Mr Salteena is not quite a gentleman

https://microbe.vital.org.nz/users/stephen

I am interested in things. Lots of things.

I am not quite a gentleman but you would hardly notice it but it cant be helped anyhow. I'm the operator of this tiny service, a researcher, musician, capoeirista, wanna-be flâneur. If you want to know things about me, you can always ask. Meanwhile, why not read https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Young_Visiters

#bikes #bicycles #cycling #urbanism #nzpol #cider

Main web site: https://vital.org.nz
Domestic cats: 1
Chinup max: 15
Regret level: Je ne regrette rien

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npub1k4fag2alac3yulx00qjaxtmwxs0c9z38ndk63hxhq6akval4a73s45kc9m

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stephen_at_microbe.vital.org.nz@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqst25759wl7ugjw0n8hsfwn9ahrg8uz3gnekmdgmntsdwmxwl67lgcpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsap5aws

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relay.damus.io

nos.lol

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Last Notes

2026-02-04 03:32:24 UTC

Do you have a good home plum wine recipe?
If yes, please share. Because I have nearly 10kg of ripe plums and access to more, and the right equipment for home fermentation. Difficulty: this lot'll spoil in a day or two...

2026-01-23 09:30:38 UTC

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I don't know sorry - I use Caddy as a reverse proxy and do it all with the proxy settings.

2026-01-23 05:54:15 UTC

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I do something very similar to what you do, a bit more complicated. Anyone requesting .php or a number of other paths gets a 403 and firewalled via fail2ban, no matter what the HTTP version (I don't have WP or any PHP on my site, no one should be asking for /admin, etc etc etc). And then for HTTP 1.x I allow requests for atom.xml and rss.xml; allow a list of bots I approve of; serve 418 to the rest, with a little teapot emoji as the body.

2026-01-23 02:35:45 UTC

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If you have RSS or Atom feeds worth making an exception for them too...most newsreaders seem to be on 1.x too.

2026-01-13 22:34:19 UTC

Hot tip: if you're wondering why your cucumber plant hasn't had any fruit for the last few days, the answer is almost always that there is a single, now giant cucumber hiding under the foliage if you look hard enough.
#gardening

2026-01-04 05:47:41 UTC

When the big gangster takes out the small gangster, that's still being a gangster. For whatever benefit there was in getting rid of the small gangster, now the big one has expanded their influence and reach. It's not a good thing.

2025-12-26 05:57:57 UTC

So I got some free windfall damsons on my bike ride, I have picked my first figs, some late broad beans, dug first potato plant for tonight's dinner... feeling very pleased with myself.
This morning I noted that the runner beans have young pods on them, the first ripe tomato doesn't seem too far away, and my outdoor cucumbers are producing now just as the greenhouse one is starting to give up. The climbing beans have their first flowers. Going to pick some zucchini tomorrow. Cavolo nero is good to go. And the eggplant I've been nurturing in a big pot on some sunny concrete has set fruit.
#gardening

2025-12-26 05:48:53 UTC

For the first time ever, my fig tree has kept some of the breba crop to maturity and there's 10 or so ripe or nearly ripe figs! The birds just noticed and got 3, but I've picked the ripest remaining ones and we'll see who nabs the others first in the morning - perhaps I'll be the early human that gets the fig.
Definitely going to have to net the tree later in summer when the main crop comes in!
#gardening

2025-12-09 18:28:43 UTC

I would like to see the mussel reef restoration at Okahu Bay.
My late dad told me that in the 50s in Auckland, people would buy a mussel and chips. A single mussel from the bottom of the gulf would be big enough to sub in for a piece of fish.
And there was a cannery that produced tinned mussels that operated for decades... until they were all gone, gone, gone.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/12/10/what-revivinhauraki-gulf-we-made-the-mess-now-we-must-fix-itg-the-hauraki-gulf-teaches-us-about-marine-restoration/

2025-12-06 06:42:06 UTC

Two hour wide-ranging podcast with Derek Guy ("menswear guy") about menswear, buying, budgeting, what's good, making choices. I know I know people who are into this.
#menswear #fashion
https://pod.link/blamo/episode/YWY1ZDdiMTktZDYxMS00MmFhLTkxYzEtNWEyNDlhZWNhZDll

2025-11-11 08:15:05 UTC

I made a list of interesting online vegetable seed retailers in Aotearoa: https://vital.org.nz/posts/seeds.html
#gardening

2025-11-09 07:07:16 UTC

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I have seeds for two different varieties if you want. Should have some spare tomato seedings soon too.

