I think it also revealed just how quickly a bunch of otherwise very hard problems can be to solve with global collective action. The fuckin Ganga was running clear water for the only time in my lifetime because for 2 weeks nobody threw garbage in it. The canals in Venice had fish.

Dave Andress@davidandress.bsky.social · 3d ago

Covid lockdowns demonstrated, in a deeply imperfect way, the possibility of large-scale social solidarity for a higher cause. That is a prime reason why so many powerful people want us to run screaming away from them into the comforting arms of selfish individualist competition.

Covid lockdowns demonstrated, in a deeply imperfect way, the possibility of large-scale social solidarity for a higher cause. That is a prime reason why so many powerful people want us to run screaming away from them into the comforting arms of selfish individualist competition.

the most annoying thing about the What We Should Have Done With COVID discourse is that the actual viable option to accept more health risk in exchange for less disruption was not to rawdog the plague, it was to push the vaccine wide earlier with worse trial data

2. Clean indoor air: helpful in a pandemic and good for health and learning at all times (and not just in schools but other buildings too) 3. Effective public health measures: testing, contact tracing, support for isolation, communication, etc 10/12

New from me: Until recently, the gap between comfortably-off and just-getting-started could plausibly be crossed in a decade or two of hard work. Growth in asset prices means that’s no longer true: even a lifetime of striving doesn’t offer a realistic prospect of feeling you’ve “made it”.

one road, not even long enough to run a marathon on, for the low low price of 42 times the entire 2027 budget for scientific research in new zealand #nzpol

Biggest-ever PPP: $3.6b Northland expressway deal signed

The 26km expressway will include twin tunnels through the Dome Valley.

nzherald.co.nz

One of my Crank Theories of Everything, at least of Everything in the Recent Past, is that we are dealing (badly) with COVID trauma we’d mostly prefer to pretend never happened.

This is honestly one of the most shocking images coming out of this administration and that’s saying something

Murshed Zaheed@murshedz.bsky.social · 7d ago

“Trump has rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47-year history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” Right now people in blue states are basically paying federal taxes as if they’re colonized territories of red states. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

Some excellent discussion about alternatives to a social media ban for teens that's more likely to hold big tech accountable for harm #nzpol theconversation.com/the-jurys-ou...

The jury’s out on social media bans. Here’s a better idea NZ can borrow from Australia

A version of Australia’s eSafety Commissioner could be a better way to tackle the online harm experienced by under-16s – and New Zealanders of all ages.

theconversation.com

This is absolutely a myth! Here's a collection of papers showing the reality, which is that any negative effect from social media use is tiny (for both teenagers and adults) and a small number of overall users, and far more people get a positive effect: bsky.app/profile/raha...

rahaeli@rahaeli.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I am tired of pasting dozens of links at people, so I've loaded a bunch of the papers into Paperpile and exported a bibliography. You can find a collection of 34 papers on social media's effects on teenagers (and sometimes adults) and alternate hypotheses here: paperpile.com/shared/smMqS...

If you only read one of them (and you should read all of them before you post about the issue), make it this one. www.jmir.org/2024/1/e59585

Ten Myths About the Effect of Social Media Use on Well-Being

This viewpoint reviews the empirical evidence regarding the association between social media use and well-being, including life satisfaction and affective well-being, and the association between socia...

jmir.org

They say “advances faster than we can control” as if we can’t just pull the plug. It can only grow “out of control” if you give it unfettered control over critical applications and get rid of the people who run them. The risk isn’t from the AI, it’s from eliminating human oversight.

Did luxury man just commit political suicide? He’s legit just tied himself to NZFirst & ACT, both of whom many disgruntled Nat Voters don’t want to see repeated in coalition again 👀😂 #nzpol #OneTernGovernment #NZ

going back to visualizations and dimensions, here's scaleofuniverse.com -- you can zoom in and out to see the size of objects from cosmic to microscopic. very useful for relating exactly how big any unfamiliar object is to something understandable, and bonus points for cheeky copy

Scale of the Universe: Discover the vast ranges of our visible and invisible world.

