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6:00 am, February 4th, 2026 - 48 comments
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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 …
Not sure if people are aware…but Feb is NZ/Aotearoa Bike Month.
If not already Biking…never too late to begin : )
And so many reasons. Sustainable, Environmental, Health, Financial…
And here is something.. New Year, New You : )
Fantastic, I cycle quite a lot myself. I do think we need to educate cyclists about their responsibilities while riding on public roads, cycle ways, shared paths and footpaths. It’s almost a weekly occurrence in Wellington where cyclists abuse any pedestrian that dares to not get out of the path of a cyclist, especially outside my office in central Wellington. Someone with eventually have a terrible accident. In a cycle vs pedestrian, the cyclist will almost certainly be at fault, something too many cyclists don’t realise
Well…thats quite the anecdotal strawman. Happy Cycling anyway
Thanks, I’m looking forward to my bike ride when I get back home from work this afternoon. I’ll also take care to look out for other people including pedestrians, which unfortunately too many commuter cyclists refuse to do. Maybe you could get of your moral high horse and help educate other cyclists about their responsibilities to others, poor behaviour by some cyclists effects the rest of us who act like grown ups.
Lmao. My reply to your anecdote must have twinged a bit. I hope you can ride that out on your bike. Enjoy
As an older and frequent pedestrian I am regularly startled by cyclists whizzing past my shoulder on the footpath. I cannot hear them come up behind me and none of them seems to possess a bell to let me know they are coming. In Europe, I have been on many shared paths and cyclists there are very considerate, they ring their bells and say "thank you" when you move over for them. No such courtesy here.
Footpaths" are for feet. The only wheels that should be allowed on them should be those attached to prams and pushchairs, toddler's tricycles, wheelchairs and disability scooters.
Bicycles and electric scooters should be on separated cycle lanes, or on the road and subject to the same rules as cars etc.
Visubversa. We have had this convo…before. And re your
Did/do you have objections to Wellington (or other places ) Cycle Lanes? For safety for all?
And an FYI…I have a bell on all my bikes. Nor do I ride on footpaths.
.
she literally just said there should be separated cycle lanes.
The other issue is where bikes and walkers are sharing tracks in nature. Lots of cyclists are mindful, too many aren't. When you're an older person, it can take only one fall for that to be lifechanging. Bad planning.
Well thanks for your reply
Visubversaweka. Anyway re..What she (Visubversa) actually said was….
See the difference? Hence my question….
Seems fairly straight up.
Then your own ….
Pure conjecture surely ? Again anecdotal….Anyway, I could say when I'm riding a track, coming up behind people, ringing my bell, many are so engrossed in conversation/earbuds in/etc etc…they dont hear, and jump when I pass them. carefully of course
that's the problem right there. If cyclists get painted as saints, and people who speak about the problems in cycling culture, more people end up not supporting cycleways and the shift away from so many cars.
I think this is already happening, unfortunately the cycling fraternity has always had more than its fair share of dicks with egos far larger than their emotional IQ. PLA above does a great job at deflecting the toxic cycling culture by referring to others adverse experiences as “anecdotes”, in other words pedestrians just do not matter.
Ah… TB Cyclist. You certainly reveal more of yourself and motive with every comment.
Do NOT lie about me or comments I make.
Anyway, how did your bike ride after work go? I take you…dont bike to work? I just wonder at the reason?
Maybe you…wouldnt feel safe doing so?
I drew a similar conclusion. You made some pro-cyclist comments (fair enough), when some critique of that was presented by other commenters. Instead of engaging with that and addressing the substance of those critiques, you deflected and attacked the commenters. It’s reasonable to assume from that that pedestrians aren’t high on your priority list.
you could always dispel the impression by addressing the critiques and well known issues that walkers have when sharing tracks/paths with cyclists. The three critiquing commenters are all pro-cycling paths.
I love cycle lanes and have always supported their construction and proper maintenance. IMHO, there are not enough of them, All I am asking for is the protection of the most vulnerable group of users of the road reserve – the pedestrians. Particularly those that are older, have less mobility and cannot hear bikes or scooters coming up behind them.
Well, Visubversa,thankyou for your reply. I, and I am sure many other Cyclists appreciate that. I did feel I needed your view on them.
I cant link now (the site doesnt seem to be functioning with regard to any previous comment/posts) , but earlier I hade made many comments on the tragic and completely avoidable deaths of Cyclists being crushed by trucks, cars etc…
So many, Incl…
Also very sadly, it seems NZ does have people who are so extremely anti Cyclist…to an almost pathological degree
And re Wellington Cycle lanes. There are the numbnuts who spread tacks on them…Defies belief ?!
Have a nice day
Just going to note the ableism in that headline and the article.
Bad design and bad framing/messaging.
