Ugh, gotta be British again. Haven’t had one of these since the maroon EU ones got the boot 😕

New ebike battery and mounts $1600 😬😬😬

Have you voted for your favourite 3 critters for Bug of the Year? If not, show some love for noke waiū, an enormously long hairy noodle that can glow in the dark! Head to bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz to vote by Feb 16th. @tepunahamatatini.bsky.social @siouxsiew.bsky.social

Weather’s good for a tv binge and I *highly* recommend The Newsreader—I absolutely hoovered it up and did all three seasons in a week or so. Some magical 80s set dressing and cracker acting www.imdb.com/title/tt1392... its showing on Netflix here

Laundry, Cuba Street, Wellington. Consistently great bar food including the best fries, cooked in the caravan out back. And many pints of Supercharger (pre-sale of Panhead to Lion). It hasn’t been five years yet but it left a big hole 😟 screw greedy landlords everywhere!

Someone told me the other day that Gen-Z don’t use apostrophes. Not sure if that’s true, but if so it’s to cosmically balance this kind of excess…

Love me a brooch! interaction designer @tristam.bsky.social gets the button press one, non-huggy me gets the don’t touch one (though irl I’ll be wearing both all the time! 😂) fingers.co.nz/exhibitors/f...

The Manage My Health breach wasn’t a tech failure, it was a policy failure. This column traces how 30 years of privatisation, light-handed regulation and “high-trust” governance left NZ’s most sensitive health data in private hands, with no real oversight: www.democracyproject.org.nz/p/democracy-...

Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts is offering scholarships to help you start (or continue) your explorations in art, design, music or screen arts… Apply today! … Or forward this to someone you think might benefit from a $1000 head start www.massey.ac.nz/study/schola... #redesignnz

Damnit the power cut is over which means the water is back on which means the dishes need doing 😃

West Coast’s gonna West Coast

#duvetknowitschristmas is an annual joy! Sadly, not really qualifying here what with an *actual bed and actual room* to sleep in (though peachy-beige walls are on-message)

“GenAI as simulated intelligence is incapable of meaning-making” (so trying to use it for thematic analysis is 💩👎 ) 💯 — recommend reading!

Junk shop font find

A holiday treat from us to you - save the date for AusSTS 2026 in Aotearoa!

When I moved to Aotearoa about two decades ago, reckons were IKEA was coming ‘next year’ (and every year since!) I even went to Sydney and shipped a kitchen as the quality here for the same money was really poor. It’s going to shake things up, I reckon

If you're Aotearoa New Zealand-based, please sign and share. 27 queens found at last count by a biosecurity department that's been battered by public service cuts. We have to eradicate this threat. c.org/bkt2N7cxFh

@thecidershedpod.bsky.social I might be the mystery invisible reviewer… Apple show me only reviews posted here in NZ (all five 🔥) so maybe it's the same your end? 😂 NZ and kiwis got a mention this week, so perhaps there'll be a bump in listeners to the Archers + TCS? Anyway, love your work! 🦡🧀🥚

Why does Tākina (Pōneke’s convention centre) have no bike racks? Also, first time in it today—they are always such soulless barns 🤨

Why does Tākina (Pōneke’s convention centre) have no bike racks? Also, first time in it today—they are always such soulless barns 🤨

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death. Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written." Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating. 🧪🧬🧫

#eqnz rattle! Light shaking?!

🚨📕 Need a gift for the Pōneke peeps/map geeks/history buffs /archive nerds/book fans in your life? Have I got the tome for you! Mr Ward's Map (by Elizabeth Cox, published by MUP, designed by me) 🚨📕 My design notes: makinggood.design/thoughts/map... + buy here! www.masseypress.ac.nz/books/all/mr...

used ChatGPT this week to proof comments and to convert to html (moodle screws uo spacing/italics when pasting text). I am spending more time proofing its changes than I was my own text, tbh. Despite expressly saying ‘do not add additional italics’ it keeps making te reo Māori term italic 😖

Siouxsie took on an institution that failed to protect her and other academics from death threats, whilst doing fantastic #scicomm for the common good. She won against UOA. And is left with a house-size debt even after being awarded costs. Give a little back if you can 💚 🚨

At a time when academics are under sustained right-wing attack, Dr Siouxsie Wiles stood up to the neoliberal regime of university management and won, but it came at a cost. If you can, please consider supporting Siouxsie, one of the most courageous scholars I know. www.pledgeme.co.nz/projects/852...

