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6:00 am, July 28th, 2026 - 44 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 …
Don't think I'll be going to a Devilskin concert.
Turd-er on the dancefloor: Heavy metal gig halted by emergency defecation situation | Stuff
The concert?
I heard it was sh*t.
At least someone gives a sh*t
or doesn't.
Lots and lots of likes on social media for the Greens' AI data centre moratorium policy.
Personally loved Bill Oddie in deep back in the The Goodies, back in the early 1970s.
Sorry to see the legend gone.
Shoutout to dedicated birdwatchers and bird conservationists everywhere.
Getting old has a strange and vastly under reported idiosyncrasy. You go through the first forty or fifty years of your life more or less totally indifferent to birds then one day whammo, you look out the kitchen window and think "Good lord, is that pair of Mohua in the backyard?"
AI says it is probably a Yellowhammer (an introduced European bird common in gardens) or a Goldfinch.
AI should STFU.
Our Mohua remnant populations are found in alpine valleys of Westland and Aspiring National Parks, heavy supported by a lot of dedicated volunteers.
* MOHUA
So it is unlikely to be seen from anyone's back yard then, is it.
After all, it is a forest bird.
Yes I will have to have a wee sit-down with Sanctuary and spell out where these rare ones are.
Plus the Blue Mountains and Catlins. If I remember correctly, there are still some present in the Hawdon Valley in Arthurs Pass National Park and the Hurunui Valley. They have also been introduced to a number of islands including some, such as Ulva Island in Paterson Inlet, Rakiura/Stewart Island, that are open to public access.
I’m also familiar with that shift in indifference and I’ve started to care more about things that I used to be indifferent to and vice versa. For example, I used to think that
wood pigeonskererū were cute hanging upside down and doing their acrobatics in nīkau palm trees outside the kitchen window trying to get the berries, but nowadays it annoys the shit out of me when those stupid birds (yes, they’re stupid) poop the seeds on the deck outside the kitchen. However, then I think of the Luxon & the Coalition shitting all over us and think that pooping kererū are much more preferable and adorable (and less stupid).Were you to collect and sow those seeds, Incognito, you could earn a lot of brownie-points in the bird-world.
No shortage of nīkau seedlings in my neck of the woods! I’ve never chased brownie points, so that would be a first, but I think I’m getting too old for that now.
Millionaire’s salad on the menu for you then.
"The young, unexpanded leaf shoots were themselves eaten, raw or cooked. This was the “palm cabbage” that was served up to the crew of Endeavour. The flower clusters hidden beneath the mature leaf bases were also eaten. On special occasions, or in extremis, Maori would prepare a meal from the central leaf bud—the succulent heart of the nikau. Early settlers called this dish “millionaire’s salad,” because removal of the heart cost the palm its life. The tastiness of the nikau is recognised in the plant’s Latin name: sapida means “savoury.”"
https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/nikau-the-kiwi-palm/
Next step for you, Sanctuary.
"In Abrahamic and European mythology, medieval literature and occultism, the language of the birds is postulated as a mystical, perfect divine language, Adamic language, Enochian, angelic language or a mythical or magical language used by birds to communicate with the initiated."
“He learned to communicate with birds and discovered their conversation was fantastically boring. It was all to do with windspeed, wingspans, power-to-weight ratios and a fair bit about berries.”
And wait until Elon discovers the presnence of a BLACK bird in the retelling of the legneds.
I'm lucky enough to live on a river bank overlooking the edge of town. I can see paradise ducks, pukeko, various small birds that I feed daily, pigeons, shags, scaup, ducks, swans, tui, a kingfisher, magpies, black birds, grey herons, even a kotukū on occasion. I am on a falcon's daily flight path, sea gulls during storms- some 20 species of birds in total, butterflies as well, monarchs on the swan plants.
It is a daily wonder……. and counters the opposite view of the world where we live on a planet orbiting a star in a galaxy. Our nearest neighbour star is 4 light years away, and is one of a septillion stars in 2 trillion galaxies.
That's 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars…………… nice to know our place in the universe (known, that is!). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe
I don’t want to be the party pooper but the daily wonder is changing rapidly. For example:
https://theconversation.com/light-pollution-is-encroaching-on-observatories-around-the-globe-making-it-harder-for-astronomers-to-study-the-cosmos-260387
I think we might be one of the noisiest & dirtiest inhabited planets in the universe.
