The solution to the problem of coal

"Jim Hansen's solution is as follows. He suggests that fossil fuel should be taxed, initially a little but rising each year. If the coal or oil is produced at home, it is taxed at the extraction point. If it is from overseas, it is taxed as it crosses your border. The tax increases are such that in about 10 years it will make electricity generated by coal about equal in price to electricity generated renewably."

There's more and it's very good. Read The Hansen Solution at Thoughts on the Roof.

Inferno

So now we have a coal mine in a national park, burning furiously.

Head on a pike

Interesting reading, as always, from Gordon Campbell, this time on Pike River.
From Campbell's piece here,  the prospectus document.

"Gas in the Brunner Seam is generally at low to moderate levels, giving Pike River confidence it can safely and efficiently mine this seam. The Mine Plan incorporates a high level of ventilation and other safety measures to guard against any seam gas and ventilation issues. In areas of low to moderate gas, the gas will flow under natural pressure and be vented into the Mine’s return air ventilation system. In the isolated areas, where seam gas contents are at greater levels, it may be necessary to drain the gas using a negative pressure pump from the tunnel entrance area and either exhaust the gas into the atmosphere or burn it in an enclosed flare….


Pike River has had studies undertaken that show that Pike River coal has a low inherent propensity to spontaneously combust meaning the coal itself has a low likelihood of self heating in normal atmospheric conditions. All quantities of ventilating air within the sections of the Mine will be sufficient to dilute gas emissions to levels below statutory permissible limits and maintain comfortable conditions for operating diesel powered equipment."

Pteradactyl chorus

Every morning at about 5:30, a white faced heron flies past my bedroom window and

craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwks!

Lost in Spaces

I think my townside garden is a magnificent success but not everyone shares my view.

The neighbours have reservations around the unruly nature it’s displaying. They fear, I think, for their boundaries which are, it’s true, being pressed by the shear bulk of growth from my side. Perhaps they creak at night, giving the neighbours real cause for their concern. The taller plants, and there are many, lean drunkenly over the fences as well in a manner that could be considered threatening by the nervous and I’ve no doubt that tendrils and roots are appearing on their side of the divide.

It’s a heaving mess of pottage according to my ex-hospital grounds man friend and I agree. There’s certainly no open space, no laid-out lawn or jungle clearing. It’s wall to wall vegetation
It’s very quiet in there, despite the garden being practically in the centre of town.
The thick curtain of leaves, twigs branches and trunks absorbs the sounds I suppose, muffles the traffic noises and soaks up the drone of the town’s electric motors, car alarms and general hubbub.
You could hide in there and I suspect people do: teenagers bunking school, husbands wanting to avoid house-painting or gutter clearing (I saw such a one in there on several occasions. He looked like me!)
A refugee would not go hungry in there – there are gooseberries and currants, apples and rhubarb, artichokes, plums, potatoes and grapes. If he somehow couldn’t find those or if they were out of season, he’d only have to walk 30 paces to the supermarket for his vittles.
A runaway or a tramp could set up camp in there, building a shelter from high mallow stalks and flax leaves, cooking on a small fire of dried stalks from the globe artichokes and twigs off the hazels. I’d not mind, in fact I’d probably never see them and nor would the neighbours, so thick and jungly is the garden.
Most gardens, it seems to me, are too tame.
My townside garden’s pretty wild and at the same time, wildly pretty.
If ever you are in the area, feel free to wander in and forage.

A sharp sickle and a bottle of beer...

(Not my lawn)

While farmers are out in their fields making hay, I’m in my garden mowing mine.

