i'm absolutely not taking the mickey here, k how many lifetimes does it need for this to filter into the governance group soul, let alone their hivemind where activity occurs both our major parties are equally culpable Aotearoa has had so much potential #nzpol

"The forty-year-old COBOL system running bank transactions has survived countless technological upheavals, .... It works. ... But maintainers of legacy systems are treated as janitors rather than guardians." #Technology #Maintenance www.joanwestenberg.com/the-rime-of-...

If you look at the actual causes of homelessness it's not a difficult or even expensive by government standards problem to fix. As has been shown repeatedly by #HousingFirst initiatives around the world. But you can't punch down on homeless for political gain if you actually help them properly.

"In their first week on the streets, the team encountered 19 people newly on the streets, including an 87-year-old woman, a 70 year old, and a 17 year old." #NZPol #Homelessness #HousingFirst #Ōtautahi www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Literal windfall - turns out the neighbouring tree hanging over the back fence is an apricot. It hasn't fruited heavily (took me ages to spot one still attached to confirm), but the ones just picked up are perfectly ripe. (We moved a few months ago. Our mystery stonefruit is still ripening.)

This is, by far, my favorite Terry Pratchett quote.

I’ve done some catalogue searching and am fairly confident in saying that 5/10 titles in this list do not exist (1, 2, 4, 5 and 7). Sloppy, unacceptable, and a real kick in the guts to real authors with real books they’d love people to buy and read!

This is a great example of how genAI steals from us all on multiple levels. It's stolen a promotional spot for real books and authors, it's stolen a job from an actual journalist who could have compiled this, it's stolen an opportunity for parents to be recommended good NZ books for their kids

Robyn in motion #CatsOfMaBluesky #ProofofCat #BlackAndWhiteCat #Pets

#signalBoost "We know that, as a general rule, our audiences and artists aren’t rich. We wear that as a badge of honour - we’re keeping it real, yo! - and it’s our pleasure and purpose to be presenting quality shows that are accessible and within reach of everybody. But, you can still help us… "

For science writing, "write it so your grandmother could understand it" 1. It basically means 'write for someone you assume is less intelligent than you', which is anathema to my whole ethos 2. Why would you default assume my, or anyone's grandmother, is clueless? 3. It's never grandad, tellingly

On the 15th of December this year, Aotearoa New Zealand passed the 2.5 year mark for Self-ID. As we always said, there have been zero issues arising from this. Not a single incident recorded formally or informally, not a whisper of a problem. The anti-trans activists lied to everyone.

Yesterday afternoon, we received the judgment on our case against Environment Canterbury. It's a doozy of a Christmas present. #nitrates #nzpol #freshwater Read the full piece at: www.eli.org.nz/updates/ecan...

Thanks! 😀 You may already have noticed this one, about digging around in the British Library basement as a grad student: buttondown.com/surekhadavie...

Happy 10th birthday to the Margaret Mahy Family Playground, opened on this day in 2015! We have done many a storytime from the Library van at this splendid facility. Long may it be the scene of whoops, hollers, splashes, and screams of delight. ^MT www.flickr.com/photos/chris...

When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.

I appreciate this graphic issued by the NZ Central Sikh Association in response to the Destiny racists for its inspiring message of anti-discrimination, mutual aid and unity across ethnic & faith communities, and also its subtle reminder that Sikhs are known badasses so why would you fuck with them.

So, today I'm wrapping up People Watching. Massive thanks to everyone who has supported it & all the cool people I've met and drawn. I wrote an article in the Sunday Magazine today talking about the lessons I've learned doing it - and there were so many. www.thepost.co.nz/culture/3609...

In a small bit of good news the slice they took off my leg was only a "dyplastic naevus" ... no melanoma. "The term dysplastic naevus is best used for a naevus with a specific microscopic appearance. Only a minority of clinically atypical naevi fulfil microscopic criteria for dysplastic naevus."

"These drivers came here in good faith, told their mahi would give them a pathway to residency. ... It takes gumption to stand outside the Parliament of a country that no longer wants you; papers in hand, with rows of signatures that civilly call only for your dignity." the-end-is-naenae.ghost.io/f/

Since yesterday, many people have DM’d to say that they were strongly affected by my essay & wished they could share it. So I've revised, expanded, & posted it for free on both Substack & Patreon. Please feel free to share. www.patreon.com/posts/this-i... catvalente.substack.com/p/this-is-wh...