2025-10-30 07:56:36 UTC

Picked a lettuce and made salad.
I haven't actually deliberately planted lettuce in three years. I let a couple go to seed and composted them at one point, and now I have self sown lettuce everywhere I spread compost.
The rocket has also spread on its own and I never sow that any more either.
Got a couple of years of lambs lettuce that way too, but only spotted one plant this year...
#gardening

2025-10-28 08:35:59 UTC

NZ Geographic does some really valuable reporting in Aotearoa, and on things you might not expect.
Take a look at this and then think about whether you could subscribe: https://www.nzgeo.com/newsletter/we-still-need-your-help-october-28-2025/

2025-10-28 04:14:35 UTC

A 92.5% threshold for flagging means that a little less often than 1 time in 10, the system will wrongly flag a person as suspicious, and it will be up to a staff member to validate.
Please place your bets on the likelihood of someone who probably has a lot of other things to do and isn't paid enough making a correct call.
Attn @npub1892…jjnx
https://www.thepress.co.nz/business/360868127/foodstuffs-scan-faces-christchurch-stores

2025-10-24 02:58:53 UTC

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what I did with ivy is stuff it in a wool sack and leave it for a couple of months. It died eventually for lack of light and water. So maybe just stick it in some suitable impermeable thing and leave it for a few months?

2025-10-19 20:36:39 UTC

Sowed various seeds in pots last week. I'm behind schedule compared to last year because of being overseas, but on the other hand I learned the hard way last year that if you get your seedlings out early a late cold snap can smash them (lost my zucchini that way and various other things set back).
Most of them are popping up now to my great delight. Zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, gourds.
Got a few seedlings from the garden centre this weekend to hedge my bets too.
#gardening

2025-10-11 02:22:43 UTC

Shame about Mauger wining, but it looks like on the count so far CCC is tilting left? Kind of feel like Mauger is getting credit for achievements of a council that was well to the left of him as it is.

2025-10-08 00:00:40 UTC

I'd say this is pretty unusual for a first term government?
Also horrified that 1 in 10 people would vote NZF. BIG YIKES.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360847717/new-poll-has-national-below-30-left-bloc-power

2025-09-27 15:35:15 UTC

A little vignette from last night: got a 600ml beer bottle at the bar last night. A real dive by Brazil standards, no table service and no insulating sleeve - I had to hold the bottle myself! And I was firmly told to hold by the neck not the body lest I drop it (anything cold becomes wet with condensation instantly in Salvador). "I've been drinking beer from the bottle for 40 years, you can trust me" I said, but clearly this is a problem they regularly have.
When I got to the table I went to pour beer for Mestre Jaime. You don't keep a bottle to yourself in Brazil, beer is always shared with plastic cups. (Another sign of dive bar, the plastic cups were oversized). Probably because there were no beer cosies the beer was chilled to the point of having ice crystals in it. So Jaime said "hey this isn't beer, it's gelato!"

2025-08-02 02:25:01 UTC

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could you share a link to the piece those paragraphs come from please?

2025-07-22 09:47:45 UTC

Voices For Freedom have just emailed their members urging them to stand in local body elections.
Ironically, they have put their finger on one of the main reasons local government is vulnerable to conspiracy theorists winning election. They correctly point out:
"For example, in Wairoa, with just 9 days remaining until nominations close for the election, only one candidate has registered for a general ward seat."
This is why it's imperative that good people stand for uncontested positions, and that we all carefully scrutinise those who do stand.