Where theirs is grass and clover (and thistles, experience has taught me!) mine’s a fragrant mix of aromatic herbs, broad-leafed weeds, runaway raspberry canes, scrambling vetches and self-sown annual flowers and vegetables.
It all makes great hay and I leave it lying right where I cut it – on my paths where it was growing.
Those paths are too narrow by far for a combine harvester, so I use a sickle to cut a swathe.
As I wave it about, snicking through pliant stalks and hollow stems with a juicy ‘toik!’ the air fills with the fragrance of lemon balm, sweet cicely and fennel. It’s more aroma therapy than work. As I go, ‘snick, snick, snick I leave behind me a strewn herbal mattress you could sleep on, if you chose, and there’s even hop vines hopvines to help you sleep and valerian to soothe your nerves on some sections of the paths.
I often hear people say how much they love the smell of new-mown grass.
They’d love my hay-strewn paths!

Are greenies to blame for Pike River?

"National Party media trainer Paul Holmes, who never has anything intelligent to say, has chipped in by musing that the mine ought to have been open-cast. Let’s see, Holmes is proposing removing 160m thick of rock across an area probably several square kilometres in size to get at a 7m thick seam of coal. Does that sound like a feasible exercise to you? Pike River didn’t want to do that – it’s logistically and economically impossible. You open cast mine deposits on the surface, for deep ones, you dig small holes to the seam, and then dig it up. Holmes is a twit"

Marty at The Standard calls out pathetic Paul Holmes and the other low-brows clamouring for green heads to roll following the Pike River mine disaster.

This a plain daft and , as Marty says, a sickening attempt to score political points.
Shunda Barunda, our man on the Coast says much the same as Marty but clear thinking like theirs won't stop the knee-jerking anti-environmentalists from baying ad nauseum.

Sizzlin'

Yesterday was too hot and today looks hot too.

Carter's conflict of interest

As a councillor :-) I am bound by the rules around conflict of interest and so the issue that is emerging around Agriculture Minister David Carter interests me very much. He's seemingly done some very dodgy and illegal things involving a company he has close involvement with and a decision regarding the killing of animals for the Jewish market.
Marty at The Standard covers this here and says "Carter must go."

"Agriculture Minister David Carter has been exposed abusing his ministerial powers to protect the trade interests of his private investments. Earlier this year, Carter banned Jewish religious slaughtering practices because of perceived risks to the meat trade with Muslim nations after being briefed companies he owns that take part in the trade."

More Pike comment (for the sake of balance)

Macdoctor has been underground in the past and knows more than most of us about what might have happened at Pike River.

"It is far more likely that the miners were unlucky enough to hit a sizable pocket of gas which would have released enough methane to trigger an explosion before the methane sensors cut power to the rigs. The other possibility is that methane may have collected in an area of the roof where there were no sensors. "

http://www.macdoctor.co.nz/2010/11/27/aftermath/

Wild urban garden (mine)

Drone

Another fly - this time a dronefly. These start as rat-tailed maggots.
Lovely.

Monkey on Pike

Rudyand Kipling said this:

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

Monkey with a Typewriter discusses the Pike River 'event' and it's very interesting also.
I've not linked to him before.. but now I have!

Anderton on coal

Eddie on The Standard had some very interesting and refreshing things to say about the Pike River disaster.

"Armstrong draws attention to “two speeches by Jim Anderton in Parliament this week. The left’s old war horse was not in the mood to join the chorus of praise for the West Coast’s resilience at what fate might have in store for it.

That kind of sentiment has produced a miserable mythology which decrees the Coast must always suffer.

"That is not good enough in Anderton’s book. So he effectively served notice that he will putting his not inconsiderable weight behind efforts to find out why things went so dreadfully wrong at a mine which, as it has been open barely a year, should have had all the right equipment and safety practices.
Anderton seems to have made it his personal mission to end the life-and-death lottery that working in underground mines has entailed."

I hope you will have a look at this. It's something beyond the sort of thing that is being presented by the media so far.

Weed flower

These plantain 'heads' are just outside my front door and are at the height of their flowering.
The best place for weeds to grow, is where they can be seen and enjoyed by everyone.  :-)

Confused by the ETS?

This site will help you clear up your confusion.

He writes well and has a clear view of the scammy thing (ETS).

