"A $435,000 report claiming Wellington City Council had hundreds of surplus staff counted 50‑plus empty desks, raising fresh questions about the document’s credibility." If we stopped paying incompetent private consultants stupid amounts of money we could save a whole bunch of moolah.

For those who actually care about evidence-based city-making, there’s a ton of evidence that decongestion pricing has been a massive success in New York City, by every measure of success, and many ways that can’t be measured.

Hoverboards are the future, segways are the future, betamax, laser disc, Google glass is the future, 3d tvs are the future, curved screens are the future. Like do we have to traipse through the whole graveyard of tech to get these people to understand just becauae you say it doesn't make it true.

New Zealand has 2,200 native flowering plants and 85% of them grow nowhere else, including some spectacular displays that open just in time for the festive season. 👉 theconversation.com/most-of...

A peaceful little Christmas Eve stroll at the lovely Fensham Reserve

Wamp wah Bob Vylan: No charges over IDF chants during Glastonbury set share.google/qrs0eds33jnt...

"Leadbitter et al. 2025 calculates that replacing wild-caught seafood protein with the current mix of livestock protein would cost the Earth roughly 5 million km2 in land, about the size of the Amazon rainforest, an apt comparison since most land cleared for food comes from tropical forests." 🌏🐟

My kid is 14. He uses discord to talk to friends when playing Minecraft and dnd. He has no interest in FB or instagram or TikTok, but a social media hard-cap of age 16 would limit his social life unnecessarily with no benefit. Ffs, direct policy at platforms not users. Or ban boomers as well.

My kids just made fun of me for saying "bags." Apparently it's "dibs" now. I always thought it was interchangeable but "bags" is firmly out.

Great stuff. Hobby hunters are trying to normalise the idea that these invasive pests should be farmed, for their convenience, in the native forests we all own. (Imagine if possum trappers tried this nonsense!) We non-hunters who love our forests outvote them. Let your MP know.

This is, how do you say, pretty fucking cool. And we know exactly how to make this keep happening. We just have to have the social/political will to *do* it.

Especially relevant in NZ, where funding for the Archives NZ digitisation programme of official records was axed in 2024.

Bioinvasions impose significant burgeoning costs to society. A reminder from 2023: www.watercanada.net/new-study-sh...

It will be interesting to see herring eventually spawn in the area. Kelp is essential for herring too. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

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We need to get control of deer numbers (& exotic ungulates) in NZ before widespread forest ecosystem collapse ensues. This piece I wrote for @theconversationnz.bsky.social in 2022 is still very much true today especially with the push for herds of special interest theconversation.com/despite-the-...

Comment: Our true heritage is not the trophy on the wall, but the kohekohe seedling on the forest floor. So let’s get on top of our runaway ungulate numbers.

First time I've seen this. To be honest I'm kind of impressed at the pettiness of it. Like a dog pissing.

Excellent coverage from Marc showing how not only did Cabinet pick the worst option available, they also turned “increased access to gender services” into “a webpage listing gender services” because they want their evil to cost nothing, too.

"“When people try to sell you on the idea that the future is already settled, it’s because it is deeply unsettled,” -- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social futurism.com/artificial-i...

Seems crazy that this even needs to be said.

It never ceases to amaze me how people make the biggest purchase of their lives but refuse a few extra hundred $$$ for a LIM. The boundary is clearly visible well inside the fence on the Council website and on real estate websites. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellingto...

Beaches aren't disappearing. It's just human hubris, building static infrastructure in dynamic systems and expecting nothing to change. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

The rollout of a type of genetic technology called a gene drive for tackling malaria could be edging closer after a lab study supports its success

If the fine is only a fraction of the true cost for a succusseful prosecution then the simple answer is to increase the size of the fine. $20K is peanuts compared to what was spent on renovation and the added value to the house. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/michael-b...

Unfortunately it will get built on top of a fragile, endangered limestone plant community that conservationists have been fighting for years to preserve. Let’s hope they don’t bugger it up. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_C...

#fossilfriday If you want to read more about the fossil record of "surfboard whales", check out my recent blog post on the fossil baleen whales of New Zealand: coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...

By organised crime are they talking about multi-national organisations committing tax fraud and funnelling our money overseas? That kind of organised crime?

Sunday morning pub clothes from the night before were the worst.

Amaizing article from NZ Geographic on Kākā www.nzgeo.com/stories/fort...

'Devastating in all ways': Sand dune ecosystems on Tokerau Beach being destroyed vehicles www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Another big L for New Plymouth Mayor Max Brough. Brough tried to axe the council’s age and accessibility working party under his revamped committee structure. Love it when these big talkers get hit in the face with reality. www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3609...

A non-existent paper attributed to ‪Ben Williamson‬ has already been cited 42 times. It's like Scholarly Communication has been injected with misinformation bombs. Events are totally out of control. No one has a handle on its extent. And, there's no plan to stop it. @benpatrickwill.bsky.social

Lol "Brough, who stormed to victory with a landslide majority at the local body elections, garnered considerable support through his campaign with a host of vocal claims about removing the separators, known as “Tim Tams”, as soon as he came into office." www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3609...

Crime doesn't pay www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3609...

Fishing for crayfish to be banned on Northland's east coast www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

These articles always talk about the billions of dollars of gold - but that is effectively the money that is going overseas, leaving kiwis with pennies in the dollar. In 2024/2025 the NZ Govt received a total of $143 million from all mining, all sources. #nzpol www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

Ongoing thread. 🍿

The theme of the week is: courts telling the govt they have to actually consider evidence before making policy decisions, not just pretend to consider it and then do whatever the fuck the minister wants to do anyway Much to think about www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Also, in 2024/25, we spent 3 times what we collected from mining royalties on cleaning up a single mine www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

"Just in the nick of time, New Zealand’s trans youth—and the people who love them and care for them—can breathe a sigh of relief" 🥰 This is the heart of it. Everyone who knows and loves a trans kid knows how vital—as in literally life-saving—this injunction feels (and will hopefully continue to be)

Here are the headline paragraphs. The Ministry emphatically did not recommend this ban, and in fact repeatedly pointed out the significant level of harm it was likely to cause. The consultation found overwhelming support for continued access. The only people who thought different were cabinet.

Greater Wellington has just released the Conservation status of indigenous vascular plants in the Wellington region 2025 www.gw.govt.nz/document/239...

"Common household rat poisons found to pose unacceptable risk to wildlife as animal advocates push for ban Environmentalists say proposed temporary suspension of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides ‘doesn’t go far enough" www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Commuting by bicycle in Belgium pays off as employees earn compensation for every km they ride. 1 in 6 employees commute by bike and get a bicycle allowance of €0.28/km. People cycling to work in 2024 earned an average of around €460 net per year (some as high as €810), up 20% over the past year.

Absolutely fuck all the way off with this shit. What a ghoulish thing to say.

"We actually need to change the way we think of conservation, away from strict protection toward something more like a good insurance portfolio. We don’t know the future, therefore we need to develop a very flexible plan, one that we can adjust as we observe what’s happening on the ground." Amen.

Someone forgot to lock cells in Excel didn't they? "To prevent this happening again, stronger internal controls have been put in place, including additional review steps." www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

When you are down to bare bones, the next cut is amputation. And that is already happening. This is horrific. People will die

Domestic honeybees for mānuka production disrupt native insect behaviour and reduce species richness. Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) were noticeably less abundant at apiary sites, and mānuka flower visits by other insects were also lower. 🌏 www.scimex.org/newsfeed/man...