Scale of Universe is an interactive experience to inspire people to learn about the vast ranges of the visible and invisible world.

scaleofuniverse.com

Quick reminder: Labours parental leave bill had enough support to pass in to law in 2016 but the National Party govt used "Financial Veto" to kill it. It was described as a "shameful day for democracy"

There is simply no ambiguity in what Elon Musk is arguing and endorsing here.

Elon Musk is calling for the execution of the Economist editor who interviewed him. Here’s why Bluesky has an intellectual diversity problem.

Willis's #Debt Already Higher Than All 6 Years of Ardern Govt, (despite Covid payouts to protect jobs & businesses, Cyclone funding, Climate emergency funding, ferries & good change). Nat/ACT/NZF spent on oil & tobacco corps & Rich Landlords taxcuts #nzpol thestandard.org.nz/nicola-willi...

Nicola Willis’s Debt Higher Than All 6 Years of Ardern Government

Current & planned debt will surpass Labour’s full term debt in less years. Willis also admitted Budget 2024 had a higher deficit than all of Grant Robertson’s bar Covid.

thestandard.org.nz

Over 33,000 children & young people in NZ are growing up in severe housing deprivation, more likely to miss school, suffer preventable illness & come into contact with the justice system, & 2.9x more likely to experience abuse #Poverty #nzpol #PartyVoteGreen✅ www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3610...

More than 33,000 children are homeless in Aotearoa. Most are invisible in the data

One in five homeless children has recorded abuse finding, new research shows

thepost.co.nz

NZ has - almost uniquely amongst our peers - tanked its economy and pushed 10,000s onto the dole (and offshore). We were told that this strategy would 'get interest rates down, tame inflation, and drive growth 🎉'. Yet, here we are, slumped and vying to be inflation champs. What went wrong? [🧵1/n]

The scale + pace with which X is being used to socialise + normalising hatred + calls for political violence against elected politicians, journalists + judges can be seen on this search query [for traitors + invaders] x.com/search?q=tra...

X - The Everything App / X

From breaking news and entertainment to sports and politics, get the full story with all the live commentary.

x.com

"First the traitors then the invaders" is Elon Musk endorsing an open call to prioritise political murders + assassinations before violence against migrants and minorities. Still little recognition in the UK government at the persistence of the promotion of political violence - inc murder - by Musk

Elon Musk, owner of X, has called the editor of the Economist "a traitor to the West, plain and simple" after her recent interview with him. He now argues that "anyone who opposes remigration is a traitor" Musk has been socialising violence since Aug25: "fight or die, that's what it comes down to"

Of the 63 countries for which there is OECD 2026 Q2 CPI data, NZ is the 21st highest inflation among countries with quarterly data available. Of those 63 countries, in Q2 2022 NZ was 48th highest inflation, so in the lowest third then, in the highest third now.

No surprises here, but still a damning report. Thanks for this, CCC. www.rnz.co.nz/news/environ...

New Zealand now at risk of missing all its climate targets, Climate Commission warns

New Zealand is at risk of missing all of its climate targets, and time to get back on track is running out, the Climate Change Commission says.

rnz.co.nz

A brave take from someone who's government spent a BILLION DOLLARS on no ferries and no roads #nzpol

Sassy Little Hobbit@sassypolitico.bsky.social · 2w ago

But we think they can spend our money better than National can. In either scenario we are not spending our own money bro my income to cost ratio hasn’t improved under your little govt.

The future of the US is something close to binary, in my view. Either we rip out MAGA by the roots & get the biggest spurt of innovation & reform in our history since FDR, or we collapse into a prolonged internal conflict. The good news is MAGA is committing suicide & we just need to seal the deal.

My actual take is that while I kind of understand why they do it, it's an atrocity not to let authors write their own headlines

Louis@louisevans.bsky.social · 2w ago

insane take that is bad, and not good, and enraging almost on purpose: we should require news publications to procedurally generate headlines using open source models on the text of the article.

They are not going to count the votes any faster.