Thoughts on the Roof is a very good blog and its writer William Hughes-Games covers a lot of the issues that interest me: "Mining Royalties and Renewable Energy" is a very good commentary as is his piece on Biochar.

Guts-ache gets worse

 

I've blogged before about the unusually high and increasingly serious issue of stomach bugs in Southlanders and the situation has worsened, as reported in the ST today under the title "Tummy bug cases in southern rural areas a concern."

Several years ago a microbiologist Mr Hutchison of Lumsden wrote a number of letters to the Southland Times warning that this worrying trend toward serious stomach illness would occur and was the result of the intensification of dairying in the region.
Today's report says, amongst other things, that:
"Reported cases of campylobacter and salmonella have jumped more than 450% this month compared with November 2009.
Seems Mr Hutchison may be right.
Young children are suffering most, especially those who come in contact with land that has farm animals on it.
When we consider the economic benefits to Southland through dairying, are we thinking also of the effect on our health?
We should do.

Tongan teacher does well

The Southland Times reports:
"A school teacher turned democracy activist, 'Akilisi Pohiva' is set to become Tonga's first popularly elected prime minister after a landslide victory in the elections."

This is very encouraging for all retired teachers, Tongans and supporters of democracy!

No Right Turn covers the issue well.

Gyroscopia

This tiny fly has two gyroscopic appendages poking out from beneath its wings that serve to keep it stable when it flies. I think.
I photographed it as it sat on a hebe leaf. He was one of dozens of identical flies.

Today's letter - Southland Times

Landscaped poisoned


The children of Otama school have shown that they know a lot about the environment and have been awarded the Green/Gold Enviroschools certificate to prove it.

They've planted trees to protect riverbanks, tested the quality of the water in streams with scientific instruments, grown vegetables in their school garden and woven environmental care into all of their studies.

They are a great example to their rural community and I wish they would do something quite brave: go and visit the farmer who has poisoned the tussock land on the north face of the Hokonui Hills, which overlooks their small country school, and tell him that his actions are harming the environment, risking serious erosion and giving farming a bad name.

Whoever it was who carelessly destroyed that tussock landscape doesn't seem to take notice of modern environmental thinking but might, just might, listen to the wise advice of children who do.

ROBERT GUYTON

Riverton

Dawn chorus

There's a new player in the early bird show outside of my bedroom window and I'm pretty sure it's a cuckoo.
I don't know whether it's shining or long-tail.
Need to find out more.
Either way it's very evocative and I'm delighted to hear it.
If I see it flying I'll know if it's the longer-tailed of the two because I've seen one before, when I was on Kapiti Island and it looked just like the one in the picture, though I was seeeing it from above, standing as I was on top of Tuteremoana.
From there, incidentally, I could see Stephen's Island, where I'd held my first tuatara  and given that I held one yesterday at the museum, I'm feeling all co-incidence-y (word? Nope.)

I found this:

Ko te uri au i te whenakonako


I te koekoea.

E riro nei ma te tataihore e whangai.



I am the offspring of the bronze cuckoo,

Of the long-tailed cuckoo,

Left here for the white-head to feed.

Gold fly

Can you see the photographer reflected in the fly's thorax?

River mouth Riverton

Photographer JulieIris

It's up this river Koi Koi Patu was rowed by her brothers in order that she could meet, for the first time, the man she would marry on that day, almost 200 years ago. The party had made it's way around the coast from Rarotoka island on which Koi Koi was born and raised.

On the morning this photograph was taken, no one rowed either up or down which was good as the water remained like a mirror til lunch time, though the occasional fish broke the water with a joyous leap :-)

Otama

The place of Tamateapokaiwhenua (Otama, not so far from Gore) was where I spent today along with dozens of students from schools around Southland that run Enviroschools programmes, all gathered for a hui.

It was hot. The school is rural and huge farm machines lumbered along the adjacent gravel road the whole time we were there. I met Bart from Otepoti Urban Organics and talked local food production, Tracy, mayor of Gore who told me about his progress through local body politics to where he is now and the kaiako Maori at Otama school who talked about her role in the school and her whakapapa which flows from Ngai Tahu, Ngati Kahungunu and Ngati Tuhoe! 