2025-07-12 23:01:37 UTC

There is a whole bunch of browser extensions out there that use a JS library that co-opts your browser into becoming part of a web-scraping service.
https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/07/browser-extensions-turn-nearly-1-million-browsers-into-website-scraping-bots/

2025-06-07 03:28:33 UTC

Finally made some jelly with the apple juice I pressed from the neighbour's apples.
Stages of jam and jelly making.
1. Why is this taking so loooong to get to temperature?
2. When will it pass the set test?
3. Shit did I take it too far?
4. How can I get it in the jars without burning myself?

2025-05-24 11:51:32 UTC

I'm at a party after the capoeira event,I've been dancing and drinking beer, and now I'm extremely peopled out but surrounded by partying Brazilians. Which isn't ideal when you hit your people limit.

2025-03-05 08:31:48 UTC

Hail our chubby queen (this is not a derogatory use but a nod to the very excellent post you should read about Queen Beatrice of Hungary who sounds awesome).
https://www.exurbe.com/beatrice-twice-queen-of-hungary/

2025-02-22 01:53:07 UTC

"The endgame is clear. Students use the computer to write the essays, then the university uses the computer to evaluate the essays. No need for any human in the loop."
https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/02/21/approaching-the-singularity-not-in-a-good-way/

2025-02-14 07:36:10 UTC

Huh, let me tell you about a little thing you could read called the Melian Dialogue.
We are always muted when it comes to countries we have significant trade with. If we still want to be buds for security reasons, even more so. NZ's commitment to principle in foreign policy has always been highly contingent.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/541892/nz-depends-on-rules-based-world-trump-is-dismantling-why-the-silence

2025-02-10 05:14:55 UTC

The way many New Zealand English speakers use the same vowel in both Beer and Bear is called the "NEAR-SQUARE merger". I distinguish the two, but my daughter doesn't. I love minimal pairs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_vowel_changes_before_historic_/r/#Near%E2%80%93square_merger

2025-02-10 02:11:40 UTC

OMG there is a Brazilian market/cafe just opened in Sydenham that says they're going to do lunch priced by the kg Brazilian style...
Haven't been yet but it sounds awesome.
(The way this works, for the uninitiated, is that food is served buffet style, and they weigh your plate and charge you a single set price by weight, no matter what you put on it...)
https://www.facebook.com/CopacabanaEmporiumNz

2025-02-09 08:29:20 UTC

Fascinated to discover the world of Paul Preciado and his book Testo Junkie, which I have to find a copy of.
I personally think there is a ton to be learned from people who have transitioned and experienced that second puberty as an adult and the social forces that swirl around gender, to get hints at what is hormonal and what is environmental and the reciprocal effects of both.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_B._Preciado

2025-02-07 09:38:49 UTC

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This may be the only bar in the world right now where someone just sang Toitû te Tiriti tô a 5/4 Balkan rhythm

2025-02-07 09:18:55 UTC

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Singer has that strong dark edgy contralto you recognise from Mystery of the Bulgarian Voice and is absolutely nailing it.

2025-02-07 09:09:37 UTC

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Aha, the second band came on and asked Are there any Serbs here and all the biggest dudes in th house put their hands up.
Lot of very happy Balkan people here who clearly love hearing grandma music.

2025-02-07 08:21:36 UTC

Lots of thickset heavy featured dudes and dark haired ladies out at this bar tonight.... a Greek band has brought out the community I'm guessing. Band is awesome. And they're just the warm up.

2025-01-31 22:54:44 UTC

A striking phrase from Brett Deveraux this week writing about the Gracchi:
" ancient tyrants did not demolish the apparatus of the state and declare themselves kings. Instead they subverted the state to run its affairs extra-constitutionally: the courts still functioned, the assemblies still met, councils still voted but one man controlled everything through a web of cronies, clients and the threat of force. "
I don't think he meant this, in context, as any kind of metacommentary on world events right now. But.
https://acoup.blog/2025/01/31/collections-on-the-gracchi-part-ii-gaius-gracchus/

2025-01-31 21:35:02 UTC

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yep, been able to do it all my life. First step is gaining consciousness of muscles you have and then wondering if you can move them deliberately...

