Vote! Vote in your local election! Post your vote by 5pm today! It matters. Hayden explains this more hilariously than I can: thespinoff.co.nz/politics/06-...

Fine analysis of the very tight battle for Christchurch Mayor by David Williams. Read it before you vote - because the next mayor will set the city direction in important ways. Mauger’s disdain for any method of transport other than cars will screw the city. newsroom.co.nz/2025/09/12/f...

#nzpol For those who have joined Internet NZ, please register to vote at the AGM tomorrow. There are a few motions that have been put by David Farrar in particular that seek to erase Te Tirīti, tikanga and everything Māori from this organisation. Please register to vote against this takeover

Thinking about this a lot as I haul gear all over Ōtautahi this week in our cargo bike. E-bikes and particularly cargo e-bikes could really transform those areas in Aotearoa where sprawl or geography makes cars the current choice. But which interventions would enable the shift? A 🧵...

My current bugbear is that pretty much every issue we face is caused or worsened by disinformation and a growing absolute disregard for truth, evidence, or any notion of a shared reality - and that no one in power will do anything about it because it's too useful for them.

After years of trying out plastic bags, shoe covers, etc. to keep my feet dry on the bike I've settled on ankle gumboots for rainy days. Should have got them years ago: store.pggwrightson.co.nz/grubs-shorel...

A cartoon about our government’s unconcern for our land and water. “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell”, so said Edward Abbey. My Stuff #cartoon today #NZpol #Climate #Water #Environment #RMA #FastTrack

One of the things about generative AI, if they are indeed using an LLM to summarise submissions, is that you cannot guarantee accuracy with LLM summarisation. This has been well documented. My concern is thus what steps are being taken to ensure accuracy, as otherwise you risk political anomie.

We have a date e te whānau! REGULATORY STANDARDS BILL SUBMISSION PĀTI / PARTY June 12th (Thurs next week) 6.30 - 9PM Some folks from the greens will be here to tautoko/support & some other lovely folk too BYO laptop if you have one (no stress if you don't) This is a supportive & FREE event!!!

The NZ govt is refusing to allow updated clinical guidelines for trans healthcare to be released. Their reasoning is clearly bad-faith and ideologically in line with the ‘culture war’ restrictions of people’s rights in the US. Medical bodies are speaking out. Where is the media coverage of this?

Apocalypse Nowt

The Regulatory Standards Bill had its first reading yesterday. National and NZ First barely spoke — but voted it through to select committee. This isn’t just about the Treaty. It’s a sweeping attempt to rewrite how law works in NZ. The quiet tells a story — and it’s worth paying attention to.

Reminder, it's Open Christchurch architecture festival this weekend. A chance to see dozens of great local buildings for free. Check the opening times at openchch.nz and make yourself a list.

This is an excellent and thorough read on how we ended up with the UK Supreme Court ruling novaramedia.com/2025/04/29/h...

As a Muslim kiwi I will clearly say that the NZ chief human rights commissioner is a threat to our lives here in Aotearoa New Zealand and his reported words in the media are is basically inciting violence against a community that has already paid with their lives because of racism like his.

If you see this, post a picture of a tree~ #ArborDay

Being a card carrying wood nerd, @cleftcraft refers to the magical technique of cleaving - controlling splits in a log to get a desired shape or sized piece. It never gets old to hear the musical pop sound before it splits open.

It's so useful when people make images available legally. This will be great.

Rainy day wood carving here in Ōtautahi. I'm making a giant tea mug or kuksa out of red alder, because the cold weather turns one's mind to hot beverages. 🧶🇳🇿 #greenwoodworking #woodcarving #kuksa

Done! Closes 1pm today folks. That they'd want to take this to a referendum currently is just bizarre, but it only takes a minute to submit.

Well, my experience of the last week was seeing a matuku-hūrepo/Australasian bittern, flying for about 100m alongside me as I biked along a local cycleway. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austral... #birdoftheyear2025

A first for me. The amaryllid Brunsvigia josephinae flowering after I bought a bulb about 18 years ago from the now defunct Parva Plants. The inflorescence stands about 85cm tall from a huge bulb and was worth the wait. I wish I'd thought to buy a few more though... 🇳🇿🌱

Interesting question in the NZ context. The UK is less species-diverse than us (though we have some major gaps from extinctions). But what happens when our flora and fauna start dying out in their natural ranges?