To get there, I shared a car with Maurice from Southland Fish & Game Council, from whom I learned a lot about aquifers and water conservation orders. Returning home I travelled with Michael from Te Ao Marama who told me all about Ngai Tahu's concerns and involvements and the role of Te Ao Marama and Te Ropu Taiao and a number of other very interesting things.
It was a good day.

Crossing the Mataura

John Turnbull Thomson 1857 

Farmers No.1 problem

For a cow to produce milk she first must become pregnant.
Dairy farmers aim to produce more milk and so increase the number of cows on their farms.
Over-stocking is causing falling rates of pregnancy in cows.

From today's Southland Times article, "Drop in pregnancy rates costly - Over-stocking part of problem"

"General manager Peter Gatley said the reproductive  performance of dairy cows had been insidiously dropping"
"It's costing individual farmers many thousands of dollars and the industry hundreds of millions in increased costs and lost milk. It is farmers' No.1 problem."
"Farmers should have been reducing herds to allow for this (not enough feed as a result of over stocking) but many were not. Some were bringing in extra feed, such as palm kernel expeller to make up for it, but this also added stress."

Catlins wetland destroyed

Marty @ mars 2 earth has unearthed this disturbing news of the death of a wetland in the Catlins.
I've linked to his blog here and encourage you to read his findings.

Comin' at ya!

Which would you prefer - a bill for $1billion or out of control climate change? You can have both, according to our Parliamentary Commisioner for the Environnment.

"Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright says the country is seriously off-course in meeting the emissions reduction targets signed up to under the Copenhagen accord."

Nick Smith, ever the gentleman has dismissed the price tag as "speculation".
(I love those weasel words. Of course it's speculation Nick, so will your best guess be.)


Dr Wright says that, "to meet its obligations, New Zealand would have to buy carbon credits to cover the huge discrepancy"
Dr Smith said the Copenhagen accord was not legally binding.
See the pattern. Not exactly respectful of the report from the Parliamentary Commisioner, is he!
Read the article "$1b bill feared for ambitious emission targets" here

The Standard cover it here with their "Doing nothing in the face of climate change crisis" post.

They add, "In fact, all National has done is weaken the already pathetic steps that were in place to limit greenhouse emissions. They gutted the ETS and now there’s every signal that they’ll make it even more useless by not including agriculture in it."

That's a 'fail' National, from the Commisioner.

Andrew's camera (or one quite like it)

This box-plate camera is similar to the one Andrew used yesterday to capture images of the very old Erskine home at Papatotora. The photo taken outside of the front of the house didn't take too long, though by our modern digital standards it was an age, but those of the interior that showed the extraordinary wallpapers, framed portraits and other 1890's paraphernalia took 4 minutes or more for the exposure. Andrew said it was fortunate that he'd brought 400 asa as a slower film could demand an exposure time of up to half an hour!
It was amazing to see the image of the subject projected onto the ground-glass plate at the back of the camera before the film-plate was inserted and curious to watch a photographer drape a black cloth over his head, just as I've seen them do in old movies.
I can't wait to see the results.

I would not go in here, ever.

Duck bush

I found an interesting plant growing against the wall of the old farmhouse mentioned in my 'Collared' post -
Sutherlandia frutescens  or duck bush, which the interweb tells me is regarded as the most profound and multi-purpose of the medicinal plants in Southern Africa. Because of its efficacy as a safe tonic for diverse health conditions it has enjoyed a long history of use by all cultures in Southern Africa.
The farmer had some seeds in an old film canister and gave them to me. I'll sow them this afternoon. My interest in the plant is because of its family - it's a legume and I'm on the look out for interesting nitrogen fixing plants like these to boost the N levels in my soil without having to apply fertilizer.The duck bush is a very attractive plant and looks much like a kaka beak.
It remains to be seen if it is on the pest plants register.
I'd best check!