2025-01-24 00:27:15 UTC

Ha! You can put Youtube subtitles _offscreen_, thus poisoning AI scrapers: https://pivot-to-ai.com/2025/01/23/youtuber-f4mi-tells-you-how-to-poison-ai-video-scrapers-with-%d0%b0ss-subtitles/

2025-01-24 00:25:45 UTC

Maybe your posture is actually just fine.
(tl;dr "imperfect" posture is much more common than military-style, if it doesn't hurt then it's not a problem, and exercise programmes aimed at "correcting" posture generally don't work)
https://mennohenselmans.com/4-myths-about-how-to-improve-your-posture/

2025-01-17 21:23:18 UTC

Women bodybuilders in Kerala
A neat story.
(via Metafilter)
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2025/01/keerthana-kunnath-bodybuilders/

2025-01-17 02:25:39 UTC

The runner beans have reached Triffid stage. Watch out!
#garden #gardening #vegetables
https://microbe.vital.org.nz/media/d4aed7ab72debd4bd1881c0e8d5e136736b8053f517340f634ebd980244f2494.jpg

2025-01-16 07:54:10 UTC

I am one of those annoying people who uses a habit tracker (Loop, it's open source and pretty nice Android app) and regularly writes in a diary. So I can see the correlation between doing things that keep me cheerful, and actually being cheerful. And there's no doubt that (eg) staying in touch with friends, playing music, and reading a book makes for a happy me on a daily basis.
But... it's also clear to me that doing those things without jumping a big hurdle of resistance relies on being somewhat happy in the first place.
So the unfortunate irony of practices that are good for your mental state is, that if they have slipped for any reason, and slipped too far, you have to really push through to get them back... and it will be hard.
The meta-practice you need is: making yourself do things, even if it's just the tiniest gesture in the right direction.
(Recognising that for some people and condiitions the tiniest gesture is not possible: "you" here really means me and people like me.)

2025-01-16 01:47:45 UTC

Transported 4x40l sacks of compost on my bike trailer just now. It wasn't hard (admittedly the garden centre isn't that far). But I'd guess the load at around 40kg.
Trailers are danged handy and I recommend if you are into human powered transport.
This site, as well as having trailers and hitches for sale, also has designs for you to build your own: https://www.cycletrailers.co.nz/index.html
#bike #bicycle #transport

2025-01-16 00:54:59 UTC

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oh hell yes. My late father came up in that era and dictated most of his correspondence for his secretary. I talked to him about it and he freely admitted that he expressed himself normally, with the same pauses and ums and ahs and rewording and "scratch that, what I meant was" that you and I would. And his secretary of course turned that into grammatically correct prose in more or less his style. An accurate transcript of his speech would have been useless, and an automated paraphrase dangerous. But anyway she was doing a lot of work!
(incidentally, as email became a thing, Dad refused to use it and got his secretary to filter it, not because he didn't know how, but he felt far too many people were trying to get his attention as it was, and the last thing he needed was a direct channel they could use. So another very important thing his secretary did was make judgement calls about who deserved that attention... not something to trust to an AI, I would think).

2025-01-15 20:23:25 UTC

I'm thinking of a very simple service that would detect an http request for a "trigger" URL - let's say something embedded in a page but styled to be invisible to sighted humans - and then deny further requests to that IP/user-agent.
Does that exist already?
Rationale: blocking bad bots that ignore robots.txt. The anchor text for the hyperlink would read "if you click here, you will be blocked" to provide notice to people with screen readers.

2025-01-14 05:10:51 UTC

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This roaster is already 9 years old. I paid $470 for it then ($800 or so is what it costs now). Considering green coffee beans are around half the price of roasted ones, it's well paid for itself now, and the ROI is just getting better and better.

