That guillotine stunt was not OK. I immediately had flashbacks to the "mock gallows" put up in parliament grounds during the Covid occupation. It's not OK now just because it's for someone _I_ think is despicable.

How is it legal to describe socks as "Merino" when the merino content is only 7%?

My daughter looked at an academic book I brought home and asked "is this like a journal that's self-published?" which is the best unintentional burn I've heard in a while 🤣 (Because, I mean, she's not wrong...)

Fascinating! (But my favourite bit was: "Estimating the value of housing services from long-term lease data is a complex task. ... a part of the payment was specified in live hens, which did not depreciate with the currency.")

Mauricio Drelichman@mdrelichman.bsky.social · 2w ago

New article in early view at RHE-JILAEH! Together with David González-Agudo and Valentina Ramírez, we reconstruct the cost of housing in Toledo between 1489 and 1810. This is one of the longest such series in existence anywhere in the world. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

This is my first time taking the train from (nearish) Auckland Airport to the city and it is great and when do we get an airport extension?

The weather is so unpleasant in Wellington that I don't want to put the native bush cockroach outside because it feels mean.

On the weekend someone in 'the comments section' called an epidemiologist an "epidribbleologist" and now that's definitely what I want to see whenever anyone asks me my job except it is very very hard to say.

Energy-intensive businesses may well (think they) want an LNG terminal. The question is why they think anyone else should have to pay for it? (No I haven't read the piece - I don't subscribe, and not about to start now).

Headlines like this are so stupid. We don't even get to any conversation about the environmental risks because nuclear power fails at the firat hurdle by being massively more expensive to build - and maintain - than cleaner options for generation and/or storage.

RNZ News Feeds@rnzrss.bsky.social · 2mo ago

'Couple of small modular reactors': A new pitch for nuclear power in New Zealand

Mōrena @rebeccamatthews.bsky.social - apologies if this has been covered somewhere and I've missed it, but has WCC and/or HUD got any plans/advice for tenants around the transition to consumption-based charging, and whether/how rents reduce as that cost shifts to tenants?

It's funny cos National, ACT & NZ First have transferred $13,000 million to landlords over the last 2 years, incl. from social housing - benefitting mega landlords like National MP Carl Bates & ACT's Parmjeet Parmar. But Nicola doesn't say these people "won the lotto" - Why?

Mountain Tui@mountaintui.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Nicola Willis says she's not interested in subsidising millionaires but she literally changed tax laws to let wealthy trustees avoid tax, signed off on $300m of tax subsidies for foreign tobacco, $500m for Google/Meta, and gave $3B to mega landlords like Nat MP Carl Bates & Luxon

I have been collecting these all day and imo these are the funniest

Sascha Stronach🏳️‍⚧️, The Sunforge out now@understatesmen.bsky.social · 3mo ago

man it's a minor point but illustrative of how poorly thought-out all this is: NZF's gender definition bill would break a bunch of conservation/hunting/fishing legislation because 'adult human female' specifies 'human' and so suddenly female deer (for example) don't count as female

So, I have things I need to work out from whatever secondary school assessment system we have/we're getting. Can anyone tell me if Year 11 students will have any national literacy/numeracy assessments with results out before mid-July? And/or if Year 10s will have any end of the year ones?

This OECD report sounds like an AI summary of Opinion-piece reckons rather than any kind of deep-dive into the actual situation in our energy sector or wider economy. www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

New Zealand faces ‘massive negative energy shock’, OECD warns

The report also raised concerns about superannuation and proposed a capital gains tax.

stuff.co.nz

Never met Tony Peters, don’t know who he is, but a million years ago on Facebook he posted this and I don’t think anyone’s ever put it better.

New post, on gold-standard and 'aluminium-standard' evidence: kucharski.substack.com/p/do-we-need...

NZ used to have this policy, but it was repealed by a right-wing government with ex-tobacco lobbyists as ministers. It's completely insane that people on the left want to condemn future generations to lung cancer and vascular disease because it's "unfair" that kids can't smoke.

I fear Sir Geoffrey may be even more correct now than when he said this a few days ago.

Dr Lucy Tel-Bar@lucytelbar.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Sir Geoffrey has replied! He says: What I said was "New Zealand is an irredeemably pluvial country." Of course because of climate change it is even more pluvial now than when I said it. All the best, Geoffrey

NZ Human Rights Review Tribunal has ordered Wayne Wilson, admin of Bad Tenants, NZ (Landlords Only) Facebook group, to pay $7500 for a “total failure” to respond to a privacy request. HRRT says social media groups should be treated the same as other agencies. #NZpol www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3609...

Admin of ‘Bad Tenants’ Facebook group hit with legal bill for ignoring privacy request

A former tenant who feared he had been blacklisted by landlords was blocked from a Facebook group and ignored for years after asking to see the personal information held about him.

stuff.co.nz

For #30DayChartChallenge day 15, the topic is correlation. So with discussion "what even is US consumer confidence", and local stuff, here's a graph I made in 2019- for the supposed leading economic indicator of Business Confidence, NZ business confidence is least correlated to the NZ economy.

Citation needed: I have seen Geoffrey Palmer's famous quote reported as variously that "NZ is an [irredeemably/ irreducibly/indubitably] pluvial [country/nation]". Does anyone have a definitive source for the actual quote?

In more news that's not news: Big Food boss confesses he doesn't care about public health & thinks he knows more about what's safe for public health than people whose job it is to know what's safe for public health. "'they could’ve perfectly safely traded,' he said." www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3609...

Butchers were ‘hidden in car boots’ during Covid-19 lockdown, supermarket boss says

“You just found ways to do what you needed to do to make sure the store could open full, fresh and friendly and help a community feel normal.”

stuff.co.nz

Is anyone estimating future fuel prices at the pump? (I'm wanting to estimate petrol cost for a long drive up country about 3 weeks from now).

I'm fully prepared to allow whatever face-saving excuse the government comes up with, if it means they don't make consumers pay for something they don't need. www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

Iran could spell the end of the gas levy: Government changes messaging on LNG plan

The Government’s plan for a LNG import terminal could be at risk, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon softening his language on the Government’s plan on Monday morning.

stuff.co.nz

My daughter's friend was sent a $1600 bill for an A&E visit because the hospital linked her to the wrong NHI number (of a non-resident) www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Concerns patients receiving incorrect treatment due to mistaken identity

Health New Zealand has acknowledged people may have received incorrect medical treatment due to two people being mistakenly linked to one active National Health Index Number.

rnz.co.nz

Desperate to know whether the person who named Meta's AI 'Manus' didn't know (or bother to check) slang meanings; or whether there's some Kiwi at Meta who suggested it and has since been smirking inside through every meeting on the topic.

In early March 2020 I was worried our government wouldn't listen to the evidence, and tens of thousands of people would die. I know the impact of the war/fuel shortage goes beyond driving, but now does NOT feel like then.

Is it just me, or do those "photos" on Stuff of the horner jet being refuelled look suspiciously AI-generated?

Dangerously stupid headline. (It implies catching Covid is a neutral alternative option to getting a booster. It is not).