This is awesome. Also, that’s a long time to make Mullally wait, but she looks great for almost a millenium and a half.

So if I understand correctly, Phase 1 is business as usual, petrol companies make record profits, Phase 2 is the same as Phase 1 with an added please consider taking the bus, and Phase 3 & 4 are still being worked on? So National have released a plan without actually having a plan?

“It’s a scary prospect and I’m not 100% sure the public have quite worked it out yet.” My dude, it is literally your job to inform the public. If anyone hasn’t worked it out I’d suggest it’s because you’ve just introduced four response levels that all say similar things which is… not a comms plan.

1 & 2 and 3 & 4 appear to be functionally the same, but with some different words substituted.

I keep reading passages here that say normal things like "there's no reason to think we're really fucked", then I reread the sentence and realise there was no "no".

The year is 2030. I now own a home in every walkable US neighborhood, which I've paid for by selling rubber stamps that say "refused to release the Epstein files"

Musk Social

What if they opened their mouths and killer wasps came out but also the wasps were robots and the robots had nuclear bombs in them? What then?

I used my knowledge developed tracking Russian mercs and shadow fleets abusing the Cook Island flag to hunt the most ponderous and easy game of all: Legitimate oil tankers. Looks like it's business as usual for New Zealand ... for now. www.nzherald.co.nz/business/com...

You could call this a teachable moment as regards 'welfare dependency' but, the thing is, in this case I'm not sure it's a learnable moment

Just another day of an old cat and his subwoofer.

People are buzzing about hearing ‘Pō Atarau’ by the Turakina Māori Girls' Choir pop up – often unexpectedly – in Project Hail Mary. It was originally released in 1976 on the Viking label, one of the most important and prolific NZ-owned record labels of all-time. As Simon Grigg says, "Viking was...

We're back in 2014 and the US is telling Ukraine to give up some territory without a fight and Ru will stop invading and all will be fine. Delusional to think Ukr would fall for it, knowing what they know abt Ru's goals and having developed defense capabilities that allow them to hold Ru off alone.

My Presbyterian whiskers just went PING! As far as I remember the school site was transferred to the local iwi, the paper records of the Turakina Maori Girls' College have come in the archives in Dunedin.

Here‘s the tape, the original master for the 1976 Turakina Girls’ College Choir LP “Turakina Sings”, released by Viking and now preserved at the Turnbull Library: natlib.govt.nz/records/4463...

A really nice story about how 'Pō Atarau' ended up on the soundtrack of Project Hail Mary. One thing I would add is that the 1976 master tape was preserved and digitised by the Alexander Turnbull Library. That's why it was discoverable. thespinoff.co.nz/pop-culture/...

Wait, so Chris Bishop is "fast-tracking" Lake Onslow Hydro project? The one they cancelled in Dec 2023, rubbishing it after Labour started the renewables project National threw away $20m to cancel this & now they're "fast-tracking" it? This is near comedy and 100% farce

Why would South Korea - which is implementing measures to reduce fuel demand domestically to extend the stocks they have - prioritise fuel exports to countries like New Zealand who aren’t requiring similar measures from their own people?

Is there anything that anyone’s economy is relying on from Taiwan? Like computer chips maybe?

You *could* argue that this is exactly what some of those involved wanted. But not Weiss – I think she genuinely thought she was going to be a raging success. Welcome to life outside the MAGA safe space.

People like Weinberger & Rumsfeld understood the drug war was by definition a “forever war” because there was no definition of victory and no exit strategy. They didn’t want the military to be blamed for yet another unwinable war. They wanted to know what “success” looked like. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 🧵

Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Ivan Ehlers.

Re-upping this thread from 2yrs ago given the judgement in my case: Julian Batchelor 'wholly unsuccessful' in defamation claim against TVNZ www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3609... As Prof @hendysh.bsky.social noted as well, billionaires behind far-right's lawfare lead to widespread chilling effects. #nzpol

But what if – stay with me here – there's a direct relationship between those rigid spending limits and the declining economy? Come on, Thomas, you can't just keep blaming all those missed targets on bad Treasury forecasts.

Now award costs against him, so maybe the next asshole plutocrat will think twice about trying to use the legal system as a blunt instrument to victimise independent researchwers working in good faith to tell the truth about the vile shit they get up to www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3609...

This is an indictment of the analytical and statistical literacy of everyone involved in the story here. You can't make claims like this. You just can't.

Straight-up barefaced bullshit from the police here. There is no way a 50% increase in cannabis possession charges in the last two years simply reflects a commensurate increase in use. Apart from anything else, cannabis is not part of national wastewater sampling. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/cannabis-...

National cancelled plans for a bigger strategic diesel reserve in 2024. Whoops #nzqt

I think it is important to give credit to RNZ for "looking out the window to see if it is raining" in this article. Because we should note when media are being responsible in reporting claims, not just getting angry on cases of bad reporting www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

These bike lanes reduced crashes by 46% and bike injury crashes by 91%. They also improved traffic flow and journey times. But it's a culture war, so they're being removed.

Evening Post report on a would-be CRL proposal in 1950, from Timespanner's page on Facebook. The idyllic years before the American transport consultants arrived and persuaded us to pave Auckland because cars were the only true way to the future.

He's getting an absolute towelling in the comments.

The vibes are increasingly like a mixture between “Veep” and “The death of Stalin”

speed limit changed from 80 to 100kmh last year - just saying.

The “goal” of the Iran war is now reportedly to open the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war began

Welcome to Bluesky @courtsofnz.bsky.social, and hope other government Ministries, and Departments in New Zealand follow suit. #nzpol

Like, I get that the point of Bari Weiss is to make CBS news maga-friendly or die trying, but she keeps seeming **genuinely surprised** that it’s not going well in a business or reputation sense.

The problem is, you killed all the leaders who could actually agree to this, or murdered the entire families of the remaining leaders who could. Because we couldn't think past Step 1.

i guess it at least plays to their strength. they'll put ICE in charge of asking to see people's papers.

Imagine screwing up so badly that you decide you need to give the country you're waging war on a $14 billion windfall to avoid tanking the global economy. www.ms.now/news/u-s-war...

This, by the way, is exactly what the ICC issued arrest warrants for Shoigu and Gerasimov over, in the context of the Ukraine war.

I'm noticing more people out on bikes. Some of them look as if they haven't biked in a while and are a bit uncertain about how to do it on city streets. Can drivers of motor vehicles please be patient and kind while bikers regain skills and confidence. And can Cabinet Ministers please say this too.

Govt *share* of consumption tells you about the proportion of a country's real resources (workers, materials, imports, energy etc) that are appropriated by the Government and used to deliver public services like free healthcare, dental, education etc. Quick comparison to last week's happiness data.

It’s unfortunate that it took this long for the Pentagon’s ridiculous policy to be thrown in the trash And it's shocking that this sweeping prior restraint was the official policy of our federal govt and that DOJ lawyers had the nerve to argue that reporters asking questions of the govt is criminal

The same clowns who planned this war now want to plan using ground troops. They won’t have Jesse Jackson around anymore to rescue US POWs. Also, Hagueseth gave a “no quarter” order so Iran won’t be obligated to take US prisoners alive now.

Something very disturbing - but not surprising - just happened : Russia offered US to stop giving Iran coordinates of US military assets - if US stopped giving Ukraine intel about Russia Politico says US refused. This time . www.politico.eu/article/puti...