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RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Not so awful offal
Hannah Miller Childs, funder of The Lady Butcher Photo: Davina Zimmer One of Hannah Miller Childs' go-to bar snacks is chicken hearts. "A bit of mustard, you can eat it with a toothpick," she says. You could also chop it up, add it into mince and make it a full nutritious meal. Adding offal to mince in government school lunches last week hit the headlines because parents hadn't been warned it was coming. But what's the big deal? Offal is back on the menu not just at school, but in high-end restaurants and one specific pub just off Auckland's Dominion Road. Originally from America, Miller Childs moved to New Zealand a little over a decade ago to pursue a career in butchery. She founded a boutique business, the Lady Butcher, specialising in traditionally crafted, locally sourced meats. She follows the nose to tail philosophy, which as the name suggests, means using the entire animal from nose to tail, including all the crunchy, wobbly, icky bits widely known here as offal. "Stomach, heart, liver... bones can be part of that as well, usually the head in its entirety is referred to as offal, although in more recent years cheeks have become popular so now what we'll do is we'll take the cheeks off, and the rest of the head would become offal," Miller Childs says. While some may remember growing up eating parts like kidney or liver, offal hasn't necessarily been a popular protein choice. Miller Childs thinks offal is having a comeback and is in full support of it. "There's a reason why in nature, when a lion takes down a gazelle, they eat the guts first. That's where the nutrition is," she says. There are different kind of offal, red and green. The former refers to organs like the heart, liver and kidneys and the latter encapsulates things like the intestines, stomach and bladder. Miller Childs says red offal is especially good for you. "Heart particularly, really high in protein, but also vitamins... a lot of women don't get enough iron, eat some heart, and a small amount goes a long way," she says. It's also significantly cheaper than the standard slab of steak or chicken breast. So while you might not want to commit to a whole ox heart, swapping out your chicken breast or steak with something like chicken hearts could significantly cut down your grocery bill. "You're looking at ... a couple bucks, whereas for the same weight-wise for a steak you'd be paying upwards of $20," Miller Childs says. But Miller Childs acknowledges there's an ick factor to eating offal, in part because we've become disconnected from where our food comes from. "The thing with offal is, it looks like what it is, a heart looks like a heart ... so there's that confrontational aspect," she says. Miller Childs thinks as a society we've removed ourselves from that confrontation but says actually knowing what you're eating and where it's coming from is incredibly important. "While I'm pro eating offal, I do want to know what's in my food and I think that we should all have a healthy interest in that," she says. Consuming offal doesn't just mean eating it yourself, it could also mean feeding it to your pets. The main thing is avoiding as much waste as possible. "This animal took years to raise, someone spent their life doing that ... there's a lot that's gone into it and it's very easy, in today's life, to just go, 'buy a packet of mince and off you go', without thinking about it. "If it doesn't get eaten, or if you can't be bothered with taking leftovers for lunch it ends up in the bin and it's a waste of that whole process." Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here . You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter .
Otago Daily Times
2 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
AI-powered app targeting cognitive health of older adults
Adults frequently tell their children to stop spending so much time on their mobile devices, for fear it will rot their brains. Ironically, Dunedin-based app company Elli Cares is helping to develop a world-first, AI-powered mobile phone app that will assist older adults in monitoring and strengthening their cognitive health. Elli Cares originally supported seniors living with dementia, by creating a mobile app that gave them gentle reminders when it was time to take medications, go to appointments, carry out tasks such as refilling medications scripts, and informing family members if their loved one missed a reminder or left a safe zone. It aimed to empower them to live independently, confidently and with greater control over their health and wellbeing. The New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) recently awarded a $4million Catalyst: Strategic research grant, alongside additional co-funding from Singapore's National Research Foundation, to develop a new app which can monitor and strengthen the cognitive health of all seniors — not just those with dementia. Elli Cares founder Angela Edwards said the company would work with Dementia New Zealand, and researchers from the University of Otago, Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Auckland, alongside the Singapore-based National Neuroscience Institute, the A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing, and Lions Befrienders. The new app would use speech and game-based tasks to assess memory, decision-making and verbal fluency. It would also use adaptive AI algorithms that tailored activities to each user's performance, analyse their performance, and alert families and clinicians with summaries if changes to their performance were detected. Ms Edwards said studies had shown the brain was a muscle that needed to be used, and if it was not used, "it wastes away". She said playing games like Candy Crush, Wordle, Sudoku, and even "rapid-fire shooting games',' on mobile phones were good for cognitive health. "We can actually identify a number of different types of games that can help different parts of your brain. "We want to find recall games that can help with memory; rapid fire games that can help with response times; and language-based games that can help with vocabulary and communication." The new app marks a shift from passive diagnosis, to proactive cognitive resilience. The project will include a pioneering integrated ethics programme, led by University of Otago Dunedin School of Medicine bioethics lecturer Dr Tania Moerenhout, to ensure the users' values, autonomy and privacy were prioritised from the earliest design stages. Dr Moerenhout said older adults may prioritise autonomy and meaningful living, while families would focus on safety. "AI tools must reflect those nuances. "Embedding ethics across the design process is key to building trust and ensuring the technology truly supports the lives people want to lead." Ms Edwards said the new app would be embedded into the Elli Cares app, because it was already being used in more than 40 countries, making it quicker and easier to deploy and expand the new app. She was thrilled the next-generation tool would bring world-class AI researchdirectly into the lives of all older adults and their families.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Is there any way to make a pre-nup 100 percent certain?