2025-01-14 05:07:14 UTC

Feeling quite pleased with myself. My coffee roaster has not been working right - not reaching temperature and taking too long to roast the beans, which gives a poor result.
I researched the problem. Found some helpful tips. Diagnosed the problem, ordered the part, took the roaster apart, verified the old part was indeed broken, replaced it, put everything back together. And now it's all working! So I spent $45 and an $800 appliance probably has another decade in it now.
We should applaud manufacturers like Behmor who publish manuals, answer owner questions, design things to be repairable and provide parts.
#repair

2025-01-09 02:33:41 UTC

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Voices for Freedom were urging their members to submit in support, and using Reality Check Radio - I guess this will be a handy measure of how much real world action they are able to mobilise.

2025-01-04 07:02:52 UTC

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Commendably, the bar we were at has urinals, clearly labelled, and a bunch of cubicles for anyone (each with hand washing, drying, menstrual product disposal etc). Plentiful facilities usable by anyone who can use them, as it were, and designated that way.

2025-01-04 04:10:42 UTC

PSA: when you use the last toilet paper in the cubicle, tell the bar staff.

2024-12-27 09:06:07 UTC

At this time of year, you could think about making your own ginger beer. In which case I have a recipe for you: https://vital.org.nz/posts/ginger-beer.html

2024-12-25 01:14:19 UTC

We are home again, there was no yelling apart from overcoming a malfunctioning hearing aid, and now I'm going to have a nap.

2024-12-24 07:42:11 UTC

All I want for xmas is a 700l wine fermentation amphora https://www.assetdis.co.nz/equipment/amphora-x7-15463s

2024-12-22 05:51:43 UTC

Got some Sawmill Bare Beer, which is zero alcohol. It's not bad. What is your preferred (NZ-available) zero alcohol beer?

2024-12-21 00:59:57 UTC

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friend of mine got caught up in this so have been trying to avoid Koanga since out of solidarity
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300580918/former-ecovillagers-warning-for-those-donating-to-charity-locked-in-dispute

2024-12-21 00:59:01 UTC

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I think these are the broad bean variety, I dimly remember a Koanga order years back
https://koanga.org.nz/gardens/all-vegetables/broadbean-red-seeded/

2024-12-21 00:26:58 UTC

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https://microbe.vital.org.nz/media/6bfe36e7401404e16727925a36dcb90e95d4d67e80fcd022032bf66860801d28.png

2024-12-21 00:26:30 UTC

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yep, there are leftovers from last season that are probably still good, but I'll save seed from this one too.
https://microbe.vital.org.nz/media/a3fb1b7f03d6239ed470a98b2f388a6fb5e77bac3390b506e2afee642be50c58.png

2024-12-18 04:43:25 UTC

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Despite that, I must dispute one claim they make, namely that New Year's resolutions "don't work." Research shows they have quite good success rates. This is an article I really like which tries to provide an evidence-based framework for setting and achieving goals. Focus is fitness, but the framework could be applied to anything.
There is a plug for a food monitoring app at the end if that bothers you (although where these people are coming from, namely sports and strength training, weight *gain* is just as likely a goal).
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/goal-setting/

2024-12-18 04:28:10 UTC

A lot of people like to do some self-reflection at this time of year. I found the Year Compass booklet good last year and plan to do it again: https://yearcompass.com/

2024-12-17 06:54:16 UTC

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if you feel really motivated you can blanch them and they just pop out of the skins and then you can go on to do whatever with them... but as a lazy cook with a crude palate, I never bother. Otherwise, pick them young and accept a lower yield.

2024-12-17 03:51:40 UTC

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yes. If they get mature the skins will be tougher (which I don't mind but Flip might want to peel his post cooking)

2024-12-15 02:00:04 UTC

Half a million bike trips at the Antigua Boatshed bridge so far this year and and it's not even Xmas https://cyclingchristchurch.co.nz/2024/12/15/photo-of-the-day-half-a-million-bikes/

2024-12-13 18:55:27 UTC

Hey remember we were chucking out our black plastic cooking utensils because they're contaminated? Turns out there was a simple but big maths error in that research so the estimated dose of bad shit from using them was exaggerated ten-fold.
https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2024/12/13/how-a-simple-math-error-sparked-a-panic-about-black-plastic-kitchen-utensils/

2024-12-12 07:55:11 UTC

I bought some Lebanese zucchini seed this year and they're pretty good but I'm really keen to get a variety Dad grew, and I can't ask him what with him being dead :( The zucchini in question had grey skin and were nice and waxy - that layer under the skin before the pulp was thick, and the seed zone was small. Any ideas what that might have been? This was in New Zealand so something local suppliers stock.

