Rodenbach Grand Cru, I will make an exception for that particular sour

McLeod’s also makes lots of fine sour beers, and cask ales - I am not a massive sour fan (reminds me too much of bad natural wine) but McLeod’s sours are very clever

Some of these Nelson hops, you could swear that there are “illegal substances” in the beer

Ah, well we were all brought up on Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc in the late 80s, early 90s and there are similarities… all used to it… actually hop growing in Nelson started long before grape growing in Marlborough

3/4 of my grandparents came from Karelia, and in some way, I identify as Karelian, even though I have never even visited. I know the area and village where my family had lived for centuries, but I would not want to go back, as @jmkorhonen.fi writes.

It is the people, not the place.

Neighbours at war: court wades into cross-lease crossfire

A key Court of Appeal ruling covering around 216,000 properties urges neighbours seeking to refuse permission for building changes to ‘live and let live’

Magyar Péter (Ne féljetek) * ... @magyarpeterMP Until 31 May, the Orbán puppets may voluntarily step down from their positions. This applies to the President of Hungary, the President of the Curia, the President of the National Office for the Judiciary, the President of the Constitutional Court, and the Prosecutor General. On 12 April, the Hungarian people voted for a complete political transformation. If these officials do not step down voluntarily by 31 May, then - on the basis of the mandate received from millions of Hungarians — we will remove them from office.

Hungary’s Péter Magyar issues an ultimatum.

Ardern inches ahead as people's choice author

The last chance for readers to win all 16 books shortlisted for the Ockham awards.

I've been trying to match the original numbers in the 2024 report that is quoted to make more detailed commentary on it, but measuring the key graph in the Microsoft and Acceture report it has 'past' NZ GDPs of 357 billion for 2023 and 362 in 2024. And that matches no record I can find.

“revelling” damn you autocorrect

both brand new releases (it is Fresh Hop season in Aotearoa/NZ and we are revealing in the range of styles and the diversity of what is coming on tap) - never been a huge Cold IPA fan but this is exceptional, the Forty Acre Unfiltered (not “Hazy” not) a bit more restrained than in previous years

Never Mind the Rowlocks, Here's the Wellington Sea Shanty Society, by Wellington Sea Shanty Society 6 track album

Alert! New Wellington Sea Shanty Society EP next month! Alert! Alert!

When politics are fishy:

McLeod’s, mostly makes hoppy American style beers (but also makes a fine English bitter)

Deep – and enjoyable – dives into two of France’s most misunderstood regions. Tam reviews.

www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/new-books-beauj...

#jancisrobinson #bookreviews #winebooks #wine #wineknowledge

"I just say to the prime minister that New Zealanders are not going to tolerate unfettered immigration, ruining our foundation culture and clogging our services at a time we can hardly afford to upgrade the infrastructure that New Zealand has. "The media will never cancel the Dalmatian Māori because he uses hyperbole and dismiss it as racism. Kiwis are flocking to my cause. Immigration, unfettered, unmitigated, has had a lot of negative impacts," Jones said.

This dickhead isn’t modelling himself after Winston Peters. He’s modelling himself after Brian Tamaki. “Kiwis are flocking to my cause.” Ugh.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

The traditional ways of knowing prove true yet again (with replacement Winston).

Yes, McLeod’s are based up in Waipu, two hour drive north of here, and make one of our greatest craft beers, 802 Unfiltered Pale Ale, which has a different hop combination every batch - we are currently up to #75

McLeod’s my favourite craft brewer, mostly makes American style hoppy ales, but this English Bitter is rather good

(well, I may have had her half pint… 🍺)

I took her to this pub north of Auckland late last year and we had to order a pint

My 96 year old (about to turn 97) mother in law left UK shortly after WW2, the ship was named Stratheden

posted without comment*

*many thanks to @johnfugelsang.bsky.social

Ten-Pound-Poms down-under:

'"Old Trump" is a delicious wine. It smells of full nappies and has a lingering aftertaste of malice and corruption.'

The worst way to use an LLM is to ask a standard LLM chatbot a question, like this.

Serious LLM use requires building out rules/guidance, providing data sources, and iterating on your prompt.

Unfortunately they market and deploy it to be primarily used the first way, causing nonsense like this.

today on webworm, @dylanreeve.com and i look at how barely solvent new zealand-born shoe company allbirds (previously spouting off about environmental sustainability) has announced a pivot to AI: www.webworm.co/nobirds/