Really? Must be a special filter youre reading it through, because I see
Where is the..ableism?
headline and article assumes everyone has the capacity to do without their car and/or bike
RNZ has a reprint of a CNN article about Moltbook – the social media platform for AI Bots.
The big concern is about security.
Incognito posted about Moltbook on Open Mike last night:
He said:
I try to disable AI whenever I can, but it’s really hard to do on some apps eg Facebook.
It’s also why I am moving away from using google. I’ve opened a Europe based email account rather than using gmail so much.
Hi Karolyn, Can you let me know how your European based email is going please, I have been moving away from Google ( Firefox etc) but haven't managed to find a good email as yet. Thanks
Proton does a free account that seems fine. Not sure how much data it holds. It also includes other services. I haven't used it a lot. I tried to use the proton email addy for my comments here but got a notice saying the comment was deleted as spam. Maybe TS doesn't allow us to change our email.
I tried to login to TS with my gmail addy to see if that would allow me to change the email addy, but I then got hit by a temporary suspension for a while – I get the login link again now, and obviously can comment.
I also have an account with mailfence but haven't really used it yet.
Firefox is supposed to be pretty good and the most secure browser. I also use Opera, Brave & Vivaldi.
Thanks very much, I will do some research tonight 🙂
you can change your email address for TS. It doesn't even need to be real, just make one up. The first comment will need to be released manually by a mod but after that you will be fine.
Will it be released if it goes into the spam folder?
I'll try it with my next comment.
try it now and I will keep an eye out.
Done. The message said "spam deleted".
do you mean you tried to comment using a new email address, and it doesn't go through and instead you got a message saying spam deleted?
It's definitely not going into the spam folder. I will let Lynn know. A screenshot would help (you could DM me?)
just tested myself and can see the message so don't need a screenshot
OK. thanks. I did try a couple more times to use the new email.
Wealth and success is just
overunder the next hill – for sorted's sake don't stop now.Re Slane's cartoon, sadly, Luxury Luxon and Witless Willis will by then be off to one of those places The Sorted go. Hawaiian shirts, fancy drinks, and directorships.
Lets stymie their malevolent dreams…put a large Red and Green spanner in the works
.
Stuff (https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360933202/hospitality-figure-chequered-past-dumbfounded-theft-allegations-after-cafes-collapse) has yet another story of how people lost their money and had their lives ruined after an encounter with a charming individual who had the gift of the gab.
This was a cafe in which the losers were a chef and his partner. The dude they are now blaming for their loss (which he denies causing) said he would cover the financial side of the business and do the banking.
Unpaid suppliers’ bills later emerged, along with unpaid tax. The couple complained to the police about missing funds but got no action.
Nowhere in the Stuff report can I find a reference to the couple going to a business adviser or accountant before plunging into the deal.
So the lessons are:
Easy enough to say, but in the enthusiasm of a new venture, these things can be overlooked.
That resignation by Lord Mandelson from the House of Lords must surely put a harpoon into the UK Prime Minister's leadership.
IMHO Starmer has delivered a lot of what he promised particularly in energy and border security and education and trade. And of course has made a properly strong relationship with the EU and with NATO particularly Canada and Denmark against Trump.
And he's a decent guy.
But if you put him up against Al Carns in Defence who doesn't hold back and is the kind of guy to go toe to toe with those feckless fools in Reform, maybe it's time to just admit that and give the government leadership time in this term to alter course.
Starmer's government is trying to cut the income of disabled people to save the state money. That's some kind of nice guy.
I have read some people are pointing the finger at Starmer's chief advisor, Morgan McSweeny as deserving of being axed for how the Mandelson business has unfolded. Not sure why.
But as weka indicates below, there's a fair bit of dissatisfaction from left wingers in the UK with Starmer's rightwards shift generally.
The Epstein connection with Mandelson & others indicates, not only the involvement of many of the wealthy & powerful in the sexual offences & sex trafficking of minors, but also some political & financial corruption as with Mandelson sharing govt papers & info with Epstein.
Mandelson's sense of entitlement, elite exceptionalism and invulnerability in his relationship with Epstein led to this appalling corruption. As a glimpse of the New Labour, Blairite way of viewing politics – seeing politics as a vehicle for patronage and cronyism as a path to post politics enrichment – he's an exemplar. And I say “a glimpse” because Mandelson was instrumental in huge and peculiar deals involving Tata and Kraft (just to name two).
It's grimly funny and illustrative of the baked in misogyny of the establishment that it's suggestions of disloyalty and corruption that has finally led to potential criminal action against a member of the grubby elite village that was Epsteins circle, rather than the ongoing sexual abuse and trafficking of large numbers of very young women and girls.
