Here's a submission which *supports* a bylaw for a change. Add yours if you're into music in Ōtautahi.

"While the AI industry claims its models can “think,” “reason,” and “learn,” their supposed achievements rest on marketing hype and stolen intellectual labor. In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests."

Best of Bluesky tonight. Seeing Sam Neil, so ubiquitous he's like your dad in his favourite armchair, afresh through the eyes of a bunch of strangers celebrating his craft, kindness and grace.

Next Matariki Sam Neill will be one of the souls remembered by the living, gathered by Pōhutukawa and released into the sky as a star. “Kua whetūrangitia koe” (You have become a star)

🫡

One of the good ones... So reliable, so versatile, you're legacy of work over the decades lives on. RIP Sam Neill #filmsky 📽

Labeling? This numpty thinks the requirements to properly label what people consume is the reason why Aotearoa isn't attracting more supermarket chains? God, give me the ego of this incompetent fool of a man. I'll settle for half the ego. #nzpol

FYI: Jurassic Park is currently streaming on TVNZ+ and Netlfix (NZ) and Prime Video.

Rod Carr: I hope our candidates commit to "a national energy strategy that promotes decarbonisation through electrification", "reform of the ETS to reduce gross emissions", and 17 other bangers blog.planetaryecology.org/2026/07/13/p...

Timeline 100% Sam Neill sadness plus loads of lovely Sam Neill stories, which is a good indication of how to live a life well. RIP.

re-upping this thread on the wonder of jurassic park because the great sam neill has left us an incomparable actor who truly understood the magic of cinema thanks, sam, for sharing that magic with all of us

socmed is a river of aroha & gratitude. "Sam championed me & so many of us right from the start. He changed my life, by his example & his actions." "He leaves a huge hole. Let's not let the NZ government to create a bigger hole in the land in which Sam called home." Director Toa Fraser @toafraser

My entire feed is filled up with aroha for Sam Neill. That says so much.

based unabashed lefty Sam Neill

You write your eulogy in life. If you want people to mourn, make your life something to celebrate. If you want people to celebrate, make your life something to mourn.

No! Not since the death of Jim Hansen, has the death of a celebrity hit so hard. Rest in peace you good man. 😥 Sam Neil has left us, we were better for having him here.

What a thrill and an honour it was to work with Sam Neill on my second-ever film. If there’s one thing I particularly remember, it’s was the endless generosity he showed to his 16-year-old co-stars – supporting them to give the best performances they could, while effortlessly delivering himself.

Arohanui e hoa kikorangi mā. Much love to all grieving tonight.

⬇️ Aina J. Khan, the journo who visited NZ to interview Sam. "A man of the earth who relished describing the indigenous trees he planted & the rock formations jutting around his vineyard. An animal whisperer. A rescuer of battery hens. A lover of wine & land ... a man anchored to land & community." 🥹

Sam Neill was a national treasure. You could claim that based on his body of work alone but that he was also a genuinely kind, funny, generous person makes it an even more fitting title.

Cancel everything for a week of mourning and make it a state funeral. Rip Sam Neill, the guy who made us all want to dig up dinasour bones but not conservation land x

My favorite Sam Neil fact will always be that he designed a future Australian flag that replaces the union jack with the aboriginal flag for Event Horizon and insisted the film use it.

The two greatest New Zealand-Australians are both gone now. RIP.

Sam Neil gets to hang out with John Clarke now. Moe moe rā. Kua hoki atu ki a Pōhutukawa i te rangi. Ka aroha ki ōna whānau me ngā hoa.

I call for a national holiday in Australia and New Zealand as we mourn one of the very best human beings of the past century, who also happend to be quite a dab hand at acting. Mine is one of so many broken hearts the world over - what a fucking mensch.

The movie holds up. As does this great anecdote courtesy of Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum.

Live your life so that when you pass, the world reacts like they did for Sam Neill.

Fair winds and following seas, Captain Borodin. We have the watch.

Just catching up on the sad sad news re Sam Neil. One of the truly good ones 💔

State funeral

You'd think that with how much David Seymour is concerned about how "taxpayer money" is spent, he'd be at least a bit more curious about how efficient/effective publicly funded but privately run charter schools are. #nzpol

“The member of a wealthy New Zealand family found with graphic and sadistic child sexual abuse material, who still cannot be named, has been released from prison on parole” #nzpol No undue risk?? Because kids don’t matter?? www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3610...

personally i think a bigger deal should indeed be made of federated farmer's policy advisor making up lies.

Maybe I'm just cynical, but I think voting for TOP in such a crucial election is a cop-out, just as I think TOP saying they can go with either Nats or Lab is a disingenuous cop-out too. They either support equitable human rights and meaningful climate action or they don't. Nats will deliver neither.

TOP is just this year’s Peter Dunne: a half-thought through protest vote for those too scared to vote for real change for in case it interrupts the latest reason for long-haul travel or a filthy polluting cruise.

This is 1000x better than anything some slopper could hallucinate into being

Just as with food prices, fuel prices aren't going to come back down again #nzpol

When I look at this “person”, that’s not the c-word I’m thinking of 😒 #nzpol #votethemout

"A fast-track regime sold to the public as a radical fix for local housing affordability has instead created a tax haven for fleeing Australian capital looking to build playgrounds for the elite." www.thepost.co.nz/politics/361...

Deeply saddened to learn of the loss of my dear friend Satan, the Prince of Lies. Though we often disagreed about matters such as the appropriate role of torture in the afterlife, I will most remember how his quick wit and affable nature made our weekly golf outings a ritual. He will be missed.

Update - Mitch is apparently alive and well and the recovery is going well

Didn't Shame Jones overspend wildly, without approval, on flights and limos when attending a global "talk fest" last year? #nzpol Is that why he didn't go to this one? Or is it because he is dedicated to plundering and pillaging any and all resources until we are left with a barren wasteland?

The discord was lit today

$185m is a lot to spend when you’re not certain there’s even going to be a pay off www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3610...

The third act of A Christmas Carol, one of the most famous examples of "don't die a dickhead, " was the ghost showing Scrooge how happy everyone was that he died and it was a big motivator for him to stop being a piece of shit and still we got a bunch of dickhead Dems talking up Lindsey Graham

What noise is this? Not dead? Not yet quite dead?

You're looking at a 200 year-old wisteria vine at Byakugou-ji Temple in Tamba, Hyogo, Japan. The delicate pink/purple blossoms create an otherworldly place where magic can happen. But here's an interesting fact: wisteria are in the legume family (Fabaceae). This is a magic beanstalk.

Right, particularly where it involves public figures who have massive impact on millions of lives. If it's wrong to speak ill of them at the time of their death it's also wrong to eulogize them in a way that carefully avoids mention of their misdeeds

A few moments from night 2 at Freedom Mortgage Pavilion as Dave Matthews Band wrapped up another incredible weekend in Camden, NJ. Thanks to everyone who came out! Next stop: Gilford, NH on July 14 & 15.

‘A lot of red flags’: plans for New Zealand’s first datacentre spark concern as locals demand greater transparency