Did you know that the Austrian Christmas devil Krampus has banned by Austria's fascist Dollfuss regime in the 1930s as they saw the figure as anti-Christian (and also a symbol of socialism somehow?)

two sleeps until Christmas? so they say, but you can actually have as many sleep as you want over the next two days, there are no rules

I wouldn't be surprised to learn Meta is tweaking their algorithm to show people 'opposing views' as my feed has been full of right-wing crap lately, some more extreme like the antisemitic conspiracy site 'Noticer News' but also stuff like an AI generated comic saying the living wage is actually bad

Me: Heading to the pool in 25° weather before meeting a friend for gelato Pokémon Go push notifications: Winter is here! ❄️ Ice type Pokémon will spawn more frequently. Because it's cold, so cold 🥶 Happy Winter Holidays from Pokémon Go! ☃️

The world sleeps warmly, and Gaza's children face this freezing cold in the open, homeless, shaking in freeze. 😥

I attended the vigil tonight. As well as lighting candles we could add notes, I decided to name the people from Gaza who have shared their stories with me over the past year

Spotted the first couple of pumpkins in the pumpkin patch 😊

Don't want to upset the holiday mood of folks in New Zealand by posting aspects of awful commentary inciting hate, & harm inspired by, & directly associated with Brian Tamaki's rally over the weekend. The rally was widely covered in Indian media, as well as foreign social media accounts. #nzpol

NZ has joined Canada in designating as terrorist entities two far-right online networks that encourage extremist violence and exploit children.

"'Christ in the rubble' challenges us to think beyond ourselves during the Christmas season; it invites us to see the image of Jesus in every child killed and pulled from under the rubble." www.feijoadispatch.nz/p/baby-jesus...

I don't listen to her music but I love when I see a reminder that Rebecca Black, who got bullied by people -including adults, when at 13 she made a cringey vanity music video (who among us what not cringe at that age?) grew up to be a successful pop singer, selling out shows on international tours

Put together my Christmas wishlist. Remember that it's a political choice to allow AI and social media spaces to go unregulated and instead erode children's rights. Cool. #nzpol

This week, Professor James Hansen and colleagues published projections that the global temperature record could reach +1.7°C by 2027. And if that number lands in your gut the way it landed in mine, good. It should. #climatecrisis #auspol www.lyrebirddreaming.com/post/two-yea...

Any time David Seymour appears in this news claiming to be standing with a minority targeted by prejudice and violence journalists have an obligation to remind us he accepted a donation from a man who threatened to "destroy mosque after mosque until they take me out" www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350...

"The New South Wales premier wants parliament to grant his government “extraordinary powers” to effectively ban protests for three months, claiming the “implications” of pro-Palestine rallies could be seen in the Bondi terror attack that killed 15 people." www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

I didn't love Avatar: Fire and Ash, but I enjoyed it more than this reviewer www.theindianpanorama.news/hollywood/av...

I didn't love Avatar: Fire and Ash, but I enjoyed it more than this reviewer www.theindianpanorama.news/hollywood/av...

Carl Sagan's 'The Demon Haunted World' was published in 1995

this is a good reminder of how things that are shitty but have been accepted as normal and inevitable can actually turn out to be abnormal and evitable with some science, time, education and political will

Solar power is expected to become the world's largest source of electricity by 2033. ☀️🔌💡

How is that "controversial"? It is literally the whole point of the story. www.thetimes.com/article/0ad7...

New South Wales is outlawing the use of the phrase "globalise the intifada" On the one hand, you can easily support people in Gaza without using that phrase, but on the other hand, will there next be pressure to outlaw the phrase "boycott, divest, sanction" ? www.news.com.au/national/nsw...

