Oh wow @reuters.com got the photo here:

Yeah, this. Two things can be true: 1. Maxwell def should not get special treatment. 2. The treatment Maxwell is getting likely barely qualifies as “acceptable” in many European prisons. But no one really wants to hear “the path to fairness is to treat everyone humanely!”

not to absolve them of their other work, but every so often the Bee posts a banger

Declaring on a news media website that someone currently before a court facing criminal charges that could be the subject of a jury trial are not innocent is generally not advised. www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heath...

If you have tenure at Texas A&M and aren't maliciously emailing the president a dozen times every day to ask if you can say this or you can say that, then what's the point in having tenure?

Also worth noting: we appointed a bunch of these people to trusted positions when they were clearly fleeing the consequences of their own ethical lapses at police (after McSkimmings' suspension). Did no-one ask them why they were leaving? Did no-one ask the police? Or the IPCA?

So the issue by which I am most exercised now isn't McSkimming, but everyone else. One appointment can fall through the cracks. But all of these statutory appointments overseen by the Public Service Commission, first as Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner, but then appointments at Social Investment

"bluesky will suspend you for anything vaguely resembling a death threat" is maybe the single most consistent moderation policy they have I don't know why anyone is surprised by this one yes, even if it's a reference to song lyrics

Llandudno Remembrance Parade 2025 witnessed an act so audacious that Bond would have been impressed. This individual waltzed in, mingled with the Chain Gang et al and laid a wreath. The catcher? No one knows who the feck he is. Whoever he is he Walted big and hard. I'm not even angry, I'm impressed.

In which a then 46-year old Winston Peters acquires the moniker "young" :-) I'll take it!

Anne Twomey is turning into a YouTube machine with her series on the dismissal of the Whitlam government—and now she's promising "a special video in a unique location" for the 50th anniversary on Tuesday. Constitutional and political history fans lesssgoooooo

the thing about this is that a) small states do not have any interests that are inherent to their size (no less than james madison understood this) b) the senate is organized along party lines which makes the small/big distinction almost irrelevant and c) the filibuster has never been used this way

In the scheme of things 9 million dollars isn't a lot. Bit sure as shit ain't nothing. Its 9 million dollars somehow spent on getting Michelin to review some restaurants. How does that even work. It cost the crown 9 million dollars to get some restaurants reviewed. wtf. Honestly, how is that 9M.

I get concerns about expanding laws relating to protest but I reiterate my view that this Bill simply isn't that bad. At the outset, let me note that there is simply no way that "this one-woman protest" will be illegal under the proposed law. 🧵

One of my Coastguard Hibiscus crew mates took this picture earlier tonight and captioned it “early Christmas”. It’s the view from his place in Army Bay, Whangaparaoa

I have actually not seen Mamdani give a formal speech and what I’ll say is that unlike so many of his peers he is not trying to mimic anyone in his delivery. He is simply being himself and it is very effective.

Haven't heard Eugene V. Debs thanked this prominently in an acceptance speech since Anna Paquin won her Oscar.

So often: Commentator: The new Technology X will bring about Y so it must be tightly regulated or banned Reply: But we've had Y happening for years. X won't change anything Commentator: irrelevant, I'm talking about the dangers of X

I'm often very critical of Christopher Luxon as PM, so I try to make it a point to say when I think he's doing something well. And while it seems like a low bar, his being this assertive and direct here is something he could easily have avoided.

Just started on a new business history book! It's on why the history of management as a discipline focuses on factories and not, oh, the massive business that produced the inputs for the factories, namely the slavery-based plantation economy.

Damn…..did the people that wrote the new “knowledge rich” curriculum even proof read their work or know how to math?

“Tell your children who the cowards were.”

This is a wonderful story to have read. So many nice touches included. I clicked on it for some reason, and expected something short and it just kept going with more wonderful detail. www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/rugby/...

The Auckland University chair of macroeconomics, who hasn't left his office since 1975, thinks there are are people "worth a few hundred thousand" who are landlords and that houses are worth $100k.

Amen. There was no one unified and tidy movement, but rather multiple overlapping ones with rival leaders and disparate constituencies, generational and sectional tensions, arguments over strategies and tactics, wildly different attitudes to capitalism and religion, focal points all over the map …

Only in Dunedin do 20% of motorists have a chainsaw at hand when driving.

The focus group responded very well to the ad, especially among the AI instructed to act like key demographics

With a nifty Christchurch EQNZ connection www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLzs...

Advice from Claus: use either 69 or 67 as your random seed, depending your generation

God please save us from people who think "Free Public Transport" is a good policy because it helps the poor.

New Zealand, Final results: Māori ward referendums, Aggregate vote share Keep: 52.8% Remove: 47.2% Note: to avoid double counting, territorial results have been excluded where they fall under a regional council holding a referendum ➤ oceaniaelects.com/new-zealand

Student media rules. They are lapping a lot of the spineless media orgs this year and showing how solidarity is the way.

genuinely wild the number of quote tweets that see this as an insult toward mamdani rather than as praise for his discipline and skill at translating personal charisma into political appeal

Is TOP still on the hunt for a new leader? www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellingto...

For the election nerds -- visualisation of Meek's method STV counting and how it iterates. This is round 66 of the Dunedin count. 34 candidates have been eliminated, 6 elected and 14 remain uncertain; 6 more must be eliminated to elect a further 8 councillors (total of 14, so 1/15th of the vote)

amazing opening www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/p...

The place where people drop of their votes after voting at home and sealing their envelopes? Probably not an especially high risk of voter interference.

For, uh, reasons...

I know that among those who held votes, more councils rejected Māori Wards than continued them, but has anyone done a vote count total over the whole country? (ideally excluding double votes, like Wellington City Council/Wellington Regional Council)

Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

Years before, in another state, two ppl on furlough committed separate murders. One killed a cop. The state’s law enforcement world demanded that the governor kill the law. He refused. Furloughs were essential to rehab, he said. The program stays. This liberal hero of a governor?

"He charged Trump for official acts he took as president" is completely false, Roberts lying about that notwithstanding. He was not prosecuted for an executive order, or vetoing a bill, or issuing a pardon, etc. He was prosecuted for crimes he committed while president, but in no way *as* president.

Saw the trial date without the explanation. It seemed soon. Turns out it was!

This guy in uniform? He wasn't from Illinois or Oregon, nor was he in the regular Army. He was Gen. Henry Graham of the Alabama Army National Guard. He saluted Wallace, who was still *his* state governor, and then told him to step aside "under the orders of the President of the United States."

Downplaying an act of violence might have been the appropriate response from him, and might not be the appropriate in our current moment - I don't know - but the complete refusal to make political hay out of it is night and day from the current Government.

🚶

Freedom is just another name for “a gap in the law”.

The Cato institute being one of the heroes of our time may not have been on my bingo card, but boy have they stood up for what we used to call decent values.

hate to say it but people like sina and i who’ve been around more than 5 minutes have been warning about the direction TPM’s been travelling in since at least 2023. it’s a highly divisive party, especially within māori society itself. solidarity with eru www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

I was a burglar who discovered a horrific sex crime against a child and helped the police catch the man. My sentence was more than three times longer than Diddy’s.