An interesting🧵 and a call to be very wary of what we hear and how it is positioned. This is especially relevant coming up to a deeply critical election period with potential consequences that will echo for generations in New Zealand … in which the truth is now optional.

Reminder... Any political party trying to make it harder to vote is sending a clear message — they can't win on their ideas alone.

This is such beautiful writing, about a beautiful book.

The NZ Government spent $8M to bring the Michelin Guide here. $8M is the entire yearly government funding to all food banks, who feed 500k people a month. newsroom.co.nz/2026/07/17/s... #NZPol

Quick glimpse of Hinātore from today’s art exhibition… So relieved the bacteria are glowing!

Let’s go back to the dinosaur age when people could afford to live on an average wage.

I didn't think this was controversial but a basic need of everyone living in NZ is, in fact, to be aware of natural hazards around you and have plans for your household or workplace in the event that there is an emergency and comms don't work. Don't expect to be able to load the website after AF8.

1) Corporations and the super-rich spend billions on elections 2) Elected officials rewrite laws in the donors' favor, enact huge tax cuts, and deregulate industries 3) Donors make huge profit 4) Repeat If we want to talk about "integrity" and our political system, let's talk about this.

It's very hard not to love @doctorow.pluralistic.net when he gets stuck into something. This video really lays out the AI bubble clearly!

As always, it comes down to how we treat our most vulnerable people. We need to make people's lives better, not punish them. "The high suicide rate ties in with other data, showing for instance child poverty, high rates of teenage pregnancies or families where neither of the parents have work."

A Paihia tūturiwhatu (New Zealand dotterel) feeding during the dying embers of light at dusk tonight. 🪶🇳🇿

Cutting funding for science has a very nasty habit of being a really big problem in both expected and unexpected ways. This may not be relevant to last nights problems, but I can assure you that cutting funding for geohazard monitoring is - of concern.

We're having a little mid-winter get together tomorrow arvo. Cooking prep has been going on all day. It has been planned for a while and couldn't come at a time we need it more. A chill time with good food and great friends. And maybe a home made schnapps and liqueur tasting too. ✨

Probably a good time to point out that after cuts to services like our bio-security under the last National Govt, M.bovis was able to breach our borders and infect our farms. It was the next Labour govt that managed to eradicate it and set up a 10 year plan to monitor its situation long term.

28 years of cyclosporiasis testing Screwworms eradicated in the US in 1966. Measles eradicated in the US in 2000. All are back because of this science denying administration.

None of our healthcare professional organisations are exempt from this & community safeguards are being torn down at a rate we can barely follow. Patients & whānau will be paying the price for this (in every sense) for years. @greens.org.nz @tepaatimaori.bsky.social we need your plan to fix this

yes…… yes!!!!!!!!

In the New Zealand Medical Journal today

As always: if there's any class of people who do not have due process rights, then *nobody* has due process rights, because the government can just claim someone is in that class and there's no process to establish otherwise.

If they sign one of the RoNS which might actually happen, Warkworth to Te Hana, as a Public Private Partnership, the annual payments for that could be over $300m per year, for 25 years+ So yeahhhhh enough money for the Marsden fund for 100 years on one road...

David Seymour is abducted by time-travelling aliens and dropped in 19th century Aotearoa. He immediately starts advocating for "innovation trials" to introduce stoats to the country for farmers to test new rabbit control technologies.

Putting this dolt in charge of biosecurity was always going to be a huge risk. This, coupled with the cuts to science and conservation means we are now in real danger of losing many of our precious native species. Worst government ever #nzpol

calling all researchers who collect data from humans 🧠🧪 we are running a very brief survey (<1 min) about jsPsych, the software ecosystem for browser-based data collection. if you use jsPsych, or if you collect data with any other software, please fill it out at tinyurl.com/jspsych-census!

This is insane $$ for fossils & puts these impt specimens out of reach of museums. Fossils are being treated like artworks for the super-rich & are lost to science. In museums, palaeos revisit them as techniques evolve, discovering new pages of our natural history www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

#NZpol Jones talks up the military for youth bc they've got ZERO ideas. BTW Penk, "Uncle Sam wants you" fails as a joke mate, even if you're up the ass of Trumpists. Increasing apprenticeships?!?... You've had years to point out National fucked that, and DO something. Again, low rent bloviating.