For anyone who enjoys the Harvard historian Jill Lepore, she's updated her podcast series on the history and idealogical underpinnings of Elon Musk. Great analysis and a lot of shade: X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story: Episode 1: The Dark Knight Episode webpage: omny.fm/shows/elon-m...

Sometimes what we produce as waste is just beautiful. Drawknife shavings from my prep for tomorrow's beginner spoon carving class.

@metservice.com is here now

Today's view from the nursery that will soon be replacing our lawn. Glad to have some rain today as hand watering is taking longer and longer the more I propagate. #aonzgardening

Repost with your apocalypse skill I can build pizza ovens, cook, garden and know a bit of botany. I forge tools and can cut down a tree and make a chair from it. I'm an okay weaver of willow baskets when patient, and can sew a bit. Crucially, I can sharpen things - the one skill to rule them all!

Great to see this little pocket of life on busy Brougham St outside Prima Roastery in Ōtautahi. Nyctemera annulata - makokōrori or NZ magpie moth caterpillars feeding on a daisy relative. These weeds could easily have been sprayed or pulled. Nice to see what the alternative looks like. #nzgardening

"volume builders have an incentive to limit construction to the “market absorption rate”: in other words, they won’t dent their profits by building enough homes to reduce the selling price"

Having an enjoyable afternoon industriously spent with @jostle.bsky.social making copper tags out of old spouting for our orchard trees.

Just sent my submission on puberty blockers and trans people's right to fair healthcare. Please take 15 mins and just bash one out. Due by 5pm today.

Regulatory Standards Bill submission done! And also emailed to my National electorate MP. Received a nice email from her this morning about my Treaty Principles submission I'd sent her and how she's intending to vote against it. Good to keep local MPs in the loop.

Throwback to last week's visit to Fisherman's Bay Garden on Banks Peninsula. A thoughtful blend of perennials and drought tolerant plants with natives. I walked away with a full brain and a handful of salvia seeds after a nice conversation with Jill Simpson the owner. #nzgardens

Please make time to do a submission on the Social Security Amendment Bill. If you saw the film "I, Daniel Blake" that will give you an idea of what we are facing. Bex Graham ⬇️ has written a useful guide if you are struggling.

Douglas Adams warned us. All those neurotic doors and overly cheery elevators that get depression

Up in Whakatū this week visiting family, and one of the highlights was buying this knife from local knifemaker Richard van Dijk at the weekend market.

Submissions on this zombie bill close January 7th. It's not coincidence that consultation for this and the Treaty Principles Bill is over the holiday period. Please submit on both, even if it's just to say you oppose them.

It me! A wee look into the world of a womble.

Great news about the ban on greyhound racing. Many people might be surprised though that in some circles people are doubling down on pro-industry propaganda RN in response to the news. So here's a🧵on how the industry and its stans defend the indefensible. #NZPol www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

InsideOUT's submission guide is up, e te whānau! Super thorough and detailed! insideout.org.nz/submission-g...

It’s a dark day for research in Aotearoa New Zealand and the ramifications for the country are huge. Minister Judith Collins has just announced our blue-skies funder will no longer fund humanities & social science research and that 50% of what is funded must have economic benefit.

Just had to share this. A lovely scene of freshly cut walnut wood being shared around by some of the members of Ōtautahi Spoon Club. It's growing into such a kind and fun group of people.

“bell hooks once said: “The first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence toward women. Instead patriarchy demands of all males that they engage in acts of psychic self-mutilation, that they kill off the emotional parts of themselves.””

Closing in fast on 200,000 signatures. The current count (194,339 right now) is the same number of people as 6.7% of voters in the 2023 general election, more than the entire NZ First vote. 250,000 would beat the entire Act Party vote. #ToitūTeTiriti

Meanwhile here in the southern hemisphere, I submit my own somewhat grislier version of #treebybike 😉

A gentle reminder that if we miss the 1.5°C target (and we certainly will), the next target is 1.51°C and not 2°C. We need to keep fighting. Every tonne of CO₂ emitted makes the job of future CO₂ removal harder, and every 0.01°C of temperature increase makes the world more chaotic and dangerous.

This is how I feel about Ōtautahi