The usual explanation for great music is that it's predictable but not too predictable. But there's more to it, said @frosas.bsky.social at #ALIFE2025. We prefer music when we perceive agency behind it. Improvisation trumps a prepared performance. See paper at www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy.... ⚙️🧫

Sad to report that we've lost another #kakapo, and a particularly significant one. Solstice was the last kākāpō rediscovered, found on Rakiura in 1997. She died on the weekend as a result of complications from the #disease cloacitis. There are now 237 kākāpō left. #conservation #parrots #birds

All this appeasement on Gaza is really paying off. We could probably shave a few % off that movie tariff if Luxon erased a century of social and environmental progr… (checks feed) … never mind. #nzpol

There really isn’t any moral test that Luxon can’t fail. #nzpol

Chotiner interviews Neville Chamberlain . . . #chotiner #uspol www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

It is 9/11 in the US and I can think of no better answer to the question, “25 years later, how would we know if terrorism won?” than a quick scroll through X today. Here in Aotearoa, we already knew the answer to “who matters to David Seymour?” It.Can.Happen.Here. #nzpol

Richard Rorty knew… in 1998. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

After nearly a century of effort, we still don't have a theory of quantum gravity go.nature.com/45VIwf7

Researchers have identified more than 1,000 potentially problematic open-access journals using an AI tool go.nature.com/3JGQnFT

Researchers are studying why mitochondria are moving between cells and whether the process can be harnessed to treat cancer and other diseases go.nature.com/4fYoEwG

“Let them eat cake”? #nzpol

So, they just bought the butter from the pic?

No, David Seymour is a deeply unserious person who diminishes every issue he touches. It’s like saying “Diddy is right that we have to get past this whole East Coast West Coast rivalry.” #nzpol thespinoff.co.nz/politics/20-...

. . . a transfer of wealth from NZ teachers and nurses to the military industrial complex. #nzpol

Uff, the comments on this article are BRUTAL. And finally, consensus among Kiwis. None too keen to replace the current empty suit with an equally empty “effervescent tangerine” pantsuit. #nzpol www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

My wife and I have coined a term for this effect: Getting “Brownleed” #nzpol

“Kiwis travelling to the US should be concerned. Reasonableness is absent from the border scene there.” Just. Don’t. Go. www.stuff.co.nz/travel/36079...

Reclaiming the sacred: How we can begin to decolonise ourselves

There is one fundamental phenomenon that quantum physics can't explain: gravity go.nature.com/45v70f1

Behold the Very First Color Photograph (1861): Taken by Scottish Physicist & Poet James Clerk Maxwell

Lateral #PrefrontalCortex is involved in executive functions, but what roles do distinct anatomical subregions play? @clbas.bsky.social &co show that caudal VLPF specializes in visual input processing, while middle areas support context-based behavioral planning @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4ljEz9W

(2) An article on the effect of Covid-19 on democratic government in Aotearoa, courtesy of @drdeanknight.bsky.social: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Interview: "The Nature of Consciousness, Sentience, and Artificial Intelligence" Host: Ryan Anderson www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxKr...

ACT really should just change its name to “Karen” at this point. #nzpol www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...

Oh, I’m quite sure Nicola would like to speak endlessly about her own outrages than stop committing them against working class women. Perhaps Winston could mansplain political hardball to his injured idealistic coalition partner. #nzpol www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

Speaking of facts, funny how Nicola forgets to mention the fact that there was no parliamentary review process or public comment. It’s pure cowardice to argue this in an opinion piece rather than on the legislative floor. #nzpol www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...

It’s getting increasingly hard to parody this parade of empty suits & sisters in hate from the Coalition. So . . . well done? What a surreal mix of neoliberal and trumpist gibberish they have become. + they’re asking for an extra year 😳 #nzpol #payequity www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/3606...

“Let’s steal it from women” was always going to be this government’s answer to “how do we find a billion dollars?” Let’s take it back. #nzpol #payequity www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3606...

Thread. Minister apparently pushed for numbers of staff shortages to be removed from an official report, but then denied doing this.