“Chief Electoral Officer Karl Le Quesne said the shrinking of NZ Post services was partially to blame” So, a risk to voters getting information reminding them to vote is a direct consequence of successive governments running down NZ Post. #nzpol

Help us raise awareness! Decorate a pillowcase for the Long Covid Pillowcase Project.

I keep coming back to Luxon saying the quiet part out loud: 'Luxon said the goal was to "brutally commercialise our science system".' This is the language of violence. Violence actively being perpetrated on public researchers and support staff. Ultimately violence against the public itself. #NZPOL

‘Thousands of university job cuts in humanities and social sciences are creating widespread cold spots for languages, classics and theology degrees, the British Academy has warned’ www.theguardian.com/education/20...

The reason why older generations burnt the shit out of their meat and boiled the shit out of their vegetables, was your kid died if you didn't. Medium rare steaks and roasted Brussels sprouts are a side effect of an intact food safety infrastructure

I keep coming back to Luxon saying the quiet part out loud: 'Luxon said the goal was to "brutally commercialise our science system".' This is the language of violence. Violence actively being perpetrated on public researchers and support staff. Ultimately violence against the public itself. #NZPOL

Are there any library scientists out there on bsky? I'm looking into majoring in library science, and would like to know the lay of the land. #histsci 🧪🎓

Watch my documentary here www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6hb...

The scale of misinformation, obfuscation, and racism in curricula varies significantly, but as these studies show, two major myths persist: 1) how many people lived in Australia prior to invasion (deeply tied to the terra nullius lie) and 2) theory that smallpox arrived from trade in the north.

sometimes what you need to get through the week is gettin really excited to try a jerk chicken recipe. ran the smoker yesterday (brisket, corned beef, onions). runnin the smoker again saturday.

Cute thing happened at work today. A wee kid asked me if I was from NZ (spared them the life story so said “aye, but been here a long time now”). Beaming, they then wished me a “Happy Matatiti”. Of course I didn’t correct their pronunciation, their intention was pure enough already 🥹

#BHN Just to be clear, trickle down/neoliberal economics is designed that the rich get richer while doing nothing, and the poor get poorer while doing more and more #nzpol #nzpolitics

It is time again for Black Bean Soup. I substitute kumara for sweet potato. This is so yum! * Cook's note: New Zealand Chili powder is not the same as American Chili Powder (which has a little chili and lots of other things). When using New Zealand Chili powder just use a 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon else🔥

This is excellent from Sam Neill - good lessons for academics here as well

If you're in Auckland this Saturday 18 July, join us for an art exhibition that glows in the dark! Hinātore: The First Light, is a free immersive exhibition exploring Māori pūrākau through bioluminescence, maho toi, and Western science. 10:30-4pm, Project Space. 20 Whitaker Place.

If you are in the Manawatū and the time has come to say goodbye to your companion this may help make it a bit better. It is still hard. But at home and as low stress for them as possible made a difference for us.

Dad, how was it like growing up gen x? Me:

Looking for an artichoke dip recipe that I've used before. Browser history has it. Sweet. Click on it. Instead of taking me to the recipe on yummly.com it goes to kitchenaid.com. Ugh. The enshitification continues.

School bus services are *the bloody basics*. Governments that cannot manage to do the basics should not only be tossed out, but publicly ridiculed at every single opportunity. Especially when they are pretending to 'be the serious people in the room'.

Fake news, but in fact the really important kind. And your gentle reminder not to use ChatGPT for ... well, anything really.

Just added a couple more job apps (thanks Rachel and Arun!) but if you've gotten a job in industry, academia (R1, PUI, whatever!) in the last 5 years or so, please consider submitting your job app materials to help other folks! github.com/RILAB/statem...

For those who have forgotten the past 40 years: Tax cuts for the rich ...don’t trickle down Boosting military spending ...doesn’t bring peace Slashing regulations ...doesn’t create jobs Folks, we’ve seen this all before.

New paper out from researchers at UoW & UoO finding that there are no biological differences between Māori & non-Māori that explain bowel inequities. They conclude that 'other factors' are in play *cough* systemic racism *cough* & that the earlier screening age is needed. doi.org/https://doi....

A lovely story about the creation of 'Poi E'. "“‘Poi E’ was not a fluke – it was all planned,” says Dalvanius. The South Taranaki Cultural Group from Pātea were re-named the Pātea Māori Club (after the then-popular Culture Club and Tom Tom Club)... www.audioculture.co.nz/articles/toi...