hosting a grand event aimed at trying to interest big foreign capital players in financing capital works in New Zealand, particularly its big rural motorway programme. Financing vs funding: a quick explainer The key word in the sentence above is financing. It is important ...
In a month’s time, the Right Honourable Winston Peters will be celebrating his 80th birthday. Good for him. On the evidence though, his current war on “wokeness” looks like an old man’s cranky complaint that the ancient virtues of grit and know-how are sadly lacking in the youth of today. ...
As noted, early March has been about moving house, and I have had little chance to partake in all things internet. But now that everything is more or less sorted, I can finally give a belated report on my visit to the annual Regent Booksale (28th February and 1st March). ...
Information operations Australia has banned cybersecurity software Kaspersky from government use because of risks of espionage, foreign interference and sabotage. The Department of Home Affairs said use of Kaspersky products posed an unacceptable security ...
The StrategistBy Linus Cohen, Astrid Young and Alice Wai
One of the best understood tropes of screen drama is the scene where the beloved family dog is barking incessantly and cannot be calmed. Finally, somebody asks: What is it, girl? Has someone fallen down a well? Is there trouble at the old John Key place?One is reminded of this ...
The ’ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia, plays a significant role in the global cocaine trade and is deeply entrenched in Australia, influencing the cocaine trade and engaging in a variety of illicit activities. A range of ...
In the US, the Trump regime is busy imposing tariffs on its neighbours and allies, then revoking them, then reimposing them, permanently poisoning relations with Canada and Mexico. Trump has also threatened to impose tariffs on agricultural goods, which will affect Aotearoa's exports. National's response? To grovel for an exemption, ...
Troy Bowker’s Caniwi Capital’s Desmond Gittings, former TradeMe and Warehouse executive Simon West, former anonymous right wing blogger / Labour attacker & now NZ On Air Board member / Waitangi Tribunal member Philip Crump, Canadian billionaire Jim Grenon who used to run vaccine critical, Treaty of Waitangi critical, and trans-rights ...
The free school lunch program was one of Labour's few actual achievements in government. Decent food, made locally, providing local employment. So naturally, National had to get rid of it. Their replacement - run by Compass, a multinational which had already been thrown out of our hospitals for producing inedible ...
New draft government procurement guidelines will remove living wage protections for thousands of low-paid workers in Aotearoa New Zealand, said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff. “The Minister of Finance Nicola Willis has proposed a new rule saying that the Living Wage no longer needs to be paid in ...
The Trump administration’s effort to divide Russia from China is doomed to fail. This means that the United States is destroying security relationships based on a delusion. To succeed, Russia would need to overcome more ...
Māori workers now hold more high-skilled jobs than low-skilled jobs with 46 percent in high-skilled jobs, 14 percent in skilled jobs, and 40 percent in low-skilled jobs. Resource teachers of literacy and Te Reo Māori are “devastated” by a proposal from the Education Minister to stop funding 174 roles from ...
Knowing what is going on in orbit is getting harder—yet hardly less necessary. But new technologies are emerging to cope with the challenge, including some that have come from Australian civilian research. One example is ...
This is a guest post by Malcolm McCracken. It previously appeared on his blog Better Things Are Possible and is shared by kind permission. New Zealand’s largest infrastructure project, the City Rail Link (CRL), is expected to open in 2026. This will be an exciting step forward for Auckland, delivering better ...
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Should I stay, or should I go now?Should I stay, or should I go now?If I go, there will be troubleAnd if I stay, it will be doubleSo come on and let me knowSongwriters: Topper Headon, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon, Joe Strummer.Christopher,Tomorrow marks seventeen months since the last election. We’re ...
Homelessness in Auckland has risen by 53% in 4 months - that’s 653 peopleliving in cars, on streets and in parks.The city’s emergency housing numbers have fallen by about 650 under National too - now at record lows.Housing First Auckland is on the frontlines: There is “more and more ...