#NZ 🦠 I hope people are checking these locations There are new locations added for Queenstown and Canterbury, incl. close contact locations where isolation comes into play if you’re not fully immunised. Please do the isolation if it’s recommended. I was last year. Never worked out what it was. 1/

"The bill makes a suite of changes, including ending same-day voter enrolment, banning prisoner voting, changes to treating on Election Day and expanding anonymous political donation limits." #NZPol #NZElection #Democracy #DemocracySausage www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Holy shit YES

An effect of the changes to the Electoral Act is that a well off, likely right wing voting criminal who was part of the system who gets a home detention sentence for, say, possessing child porn will get to vote next year. A less well connected offender sent to prison for the same crimes won’t #nzpol

And more recently, vivaldi.com/blog/a-i-bro...

Should a judge really give a sentencing discount for "prior good character" when that "good character" was all a lie? www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

😠

A big thank you to the 1,300 people who read this post - and an extra thank you to the people who messaged and commented in support. We're so much less alone than we think.

People Watching: Backstage preparations at Auckland Academy of Dance's end of year show, Playhouse Theatre, Glen Eden, on a Thursday evening

So here are all my thoughts (this evening) on what we are losing, and what we still have and what it was/is useful for. For those less familiar with me, I have no professional connection with the production of any of this data. But in my capacity as expert in av available public data in NZ... 1/13

This should be a much, much bigger story. Commitments of tens of billions of dollars are being made to dubious projects without us being allowed to know anything about how decisions are being made. It's literally the future of the nation.

This one’s important e hoa mā - a few of our orgs are collaborating on this fund to ensure that no trans young person in Aotearoa misses out on lifesaving care. Alternative treatment pathways exist but are expensive and we need your help. givealittle.co.nz/cause/we-got...

"Fully operational by July 2026" means more "urgent" legislation, because MfE and its functions are specified in the Environment Act 1986.

Ōtautahi, we’re rallying Friday from 6pm in Hagley Park at the corner of Riccarton and Hagley. No one is in support of this ban - every major medical body has come out against it. Let’s show that the public don’t support it, either.

Just so I'm clear on this, computer memory has tripled in price because a bunch of it that hasn't been produced yet has been ordered to populate GPUs that aren't installed in data centers that aren't built yet in order to service a demand that doesn't exist to make profits that don't happen.

It's probably for the best in this environment that it's not getting more national attention, but what Brandon Scott has achieved in Baltimore over the last six years is genuinely amazing newrepublic.com/article/2020...

I've just read the Listener's article by Peter Bale Hearts and Minds, on online discourse: www.nzherald.co.nz/the-listener.... I want to comment on its inaccuracies and platforming of hateful speakers.

YES INDEED

Again, even though the Japanese government leading up to 1945 committed terrible atrocities, none of us think that Japanese internment was caused by the Japanese government. It was caused by American racism.

Very telling that the Guardian Weekly article showing teenagers' reactions to Australia's social media ban have a bunch of healthy kids saying "Annoying but no biggie, I can wait two years" and one very disabled one saying "welp there goes my entire world."

Any essential service that is required for safe and functional modern living should be mandated to be public only. Profit motive is incompatible with essential services, because "everyone has it" and "increase profit yearly" don't mix. Water, power, heat, safety - and I'm looking at you, Internet.

This is such patronising bullshit. We’re not aspiring to “unrealistic” things like a three-day work week, a holiday house and a pony. We want kids fed, a health system, a role in life for everyone. Those things aren’t unrealistic, they’re a *choice* successive governments are making to deny us.

Today I am once again making loads of new Bluesky friends by insisting on one of my most sincerely held beliefs that makes way too many people fucking furious: that teenagers are autonomous beings who are not their parents' property and who possess independent volition and interiority

They may have once had) some goodwill, but there's not the burning urgency to Make Things Different. And so all they do is tinker round the edges, or disclaim even that. They inspire no-one and please no-one.

i often get complimented on how productive i am, but the reality is that i am VERY, VERY careful about preserving my energy. i haven't worked past 5-6 o clock in years. i take breaks. i get as much sleep as i feel like i need. i ask for deadline extensions. i go out when people invite me

I was one of these guys and what I watched happen was that a handful of tech companies took the work of all those free software evangelists and built trillion dollar monopolies on top of it while the free software creators got nothing and went broke.

"Last night .. the Kaiārahi ferry was stranded for 6 hours. The last time Interislander was stranded with 854 passengers on board and called “Mayday”, the tug boat was commissioned to assist. But that too has been cut" #NZPol #DisasterWaitingToHappen mountaintui.substack.com/p/i-rex-ferr...

So chicken farms have started spending millions of dollars putting in state of the art air filtration and circulation systems - because culling whole flocks to mitigate avian flu is expensive - but we have done zero to improve air quality in schools - because kids are expendable I guess.

Dark times call for desperate measures, and with my career being a little hosed, I'm writing a book! It's about teaching R users to write code like software engineers do, and the hope is that I can use it partially as content marketing for my coaching offerings. Here's the first chapter: #R #R-lang