RNZ's money correspondent Susan Edmunds answers your questions. Photo: RNZ Send your questions to I've heard various people and sources say that there is no sure way to protect your assets from a partner after three years as a partner can claim unfairness or something similar. Is this true? Some people say a trust can sometimes be broken and pre-nups sometimes don't hold up. Is there any 100 percent certain way to protect your assets before going into a relationship over three years? Sorry, it's probably true that there's no 100 percent way to protect your assets. People often sign a contracting out agreement if they want their relationship property to be treated differently to the way that the law directs. But you're right that this is open to challenge, particularly if it can be argued that the arrangement is unfair. Bill Atkin, emeritus professor in Victoria University's faculty of law, said this was true of any contract and would depend on the circumstances. "The test for the court to set aside an agreement is where 'giving effect to the agreement would cause serious injustice'. There are other factors taken into account including the desire for certainty. It is not common for a contract to be set aside unless, for example, there has been some improper dealings in getting a party to sign. On the other hand, a contract entered into many years ago may turn out to be unreasonable in the light of what has happened in the meantime. To allow no leeway for setting contracts aside would be unfair." A contract must follow the formalities set out in the Property (Relationships) Act. Atkin said the main one that must be remembered was that both parties must have independent legal advice. "Failure to do this will of course meant that the contract is on the face of it invalid." Nicola Peart, University of Otago law professor, said a contracting out agreement was still a good way of protecting your assets, even if it was not ironclad. "Assuming the agreement was made with full information and independent legal advice, it can still be challenged if it was seriously unjust at the time or has become seriously unjust at a later point in time." And this is me talking - this is probably a good thing, overall. If you're living together as a couple and your circumstances change, it's reasonable that what was fair at the outset might no longer be. It's a good idea to get your own legal advice about your individual circumstances. We are currently settling an estate. The deceased had a credit card to a third-party lender, a Q Card, not a Q MasterCard. I cannot find any mention of estate obligations should the holder die, which I have seen with other credit cards. Does this mean the estate is not obligated to pay the bill? Michelle Pope, a principal trustee at Public Trust said generally, if a credit card account was held only in the name of the person who died, it would become a debt of the estate, to be paid from their assets. "However, if the account was in joint names, the responsibility for the debt usually passes to the surviving account holder. We're assuming the lender has already been contacted and the terms and conditions have been reviewed. If those terms don't specify what happens when someone dies, then the debt would usually be treated as one that needs to be settled." In 2007, I separated from my ex-husband and started a relationship with my new partner. He said to me that he had put his property and business into a trust so no other partners could get any of his property. I was OK with that because I felt going forward he would look after me if I became his wife and the mother of his children. Fast forward to 2016 I received $135,000 from my mum's inheritance and 2018/2019 $130,000 from dad. We had been renovating this beautiful 100-year-old house and property in which we used my inheritance to renovate it. I was happy as this was our family home and it was lovely, until 2020 when he started an affair and we separated. Do you have any suggestions on how I can get my inheritances recognized in our financial settlement case? Peart says there is a pathway ruling on general equitable principles, in particular the "constructive trust", which has been used to compensate former partners who have made substantial contributions to assets held in a trust where the court is satisfied that she had a reasonable expectation that she would share in the value of her contributions and it is reasonable for the trustees to yield an interest. She said, if you were married, section 182 of the Family Proceedings Act could be a way to get a settlement. This covers the court making orders relating to property. But she said the opportunity for a court to intervene in nuptial settlements and do something for a spouse who was not getting anything was not available to people who were de facto. "She may well be able to rely on general equitable principles, in particular the constructive trust, for an order that the trustees of the trust hold a share of the home on trust for her on the basis of contributions made to the property and a reasonable expectation that those contributions would result in some share of the property. "Aside from that, I wonder whether she was advised by whoever was handling her parents' estates about the risks of losing her entitlements if she used it to renovate the family home. In this case, the risk was even greater, because the family home was in trust. "This highlights the risks involved with commingling an inheritance with relationship property . As discussed last week, to be kept separate, an inheritance needs to be held apart from other property. "An inheritance is separate property under the PRA, but once it is intermingled with relationship property or invested in the family home, it becomes relationship property and is subject to the equal sharing regime," Peart said. "Lawyers advising on distribution of estates commonly give advice about that to the beneficiaries of the estate to make sure they realise the risks of not keeping the inheritance separate." Atkin said any property owned by a trust would not be divided under the act. "There are some exceptions, where the trust ownership may be factored in, for example where the trust is a sham or where one of the parties has so much control under the Act that they are treated as having an interest that can be divided. "Also, in some situations there may be compensation where relationship property, such as the home, has been transferred to a trust during the relationship. There are other points here but, in short, the relevant law where there is a trust is complex and not consistent. The Law Commission has accepted that the law needs to be reformed but the government has shown no signs so far of implementing the Law Commission's recommendations. "Now, what about the inheritance? There is no direct way under the Act of recognising the inheritance. Any claim would be against the trust. If the inheritance money had been packaged as a loan to the trust, then the trust would be in debt to the person who lent the money. However, most people in relationships are unlikely to think about doing this. Another possibility is that the heir can make a claim under laws that apply generally, not just to relationships. A genuine possibility is to claim what the law calls a constructive trust in relation to the formal trust. The latter would have to account for the contribution made by way of the inheritance but success here is by no means guaranteed and what the value of a constructive trust would be is subject to all the factors in the case. Legal advice would be needed and one would hope that a satisfactory negotiated settlement can be reached with the trustees. Trouble is that the ex may well be one of the trustees and may play hard to get."
