The Pokémon one is still the best youtu.be/YCg0bl2frYM?...

I see there’s a post about microplastics going around with a photo of drinking straws, so here is my semi-regular reminder that the 3 biggest sources of microplastics are tires (45%), synthetic clothing particles (35%) and paint (~10%). Lay article attached:

As I first got pretty recently via discussion of an ECHR ruling: Gender is a privacy issue

Friendly neighborhood biologist here again. I’ve been seeing lots of post on how simple biological sex is. Since sex in society is such a hot-button issue these days, we should be able to find the basis of biological sex in law, right? Let’s do it! Let’s find the basis of sex, round 2! 🧵

A hot dog is not a sandwich but a burrito is a gift

And so begins the NZ tradition of figuring out which region of the country will be on the news in the morning accompanied by photos of campers sitting on tables and cars as their tents float around them 🎄

I also wrote a narrative history of Tangiwai a couple of years ago, if that is more your speed: andrebrett.com/2023/12/24/t...

Christmas Eve in NZ : A short Christmas Past tale on how Nazi Germany attempted to ruin Christmas. 🧵 Nazi Germany redesigned Christmas to be a racist Pagan event for 'Pure Aryans" & cast Adolf H as the Messiah (not Jesus), but they didn't stop there. 1/ 11

People like to shit on tradition, but I think it's a real time-saver. I glad I don't have to figure out what I'm supposed to do about God's birthday every year. Trees and candy, done. He loves it.

This is genuinely horrifying. Fact-free far-right agitprop given accolades by credible media across the political spectrum.

Ongoing gassiness may have been helped by barely eating and/or following up with one (1) probiotic but, given it's seasonal decadence has commenced, I guess we'll see

Best explanation of the liar's dividend that I've ever seen.

New Zealand superimposed on the moon for scale

People and families come as they are. That’s just real life. Disability is part of human diversity, not something that makes a family less welcome or less deserving of belonging. 🧵1/3

I like being an uncle for the holidays because: Mom and dad are responsible, and will discipline you. Grandpa and Grandma are indulgent, and will coddle you. But the uncle... the uncle is unpredictable. The niece and nephew cannot know what the uncle will do, because the soul of the uncle is CHAOS

I’m watching Face Off for the first time, and they just…they just take the faces off.

There was a time I kinda thought this but I now really do think the movie is actually about a boring guy encountering literally evil and satanic rapist murderers and deciding not to do anything about it bsky.app/profile/psga...

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

People who say Christmas movies are all the same just haven’t dug deep enough. “The Monster’s Christmas” (1981)

Wishing everyone a very happy holiday. May the festive velvet worm crawl into all of your houses tonight and boop your sleeping snoots with its many adorable feet, as is tradition. A sincere thanks for all the support throughout this year. I'm looking forward to my new book hit the shelves in 2026!

As a hobby I operate a pirate IPTV channel, and while you may have plans other than watching vintage television tomorrow, some of you might appreciate this holiday line up📺 Easiest way to watch is to open this URL in VLC tv.byron.geek.nz:8409/iptv/channel...

Discworld QOTD, from Snuff "You should look for those who can’t believe that the law would ever catch them, who believe that they act out of a right that the rest of us do not have. The job of the officer of the law is to let them know that they are wrong!"

two separate incidents in a week of weird guys kitting their cars out with fake police lights, adding some other dumbass crime, then seeking out police. Kinda miss when these headlines invariably started with "Florida man" www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-adv...

Remember! Goblin NPCs are not just for Christmas. They're for life.

Cunk spittin Christmas cheer

The ironclad law of podcasts is that if it was sold to Spotify for 300 million dollars it is unlistenable within the first 15 seconds but if the three people are sharing one meal from Wendy’s you can listen for hours

After some searching I attributed to James Cooray Smith the suggestion to maintain a mid-80s vibe while avoiding offence by replacing that one line in Fairytale in New York with 'You've taped over Taggart'.

Critical to know that McCay drew in black and white and gave his engraver, Mr. Hunt, loose instructions. The art is McCay; the glorious color, the little-known Hunt.

This year's theme: Revenge of the Wordplay Quiz! To celebrate the 10th year of the quiz, I've remixed all 9 of the previous quizzes. In every quiz there are ~25 answers that go unused. I've picked 8 of those answers from each year to create a new list, and written 50 new clues for that list!

My annual holiday Wordplay Quiz is here! Every year I write a quiz full of dreadful puns, cryptic crossword nerdery, and dreadful puns, designed to be solved on the couch with your loved ones. Get the printable version for free at drive.google.com/file/d/1WZt4...

The news about Harlequin translators getting fired en masse? You should care about that. They're doing it there because they think nobody gives a shit about romance and so it's fine to experiment with it first.

Yes. That’s why I say “don’t stop commenting” on SCOTUS decisions and practices. It matters.

Season Greetings

Last Christmas I gave you my heart. The very next day You gave it a weigh.

📡🎅 For just one night a year, we get to switch our radar from "RAIN" to the special "SANTA" function. If we are very lucky, we might catch a quick glimpse of Santa and his reindeer as they head our way. Next stop: New Zealand! Merry Christmas, Meri Kirihimete

Oh jeez

As a thing this morning, I did help someone who needed more support than average start their plane journey. And I would just like to commend to the world the compassion and professionalism of the AirNZ check-in staff on what is not the calmest of days.

A Melbourne woman is missing a wedding ring and the hunt is on to find her so it can be returned for Christmas or the new year.

The most cursed setup for a Hallmark Christmas movie meet-cute.

The reason I don’t have my students look at their own chromosome in class is because people could learn that their chromosomal sex doesn’t match their physical sex, and learning that in the middle of a 10-point assignment is JUST NOT THE TIME.

Friendly neighborhood biologist here. I see a lot of people are talking about biological sexes right now. Lots of folks make biological sex seem really simple. Well, since it’s so simple, let’s find the biological roots, shall we? Let’s talk about sex...[a thread] (Reposted from the other site)

yeah...this is a really common confusion, but fascists (and evil people generally) are often extremely incompetent. bigotry is a massive moral error which leads to cognitive errors. www.everythingishorrible.net/p/white-supr...

Edward R. Murrow wishes his audience a Christmas without fear, at the end of the sixth episode of SEE IT NOW (which aired on this date in 1951). 🗃️

If you're out and about, keep an eye out for Aotearoa's many spectacular flowering trees - and then get some cardboard tubes to see the blooms in 3D in this botanical treasure by @theobrominated.bsky.social theconversation.com/most-of-nzs-...

He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

Will be removing this ##ttrpg in just a few hours as I work towards a long term, final version! If you’ve been interested in We Fight Monsters, grab it now while you still can. samrobsondmg.itch.io/we-fight-mon...

this image is maybe the single greatest joke in TRADING PLACES. and also a pretty apt description of the trump/vance/national conservative vision of america

#RailNews: KiwiRail have shared a post honoring the lives lost in the 1953 Rail Disaster at Tangiwai. Every year, the closest train to cross the Tangiwai Bridge will stop at 10:51 pm. Normally, the Northern Explorer would stop off at the Memorial to lay a wreath in remembrance.

Btw this is one of the biggest reasons why it’s not as easy as people think to start up independent newsrooms or just be an indie journalist on substack. If you are actually holding powerful and rich people to account, you WILL need legal representation. Not a matter of whether but when

In a just a world I should be able to sue Vance for stating publicly that I was part of a conspiracy by open society to smear Charlie Kirk because it resulted in harm to me including death and rape threats and so on but that is not how our law works.