Collared!

Driving serenely along the back country road to Papatotara on our mission to photograph an old farmhouse, we found ourselves pulled over (flashing lights, anxious looks into the rear view mirror) and in the middle of a polite but firm interrogation by a policeman who wanted to know who we were and what we were up to.
"I've not seen your car around here before", he said.
Keen young fellow, wasn't he!
Pulled over, questioned, license checked and eyeballed because he hadn't seen our car before.
This was a first for me.
Does it sound odd to you?

Made in China

The Environmental Toothbrush

WINNER 2009
News.com.au GREEN AWARDS
Green Invention Award
People's Choice Award
www.environmentaltoothbrush.co.au
Handle is Environmentally Sustainable and Biodegradable Bamboo
Does not contain any animal products

Made in China

:-)

Sunday honey bee

ODT on water theft

"Parliament has passed local government legislation which opposition parties say will lead to the privatisation of water supplies."

Here it comes, closer and closer.
If you are a water user, this will affect you and not in a good way.

"Labour's Phil Twyford said councils could hand over water supplies to private companies ``in the dead of night without consulting anyone...this bill takes away the democratic rights of New Zealanders and it is being rushed through under urgency.''


Maori Party MP Rahui Katene said she had real concerns about the future of water supplies ``and we have real concerns about things being sneaked in as well``

"This is about privatisation of water which hasn't worked anywhere else in the world,'' she said. "

Read the full article here.
Ki hiwa ra!
Kia hiwa ra!
Kia hiwa ra!

(Hat-tip Nick)

Power tree

Not all of the trees in my neighbourhood are native.
This Power tree stands on the other side of the street and seems to change little with the seasons.
I've never known it to fruit, nor shed any leaves. I'm guessing that's why it finds favour with the council who haven't challenged it's position close to the road, as they have with the small native shrubs that I planted around its base.

The booming garden

Whodunnit?

One of the newly planted apple trees at the arboretum at Otautau is being nibbled-upon.

The culprit left a pile of clues.

Gardening on air

If you're too bored for words between 8 and 9 am tomorrow morning, I'm on Radio Live's Kitchen and Garden Show with Tony Morell, talking about weeds, bees and flowers. Probably. Depending on what pops into my head. Or Tony's.
*Update and change of plan. Tony rang to say the programme won't be running tomorrow due to expected coverage from the West Coast miner situation.

Kennedy sticks it to Roy

Today's 'letters' column had Dave Kennedy serving up the correct national standards message to National MP Eric Roy.
And rightly so. Roy's earlier statement was pablum.

Correcting MP's misconceptions


I am disappointed that Invercargill's MP, Eric Roy, doesn't appear to have listened to the delegations of teachers and principals from the electorate he is supposed to represent.
His letter in Wednesday's paper just repeats much of the Government spin that has been presented since the national standards were launched and I would like to correct several misconceptions Mr Roy has promoted.
In their current form, there can be no useful data that these national standards can produce.
The untested standards are not aligned with any assessments teachers use and rely on teacher judgments without effective moderation to ensure consistency.
Mr Roy's claim that the ministry is focusing on delivering frontline services is ironic, after $25 million was cut from their budget earlier in the year and I have personally found Education Ministry staff stretched as they attempt to wear multiple hats to make up for those who have been laid off.
At the same time the $30,000 increase to the salary of ministry head, Karen Sewell, seems nonsensical.
After the dismal failure of the initial professional support, that many schools were asked to pay for, Mr Roy claims that it is being redeveloped.
It is a pity that it hasn't been recognised that the failure of the original professional development was largely due to the problems within the standards themselves and any future support is doomed to fail also if these are not addressed.
To claim that teachers will get support across all curriculum areas will be problematic since all the advisors outside literacy and numeracy have been sacked.
Ignoring expert advice and the genuine concerns of education professionals to blindly push through this ill-conceived policy is wasting taxpayer's money and will deliver nothing to those children with real needs.