A growing consensus holds that the future of airpower, and of defense technology in general, involves the interplay of crewed and uncrewed vehicles. Such teaming means that more-numerous, less-costly, even expendable uncrewed vehicles can bring ...
Only two more sleeps to the Government’s Jamboree Investor Extravaganza! As a proud New Zealander I’m very much hoping for the best: Off-shore wind farms! Solar power! Sustainable industry powered by the abundant energy we could be producing!I wonder, will they have a deal already lined up, something to announce ...
After decades of gradual decline, Australia’s manufacturing capability is no longer mission-fit to meet national security needs. Any whole-of-nation effort to arrest this trend needs to start by making the industrial operating environment more conducive ...
Back in October 2022, Restore Passenger Rail hung banners across roads in Wellington to protest against the then-Labour government's weak climate change policy. The police responded by charging them not with the usual public order offences, but with "endangering transport", a crime with a maximum sentence of 14 years in ...
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The CTU is calling for an apology from Nicola Willis after her office made a false characterisation of CTU statements, which ultimately saw him blocked from future Treasury briefings. New data shows that Māori make up 83% of those charged under new gang laws. Financial incentives are being offered to ...
Australia’s cyber capabilities have evolved rapidly, but they are still largely reactive, not preventative. Rather than responding to cyber incidents, Australian law enforcement agencies should focus on dismantling underlying criminal networks. On 11 December, Europol ...
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The Australian government has prioritised enhancing Australia’s national resilience for many years now, whether against natural disasters, economic coercion or hostile armed forces. However, the public and media response to the presence of Chinese naval ...
It appears that Auckland Transport is finally set to improve Auckland’s busiest non-frequent bus route, the 120. As highlighted in my post a month ago on Auckland’s busiest bus routes, the 120 is the busiest route that doesn’t already run frequently all day/week and carries more passengers than many other ...
Economists have earned their reputation for jargon and tunnel vision, but sometimes, it takes an someone as perceptive as Simplicity economist Shamubeel Eaqub to identify something simple and devastating. As he pointed out recently, the coalition government is trying to attract foreign investment here to generate economic growth, while – ...
Opinion & AnalysisSimeon Brown, left, and Deloitte partner David LovattIn September 2024, Deloitte Partner David Lovatt, was contracted by the National Government to help National ostensibly understand “the drivers behind HNZ’s worsening financial performance”.1 i.e. deficit.The report shows the last version was dated December 2024.It was formally released this week ...
This cobbled-together government was altogether more the beneficiary of Labour getting turfed out than anything it managed to do itself. Even the worthless cheques they were writing didn't buy all that much favour.How’s it all looking now?Shall we take a look at a Horizon poll?The Government’s performance is making only ...
There's horrible news from the US today, with the Trump regime disappearing Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student, for protesting against genocide in Gaza. Its another significant decline in US human rights, and puts them in the same class as the authoritarian dictatorships they used to sponsor in South ...
Yesterday National announced plans to amend the Public Works Act to "speed up" land acquisition for public works. Which sounds boring and bureaucratic - except its not. Because what "land acquisition" means is people's homes being compulsorily acquired by the state - which is inherently controversial, and fairly high up ...
Contenders: The next question after “Will Luxon really go?” is, of course, “Will that work?” The answer to that question lies not so much in the efficacy of Luxon’s successor as it does in the perceived strength of the Centre-Left alternative.AT LEAST TWO prominent political commentators are alluding publicly to the ...
Ice will melt, water will boilYou and I can shake off this mortal coilIt's bigger than usYou don't have to worry about itIt's circumstantialIt's nothing written in the skyAnd we don't even have to trySongwriters: Neil Finn / Tim Finn.Preparing for the future.Many of you will be familiar with the ...
In my post last Thursday I offered some thoughts on changes that should be initiated by the government in the wake of the Governor’s surprise resignation. (Days on we still have no real explanation as to why he just resigned with no notice, disappearing out the door and (eg) leaving ...
