You're an American who has been exposed to Hantavirus. Do you: a) self-isolate in the US like a responsible citizen or b) Travel to a low-income island, triggering a large public health crisis in a country already facing multiple challenges www.rnz.co.nz/news/pacific...

I wondered what the scam was with those Tai Chi AI ads. Turns out it's a fake app with malware. Similarly "clubify". Don't give unnecessary permissions to apps, which does mean checking what permissions they are asking for. Sorry.

Design legend Margaret Calvert is 90 today. Look at that cake! If you've ever admired a road, rail or metro sign in Britain it's likely she had something to do with it. One of Britain's design heroes - happy birthday to her. Photo by: @oshgallerylondon (IG) Cake by: mybaker.co

The stuff of war politics thrillers, “While the incident remains a mystery, CNN suggested the sinking of the Ursa Major “may mark a rare and high-stakes intervention by a western military to prevent Russia from sending an upgrade in nuclear technology to a key ally, North Korea”.” 1/2

It always shocks the car people, but Wellington is by far the least car-dependent city in Australasia Only half of journeys here are by car. A quarter are by public transit, and the remaining quarter are by walking or cycling.

lingua franca alert

i have decided to fill the hollow earth with treats and candies so that when the aliens come, they will destroy The World like a pinata

In a similar vein, I bought Sam Robson's Magestar game the other day.

And our piece in The Conversation about the story theconversation.com/why-the-race...

Presented with comment, particular not comments that are being transcribed by an AI into an expected framework without sufficient checking.

Far-Right Playbook ($30) is a collection of essays outlining some key tactics the Far-Right are using in Aotearoa New Zealand. Authors include: Tina Ngata Byron Clark Luke Fitzmaurice-Brown Matt Macdonald India Logan-Riley Valerie Morse (PeaceActionWLG) Neil Vallelly & Simon Barber Māni Dunlop

You should never be the most sycophantic participant in a conversation with a chatbot: defector.com/you-should-n...

The City of Ottawa posted the raw speed data from before and after Doug Ford banned speed cameras and the effect is so obvious it's not even necessary put a line marking when that happened. This chart shows the percentage of drivers going 15km/h or more over the posted limit.

We listened. We reflected. We evolved. Meet RLadies+. A more inclusive identity for our global community. Because belonging matters. 🔗 Read more about the rebrand: rladies.org/news/2026/re...

Slightly increase a band Six61

I am hosting a session for the @ukrepro.bsky.social conference exploring open research advocacy in the UK and what greater organisational collaboration might look like. If you are part of an organisation engaged in this and are interested in contributing please drop a comment! #OpenResearch

A little summary of some events. Version 1.

Frustrated with the election pundits talking as if votes only 'swing' from one party to another. I did some analysis of the results, and my modelling (based on votes only, not polls) suggests that the largest movement since 2024 local elections (by a long way) is from 'Did Not Vote' -> Reform

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in Aotearoa with removal of various local authorities, restrictions on their functions, and closing down post offices and bank branches. #nzpol

In a fire, you don’t have minutes. You have seconds. ⏳ A structure fire doubles in size every 30 seconds. PART 1 of 5: Our evidence to the New Plymouth District Council on the Bell Block crisis. Every extra km from town is another 30s for a fire to grow twice as large.

As of 3rd of May, covid wastewater levels at poops.nz for Aotearoa were very low, and (of local interest) at an all time low in Dunedin. I suspect, not unrelatedly, of the covid around an increasing amount is BA 3.2 which most people over the age of 5 had vaccine protection + prior exposure

#NZ 🦠 Measles: fourth case in Wellington – Measles is likely circulating in Wellington Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ update: www.healthnz.govt.nz/health-alert... Locations of interest (no new LOIs yet added at the time of writing, but keep an eye on it): www.healthnz.govt.nz/health-topic... RNZ story ⬇️

Wikipedia can be a powerful teaching tool, but with such a massive resource at your fingertips, it can be hard to know where to start! We're pleased to share 'Wikipedia in Science Education', a resource designed for tertiary educators in Aotearoa New Zealand. 🔗 www.wikimedia.nz/wikipedia-in...

I had forgotten about Kelso, and it is absolutely worth bring back into the collective memory when thinking about managed retreats ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/esploro/outp...

