Good morning, Bluesky. The garden is even more of a steamy jungle after last night’s rain. I think the grapevines are extending tendrils in real time. #gardening

#NZ #kikorangi 🇳🇿 ⬇️

Helpful for all of us who speak English as a second language. Cute #infographic teaches us the difference between "poisonous" and "venomous". I actually had to laugh at the poor frog... Source: buff.ly/2J0E2Zz

⚽️ Hope I have this right: just reading that like NZ 16 years ago, Cape Verde is undefeated through draws, but unlike NZ they made it through to the knock-out stage.

⚽️ Can anyone detect the Norwegian fans rowing? 🚣 😀

🚴 #Christchurch #NZ Sharing for the photo – Brougham walking and cycling bridge span going in 😊 Cyclists will go up and down a gentle gradient spiral to and from the span.

#NZ Huh. TVNZ’s streaming of 1News got to the end without bailing early for the first time in long, long time. I emailed them recently about it. They said they knew about the bug, and were working on it. Here’s hoping they’ve nailed it 🤞 I want to see this happen for several days first…! 😄

#Christchurch #NZ 😢

#NZpol So, Shane Jones is going to be on Q&A tomorrow. Doesn’t inspire me to watch it!

The big idea: do we worry too much about misinformation? By @adamjkucharski.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/books/2025/m...

#NZpol Interesting idea, no idea how well it’d work –

#NZpol I’d still love to see cities limit heavier trucks & truck-trailer units to key main roads, e.g. in Christchurch SH74/75, and have companies service towns with smaller trucks. I often wonder if it’d reduce the cost of maintaining city roads, mean fewer developments having factor in large units

1) Open this image up 2) Find the small, blue feature in the very middle Congratulations, you've spotted the Perseverance rover on Mars, photographed from orbit! 3) Trace the rover tracks as they wend their way across the surface

Venezuela quake toll tops 900, search intensifies for hundreds trapped

The fine print of this agreement is important to note. Colossal Biosciences "will have the right to access the biobanked material for research, including biotechnology development”. 1/3 🧵

I sure do miss the days when #CDC let me ask questions during their press conferences. Not sure why I'm on the verboten list, but it's getting irksome. I do think I'm in some good company, however.

⚽️ Today & tomorrow are all about smaller teams’ last efforts to get into the knock-out rounds. Next NZ’s turn at this last-minute thing… #WorldCup

⚽️ Red card on Uruguay player in the last minute. TV footage shows he was back on the pitch after full-time walking at the referees, who were trying to order him away. Not good. #WorldCup

Fun 😀

🧠🪱 Brain worms Yes, Beth Mole’s latest 😊 This is a “60-year-old man in Spain”, but you can’t help being reminded of RFK Jr, who claimed “a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” (according to NYT).

Management of invasive weed Taro vinegar in Niue Source: Facebook share.google/EI8md2tYHRYN...

⚽️ I’m in two minds about whether to watch France v. Norway or not as neither needs to win – they’re already in the top 32 – so if the coaches have any sense they’ll be fielding 'B' teams, resting up key players, etc.

Netflix: Users who you’ve shared use of your account to will now have to have their own email addresses

#NZpol Blah. Maybe #NZ cities should look at #Christchurch 's earthquake response work to appreciate that big problems want at-scale solutions. Christchurch as done a lot of "swamp city" work that I’m not sure other cities are aware of, and have more to add, incl. more covering tidal flooding.

📚 Some reading ideas in the replies ⬇️

Gastric cancer is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer & fifth leading cause of deaths worldwide. Advanced GI cancers have poor outcomes. This is the world's first approval CAR-T therapy for solid tumors. China moves forward as we lag behind. 🧪 www.insideprecisionmedicine.com/topics/oncol...

A nice way of putting it –

Scientists workarounds can be knowledgeable, but at the same time "eek" 😀 (Measure = measure radioactivity; from the OP – quoted in my next post below.)

#NZ musicians, too?

⚽️ Japan get one over Sweden, 1 – 0 55 minutes in. Nice work getting the ball in front of the goal, several passes threading the ball through central defenders.

What's a cool poetry magazine/platform to publish in? In New Zealand and elsewhere? Asking for me.

At #SCANZ26 @bmhayward.bsky.social pointing out NZ has least regulated lobbying frameworks in the whole OECD.

The New Zealand Institute of Physics has its AGM today. I have to write a president's report. This is part of it.

⚽️ Ecuador 2 - 1 Germany!! Four times world champion beaten! A pity I only saw the last minutes, I’d never have picked that.

#NZ Research on bowel cancer in younger people – “Early-onset bowel cancer is rising rapidly - around 350 Kiwis under 50 are diagnosed each year, and a third present with late-stage, incurable disease.” – Part of a worldwide trend – Lack of support for younger patients, lack of cultural support*

👩🦴 Every Homo naledi we know of is female – the question then is _why_? – all have the female version of a bone protein – even the babies are female – where are the males?? – “This is more like a Star Trek episode, you know? I know what we do if it’s a human culture, but it isn’t one.”

I don’t know enough (not from this article either), but I’m left wondering if this will affect large gifts for, say, cancer research or similar.

💉 You could simply look at #NZ media coverage at the time to know that… 😔

🖥️ Inevitable, but still annoying. ’AI’s knock-on effect on RAM and SSD prices is badly affecting consumer devices. It’s as if 'AI' needs regulation to protect consumers from that, too.

#NZ Another concern I have is with backyard chickens, which isn’t mentioned in the article. In Asia the counterpart has been a source of infection. (Free-ranging chickens are common throughout Asia.)

📚 Biology FWIW: He says "some will love it, some will hate it" – a matey, scattergun approach might work for non-scientists or non-biologist (do try it), but I suspect that would rub me the wrong way, esp. at book length. OK in small doses for (say) an online article, provided the points are solid.

#NZ The Therapeutic Products Act was supposed to cover this, but NZ First & the coalition government canned it, so currently things fall back on the 1981 Medicines Act. There is work on a 'Medical Products Bill' lead by Hon Casey Costello (lets just say I would much prefer it to be in better hands)

🏏 An opening stand of 317!

HPV vaccine cuts risk of dying from cervical cancer to almost zero www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalrap... via @skepticalraptor.bsky.social

"But what can we do when someone we love mentions a new health regimen that sounds downright dangerous?" Several pieces of advice from someone who has been there. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

sums it up. #heatwave in Europe.

Nothing says "we should probably do something about this" quite like an extreme heat conference being canceled because it's too hot. 🫠🌡️

Dream job alert: Terrestrial vertebrate biologist/ecologist (tenure-track) in New Zealand! Join us @ Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. Lecturer ≈ US Assistant Prof. NZ lifestyle, weird animals, & great colleagues Apply here: tinyurl.com/mubu7np8

It’s the kind of foolish thinking that led in the 80s to DSIR botany staff making greeting cards for sale in a futile attempt to reach imposed commercial funding targets.

Another 40+ #EbolaAA A brief thread of graphs to update the situation.