In late February a Chinese navy flotilla including a cruiser, a frigate and a replenishment ship began to circle Australia, conducting a live fire exercise in the Tasman Sea along the way. The Strategist featured ...
China’s deployment of a potent surface action group around Australia over the past two weeks is unprecedented but not unique. Over the past few years, China’s navy has deployed a range of vessels in Australia’s ...
Long stories shortest in Aotearoa’s political economy this morning: Within months and before Parliamentary approval is obtained, the Government plans to strip non-Maori landowners of the right to use the Environment Court to stop compulsory acquisition for fast-track projects and big new motorways.The Government also wants to buy off landowners ...
Hi,When I was 16 (pimples, braces, painfully awkward) — I applied for a job at Video Ezy.It’s difficult to describe how much I wanted this job. Video Ezy was my local video shop in Tauranga, and I’d spend hours of my teenage life stalking through those aisles, looking at the ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 2, 2025 thru Sat, March 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. We are still interested ...
The title of this post comes from Albert Wohlstetter’s 1976 seminal essay Moving Towards Life in a Nuclear Armed Crowd. In that essay he contemplated a world in which several nations had nuclear weapons, and also the strategic logics governing their proliferation, deployment and use (mainly as a deterrent). For ...
Adrian Orr resigned unexpectedly and immediately on Wednesday, giving no explanation for departing three years before the end of his second term. File Photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories shortest in our political economy this week: David Seymour’s lunch programme came under increasing scrutiny;Adrian Orr resigned unexpectedly after clashing with Nicola Willis ...
Labour does not support the private ownership of core infrastructure like schools, hospitals and prisons, which will only see worse outcomes for Kiwis. ...
The Green Party is disappointed the Government voted down Hūhana Lyndon’s member’s Bill, which would have prevented further alienation of Māori land through the Public Works Act. ...
The Labour Party will support Chloe Swarbrick’s member’s bill which would allow sanctions against Israel for its illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories. ...
The Government’s new procurement rules are a blatant attack on workers and the environment, showing once again that National’s priorities are completely out of touch with everyday Kiwis. ...
With Labour and Te Pāti Māori’s official support, Opposition parties are officially aligned to progress Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in Palestine. ...
Te Pāti Māori extends our deepest aroha to the 500 plus Whānau Ora workers who have been advised today that the govt will be dismantling their contracts. For twenty years , Whānau Ora has been helping families, delivering life-changing support through a kaupapa Māori approach. It has built trust where ...
Labour welcomes Simeon Brown’s move to reinstate a board at Health New Zealand, bringing the destructive and secretive tenure of commissioner Lester Levy to an end. ...
This morning’s announcement by the Health Minister regarding a major overhaul of the public health sector levels yet another blow to the country’s essential services. ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill that will ensure employment decisions in the public service are based on merit and not on forced woke ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ targets. “This Bill would put an end to the woke left-wing social engineering and diversity targets in the public sector. ...
Police have referred 20 offenders to Destiny Church-affiliated programmes Man Up and Legacy as ‘wellness providers’ in the last year, raising concerns that those seeking help are being recruited into a harmful organisation. ...
Te Pāti Māori welcomes the resignation of Richard Prebble from the Waitangi Tribunal. His appointment in October 2024 was a disgrace- another example of this government undermining Te Tiriti o Waitangi by appointing a former ACT leader who has spent his career attacking Māori rights. “Regardless of the reason for ...
Police Minister Mark Mitchell is avoiding accountability by refusing to answer key questions in the House as his Government faces criticism over their dangerous citizen’s arrest policy, firearm reform, and broken promises to recruit more police. ...
The number of building consents issued under this Government continues to spiral, taking a toll on the infrastructure sector, tradies, and future generations of Kiwi homeowners. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Prime Minister to rule out joining the AUKUS military pact in any capacity following the scenes in the White House over the weekend. ...