Bring on the lifestyle of North Korea. Thanks to Kim Jong Un the country probably has the least light pollution in the atmosphere of any country in the world.
Pyongyang, where he lives is just about the only lit up area at night in the country.
Does anyone want to go there to live?
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/the-koreas-at-night-83182/
Feel free to move to N-Korea, but do it for the right reasons. In terms of light pollution, NK and NZ are ranked next to each other.
https://lightpollutionmap.app/global-light-pollution-rankings/
According to that map, I should be able to see only 1,000-2,000 stars at night where I live (4.7 on Bortle dark-sky scale).
Pity the forgotten sparrow 🙁
No fear, the spugs are there, with their other small bird friends- green finch, chaffinch, starlings. "Where the pretty pretty small birds do change their voices, and every moment a different sound." -Peggy Gordon.
Indeed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliminate_Sparrows_campaign
https://genius.com/Simon-and-garfunkel-sparrow-lyrics
In the biblical nation of yore, the poorest could only afford sparrow offerings.
Similar to turtledoves and pigeons, small birds were accepted by Temple priests when an individual could not afford a larger animal sacrifice like a lamb, goat, or sheep.
Jesus taught that even though these birds were nearly worthless, sold two for a tiny copper coin, God still notices when every single one falls.
Thus part of Temple successionism was the ending of the sacrifice of sparrows.
This would allow even the poor to save.
There is a population of Mohua in the Poulter Valley near Arthur's Pass. It was only rediscovered this month by a tramping vet. DOC released 41 Mohua there in 2022 but they thought the repopulation of the area had failed.
In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus' bow symbolises his rightful kingship, unmatched physical and mental strength, and his true identity.
May CEO Luxon's arrow fly true, and slowly slay the global warming beast *.
* No mad cows were harmed in the making to this ecological overshoot.
https://www.climatecommission.govt.nz/reports-and-evidence/publications/2026-monitoring-report-emissions-reduction/
https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/new-zealand/
Check out this European fire danger website: https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/projects-and-activities/natural-and-man-made-hazards/forest-fires/current-wildfire-situation-europe_en
Conditions in southern France and northern Spain are described as “very extreme.”
Not a good look, with August to come.
https://theconversation.com/older-peoples-media-literacy-can-be-boosted-in-just-60-minutes-new-study-287880
When I read this, I thought of some of the regulars here but also of the base support for the octogenarian MP.
However, this topic is more important and broader than the title and first part suggest.
That link to intellectual humility (and metaknowledge) is most interesting, IMO, and most peculiar in that it doesn’t mention AI even once. I thought the relevance was too obvious not to make the connection!? But it does stand very well without it.
Research can provide interesting and valuable insights.
Climate change, or rather hip-pocket approaches, have become a tool for some parties to garner voter support. Whilst a (cynical?) tool for some, it’s been a longstanding core battleground for others. There’s a discrepancy between micro and macro actions, politically speaking, and this reflects the parties’ respective attitudes and policies (and associated narratives).
Recently here on TS (https://thestandard.nz/open-mike-25-07-2026/#comment-2067861), a related thread discussed why people/voters appear to condone certain actions/policies by a party. The research encountered a similar issue in the specific context of climate change.
https://theconversation.com/does-using-a-reusable-cup-make-you-less-likely-to-protest-climate-change-we-tracked-2-800-australians-to-find-out-288197
According to the Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor, a similar downward trend regarding climate change can be seen here in NZ. Arguably, the same factors (?) are responsible for this if it’s real and not ‘noise’.
https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2026-05/25-001841%2032nd%20Ipsos%20Issues%20monitor%20May%202026%20FINAL%20250526.pdf
Simeon Brown decided not to reappoint people to the Medical Council board because they are ideological.
He appoints to the Board, Dr Roderick Mulgan, who is a former chair of the Free Speech Union. And another who made a few social media posts some years back – notable because it resulted in a workplace complaint and media scrutiny at the time*.
A response to a media question to Brown was for him to refer the query on to Kalupahana.
Shortly afterward the current FSU Chair Stephen Franks, a Wellington lawyer and former politician intervened making a statement. The FSU was involved*.
Latest development, Labour accuses Brown of running the FSU as his own personal troll farm.
Christopher Luxon eggs it on says he is relaxed – the big Ede over Easy.
