I’m reading Sarah Wynn-Williams’ excellent exposé from her time at Facebook, & the greatest takeaway, apart from the fact that the tech billionaires are all total sociopaths with zero morals, is how truly stupid & ignorant they are. We keep hearing the word ‘genius’ about them but it’s the opposite

Currently reading Careless People and it’s done something I never thought could happen. I didn’t think it was possible to think even less of Meta, but what do you know, it is possible.

When women are ignored and disbelieved every day, what options do we have left?

The cheek of these fucking billionaires. You can’t tell me she’s loaded because of her years of “hard work”, this is effectively theft with a bit of casual disinformation chucked in on the side. 🙄 #nzpol #NZ #TaxTheSuperRich

everlee is free - please RT, all the details here: www.webworm.co/everleeisfree/

Get on board with AI or get left behind is such a silly push because get on board with what? Writing little questions into the computer search? I’m old enough to remember Ask Jeeves mate.

ICE have just transferred kidnapped new zealander everlee wihongi to arizona, the day she was due to meet with her lawyer in california. the valid green card holder has been in prison for 30 days. over on webworm, an essay from everlee's aunt, jen, writing from NZ: www.webworm.co/winstonpeters/

Social media is a hellscape for public-facing women. Could AI hold the solution?

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/

It's insightful that Luxon sees himself as the CEO, not the PM of NZ. It explains that he sees Willis, Seymour and Peters as his Executive Directors, who do the actual operational work. Peters and Seymour don't see it this way and have maximised the political opportunity of an absent PM.

The timeline

If you want to get really angry: During our lifetime this is what CEO pay has done:

Worst summer ever? Where 2025/26 sits in the annals of ass

Big news. UK lawmakers just voted to make it illegal for AI chatbots to assist terrorist offences – based on CCDH research. Our testing found 8 in 10 chatbots regularly helped plan violent attacks. That research just moved Parliament — thanks to Baroness Kidron. Watch👇

FYI I’ve opened this one up for full public reading, listening & sharing after requests from paying subscribers. Their support allows me to do this public interest journalism on Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate & poverty in public. #nzpol open.substack.com/pub/thekaka/...

The MMP literacy in this country is abysmal

I’m looking forward to a time when countries around the world aren’t drowning in the news and trickle down result of US Wars, US Tariffs, and US Pedophilia. We would much rather watch them compete in hot dog eating competitions or laugh at their plastic surgeries, and leave us be. -Sen. Beakly

A rather chilly but enjoyable few days in Melbourne! Sadly not much time to do anything other than work but what do you do!

Hi Melbourne!

Climate crisis’s final boss: completely destroying our rivers to create a dairy industry only to burn even more fuel to bring butter over from America whose weapons are completely destroying the the ecological systems elsewhere. This is the best economic system the smart people could come up with.

this is like the thesis statement of our times

A lot of people say AI isn't very good for the world and its outputs are routinely unreliable, but these haters fail to see how it's revolutionizing how we incinerate schoolchildren.

It feels like it was 10 years ago that we thought the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico was a pretty wild event.

"The men implicated in the Epstein files reinforces that I spend half my life explaining to men that their simplified, optimistic view of other men doesn’t line up with the experience of women and girls trying to dodge sexual harassment, assault and abuse attempts." - Leslie Morgan Steiner

Amazing time seeing Jarvis Cocker and Pulp last night! Yay for Britpop 🇬🇧

They made the sport from Heated Rivalry into a real thing.

Time for a wealth levy it’s not a tax it’s fine don’t worry about it

always so funny to me when people are like “how am I supposed to explain Gay to my kids?” my kid asks me way harder shit all the time. “why did they build the road this way? why are some people bad?” I don’t know. please ask me about Gay

If Jeff Bezos could afford to spend $75 million on the Melania movie & $500 million for a yacht to sail off to his $55 million wedding to give his wife a $5 million ring, please don't tell me he needed to fire one-third of the Washington Post staff. Democracy dies in oligarchy.

Another generation is being crucified by our discredited monetary and fiscal policies. Again.

You can test new tech ideas using the Seinfeld Test Would the product eliminate the plot of an episode? (Google maps, cell phones, paypal, battery packs) Good tech. Would the product inspire new Seinfeld plots? (NFTs, AI chatbots, crypto currency, blindboxes, metaverse land sales) Bad tech.

the aftermath this morning of a protest outside the Home2 Suites by Hilton, where ICE goons were staying. all my reporting from minneapolis is avaiable for free at webworm (www.webworm.co). thanks to anyone reading along and supporting. the people in minneapolis (minus ice thugs) are awesome

If any of these pieces resonated with you, please share them - sharing my work is by far the best way to support me without taking out a paid subscription. Thanks so much! #nzpol #kikorangi

The claim... ...the "turning"

I can't trust politicians who are anti-trans. Not because I'm "only searching for perfection" which is what centrists will be accusing me of for the rest of my life, it's because if you're not pro-trans you'll be garbage on lots of other issues too. Being anti-trans NEVER exists in a vacuum.

Was the clue when he said we were going to occupy Venezuela for years to make sure we took their oil

We actually made our first meme. Of 2026.

Today I’m learning #Turkeystitch 🦃 What I’ve mostly learnt is how much it hurts your fingers 😬😳

Chipping away at this bee-ginners embroidery kit!

THANKS to any paying webworm subs who made webworm possible this year. webworm works on a freemium model, where all public interest journalism is free, funded by paying subs who get extra stuff. if you want to join but are stretched - here is a 50% off deal, forever: www.webworm.co/2026special

Damn I only got 5/10…!

They're totally upside down. If you want to save towns you don't stop spending money. Instead you spend money in the towns. Do some projects. Create jobs. Create some buzz. Up the vibe. Austerity, theoretically, is being tight so good times return, but you actually need to build the good times.

Judge finds widespread voter fraud ‘infected’ the Papatoetoe local board election

Word of the day, should you be feeling a little huffish, is ‘apanthropy’ (18th century): a love of solitude and the desire to be away from other people.

Did NZ’s most brazen electoral fraud just take place in Papatoetoe?

Who decided ‘normal’ was a 70kg man?

i owe so many video game designers an apology

if you liked tickled, you may like today's webworm investigation that goes down a strange wormhole involving airnz's latest onboard snack. thanks to anyone who chooses to support my work - makes outing bad actors like this possible. please RT: www.webworm.co/project32/

Nobody had measles when I was a kid because we were fucking vaccinated.