At New World, Newtown. 12th day of Christmas was, what, 3 days ago? Chocolate santas are on clearance. Apparently that means... it's time to start selling Easter eggs.

Why does this Government insist on continuing to break things that work well?! (I don't know if the specific instance I'm thinking of has been made public yet, but I need to vent, and FFS. It's of huge value, and it's cheap - and some absolute numpty has decided to defund it.)

In NZ we have a govt trying to roll back gun laws.

Watching an awesomely terrible Hallmark Xmas movie and cackling because the lead supposedly English character makes "Yorkshire Pudding". It comes out if the oven looking right... and then she dusts it with icing sugar and puts strawberries on it 🤣🤣🤣

I guess the Government is determined to replicate the Yorkshiremen sketch: "When I were young, we lived in a car -" "A car?! You were lucky! When I were young... " www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

I definitely want new contactless payment options, but also can we get a refund on the outrageous ~$15 we had to pay for our Snapper cards (that's BEFORE adding any credit for actual travel 😒 )? www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

A study on 1.7 million people in Hong Kong shows superior hybrid immunity to Covid in people who got vaccinated before infection vs. people who got infected first. "Our findings are a direct rebuttal to arguments for natural immunity," the authors write. doi.org/10.1016/j.va...

This news report highlights how badly Aotearoa needs a regulated Healthy Homes Standards (HHS) assessment system, because the current system isn't working. "Conflicting healthy homes reports raise doubts over rental standards" - Waikato Times. lnkd.in/gZMvRGVZ

I'm sure it's totally coincidental that the AoNZ government's changes to the Marsden Fund have been followed by successful applications led by female investigators dropping from 55% to 33%, and successful applications led by Māori investigators dropping from 13% to 5%. 🫠 🧪

Guess the govt has no confidence its policies will improve homelessness any time soon - so better just make it invisible instead 😡

I don’t care how much you liked these stories, do not watch the new series or buy merch or read the books to your kids. Don’t support a genocide.

Tuesday - storm causing significant damage and one death Thursday - bigger storm resulting in state of emergency Monday - storm forecast to hit same region, which is still without power in some areas NACTFirst govt - argues for MORE fossil fuel

Possums make rubbish long-term pets because they are nocturnal. They do not want to hang out with you during the day, they want to be asleep - and at night they will be very bored when you're asleep unless you let them free range, which would be terrible for wildlife. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Pōneke doing another of its post-rage "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, you know I love you really, you just make me crazy sometimes" mornings. When will we learn it'll never change, and just leave?

I know there is a lot of the day to go, but so far in Pōneke Tuesday was worse.

Do you know a school teacher or parent of Year 11 students? My scholarship committee has THREE full scholarships to award this year to international boarding schools - one for any NZ student with high financial need, two for Māori/indigenous Pacific. (Plus 6 partial scholarships of varying levels)

I don't even know where to start with the layers of privileged bubble horseshit in this piece, but maybe with: People generally aren't moving to Australia because they can't "build wealth" here. They're moving because they can't get a job, afford rent, or eat here. www.stuff.co.nz/money/360845...

You can't fit thousands of job seekers into tens of jobs. And while Luxon might call himself sorted, the country isn't, even if he doesn't want to do anything about it.

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...