Capital gains tax as a ‘tax on the corner dairy’ is a massive stretch, surely that’s clear to all? I guess ‘this is a tax on the corner dairy assuming the dairy owner owns the building and decides to sell it, paying tax on a % of profit made on that sale’ doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue does it

@rebeccamatthews.bsky.social good to see your name on the list of councillors likely elected for Wharangi/Onslow-Western. So sorry you’ll have such cooked colleagues 🤨 keep on fighting the good fight! 💚

@lauriefoon.bsky.social looks like we get you back in Paekawakawa/Southern, and I am delighted (and a bit relieved!) 💚 yay Laurie!

💯🧑‍🍳😘

we need to change the history of Aotearoa again… i found a 2,500 year-old Terracotta Warrior from Xi’an, China near Maupuia yesterday. jk! do you recognise this as a souvenir or something more interesting… ? full story… www.reddit.com/r/Wellington...

Gardeners of #nz #kikorangi: what’s this? I was cutting down a cottoneaster and this was growing below (self seeded). Not the same as what I cut down. Seek has offered up privet, Myrtle rust (?!), Chilean guava, rata… oh and insect and bird lol!

Paging #nzpol: Luxon and Brown behind me on the plane. What’s my one liner when we get off?!

And still, the progressive Wellington Mayoral candidate Alex Baker is not included. Was he asked? #nzpol #nzpolitics

Local candidates: it's not much help telling us you're married with 3 kids and have run your own business. I need to know where you stand on issues: fluoridation, cycleways, water, homelessness, climate change mitigation, housing density, libraries, and which issues you care about most.

quite enjoyed the low level sharpie action on one of Ray Chung's signs: his portrait augmented with a pair of droopy boobs and "soft pendulous breasts" written across it. He said it, he gotta own it (and all being well, get owned in the elections)

… great to see some informed, realistic perspective on AI within the conversation in New Zealand. This overview from Andrew Lensen at VUW is well worth your time…

the current government wants to change concessions for accessing public land. ie: opening up conservation land for exploitation. agricultural sprawl cannot be the way that NZ seeks to answer its economic challenges. we may already be at the limits… newsroom.co.nz/2025/08/13/l...

Outlook can’t even work out contextually that I *do* mean ‘deboss’, not ‘debase’ and back off changing my text over and over. I’m a book designer talking to a publisher you stupid tool #bookdesign

… o crap. the totalitarians just showed up

2025 version of finding an Old Master in the attic (fridge clean-out version)

Capitalism working as designed.

woah! that alert works #eqnz #tsunamiwarning

The rumours are true, we are indeed putting on another Science, Technology, & Human Values STS School! 22-25 June 2026 in Seoul, Korea - hosted by Seoul National University + KAIST, w/ support from the Korean Association of STS (KASTS) + AusSTS. See www.sthvschool.org Applications close 10 Dec 2025

streaming services are to filter coffee as vinyl is to espresso.

I’m a sporadic, lazy and easily distracted reader, but today I gorged myself on Bad Archive by Flora Feltham. Books, chips, duvet and the sofa on a Sunday. A recommended tonic, but this book especially so 💚 @thwupbooks.bsky.social

@lauriefoon.bsky.social yay welcome Laurie! 💚

A solid week of typesetting. Not convinced that #AI is gonna replace editors + designers any time soon. The nuance in the mark-ups I am fixing is super-detailed. Even with a really good template and style-mapping, it still needs close attention. Also, enjoy this #glitch! #typesetting #bookdesign

Diane Calvert sees herself as a "credible alternative" choice as Wellington Mayor and says she offers a "woman's voice". She doesn't have a track record of supporting other women on council. Nor has she shown any skills at working across the table. Not my pick. #NZpol www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Two things about the new mayoral candidacy announced today: not being Ray Chung does not a centrist make, and look at the record. Is there anything there that has been about Wellington growing into a modern city or about better things being possible?