PS
Relevance – ideological appointments and the current status of Stephen Rainbow (who has a pathological hatred of Murray McCully over UNSC Res 2334)
https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/361051589/labour-accuses-simeon-brown-using-personal-troll-farm-attack-reporter-pm-relaxed-about-matter
Good on Hipkins for calling fake unions, the TPU and the FSU, what they are, right-wing troll farms.
Also interesting the FSU is describing itself as a media outlet in direct competition with news organisations:
Another example of the changing media landscape where right-wing nut jobs try to scuttle away from standards regulation.
In the days of Ede they use to leak to Whaleoil, this was passed onto Kiwiblog & the MSM would then join in.
They sort of admit this is what they are doing again – to get in front of stories.
They seem to have two contradictory positions which can only be explained by partisan political affiliation.
– That public servants must be politically neutral.
– That public servants must be allowed to make political statements.
These two positions are not compatable.
What they really mean is that public servants must be allowed to express right wing political views, but not left wing political views.
Hipkins at least has labelled the TPU and FSU as partisan and corrupt (like Slater and Farrar) and it's a message that should be pushed as much as possible.
The FSU was strangely quiet when Commissioner Richard 'Nothing to See Here' Chambers got a bit unhinged at Rakesh Naidoo.
I suppose hypocricy is something they are free to practice as well.
The limited mandate for change manifesto approach used by Starmer in 2024.
It requires enough voters to want the government removed to work – with there being limited fiscal room for progressive change (as per the pay equity cost scare tactic).
That would require a well publicised detailing of the current government policies that would go after the election.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2026/07/28/hipkins-no-way-labour-will-support-opportunitys-tax-policy/
The scare tactics are incredibly effective. Arguably, when fiscal conditions are tight there still is plenty of room for change, even for progressive change – the two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, one could argue that when fiscal conditions are tight, it might be the right (lower case) time for some [progressive] change.
The models and model simulations for progressive change (aka policy proposals) invariably show that many if not most people would be better off in the pocket, not to mention the indirect benefits that flow from the changes – only a small percentage of very high-income and/or very wealthy people may have to pay a little bit more tax under most proposals or may be slightly worse off overall – when you have a large cake, a crumb is not going to be missed, but when you have only crumbs in the tin, then a single crumb on the table counts for much.
In reality, it’s the narrative that is tight with narrow & strict boundaries. Strictly speaking, one could uncouple & disentangle proposing fairer ways of taxation from fairer & more equitable ways of distribution (the majority of Government expenses goes back to the whole of the population, directly and indirectly), of which voters are a sub-set, arguably an important one, of which rich/wealthy voters are a tiny sub-sub-set.
The difference with rates is that they go up substantially each year, often above and beyond inflation (rates are a small contributor to CPI), whilst total tax take remains relatively constant, particularly at the individual level (as long as individual circumstances don’t change). So, nothing much changes, i.e., mission accomplished.
My dream is Labour 23 Greens 23 TPM 5.
Would love to be a fly on the wall in those tax negotiations.,,,p.s. its not impossible.
Carol Cadwalladr discusses the Cambridge Analytica scandal. She is a journalist who first reported on the undisclosed microtargetting of voters via social media to influence elections. Little has been done since in the UK to address this new influence machinery. She also talks about Farage's funding.
It's part of an ongoing interview series by Zack Polanski to cover political topics. It's a very interesting comms strategy. It wises up the electorate, while it also lets regular watchers can develop a para-social relationship with Polanski. Smart.
Just to remind people that before being elected, MJ Savage had a radio show on 1zb in Auckland, building an informed Labour base in the cutting-edge media of the 1930’s. Plus ça change…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=43m0LKNDz6M&pp=iggUQAFKEDQ2MW5XYVl3anRrRDNtbUc%3D
M J Savage did a great deal more after he became PM. The radio stations were nationalized an in the later 1930s the official radio news program was prepared in the Prime Minister's office and was broadcast exactly as it was supplied to the radio stations.
Look, what is wrong with old fashioned Keynesian theory for today’s issues??
Norway collects over $3B each year from is wealth tax (similar population to us).
Some are working on a way to have an exit tax on (personal) wealth going offshore.
https://www.imidaily.com/tax/the-10-countries-that-still-tax-wealth-rates-rules-and-who-pays/