Previously on Bylines Scotland...

it turns out the Avelo ICE Air deportation flights are plagued with severe safety violations. excellent reporting from @gbrockell.bsky.social prospect.org/2025/11/17/i...

#MedievalMonday On Feast Day of #StThomasBecket, this exceptional font in Lyngsjö Church, Sweden, where saint was v popular. Made 20 years after Becket's 1170 assassination, Henry II shown as instigating murder. On L he holds a scroll inscribed REX H[EN]ricus. On R knights attack the archbishop.

People often defend these killer ‘trucks’ by blaming pedestrians for being hit. Or they blame ‘poor drivers.’ But it’s the same argument used to oppose restrictions on assault rifles common in school shootings. Both should be banned.

HOW TO UN-REDACT PDF FILES (from Adobe!) => www.adobe.com/acrobat/hub/...

Dr Hu 🥰✊👍✌️❤️ #OneTermGovernment #nzpol

Be like Norway 🇳🇴not the UK 🇬🇧 #nzpol #OneTermGovernment

#nzpol 🧵 ⬇️ IMHO, a smart political party's policies for campaigning would include a decent roof top solar power installation subsidy.

And detainees are held for much long periods of time than needed so that these companies can charge more and make billions extra. It’s state sanctioned human trafficking.

You know that AI “coat fence” story that went viral yesterday? Well this story is real

#nzpol Ah, yes, I remember Dunedin varsity landlords well. 🤬

Freezing rain floods Gaza camps as displaced Palestinians face even worse conditions

Yeah there's some shit drivers out there - this on SH1 near here - look for the red MG on the left:

This is wonderful.

Trump is dynamiting through National Park property and critical jaguar habitat in Arizona's San Rafael Valley to construct 27 miles of border wall.

“Car bloat”—increasingly oversized automobiles—worsens road safety, affordability and the environment. Here are some of the stories I wrote in 2025 examining the trend and proposing solutions. 🧵 In @vox.com, I likened car bloat to secondhand smoke (which helped bring down the US tobacco industry).

Russian submarine followed spy ship into British waters as it mapped gas pipeline

Drinking water in plastic bottles contains countless particles too small to see. New research finds that people who drink water from them on a daily basis ingest far more microplastics than those who don’t. www.wired.com/story/people...

Wonderful, exciting news – my Reynard the Fox is now an audiobook! Completely unabridged and read by the perfect narrator, Joseph Edward Degnan. It's available now at all the usual places, see below for links and a clip!

How effective is protesting? According to historians and political scientists: very www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Worth your time to read/listen.

Don't think I've spoken to a single artist who didn't struggle this Christmas, and I spoke to a lot, so even if it's not my work I'd really encourage people to try to support a local artist that you like instead of big corporations - every single sale makes a real, tangible difference to their life.

Man seated in a railroad car Laton A. Huffman, c.1900 www.cartermuseum.org/collection/m...

Oh so real conspiracies do happen.

Emil Heilborn - Vårhälsning, Skansen (Valborgseld), 1934 sis.modernamuseet.se/people/3167/...

Psychopath. #nzpol

It's shocking how rampant deforestation is being allowed to continue. Everyone must take the Climate Crisis seriously. EVERYONE. 🤬

We all shine on

2026年を読み込み中… ｸﾙｯ ｸﾙｯ

Oh, no, and she was only recently telling everyone that she was fine, too. 💔 #RIPBrigetteBardot

Stuff like this winds me up. The absurd noblesse oblige. “Social leadership is important”- noone asked you for it. Noone wants it. You think you should have it because you have land. Well good for you. But it’s not the 18th century. Just shuffle off into the night.

All of the money that changed hands in the Teapot Dome scandal totaled less than $10 million after adjusting for inflation, and it was considered so corrupt we still teach it in high school government classes a century later.

🎄 On the 4th day of Christmas… “four calling birds” was originally “four colly birds” meaning coal-black i.e. blackbirds✨ So next time you sing the carol, picture the glossy male blackbird with his bright yellow beak and fluting song. #12DaysOfChristmas

Sunset across Ahuriri

Hey, if your kid is around 8 - now is the time to read them Terry Pratchett's Mort, then follow it up with Equal Rites, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. Make sure YOU DO THE VOICE for DEATH, you know how that sounds in your own head

Attention: Aotearoa New Zealand. I have just discovered that a packet of Arnotts Tim Tams fits perfectly inside the egg and cheese nooks on the door of my F&P fridge. Of course, it's totally over to you if you hide said biscuits under the cheese. 😉 #BetterLivingEveryone

www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic... time to vote out all the boomers now

Back in the horse and cart days, when I was a kid going to primary school in Dunedin, initial screening was done and funded as a joint govt health and education project. I remember queuing up for basic eye chart and hearing tests done in the school nurse's office. They did other health checks, too.

The irony of Shane Jones complaining about burly men pillaging the seabed who won’t back down when there’s quick money to be made #nzpol

-TikTok labels less than 1.38% of this content as AI-generated -Nearly ⅓ of accounts & ½ of the top 10 showed content sexualizing female bodies, including minors -False news, anti-immigrant narratives & explicit trends were widespread -55% of AI content remains unlabelled; only 10% of creators label

An industry is 100% white: nothing to see here An industry becomes 99% white: grab the rocket launchers, file the lawsuits, make up the imaginary white men who are being discriminated against otherwise we will all die

How are these fits of presidential incontinence never covered as their own news events in NYT? Hours of sick hateful bile from the curdled joyless leader of the Christian nationalists sitting in the ruins of the tinsel trimmed White House he’s demolishing — seems like a story to me.

I can’t get over how one directional Instagram feels… I liked old Twitter & now BlueSky because they feel like local pubs you go into and join chats with old mates and new. Instagram feels like you are walking into the backstage at a theatre where everyone is practicing their monologues.

This message hits hard.

Superb.

If you haven’t listened to Geneva AM’s album, Pikipiki, go do it right now. Her electronic dance version of Tūtira mai ngā iwi has been a whānau favourite for a while ever since we heard her play it live on RNZ ages ago. The whole album is sublime. genevaam.bandcamp.com/album/pikipi...

#nzpol ⬇️🎯

🤯 TBH, you couldn't pay me to sail with this lot. 🤷🤦

Members of Brittany Higgins’s circle point out that her powerful and emotionally raw description of what happened to her in Linda Reynolds’ cabinet office on the night of the assault lies at the heart of this second court victory against Bruce Lehrmann. satpa.pe/tqgBNre

I don’t know what this adds but here you go