DAVE KENNEDY, Invercargill

The mighty jungle

Southland is experiencing an uber-exuberance of growth right now and I've just been out protecting the delicate plants from the rambling and blowsy. My carrots were succumbing to fumitory, the onions to land cress and the shallots were being buried by volunteer lettuce and New Zealand spinach. It's the perfect evening for weeding and being amongst the vegetables and herbs.

THANK YOU taxpayer!

$50 million!
Were they not insured???
* Update: Todays paper reports that the disease is unlikely to affect the expected $14 million pay rise expected for growers this year.
Well that's alright then.
They won't need taxpayer money as a bailout.

Two sandwiches short

Conor English, brother of Dipton's Bill and the Fed's Hamish and goodness knows how many other 'Engli' is having a wee rant about people like you and I who are willing to speak up about such things as mining on Conservation land. He doesn't think much of us and says we are looking for a 'free lunch'.
Conor even used hackneyed phrases stolen from his brother's list of dog-whistle phrases in a way that you'd have to assume was intentional and designed to add to a programme of redesigning public perception.
Don't like the Government's attacks on personal liberties?
You're after a free lunch.
Don't want Stewart Island dug up by mining companies?
You're wanting your lunch for free.
Want to keep New Zealand free of genetic engineering?
Free lunch.
See. It's easy to slight your opponents with a tidy catchphrase.
Trouble is, Conor is representing Federated Farmers and this kind of drivel reflects badly on them.
Perhaps Bill thinks his brothers can say the things he wants to say and avoid the political criticism that would
come if he voiced the same red-necked opinions.

Handling tuatara

Do it carefully!
They have powerful jaws and short tempers. They don't especially like to be handled by a novice.
I am that novice and will open the box and lift out the young female tuatara inside for the viewing pleasure of Arrowtown School in about 15 minutes time.
If I do it wrong, I stand to lose a finger, whilst entertaining the children at the same time.
I'll be taking special care, approaching the sphenodon sensitively and hoping for the best.
I've done this before but that was years ago.
Hopefully, it's like riding a bike, though looking at the news over the past week isn't comforting as far as that goes.
I'll report back once the school has gone.

*Up-date:  We both survived the encounter, in fact we were very comfortable in each other's company. Might look out for one for a pet.

Shaping spar gadd in the jaws of a clamping horse.

At Saturday's garage sale we unearthed a wonderful book called 'Traditional Country Craftsmen that I've been browsing ever since. It's illustrated wih photographs of craftsmen crafting stuff with materials and tools we don't often see these days.
I love the captions that accompany the photos. Here are some.

"Earnest Sims bending scythe sneads"
"Splitting a willow log with beetle and froe"
"Harry Wells with his homemade tining horse"
"Smoothing the rake handle with a draw shave. The handle is clamped in the jaws of a clamping horse"
"Weaving chissies"
"Trimming a completed five peck scuttle"
"Shaping spar gadd"

By now you'll be getting the picture. What a book!

One in particular that fascinated me showed stacks of what looked like tiles, stacked up in a field somewhere, like chimneys or tall bee-hives. The caption however read:

"Seasoning clog soles ready for transport to the clog making factories of the North of England".

When I get the chance, I'll read the book from cover to cover. Better than the Hobbit!

Day one at the table

This is my big day!
We sit around the table today in the chamber, rifling through our notes, annotating, crossing out, highlighting, eye-balling each other, looking for signs of weakness, pouncing!
It's going to be exciting (I hope against hope).
There are all sorts of issues for us to consider and I've been considering them, late into the night, page upon page of descriptions of this consent and that breach, proposals and recommendations.
It's just as well I like to read and am interested in the topics!
Effluent. Contamination. Spillage. Flooding, erosion and non-compliance!
High adventure!
I'm just about to drape myself in suit, strap on a utility belt and slip out the door for the long bike-ride into Invercargill :-)
Hope I don't find a gob of chutty under my section of the table.
I hate that.