The Green Party is appalled by the Government’s plan to disestablish Resource Teachers of Māori (RTM) roles, a move that takes another swing at kaupapa Māori education. ...
The Government’s levies announcement is a step in the right direction, but they must be upfront about who will pay its new infrastructure levies and ensure that first-home buyers are protected from hidden costs. ...
The Government’s levies announcement is a step in the right direction, but they must be upfront about who will pay its new infrastructure levies and ensure that first-home buyers are protected from hidden costs. ...
After months of mana whenua protecting their wāhi tapu, the Green Party welcomes the pause of works at Lake Rotokākahi and calls for the Rotorua Lakes Council to work constructively with Tūhourangi and Ngāti Tumatawera on the pathway forward. ...
New Zealand First continues to bring balance, experience, and commonsense to Government. This week we've made progress on many of our promises to New Zealand.Winston representing New ZealandWinston Peters is overseas this week, with stops across the Middle East and North Asia. Winston's stops include Saudi Arabia, the ...
Green Party Co-Leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have announced the party’s plans to deliver a Green Budget this year to offer an alternative vision to the Government’s trickle-down economics and austerity politics. ...
At this year's State of the Planet address, Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick announced the party’s plans to deliver a Green Budget this year to offer an alternative vision to the Government’s trickle-down economics and austerity politics. ...
The Government has spent $3.6 million dollars on a retail crime advisory group, including paying its chair $920 a day, to come up with ideas already dismissed as dangerous by police. ...
The Green Party supports the peaceful occupation at Lake Rotokākahi and are calling for the controversial sewerage project on the lake to be stopped until the Environment Court has made a decision. ...
ActionStation’s Oral Healthcare report, released today, paints a dire picture of unmet need and inequality across the country, highlighting the urgency of free dental care for all New Zealanders. ...
As the world marks three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced additional sanctions on Russian entities and support for Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction. “Russia’s illegal invasion has brought three years of devastation to Ukraine’s people, environment, and infrastructure,” Mr Peters says. “These additional sanctions target 52 ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced the Government’s plan to reform the Overseas Investment Act and make it easier for New Zealand businesses to receive new investment, grow and pay higher wages. “New Zealand is one of the hardest countries in the developed world for overseas people to ...
MONDAYAt precisely 0300 hours I gave last-minute instructions to a team of crack troops who had sworn their allegiance in the war against woke left-wing social engineering and diversity targets in the public sector. They assembled in the basement bunker at the Beehive. It was built to withstand nuclear radiation. ...
It’s been six years since a lone gunman opened fire at two mosques in Christchurch, killing 51 people, shattering the country’s innocence and changing lives forever.Now a young Afghan-Kiwi couple, who were praying in another mosque in the Garden City that fateful day, is releasing a film in remembrance of ...
Gabi Lardies for now, Mad Chapman next week. Despite allegations they’re filled with shit books, I cannot pass by a little library without having a peek inside. Two weeks ago, stretching my legs from a hard morning sitting on my non-ergonomic wheely chair, I spied two curious spines in the ...
Poet Kate Camp learned to swim late in life. Now it’s a defining component of her identity. But why won’t she write about it? I learned to swim in a 15 metre pool in the backyard of Mandi’s place in Paraparaumu. That’s not true. I learned to swim in a ...
The highs, lows and silver linings of single-parenting a toddler. He lay there prone, unmoving, his dark eyes glassy and fixed on the ceiling above. My daughter looked at him, then at me. “Is that… Daddy?” I sighed. “No, darling, that’s not Daddy.” I grabbed the man to whom her ...
The star of Secrets at Red Rocks takes us through his life in television, including being duped by the Goodnight Kiwi and botching a song on Shortland Street. Whether he’s musing over a murder mystery as a cop in One Lane Bridge or in the midst of a surprise tandem ...
With the passenger seat withdrawn like this, for extra leg room, it occurs to Llew that someone has been having sex in this car. He and Nancy haven’t had sex since Waiheke. Barely even a kiss. Nancy shields her nipples with a forearm now out of the shower and Llew’s ...