2024-12-12 07:41:28 UTC

When I was a little kid, my parents took me to the Waikato Art Museum, which was just one floor in a building that also housed the PSIS if I remember rightly. It had a huge old restored waka taua, and all kinds of interesting things, and also often the paintings of Brent Wong.
These images of concretions in the bare sky above stark landscapes are still with me. I can't see a cloud without thinking about his work.
https://www.brentwong-painter.com/beginnings.php#

2024-12-12 06:56:35 UTC

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disclosure: lift weights, giant nerd, am not strong BUT am stronger than I otherwise would be and that's danged handy.

2024-12-12 06:54:40 UTC

Absolutely nerding out listening to this podcast about the question: what is strength? With actual exercise scientist, historian, philosophers, all of whom lift.
Are you strongk if you lift a barbell overhead? Out-wrestle your opponent? Take a test on a strongness measurement machine? Why does it matter? With side commentary about gym bros who won't take their plates off the leg press machine: what are the ethical issues in play?
I think this is actually a cool discussion even if you don't lift, because it's nice hearing this kind of analysis applied to an activity where we don't often hear words like culture, philosophy and history.
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-5sy3r-22b794b3

2024-12-12 02:54:48 UTC

Once again mildly tempted to register thereisnodepressionin.nz

2024-12-12 02:34:22 UTC

Incidentally, the general decline of search engines means finding out about the death of Ivan Illich is a pain because they assume you want to know about Tolstoy's story The Death Of Ivan Ilyich which in fact I do not, I wish to know about how noted philosopher and priest Ivan Illich died.
(Actually I do know, but I wanted a reference, it's ok you don't need to tell me. He had a cancer on his face but refused to get it treated because of his beliefs about modern medicine.)

2024-12-09 02:48:33 UTC

I have been donating to City Missions in Wellington and Chch for some time. But ideally I would donate to a secular charity.
Recommendations for secular charities that work with the homeless in NZ?

2024-12-03 09:19:29 UTC

Popped over to the neighbours to drop off a key, they are feeding our cat while we are away overnight.
Zack answered the door wearing a mask. He does not have COVID and probably won't for a bit because he had it less than a month ago... but his daughter does. She got it at school camp last week. As did nearly every kid there and half the teachers. "It was a spreader event", he said. Daughter is a young tween so quite a few more years of school left...
Fucking hell. I really wonder and worry about the consequences for all our kids.

2024-12-03 09:11:50 UTC

Hell fucking yes.
Quoting here:
So, moderation became the direction followed and millions have chosen to follow Bluesky as a result. A consequence of this decision is that Bluesky is now regularly described as an ‘echo chamber’, a place where someone supposedly only ever hears the same thing and it is always what they like.
First, the people saying this, mainly in legacy news outlets, have not necessarily read any of the scholarship that challenges the very idea that echo chambers exist.
Second, this largely unfounded criticism tells us a lot about how far our politics seem to have drifted to the right. Apparently, we can no longer consider ourselves as partaking in a genuine ‘town square’ and we cannot consider our speech ‘free’ if we are not open to being shouted at by neo-Nazis, racists, misogynists, anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, science deniers, homophobes and transphobes.
When the alt-right came to light around 2015, their stated aim was to shift what is called the so-called Overton Window, or what is deemed permissible in public debate. Looking at the complaints laid against Bluesky, we can only conclude they have succeeded, but that does not mean I should be forced to listen to their antisemitism, Holocaust denial, race science, rape apologies or the myriad forms of discrimination they are committed to enforcing. Bluesky allows us to turn them off, and Bluesky users are pleased by that.
Third, it also says so much about right-wing politics itself. When the ‘liberals’ and the ‘leftists’ (names that in fact mask a great deal of diversity) left Twitter, the political right then tried to chase them into the places they migrated to. This previously happened on Mastodon where neo-Nazis quickly opened Mastodon instances and attempted to federate with others in order to continue their trolling, only to be quickly de-federated by the other instances and left to float off into cyberspace. (This is how Mastodon’s immune system works.)
https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/11/27/nothin-but-blue-skies-from-now-on/

