Analysis: If Willis' big fix for the energy market is to help gentailers finance new thermal baseload or firming plants, she's answering a question that nobody's asking, writes Jonathan Milne.

We don't need to panic. We just need to stop installing - and replace existing - gas hobs. www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3608...

Protect trans kids. Fuck RNZ, and specifically, fuck Ruth Hill and Mark Stevens, who apparently missed out that the Onion is satirical.

The Government announcement on energy is so many levels of BS. TL;DR: The actual pre-profit cost of electricity production is unaffordable for at least a third of the population, and cannot be solved without energy subsidies to lower income households.

Our gutless, spineless, heartless, brainless, thin-skinned turd golem of a Government may not recognise Palestine as a state, but the rest of us can.

What I'd say to you is a high quality of service that is not the most effective way of doing it. #Luxomatic

Thought I'd take a look at the actual regulations the gas industry says all gas hobs are required to meet. IANAL but my reading of the regulations is that, given the new evidence of harm ("damage") directly attributable to gas stove emissions, it should now be illegal to install a gas hob.

I think - or maybe it just feels like it because not my usual areas - I have done more media engagements in the last 3 days than in any other 3-day period in my career and it is a LOT for my internal stress monkey.

Clearly* firearm mortality and autism prevalence have the same drivers, so we could act against guns as well as Tylenol. Or alternatively, reduce autism prevalence with thoughts and prayers? Or maybe Tylenol causes gun violence? *Or not Sources in alt text.

Aotearoa needs stronger gun controls and targeted prevention to keep suicide rates falling and reverse the rise in firearm assault.

I've been working on this paper unfunded for about 6 years, so it's great to see it finally published. Firearm-Related Hospitalization and Death in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2000 to 2023: A Cohort Study: Annals of Internal Medicine: Vol 0, No 0 www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...

First interview on a topic I haven't talked to media about before. Lessons: Even though I'm reasonably media-confident these days, a new topic dilutes the benefit of experience, so - I should have practiced beforehand, and - I should have had a drink of water handy

Someone has engrossified the 'soft pendulous breasts' graffiti on the Ray Chung billboard by sticking little pictures of actual nipples over the black marker dots that were there previously. I liked it better with just the black marker. Now it's a bit icky.

Hey Hutt folks, you may miss it when voting, but please don’t vote for Suzanne Levy! She sounds fine, but OOPS she runs the TERF organisation Speak Up For Women.

American Religion. My Stuff #cartoon today #Guns #USA #Religion

Is this journalist seriously describing Phillips' 12-year old daughter - abducted when she was 8, and not in any position to do anything except what her father tells her - as an "accomplice"? That's pretty rude.

It is absolutely idiotic that far right free speechers in NZ (No consequences! Only incitement!) are having any success framing this as a 'free speech' issue when the actual cause is 'no gun control'+'rapid disassembly of US democracy into era of chaotic & violently repressive authoritarian fascism'

A salute to whoever had the Vivid and courage to do what needed to be done!

Local decision-making impacts health inequities. Policies on housing, transport, alcohol outlet density, and public spaces matter. Vote for candidates who prioritise public health. #localelectionsnz @lucytelbar.bsky.social www.phcc.org.nz/briefing/loc...

New (to me) phishing or other scam method. I knew immediately this was fake because I'm 100% sure there's no other Telfar Barnard in the world, but if they'd used just one of those surnames I may well have clicked the link. Warn any genealogy-interested relatives!

1/ I don’t know how to say this without sounding harsh, but I need you to hear it. COVID — or SARS-2 — is not “just another cold.” It doesn’t leave you the same. Every reinfection stacks damage: brain, heart, immune system.

obviously there are a lot of things wrong with Damien Grant's column because he is either not very smart on Covid or willingly misleading on it. but 1 in particular is the idea that we've since turned against the response. no we haven't. 64% of voters at the 2023 election approved of the response.

Changes to Health Research Council criteria show the government fundamentally misunderstands how people stay healthy. There's almost no room for public health/disease prevention/health protection/addressing social determinants of health in the new criteria.