But the mummy at the feast is there is a deep rottenness around the entire neoliberal sellout of the Labour project across the entire English speaking world. The public senses it, and until Labour repudiates the teflon gangsterism of how neoliberalism does politics and offers root and branch reform of how we do democracy they'll be rightly tarnished with guilt by association.
The green shoots are shrivelling down.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/585910/unemployment-rate-highest-in-a-decade-as-it-rises-to-5-point-4-percent
Fear not! One News featured a totally objective bank economist who assured us that this increasing unemployment is a sign of economic improvement, because people who'd previously given up looking for work ("due to that feckless Labour-led govt" implied but not expressed) now have confidence that the economy is improving so are putting themselves back among the jobseekers.
The presenter endorsed this and followed it up with how business confidence has improved over the last two years (hardly surprising, since business confidence surveys are largely a measurement of whether Labour or National is leading the current govt).
As weaselry goes, it's all quite impressive. I don't think it actually helps anyone outside the government, though.
Good to know.
Ah, yes, more ghost jobs to apply for is a huge boost to one’s confidence. Another reason might be that they’re getting so desperate that they must give it a go, no matter what. But what would that totally objective bank economist and presenter know, anyway?
also fear not, the AI agents are now advertising for humans to do jobs that are only possibly with a body.
Nope, we’re being replaced by monkeys that work for peanuts: https://x.com/Mark1957/status/2017554398403076251/photo/1
Well National's Local Government reform / rationalisation is going swimmingly in Otago
Reform / rationalisation of LG here is long overdue, and catchment based unitary councils may be the way to go, but getting the agreement to get there is going to be interesting. Turning the current ORC into a unitary council dominated by Dunedin would be completely unacceptable to QLDC and CODC ratepayers. Can see this becoming a major, and unrecoverable, shit fight just in time for the election.
It's beginning to look like the model heading towards the Otago Province government that we had in place until the 1890s.
The important difference to the 1890s is that the Queenstown region is the boom town that Dunedin was and is no more.
Dunedin has all the public institutions, and has built and retained massive networks and assets. Queenstown only had one, the airport, and has already lost effective control of it.
QLDC is in no shape to form for example its own property company or economic development agency or lines company or anything else that lets Dunedin Council have such a strong economic and social impact upon eastern and southern Otago.
Unfortunately, having said that, in all aspects other than public institutions Wakatipu-UpperClutha now completely eclipses Dunedin: economic growth, wealth, population growth, health and wellbeing, poverty, international profile, political profile, you name it.
So that is a total mismatch of poor resources required to sustain the public services and public realm in the Wakatipu-Upper Clutha area boom town, and comparatively rich resources and well drilled governance to sustain the same in a low-growth Dunedin.
Notice how no one ever mentions the "regional deal" now.
Yeah, the Tartan Mafia will see this as an opportunity to regain their authority to clip the ticket and channel resources through Dunedin. Can't see CODC and QLDC entertaining that for long, or respective ratepayers.
Not only the "regional deal" that's been superseded, "water done well" seems to be past tense as well. Kinda like they realised they'd fucked those up that badly they came up with another idea to kill the previous two.
Otago is certainly going to need a Crown Commissioner to bang some heads together and get "agreement"
But I'm quite impressed with the proposed reform. Unitary Authorities seem to work well, The Regional / Territorial split seems to have issues.
Southland will be easy, it's almost happened without government help. Otago might be a bit trickier to re-arrange around catchment boundaries because Dunedin's likely to have it's wings clipped back to where they should be as council covering the Taieri, and maybe Shag catchments. QLDC, CODC and Clutha coalesce to form an administration covering the Clutha catchment. It might seem a bit broad but there's a seamless spectrum of interests from the mouth to the divide, and with the right structure that balances that, could provide good governance and still let communities have their own directions. Waitaki really should be one council for the catchment, that'll need the commissioner to more than bang heads together. That's cross border warfare.
I'm starting to wonder if the coalition has handed Labour an electoral lifeline with its plans to sell parts of the conservation estate.
It seems a discussion paper “Modernising Conservation Land Management” said that around five million hectares comprising over 60% of public conservation land could be put up for sale, if considered “surplus”.
Last December also saw changes to the overseas investment laws so applications to own NZ assets could be fast-tracked.
Many thousands of NZers value the recreational opportunities of the outdoors. If Labour campaigns on the basis that no conservation land will be sold off to private interests, a lot of voters could swing its way.
This could become a wedge issue, but only if the opposition parties put some grunt into.
Voters on the whole appear to be opposed to asset sales – let’s call it for what it is – but many seem to be ambivalent (don’t care either way) about it.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/11/20/why-nationals-taste-for-asset-sales-may-not-be-a-political-asset/
I could argue that one of our greatest assets, the Public Service (incl. NZ Health), is being slowly defunded and leaked to the private sector.
How and where’s Nicola Willis going to find the missing billions to balance her blotted books?