Xmas Rituals
We all have our rituals for events like Xmas, even people who don’t think they have any…
Tag: New Zealand
Scales of tragedy
How tragic is a ‘natural’ disaster? Does it depend on what is lost? Or when it happened? Is sadness about natural disasters another tilt at preventing inevitable change?
Demonic Eggbeaters and Democracy
Shane Jones says regional councils should be disestablished because they’re full of demonic egg beaters. What are demonic egg beaters? Should they be disestablished?
Gold Fever
There’s gold fever in the air in Central Otago as Santana Minerals pushes their gold mining consent forward in the Fast Track application process. Why do we love gold so much?
End of a career?
Changes to the New Zealand research funding meeting may spell the end of my career but, more importantly, what do they spell for research and science?
Things I Don’t Understand (2)
Why has NZ repaired a bell tower for $10 million, then fired the only person who can ring the bells? And why has Fonterra sold off all its added value products? So many mysteries in todays world…
Enumeration
I’m on top of Mt Alta. Do I need to know how many minutes it took me to get there? Or how high I have climbed? Has technology addicted us to counting things that don’t matter?
Prepping for Mongolia
We’re getting ready for a bikepacking trip in Mongolia. How might this be this similar to preparing for a doomsday event?
Costume
My dress sense was tested this week by Nature’s Symphony. When you dress in a style different from your norm, are you in costume? How important is dressing to fit in with the group?
Letter to My Murdered Chickens
Chickens are productive and convivial members of the pā harakeke whanau; it was a sad day when we found two of them slaughtered by a visiting dog when our guest wasn’t paying attention.