Starbucks’ CEO makes 6,666x what the average worker makes. His total compensation last year was $97,813,843! Enough is enough. It’s time to come to the bargaining table and give Starbucks baristas - who make the company’s profits possible - a fair contract.

We reduced Council's carbon emissions by 20% We put in 50 new bus shelters and curb cuts in the last 12 months We now have a disability advisory panel because I pushed for it We'll have shade in 30 playgrounds in the next 5 years Our regional arts org and two theatres have guaranteed funding

I’ve seen signs on this trip through Central Otago ‘no farmers, no food’. No teachers, no educated bureaucrats no trade agreements, etc etc No every other fucking member of society, no farming sector working efficiently. Stop this BS.

Story idea for journalists: AI’s strongest supporters say that its possibilities are endless, with some believing that it could even help save the planet. The reality is that AI-driven technology, and the vast amounts of energy powering it, are currently doing the opposite.

Which leaves, just to state the obvious, getting claimant numbers down by disconnecting people from society entirely (neither jobs or jobseeker claimants), with all the consequences for community, crime rates etc.

Since we appear to be back in 2009/10, it is worth noting that it took the addition of 600,000 jobs over 14 years from 2009 to 2023 to get the number of unemployed people down by 52,000. [1/2]

Cuts tax, cuts spending, actually borrows more but uses it to pay for nothing productive; sits back smugly and watches it fuck everything, and still can’t figure it out. Absolute clot.

if anybody's wondering what national media think of this story, twice this week I have had an RNZ Morning Report producer ask me to be available for a live interview about basic science in NZ being cut to the bone — and twice the segment has been killed before going to air

This is amidst hundreds of thousands of coders being laid off for *the first time in the history of the industry*, in a coordinated attempt to undermine that entire cohort of workers. And worse, everyone in other fields assumes that everyone in tech agrees with the Musks of the world, though few do.

Please don't buy a PHEV thinking you're doing your bit, they're awful

Burn.. if this exchange was between greens & labour it would be rolling headlines of how they are not a ready gov in waiting.. #nzpol

Relevant: In one of the few longitudinal (pre/post) studies of critical thinking skills around, Arum and Roska found that business majors showed no change, on avg, in critical thinking, complex reasoning, or communication skills after 4 years. Other majors did better. This was well before GenAI.

werewolf.co.nz/2025/10/gord... Gordon Campbell On The Government’s Dodgy Claims About Reading Achievement

I leave this post here bsky.app/profile/emil...

Society always tells you to "be yourself" right up until the point they realize you're different, then they passive aggressively and insidiously try to get you to be like everyone else

Could I politely suggest, that with how Arts & Humanities research funding has been pulled from all of these, that political interference has already occurred.

Yes please, Hamilton #HamiltonCityCouncil "a new parking plan for the city which will see owners of larger vehicles charged more for parking permits because their cars “take up more parking space and are a danger to other road users”." www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

I put some time into reading the SSAG reports today and what really worries me is that they suggest a huge change but with no real value proposition - so there will be no new money. Unless someone at MBIE has the chops for this, the reforms will really just be a lick of paint that masks the rot.

Doctors cross ethical line says man who raised speed limits for no reason despite extensive evidence it would lead to more injuries and death. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

"Executive remuneration rose from $290,126 to $527,845 (82%)" That's what $24 million of non-transparent taxpayers' funding from the National Party buys you - a decision criticised by the Auditor General as "highly irregular" #nzpol

This is exactly what they've been fined for basically, that is some business plan alright

Seeing talk that Bolger was committed to Treaty Justice, do we not remember the so-called Fiscal Envelope, designed to permanently limit compensation?? #NZPol

COVID-19 is “Airborne AIDS”: provocative oversimplification, emerging science, or something in between? While SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t cause HIV/AIDS, its immune dysfunction, T cell depletion, vulnerability to infections, accelerated aging, and systemic damage echo AIDS-like effects in a broader sense.

Plug-in hybrids pollute almost as much as petrol cars, report finds

Just look at the police line defending Luxon in Dunedin. Meanwhile crimes are up, they can't even recruit 30 of the promised 500 new cops,police don't even bother to investigate over 5000 retail crimes & a raging meth & cocaine crisis goes ignored #nzpol Photo courtesy @petesi.me

We've had 40+ years to prevent, & now we are in a rush to 'mitigate', my money is on we will do NOTHING. Been nice knowing y'all

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Minister of National Security for Israel, personally oversaw and participated in the torture of Greta Thunberg. www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/25...

Sounds like the end of the Royal Society as a force when many staff get sacked and the work it used to do taken over by (shudders) MBIE.

Be good in NZ too

Of course he would say that. Peters launched his last election campaign on Reality Check Radio, his political career depends on the ability for online platforms to spread disinfo without any accountability to the public www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

This sounds horribly familiar

Someone told Chris Bishop, Simeon Brown and the Death Merchants in the National Party yet?

Suck on that, Bryce Wilkinson (and Luxon of course). All that Covid $$$ support, was actually almost fiscally neutral and saved the country. #nzpol

A lot of legal minds are suddenly going to be thinking about the clause "but does not include any such transmission of programmes— (a) made on the demand of a particular person for reception only by that person; or (b) made solely for performance or display in a public place"!

Even saying "two executives" appears to be generous. It's 1.32FTE so it's one executive (King) and a part-timer doing about 1.5 days a week.

Tee hee

I say bring on Bishop - his appeal is even narrower than corporate boy

OK, this is the cutest thing I've seen.

Crime is soaring under the National Party. Thousands of retail crimes are ignored, sexual assault is up, violent crime is up, homicide is up, gangs are up. But fortunately landlords are back on the menu- Luxon & Carl Bates still profiting bigly #nzpol PS Look at that body language

The Government of New Zealand has made a new tourism ad and it's surprsingly honest and informative!

The way research funding has changed, it's even more dog eat dog than usual. I dont care for it

I absolutely 💯 decry the attacks on fundamental science but cannot help but be reminded that so many people pissed off now were silent when humanities funding was obliterated & don’t step up for Mātauranga, nor care about the rising misogyny their colleagues have described for a decade.

I wonder if any of our news outlets will cover this — hard to do so without a full-time science reporter though

Also see: every Uni in NZ..even those with groups with world-wide reputation in ML/AI. Whose management and senior admin people never spoke to them. There's a sort of senior admin person who saw "expertise" in ML as a way of gaining prestige and having a highly paid job. May their time be short.

Like most of the science system reforms this year, there's some good ideas here but the overarching direction this government dictates for research ('value for the private sector') is not one that will actually lead to good research

I hope there will continue to be some blue skies grants, but I am not confident of it, considering the things said and done over the last couple of years.

Huh. And here I thought accusing other MPs of lying was verboten in the House. #nzpol

Well, as expected, Seymour talked to precisely no craft beer business. fyi.org.nz/request/3228...

Fascinating how gang numbers have surpassed 10,000 for the first time, meth use is up double & triple, cocaine spiking & gangs are making DOUBLE the profits while domestic violence doubles, but NZME is so quiet about this crisis of law and order. #nzpol