Poor gollum

The little gollum galaxias that swims in the chill waters of the Nevis River in Otago, is no friend of the Department of Conservation, it transpires.
DoC, whom you'd expect would be more than willing to go into bat for a native fish as rare and special as the gollum, is instead spurning the 'outstanding characteristic', as the fish is described.
Why?
They've made a deal with a power company.
They've traded-off the river in which the galaxid swims.
And they won't challenge the renewed attempts by the company to gain the rights to dam the river.
This, in my opinion, is low and illustrates the danger of running conservation on a tradeable basis, a system that the Government favours and seeks to implement across the 'conservation board'.
Where does that leave the little fish?
Without the protection of the very department that should fight tooth and nail for creatures like gollum galaxis.
A Special Tribunal hearing determined that the Nevis River should not be dammed because it was a unique habitat to the gollum. Pioneer Energy hasn't accepted that finding and is pressing to overturn the ruling.
The Department of Conservation are looking the other way, maintaining a 'neutral stance'.
That's not what you are there for DoC.
Shame.

Life in the sewer

Blue rat

"He lives his life in the sewer".
Odd statement from John Key, attacking Labour MP Pete Hodgson, a man I met once and found to be very much not a  sewer-dweller.

Here's the link to Key's interview where he makes the extraordinary claim.

http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/john-key-wong-travel-perks-7-38-video-3898995

Oil film

I'm interviewing again today, this time the topic is 'Drilling the Great South Basin'.

Seems no one else is willing to speak out against describe potential drawbacks to the proposals to establish an off-shore oil rig or two in the tumultuous seas south off Stewart Island.

I'm not so shy.

Exxon Mobil have upped-stumps and left the scene and that's a significant setback to the everyones's plans to free that Texas Tea.

There are millions if titi that won't be shedding a tear over that.

Dodgy dealings with the dame

"Links between former prime minister Dame Jenny Shipley and businessman Sammy Wong are under scrutiny as his wife, former ethnic affairs minister Patsy Wong, remains under a cloud. Labour yesterday questioned why a company in which Mr Wong and Dame Jenny are shareholders was registered at the same address as Mrs Wong's publically funded electorate office in Auckland. Dame Jenny's husband, Burton, was a director of the firm, Shipley and Wong, labour strategist Pete Hodgson said. Speaker Lockwood Smith refused to comment. Prime Minister John Key also refused to comment and said he would advise Mrs Wong not to answer questions." Fairfax

Don't know about you, but I can smell something vile.

Mugs shot

It has been suggested that I'm smiling too broadly in this 'class of 2010' shot.
Time will tell.

Pablum (Hat-tip bjchip)

Well, I didn't know what 'pablum' was until BJ Chip illuminated the dark recess of my mind where that knowledge ought to have glowed (however dully).

Here's what Wikipedia has to say:

Pablum is a processed cereal for infants originally marketed by the Mead Johnson Company in 1931. The trademarked name is a contracted form of the Latin word pabulum, meaning "foodstuff", which had long been used in botany and medicine to refer to nutrition, or substances of which the nutritive elements are passively absorbed. The aspect of passivity had already given a negative connotation to metaphorical uses of the word pabulum, and the marketing of Pablum influenced the usage to refer to something bland, mushy, unappetizing, or infantile, and thus (paradoxically) with little worthwhile content.

I'm guessing that pablum can be used where I say 'pap', as in 'that newspaper article was just pap', or 'Key is feeding the public pap'.

Fan worm free

*From te panui runaka June/July 2010

Te Hapu o Ngati Wheke report:

Fanworm Update

The Government has decided to stand down the response to the Mediterranean fanworm (Sabella spallanzanii) which is known to be present in Lyttleton port and the wider Waitemata Harbour in Auckland. The decision has been made on the basis of the wide distribution of the organism and the lack of effective tools to control such a widespread population, meaning elimination is no longer feasible.

Tory squeak

It would be wrong to snipe at Peter Dunne - but Michael Foxglove at The Standard did.
He said,
"Let’s hope someone steps on that Tory squeak next election."
Tory squeak!
I'd never say that!