A characteristically thoughtful and insightful piece from The House / Phil Smith on Parliament's speeches this week regarding the Bondi Beach attack. A very worthy read, looking at text and subtext in the speeches from all our parties - particularly Luxon's choice to blame it on immigration. #NZPOL

Tonight's watch is a straight to video family film from the mid 90s with a surprising back story I just learned

This is a very informative piece on the two Bondi terrorists, while we won't have the full picture for quite some time yet, a lot of information about their radicalisation is starting to become known www.smh.com.au/national/a-f...

It's a real indictment of the horrendous state of NZ media that this actual data gets essentially no coverage. Meanwhile I can't even count the number of "failing cafe owner blames cycleways for his poor business performance" stories...

Always nice to get a scientific poll to remind us that TalkBack radio and the Facebook comment section are not actually representative of public opinion www.phcc.org.nz/briefing/pub...

Yo @safety.bsky.app are you all just deleting every single account from Gaza on sight? Because this person hadn’t even heard of Bluesky when I started talking to her- made an account yesterday and made ONE POST. She’s a published journalist by the way.

This is such a good piece by @thespinoff.bsky.social showing how NZME’s (who own the Herald and Newstalk ZB) billionaire director chooses to use his money - harassing @sanjanah.bsky.social and TVNZ thespinoff.co.nz/media/19-12-... thespinoff.co.nz/media/19-12-...

"so are you on holiday now?" I have time off some of things I do which I can utilise to get some work done on other things I do

One year from today is the latest possible date the next election can be held #nzpol

Today, thanks to your donations and support, I was able to buy some fruit for my family 🍎🍌. It may seem small to many, but here in Gaza, amidst the devastation, cold, and fear, it's a real achievement. These small bags mean moments of joy for my family and show that we are still fighting to live

NEW: Without USAID funding to help buy food for refugees, the World Food Program rushed to prioritize families based on need, determining that only half the population would get food. Refugees learned which half they were in from a number stamped on the back of their ration card.

it's winter in Palestine, and there is little escape from the cold for people

"In a left-right divide, all three left-leaning party leaders from Labour, Green and TPM specifically mentioned the 15 March mosque attacks, but no-one from the governing coalition parties did." www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

I don’t know where white people who stand on stolen indigenous land get the audacity to talk about mass uncontrolled immigration like have some shame.

will be interesting to see what happens with this, after a terrorist attack in New Zealand there was massive political pushback against any hate speech legislation and plans were abandoned www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/5...

News headlines tonight "the economy is on the up!... But not the field you work in, that's down"

New GDP data from Stats NZ shows that the economy is flatlining – and is still smaller than it was at the election. For all their talk of green shoots, the Govt continues to fail workers. Unemployment is up, and cost of living is rising for middle and low-income New Zealanders. #nzpol

A rare case of far-left terorrism Though in an environment of increasingly normalised political violence it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see terrorism of numerous different ideologies becomes more common aje.io/z50tii

Before the war, Maha was an English teacher and her husband was a taxi driver, but now all the income for them and their two boys comes from donations. I invited Maha to share her story. A link to donate is included at the bottom of the article www.feijoadispatch.nz/p/from-khan-...

At least one of two Bondi Beach gunmen was a follower of Wisam Haddad, a Sydney based cleric with a long history of anti-Semitic preaching www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

At the Bondi vigil, Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce turned tragedy into opportunism. It is inexcusable - Julianne Schultz www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A lot of disinformation spreading after the Bondi Beach terror attack, I've seen "false flag" narratives blaming Mossad, (from Russian disinfo sites) and I've seen an attempt to turn the Syrian-born Muslim hero who disarmed one of the shooters into a white Australian (this one was parroted by Grok)

This is some largely good coverage of today's decision, but it's telling of where we're at in the media landscape when a pretty significant and strong court ruling doesn't outbalance some newsrooms' need for "balance" and seeking a quote from far-right homophobes: www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/3609...

This is extremely important

58% complete Please help

The idea that being far too opposed to the mass incineration of children in Palestine is somehow to blame for the mass murder enacted at Bondi is fundamentally not just absurd, illogical and indefensible: it is part of the broader project to exploit violence and death to justify even more of it