2024-12-03 08:25:14 UTC

Apparently although I prize tolerance and think you should wear what you like, I can be extremely bitchy about clothes, which is not a trait I am proud of (but I'm still going to do it).

2024-12-01 20:37:45 UTC

Sports bras are an enabling technology
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/dec/01/self-esteem-and-dignity-how-giving-girls-well-fitting-bras-encourages-them-to-play-sport

2024-12-01 19:25:52 UTC

Attn Christchurch people, the CCC transport plan submission deadline is in a week. And since the usual suspects are going to be going wah wah war on cars, you might want to submit in support: https://cyclingchristchurch.co.nz/2024/12/01/whats-the-future-for-transport-in-christchurch-have-your-say/

2024-12-01 19:20:46 UTC

Sobering for politics tragics (but not political scientists, who know this): campaigning makes very little difference to who wins. So we could stop being quite so invested in how parties do or don't execute their campaigns.
As a former campaign manager, I'd say it makes a very small difference, and sometimes that is the margin between winning and losing, so we do it anyway and to keep ourselves motivated we tell ourselves it's a big difference. Also I suspect it's different at local level to national level, which is what this article is discussing.
https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2024/12/01/presidential-campaign-effects-are-small/

2024-12-01 08:54:15 UTC

If you surf and you are worried about being chomped by a great white, this story is for you: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-12/shark-study-finds-led-lighting-surfboards/104588738

2024-11-28 21:27:04 UTC

FACT Aotearoa on the power of an appealing story, how that litterbox in schools thing is still kicking around, and why *that* story is too good to ignore for some.
https://factaotearoa.nz/the-trail-of-the-litter-box/

2024-11-22 00:56:09 UTC

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It's BEAUTIFUL
https://microbe.vital.org.nz/media/8804c944e4a85b4d4d09334bf14a7eb07dcd458ff1a439678c604d382b2a58bb.jpg

2024-11-22 00:19:28 UTC

Emotional rollercoaster as my parcel was marked "delivered" but I didn't get it - it was signed for by someone else! - i filled out NZ Post's form but got no confirmation email - called their call centre - waited, waited - CSO said the manifest didn't have my details on it so I'd need to sort that out - but then she called the driver, and the driver had already figured it out, retrieved the parcel, and is on their way!
PHEW

2024-11-20 23:50:53 UTC

If the Toitū te Tiriti organisation were just a TPM front, as Winston Peters claims, I do not think I would be getting emails from my local Labour MP using the phrase and praising the enormous turnout for the hīkoi. Cause there's no love lost there. This thing is bigger than one party (as it danged well should be).

2024-11-20 21:57:08 UTC

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seconding the opinion on mirror finish. I have carbon steel and cast iron and what I'm finding is that I'm using the carbon steel a lot more and reserving the cast iron for searing and frying with lots of oil. The carbon steel is just so much easier to handle. And it starts off with a much smoother surface too.

2024-11-17 22:44:27 UTC

It's been about a week of really shitty sleep, and I just realised I have got stuck in a loop of poor sleep > more coffee > worse sleep > moar coffee.
I used to think that because I could fall asleep straight away, caffeine wasn't affecting my sleep. Can't remember where I learned this, but actually caffeine sleep disturbance doesn't necessarily manifest that way. It affects sleep duration and quality too.
(Got woken up by an actual disturbance last Tuesday, then the next day had a large and stupid beery lunch which set me up for another poor night, and the days following I've been surviving on tea and coffee and waking up in the dark and just dozing after that.)