With five regular season games remaining, the Wellington Phoenix women are still in with a great chance of finishing in the top six of the A-League and making the business end of this season’s competition.This Saturday night, they travel across the Tasman to face bottom of the table Sydney FC, ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Giff Johnson, editor of the Marshall Islands Journal and RNZ Pacific correspondent in Majuro The late Member of Parliament Jeton Anjain and the people of the nuclear test-affected Rongelap Atoll changed the course of the history of the Marshall Islands by using Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior ship to ...
Health Minister Simeon Brown rejected advice from officials to lower the bowel screening age to 58 for the general population and 56 for Māori and Pacific people, just-released documents show. ...
Much was made in the build-up about the bipartisan spirit of the summit, with both government and opposition aware of the need to see through projects beyond election cycles. ...
COMMENTARY:By Gavin Ellis New Zealand-based Canadian billionaire James Grenon owes the people of this country an immediate explanation of his intentions regarding media conglomerate NZME. This cannot wait until a shareholders’ meeting at the end of April. Is his investment in the owner of The New Zealand Herald and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carolina Quintero Rodriguez, Senior Lecturer and Program Manager, Bachelor of Fashion (Enterprise) program, RMIT University Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock When you come home from a run or a sweaty gym session, do you immediately fling your clothes into the washing machine for a hot ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexis Vassiley, Lecturer, School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University Aussie Family Living/Shutterstock A battle is underway on the mine sites in Western Australia’s remote Pilbara region. Unions are keen to get back into the iron ore industry after decades ...
"It will be a chance, really, for an update as to the different lines of diplomatic efforts that are going in across securing peace in Ukraine," Luxon said. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pat McConville, Lecturer in Ethics, Law, and Professionalism, School of Medicine, Deakin University Master1305/Shutterstock This week, doctors announced that an Australian man with severe heart failure had left hospital with an artificial heart that had kept him alive until he could ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanya Latty, Associate Professor, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney Mircea Costina/Shutterstock About 90% of flowering plants rely on animals to transfer their pollen and optimise reproduction, making pollination one of nature’s most important processes. Bees are usually ...
A first step of good faith would be the reinstatement of a Social Sector Budget lockup for Budget 2025, inviting a cross-section of organisations representing the diversity of our population to hear key Budget messages firsthand. ...
The great thing about living on a rotating planet with an orbiting rocky satellite is that opportunities for orbs to align, well, come around. Here’s how to enjoy tonight’s lunar eclipse. In May 2024, Aotearoa was blessed with the celestial phenomenon of an exceptionally strong solar storm, causing the aurora ...
A new poem by Ted Greensmith-West. My grief is like a never-ending anticipation of impending dooms The dark hand that lurks behind the curtain is like Dorothy in photonegative with snarled teeth and pigtails… and acts as the constant reminder that Cole is dead forever now, like dust. // The ...
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Opening Night tonight! Boomshakalaka!
Then, the Sunday drudgery of tidying up referencing on my dissertation before handing in final copy. Urgh, APA 6th FML!
.
twisted and blistered
callused and tanked
grounded and holed and definitely not banked
Clubbing tonight…
Hoping this sun sticks around so I can hit the beach tomorrow so that I can begin turning this white see through body into a bronze goddess
Or a bright red lobster?
Coming to think of it, they were in Accelerando as well. The Uplifted lobsters.
I can’t help but think of Rock Lobster by the B-52s
[lprent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szhJzX0UgDM ]
I really must finish Accelerando. I have it on my phone, along with Some of Joe Haldemans best. And the Cory Doctrow Overclocked books I have just finished I Robot. And have I Row-Boat and When Sysadmins ruled the Earth on the go. So there’s my weekend’s spare time taken up.
I really must finish Accelerando. I have it on my phone, along with Some of Joe Haldemans best. And the Cory Doctrow Overclocked books I have just finished I Robot. And have I Row-Boat and When Sysadmins ruled the Earth on the go. So there’s my weekend’s spare time taken up.