In praise of seeds

The Archdruid describes the value of seed saving here.http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2010/11/joining-in-dance.html

Best garage sale

When collectors and craftspeople sell their stuff at a garage sale, It's worth making the effort to get there on time!

Today's sale in Shrewsbury Street was one of the best ever. Their sheds were full of treasure and 'priced to go'.

I brought home:
A working brass padlock of ingenious design, a tin trunk that once served as a toy 'box', 100 thick slate tiles, a tin of linen buttons, a copper bucket, a John Bull bicycle puncture repair outfit, a 4-paned window, a two man saw, 4 brown glass preserving jars, 3 old door keys, a brass plumb bob, a wooden laundry 'dolly' and a whole lot of other interesting things.
Of more interest probably, are the things I was tempted to buy, but didn't, based on the criteria that that needed to be genuinely useful: a powder horn, hames for heavy horses, scythes (I have plenty) and hundreds of other 'collectible' things.
Good fun, glad I went.

Urea from wood?

"There is a pretty wide agreement that if we don't reduce the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, we are all going to hell in a hand basket. Some people believe that we have already gone too far and no matter what we do, it is too late."

Willian Huges-Games at Thoughts on the Roof. describes his thoughts on lignite, urea and ...wood waste!

His ideas are well worth exploring. He says,

"It has been proposed by our New Zealand Solid Energy that they turn their lignite deposits into urea for the farmers. At present we import much of our urea so this would help our balance of payment, provide jobs and enrich holders of shares in Solid Energy (MP's???). So far so good. However, it would become our largest emitter of Carbon Dioxide in the country, even surpassing our large coal fired power station at Huntly."

And asks, then answers this question,

"Is there another way. Well, yes there is. You can make urea from almost any carbon based substance from methane to pure carbon. You can also produce urea from wood wastes."

If you've an interest in the proposals to mine and convert the lignite that lies below the farmland near Mataura, read this guy.

Wong, just wong.

Call it something else ..and it'll go away!

Brilliantly Orwellian.
Police are taking a proactive measure to solve the escalating problem of 'death from pursuit' that has made their eagerness to chase people in cars look bad in the eyes of the public and especially in the teary eyes of the families of the usually young victims of police pursuit - they're changing what they call it!
They no longer "chase" or "pursue".
The people they are neither pursuing nor chasing are "fleeing".
The Southland Times carried the article but didn't put it online.

Driving to Dunners

How do newbie southern councillors learn the tricks of their newly adopted trade?
They travel to Dunedin for workshops on local body issues and today's is the first for me.
I'm driving the vehicle (we car pool, this is good!) and I'm pleased to say yesterday's high temperatures have settled to a cooler good-for-driving level and there's some eye-soothing cloud in the sky.
I'll get the chance to chat with Cr Rowley and Cr Peter on the way up (and back provided we don't strike anything too contraversial) and meet with the other recently elected-for-the-first-time councillors from around Murihiku and Otago.
We've been provided with a case study to ruminate on in preparation for the two half-days of learnin' and it looks to be very interesting.
Better get my skates on.
Rowley doesn't look like a guy who likes to be late for anything.

Found a friend

Here at the museum - 'That Guy'!
Wayne Hill's driftwood artwork is part of the fabric of my life it seems. I've one of his pieces in my garden, I see a couple in the estuary as I leave home in the morning for the big city and I find several more here in the museum on display!

Spun-ducky-woo

Werewolf's Gordon Campbell  blogs about 'P', the war there-on and asks whether Key's assault on buzzard dust, bugger sugar, cha cha cha, cringe, devil’s dandruff, doody, dingles, dummy dust, gackle-a fackle-a, horse mumpy, jib nugget, rumdumb, pootananny, shiznastica, spagack, spindarella, spishak, spizzlefracked, spun ducky woo, tubbytoast and zoiks is really working.
Seems very doubtful.

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