2024-11-16 06:56:03 UTC

The thing is Tamaki/Destiny will never seek permits or do things in an officially sanctioned way, not because they don't recognise the law, but because their narrative is that they are unfairly persecuted for their beliefs... these situations are set-up for their us-against-the-world outlook. Hence why they are so danged annoying. It's not intended to persuade or make you sympathetic. It's a performance for an internal audience and an exercise in group cohesion.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360489266/patriots-parade-travels-down-auckland-motorway

2024-11-15 07:04:49 UTC

This is a case that causes me heartburn.
Dude is a cooker (trust me). But I think within some bounds, building your own dwelling is a good thing. I am hot on standards for tenants, less so for owner-occupiers (but you have to think of their kids who can't move out if they don't like it). I mostly think people should be allowed to harm themselves, but the problem with bad buildings is they might outlive their occupants who don't care and harm the next ones.
Ending with a crank doing what they need to do to make their house safe without actually knocking it down would be a good outcome.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/533921/owners-of-unconsented-woolshed-converted-house-given-temporary-repreive

2024-11-14 03:17:20 UTC

I just had such an enormous beer-enhanced lunch with a friend that there is nothing for it but to have a lie down. Dinner will probably be a glass.of water.

2024-11-13 05:02:00 UTC

Getting some quotes for a battery for the house, and in the meanwhile working up a model to figure out payback times.
The real unknown is future power prices and export rates for solar panels. One has to assume power will not get cheaper though.
Based on the ballpark I got from the first people I rang, might be looking at a 15 year payback time? Not that great. But that assumes prices are stable, and doesn't place a value on being able to survive short power cuts.

2024-11-12 23:18:04 UTC

There are at least as many people behind and around me. #toituTeTiriti
https://microbe.vital.org.nz/media/76a266c7b2d1f037dbd117bb40a5cb586a332f9b26d8b385b9698e10055bbefc.jpg

2024-11-12 04:59:49 UTC

Two weeks after my prescription sunglasses mysteriously vanished, I have given in and ordered new ones.
I fear there is a high likelihood they will now turn up from wherever they have been hiding...

2024-11-11 04:34:42 UTC

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y'all need respite care

2024-11-11 04:07:28 UTC

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this sounds both difficult and awful 😞

2024-11-10 22:56:13 UTC

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interesting. My first ones were the last year leftover. It's in a great situation with full sun, fwiw.

2024-11-10 22:32:19 UTC

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maybe it depends when they went in?

2024-11-10 20:33:46 UTC

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yes - if you can protect them from slaters and birds! Especially when they are sun warm. I hate how supermarkets refrigerate fruit, which often ruins it.

2024-11-10 20:18:01 UTC

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(I also updated the Now page, not that it's very interesting)
https://vital.org.nz/now.html

2024-11-10 20:17:24 UTC

I blogged again. Ironically, I started this over a month ago, intending to finish it with a completely different ending.
https://vital.org.nz/posts/time-and-getting-shit-done.html

2024-11-10 03:23:11 UTC

Let's admire that Parodia flowering again
https://microbe.vital.org.nz/media/186546ba532d829ee1e1b64b10b8725aedc9653a3f5d8803e56e465450edee1c.png

2024-11-07 07:51:56 UTC

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what's "passive messaging"? Not familiar with this term.

2024-11-07 07:48:32 UTC

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I'm seeing a few pieces suggesting that "we should not forgive" and I agree to the extent that this is too much to ask from people who have been really hurt by their supposed friends and loved ones, or who personally at risk. On the other hand... personal relationships are what provide a path back for people who have fallen for disinfo.
So the problems are: it's morally repugnant, depending on your outlook. It's emotionally demanding. It's person to person, and so not scalable, and to the extent it's reflected in mass scale comms, counterproductive to communicating to a politician's base. That's why we don't have any short term answers. (Long term answers are around media literacy and critical thinking, but you need to be in power or otherwise have the means to fund a huge and ongoing campaign).