Voting rights are human rights. Nearly 2/3 of incarcerated New Zealanders are Māori or Pasifika, although they make up less than 1/5 of the total population. Of course Luxon does not care. If it looks like a skinhead and and quacks like a skinhead . . . #nzpol www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3606...

Article: "An active inference explanation of discriminatory cognition with regard to social attitudes and harmful behaviour." Coauthors: Héctor M. Manrique, Michael J. Walker www.researchgate.net/profile/Hect...

“…be aware that if you are a transgender New Zealander or if you are someone with a history of activism, this could be an issue.” If you plan to travel to the US & have a nonbinary or “activist” loved one, remember your privilege, & perhaps reconsider. www.stuff.co.nz/travel/36066...

I've started to watch John Campbell's series on Density Church. I knew an awful lot about Density already, but this was still a shock. The level of hate promoted by this group is beyond shocking. www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/under-...

Late career Winston really leaning into the whole Scooby-Doo villain “I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those meddling woke trans kids” thang. The rubber mask is especially lifelike. What a ghoul this man is. #nzpol #transphobia www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

. . . and every dollar we give to America supports further erosion of the Rule of Law. Those with privilege now will not magically be spared later simply by tossing aside their moral compass. The US does not “misunderstand,” it hates with absolute clarity. www.stuff.co.nz/travel/36066...

112 nay, 11 aye What was the point when the legislative conclusion was so obvious from the start? This is just a first salvo in the assault on Te Tiriti. The first step is to normalize attacks on tino rangatiratanga Luxon & Peters are enablers who stand for nothing beyond power. #TeTiriti #nzpol

Goff has a spine, one that’s connected to his brain & his voice. Sir Don, welcome to the “I didn’t like what Hitler was doing but it’s all just too delicate to say aloud,” section of history. I hear the vichyssoise is especially cold … #nzpol #appeasement www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3606...

Truly weird how “woke” has become a slur that blue-pilled reactionaries use to maintain the illusion that they are red-pilled when confronted with anything legit red-pilled. And the whole “mind virus” thing is just ?!, like middle schoolers telling one another ghost stories … #woke #redpilled

Thinking way too small here & still dancing to America’s dystopian tune. The US actually makes very little that (a)can’t be sourced elsewhere and (b)we existentially require. The NZ consumer should take Canada’s position & cast our dollar votes elsewhere. #nzpol www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...

1/2 Although we may quibble on the precise definition of “boom,” I find myself nodding in agreement with something shitgibbon has said: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom” … But wait, there’s more! #nero www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/3...

Excellent read if you have ft access. The crosstalk between embodied self-representation in the thalamus & hierarchically modeled self across the cortex are the waves that maintain the experience of being across time and through space. Is this self-coding emergent or is it responding to a field?

From Omar El Akkad’s new book, “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” "you are being asked to kill off a part of you that would otherwise scream in opposition to injustice" That line hit me hard

1/2 Te Papa being close by, I find myself often staring up at the 10m high text of Te Tiriti therein, marveling at the lazy arrogance of high colonialism. Only a power assured it would never be held to account would leave in “Tino rangatiratanga” w/o bothering to reflect on what it might mean.

This TikTok didn't allow downloading, but it's such an honestly perfect explanation of Private Equity that I just had to share it. So I've screen recorded it.

What Luxon could have said: “I disagree wholeheartedly. Here’s why…” What he did call scrutiny of policing that does not align with his own views: “Insane.” If you wonder why Seymour and Peters gaslight & routinely communicate like shitposters … #nzpol www.tickaroo.com/e/FOwlJm93Wy...

"We don’t know when it might adapt to spread between people. It might be already happening, or it could happen, or it might not happen," @jemmageoghegan.bsky.social told me. But just waiting around "is going to result in quite a lot of failure". Read part two here: newsroom.co.nz/2025/03/25/t...

1/3 We need to do better, as the pandemics won’t stop coming. This sort of unnecessary smoke screening is an own goal, but also an example of why protecting the right of journalists and citizens to access government records is so important. #foia #pandemic #H5N1 www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/o...

Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty. —Hannah Arendt