This is the second try at posting this as I got a 500 error again.
reading, time with family and some quiet reflection this weekend. Its been a stressful week!
Preparing for the Party conference with the LEC.
Then leaving for the Wanaka late snow until Labour Day.
Catch up on the newspapers and listen to Verdi and Brahams .Sunday, Labour stall in Cambridge.Come and buy a raffle ticket if you are in Cambridge . 50cents off for Standard subscibers.
Reading Alan Bennett’s hilarious book “The Uncommon Reader.” In which Queen Elizabeth in her old age, discovers the joy of reading books for the first time. And this upsets the System by shifting the way things are done. The System tries to obstruct her reading by hiding her books or sending the young man who was her expert accessor of books for her to read, off to a distant university. Imagine the effect when the Queen instead of enquiring about the name and hometown and other inconsequential bits, she starts asking her lined up subjects what books each one is reading – chaos.
It did occur to me to wonder if Her Highness’s legs were shaven and if so, did she do so herself or did one of her staff do so? Bennett has this effect.
Thanks for the heads up ianmac. Sounds like a book worth reading. I hope it’s available in the local library.
Btw, it’s Her Majesty! Goodness me, you’ll be tried for treason.
Are you sure queens and princesses have hair like the rest of us mortals? Anyway, she’s old enough now for them to have disappeared – off her legs anyway.
My weekend will consist of watching the test, which the Aussies just won, and inviting some people around for a Brazilian dinner tomorrow. I’ll also surf the net a bit and think about what it would be like being well enough to catch a plane back home. I might walk a couple of kilometres tomorrow if I’m up to it. Today I managed to get far enough to see yachts on the river.
I will not look at any conspiracy sites on the internet, but I will communicate with people and possibly make a few donations. If I can help someone by providing a listening ear when they’re struggling, I will. I might read a physics article or two if I come across anything interesting, and may even check a few calculations.
Next weekend, and all weekends for the foreseeable future, will be much the same, so those of you who have your health, make the most of it. Go fishing, fly a kite, hug your children, grow some food, and think how we can all build a better world. I’ll do what I can, and I hope you guys will too.
I was lucky enough to read Sister Pauline O’Regan’s “Miles to Go” last weekend. A lovely treatise on age, wisdom and spirituality; and very funny. I am still thinking about it. Yesterday and today, the muse struck and I’ve spent hours writing poetry derived from the experiences of last week-end which I spent travelling from Wellington to Palmerston North and back.
“The beast feeds upon itself.
It slouches slack-arsed toward Bedlam
Its black time come.”
Weekend social 19/10 is out for the long weekend perhaps.
There are a couple of things I have seen that might interest.
From NZ Listener 5/5/12 Quips and Quotes
“You cannot hope to bribe or twist/ Thank God! the British journalist,
But seeing what the man will do/ Unbribed, there’s no occasion to.”
Italian-born English poet Humbert Wolfe (1885-1940)
And quoted by tree planter and environmentalist Richard St Barbe Baker (died 1982)
by Californian poet of the redwoods Stanton A. Coblentz
Songs of the Redwoods –
Long have I felt all gracious trees to wear
The looks of comrades; but I never knew
Even the flowering almond calmly fair
As these whose pillars climb the templed blue.
Colossus-footed, with green heads aloof
As tapering hills that mock at human-kind,
They rear a feathery-leafed, tremendous roof
As though to keep our noblest dreams enshrined.
I think that could the weary world but know
Communion with these spirits breathing peace,
Strangely a veil would lift, a light would glow,
And the dark tumult of our lives would cease.
In his 1944 book ‘I Planted Trees’ he reports the redwoods reached by Redwood Empire Highway as being unbelievably huge. One he paced around took thirty paces, and he thought that fifteen men with outstretched arms might have encircled its great trunk.
It towered to 280 feet but was not the tallest.