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6:00 am, February 23rd, 2026 - 9 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 …
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/587614/what-trump-s-america-wants-from-nz-s-mines
I completely reject the need for any future NZ mineral wealth to be set up for US interests.
It should be extracted with utmost care, and sold to the highest bidder.
I'd also like to see refining occur here, rather than offshore. Surely better uses for Glenbrook.
"I'd also like to see refining occur here,"
I'm in favour of extracting the raw material, and exporting it, providing that we can get a good price for it. That is likely to be by selling it to the US using the Trump scheme as it would appear that they will be willing to pay a premium price to get ahead of China.
I would rather not refine it here though. Do just the minimum to make it saleable. The waste products left over is very nasty stuff. It probably wouldn't matter in the Australian outback but I wouldn't like to have it in New Zealand.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/587643/total-lunar-eclipse-new-zealand-has-front-row-seat-to-only-lunar-eclipse-of-2026
Be careful about staring at the wonders of the sky and eclipses; there is a shadowing, eclipse event going on under your feet, all around you, put out your antennae and feel it in the air. The background to John Wyndhams Day of the Triffids was people looking at wonderful celestial displays at high altitudes; they ended up blind. Try thinking of that as an analogy of what is happening today, slowly and inexorably, only possibly altered or tweaked by artful people who very likely might be impish (John Clarke), or mischievous (from the phalanx of tech and unwitting symbolic slaves.) Other, who can imagine? Fact is stranger than fiction they say, and 'they' seem to be right. Time finally to understand ourselves before we wipe ourselves off the planet – pretentious to the very last.
This – …"[b]elieving, with Max Weber, that man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law, but an interpretive one in search of meaning"…[Clifford Geertz]…| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_anthropology .
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2602/S00131/ship-upgrade-to-improve-coastal-resilience-in-disasters.htm
Shipping will become very important again, not just important as now. I hardly dare to purvey this news item in case someone; government or management notice that they are doing something good and practical and prevent it!
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2602/S00131/ship-upgrade-to-improve-coastal-resilience-in-disasters.htm
New Zealand’s ability to support communities following natural disasters and other major emergencies will be improved by an investment into a key coastal bulk ship upgrade, Associate Transport Minister James Meager says.
The Rangitata, which was vital in delivering disaster relief after Cyclone Gabrielle, will receive $3 million from the Coastal Shipping Resilience Fund to improve its ability to carry different types of cargo across a wider range of ports….
Now would be a good time for Labour to put the Head of State question on the agenda.
Most new citizens of New Zealand have to swear allegiance to the English monarch. If you don’t want to do that you cannot become a citizen. People from colonies ravaged by that English colonialism find that a bit like swallowing a rat.
An immediate simple change would be to ask new citizens to swear allegiance to Aotearoa New Zealand.
Or they could swear allegiance to David Seymour – a small David with a giant Goliath of monstrous style behind him. Don't be so quick, to 'eave 'alf a brick at monarchs. I don't like common people leaders also, and they just keep on changing for the worst. Charles 3 has tried to be as good as anyone with high position can aim for. Some permanency of a good person and some stability would be better than regularly revolving grasper billionaires and their lackeys.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/587690/companies-could-favour-road-as-kiwirail-assets-face-decline
Are we to sit in acceptance as anti-NZAO governments destroy our assets, sell our assets (or have sold) or rundown needed services instead adopting those from overseas which become monopolies ratcheting up prices with false 'competitive' entities?
The Conversation
https://theconversation.com › nzs-over-reliance-on-roads-for-freight-means-natural-disasters-hit-even-harder-but-there-is-a-fix-253008
NZ's over-reliance on roads for freight means natural disasters hit …
Apr 17, 2025Despite thousands of kilometres of coastline, 93% of domestic freight is transported on New Zealand's roads. But shipping – and rail – can help build resiliency.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2602/S00409/new-zealand-needs-to-reopen-mothballed-railway-lines.htm
1000 years of English.
https://www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-back-in-time-understand-english
Fascinating reading!
Thank you Joe.