What if instead of local authority amalgamation we decided to split the country into an HRE-style chaotic mess of counties and metros?

Retractions never get proportional attention. This one should.

Ata hāparapara

Research shows that if a political left party tries to win votes by adopting versions of radical right policies, they lose votes to the right. It doesn’t work. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Keeping track of what NZ political parties promise is a headache. Following up to see if they actually deliver is even harder. That's why today I'm launching the Election Policies Database on The Progress Report: a central hub to track, search, and compare every promise. #nzpol

This new @eurosky.social project looks really interesting. Aside from providing EU hosting of your Bluesky data, it gives you a convenient Single Sign-On to a range of open-source apps. Most are new to me, but I am intrigued by tangled.org (GitHub alternative) and leaflet.pub (Substack alternative)

Interesting 'How much are LLMs changing the language of academic papers after ChatGPT?' link.springer.com/article/10.1... Using >2.4 million publications, delve (+ 1,500%), underscore (+ 1,000%), and intricate (+ 700%) had the largest increases. Growth was much higher in STEM fields.

I went to a Microsoft copilot presentation this week where they were pushing "you can take a complex spreadsheet and make a summary for management" (UNCHECKABLY). I've duplicated fake feedback style performance data similar to Adam. gist.github.com/thoughtfulbl... AI "assisted" performance review.

Global seafood systems are energy systems first. Fisheries are discussed in terms of sustainability, management, quotas, labour standards, traceability, and so on. All of it is definitely important… but fuel prices underlie it all. www.franciscoblaha.info/blog/2026/5/...

Chartability is a resource to help make data visualizations and charts more accessible. It's organized into principles with testable criteria aimed at making sure people with disabilities are able to access data. chartability.fizz.studio

I mean, honestly, "The Muppets Odyssey". The crew getting turned into pigs would just be a swap out of the cast with pig muppets dressed the same.

Change in total recorded cycle trips between February and April in Õtepoti (100 * April/February - 100): 2023 +4% 2024 -9% 2025 -14% 2026 +1% So, arguably about 15% up vs. the drop that happened over the same time last year.

My recommendation for every Signal user: turn on Registration Lock to defend against this account-takeover technique. This is a clever campaign, but its reliance on social engineering reflects the strong core security of systems like Signal.

I'm still covering signups for people who can't afford it! DM me!

If you want to see exactly how these racist fucks try to commandeer a respected institution, check the email Hobson's Pledge sent to their members, telling them to "follow voting instructions" like the good little fucking dweebs they are. pastebin.com/tX1rKcJ5

if you've got one of those smart beds that turns into a George Foreman grill when us-east-1 goes out, might pay to sleep on the couch tonight

The UC CDC's Covid-19 wastewater detection network passed an important milestone a couple weeks ago: More than half the ~1,500 wastewater detections sites in the network reported Covid -19 as below the limit of detection. Why is this important? Keep reading... 1/

Guess who's back? In the 2000s, Jake Sanders (then Jack) hoaxed newspapers into publishing fake stories about non-existent spying operations on senior Māori MPs.

The deadline to join by if you intend to vote in the 2026 InternetNZ board election this year will likely be 10th May. That means Sat/Sun May 9/10 - TODAY/TOMORROW. Last minute membership pushes underway, don’t leave it too late!

Hobson’s Pledge is throwing their weight behind the FSU’s attempt to win #InternetNZ board seats. pastebin.com/tX1rKcJ5 If you’re an existing InternetNZ member ensure: your membership is up to date and if not please register prior to May 10th here: members.internetnz.nz #kikorangi #nzpol

Panic over x

Commiserations to Sir David Attenborough on his 100th birthday, as he is now too old to be allowed to play with LEGO.

can the hackers do Manuscript Central next

Very little (any?) fanfare about this, but Australia joined just 29 other countries to be declared trachoma-free last month. Excellent news!! Such hard work and research by many should be celebrated. Trachoma is caused by the bacterium called Chlamydia trachomatis. www.who.int/news/item/29...

It exists! I interviewed backup dancers, producers, the costume designer, the song’s producers who granted the rights, and so many more who were involved: web.archive.org/web/20240227...

all my friends in higher education love to complain about having to use the awful grading software, but now that someone's doing something about it you're just complaining about NOT being able to use it? some people are never happy