More conference as horror show... I stuck my hand in this. (NB This is silicon etc, not real.) I didn't try the VR cannula insertion though because I wouldn't even know where to start.

My thoughts aa this was happening: "An earthquake?! But I'm in Brisbane 🤔, Australia doesn't get eathquakes? [Look around. Noone else is looking around]. It must be some kind of construction shaking effect 🤷‍♀️."

My favourite CSANZ poster. Implications: - (flippant) Don't have a heart attack this weekend. - (serious) We need to have enough staff that quality care isn't compromised when they need to keep up with new and best evidence.

Burning my house down and then buying a caravan and claiming it’s “a more pragmatic solution at an affordable price.”

At a cardiac conference. Have already seen video of a heart pumping and even though very greyscale this is already much more information than I am used to in public health.

Seems like the Minister still finds the word "racism" confusing.

Letter of the day (in the Times)

This seems fine given Covid increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and we have a government that won’t respond to Covid waves, future pandemics, a health system in crisis or people in need, and often deliberately chooses to make things worse 🫠

Preparing this report was the first time I'd looked at heart disease service delivery in Aotearoa. I don't think people working in the sector were surprised, but I certainly was. How can we have whole regions with no cardiologists, or no key cardiology staff? www.kmtrust.org.nz/cardiac-impa...

The raw milk people are hilarious. All you have to do is meet one (1) cow and smell the situation in which they are producing that rawness and you will pasteurize everything you own for a week

I doubt I am the first person to grapple with this problem, but I am deep in the woes of "how TF am I going to assess students in my post-grad diploma paper next year?" ~December '24 I asked AI to write the assignment and it did a mediocre job of it so I wasn't too worried.

Just listening to this NCEA announcement, and not hearing a _when_ the change is happening - did I miss it, or have they not said?

Very useful analysis from Seattle of the prices charged when one home is replaced with one or more new homes. A 1-for-1 replacement results in a home nearly three times as expensive, but replacing one home with 9+ new ones involves average prices that are around half the original.

Removing same-day voting is because snowflake conservatives can't cope with the disappointment of losing on specials when on the day they thought they won.

@thespinoff.bsky.social I think you're missing a sharing option here?

@michaelplanknz.bsky.social Great Spinoff piece (thespinoff.co.nz/society/14-0...) - very well simplified lay summary of how the different changes in different age demographics matter!

Renting and wondering how you tell if your home meets the Healthy Homes Standards? The short answer is: you can't, unless you're a building professional.

My daughter's band dropped an album. Lots of fun! open.spotify.com/album/2Humr8...

Gift article link, this shouldn’t be paywalled. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/exclusive...

This excellent piece is a more succinct and researched version of my assertion that "the market" will never make decent housing broadly affordable because -supply must meet or exceed demand before rents will drop, but -as soon as rents threaten to drop, building more ceases to be profitable.

🎶 When the eel in your tum Won’t come back out your bum That’s a moray 🎶

This story is inadvertently (blackly? maybe dark purple...) funny. The journalist scrabbling round trying to find a !!! EVERYONE'S SICK !!! headline and all the doctors/ hospitals/ academics/ ESR/ schools saying "these are usual winter levels" (which they are). www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3607...

So, I know Shit Is Up in the world, but not exactly what, because Mr BarTel turned the news off on the way to the beach for a walk, because it's my birthday. Here is my birthday cake, which I have baked and decorated over the last few days.

Has there been any media coverage of the Deputy Prime Minister starting a campaign targeting academics, even though he knows full well that whenever he does that, they experience threats and harassment? Has there been any coverage of the DPM inviting an extremist to headline an upcoming event?

Add to this Kāinga Ora has decided not to build 3500 houses planned & is selling 1/5 of its vacant land, it demonstrates the current govt really is taking NZ backwards, has no vision, and doesn't give a shit about housing affordability or people having a home. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Pardon my French but what in the unholiest fuck is this idea? “It’s too expensive to gather data necessary for government to function” I used to actually have time for Reti, but he needs to resign for this massive miss.