← Feed

Posts

• View post

  NZ media are reporting that Dunedin's Ed Sheeran mural has been "defaced" or "sprayed over". In reality, someone has politely painted the words "Free Palestine" at the base of the painting, adding a contemporary context. https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/music/dunedin-s-ed-sheeran-mural-de-faced-amid-tour-backlash #EdSheeran #Dunedin

• View post

  An Auckland "convenience store" built a shopping site with AI. Unfortunately they went live without locking the doors, so punters are having a field day adding listings for items including a “pair of crusty socks”, “National Parks to the highest bidder”, “pay off David Seymour” for $3000, or get “a little smooch from Brian Tamaki” for $69. New promotional codes include “bigdong1” and “pleasegodmakeitstop”. The unnamed site owner seems to have no idea how to stop the onslaught. Perhap...

• View post

  Staff at the Eiffel Tower are on strike. A Hindu religious group booked for a private tour demanded that female staff were "set aside" during their visit. Management complied. "As ‌the delegation passed ⁠through, women were asked to leave their workstations so that men could take their places." Hopefully the strike will help management realise that misogyny and religious fanaticism should never be allowed to infect their workplace again. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/st...

• View post

  Unlike Google and Apple which have both perverted their maps to reflect the US President's dementia-inspired ravings, MapQuest has done the right thing by not changing a thing. And bingo... they're suddenly the most popular app on the US app store. To celebrate, Mapquest have put up a page which allows you to generate any name for Lake Ontario. Here's mine. https://gulfof.mapquest.com/lakeontario https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/02/mapquest-is-now-the-no-1-u-s-app-after-bucking-tr...

• View post

  NZ -- product recall Vogel’s breads sold in the South Island with a best before date of 15th August have been recalled because they may contain small metal pieces. https://www.mpi.govt.nz/food-safety-home/food-recalls-and-complaints/recalled-food-products/vogels-brand-various-breads-recalled-as-the-products-may-contain-foreign-matter-small-metal-pieces #NZ #Recall

• View post

  A US oil company connected to Trump has landed drilling equipment in Greenland. They don't have permission to land the equipment, let alone to drill two test wells within a conservation area. Climate-aware Greenland stopped issuing drilling licenses in 2021, but the USians intend to piggyback on an existing license. Emboldened by Trump's international aggression, their motto appears to be "Who's gonna stop us?" This action will produce headaches that Nato members don&#3...

• View post

  Fresh from perverting the beautiful game to allow more commercials (extended half times & drinks breaks), overturning a red card at Trump's request and degrading FIFA's reputation by presenting the warmonger Trump with a made-up bling 'peace' prize, FIFA President Gianni Infantino's Trump-sucking has reached its climax. He's proposed selling 20% of the World Cup business to American venture capitalists, specifically Jared Kushner's brother. The Union of Europe...

• View post

  Private company Taylorville Resource Park takes industrial waste from Christchurch, trucks it over the Southern Alps to Greymouth and stashes it on unstable land next to Greymouth's water treatment plant. What could possibly go wrong? And cue climate change. The torrential rain which flooded Greymouth on Friday also caused a landslide from the dump site onto a road. The slip was big enough that two cars smacked into it in the dark. There's little can be done to stop the operation beca...

• View post

  In a triumph for NZ First's fragile white cookers and racists everywhere, English has become an "official" language of NZ. Ignoring the facts -- NZ laws are written in English and Parliament conducts its business in English -- the English Language Bill passed its third and final reading at Parliament yesterday. At the first reading of the bill, NZFirst leader WInston Peters said the purpose of the Bill was to help solve a "virtue signalling narrative..." He's an eld...

• View post

  Talk about jobs for the boys! Luxon's government has handed their pet real estate company Bayleys $2.4m in the past nine months for disposing of 941 state houses. In an uncanny coincidence, Bayleys just happens to be one of the National Party's biggest donors. And Pharmac Chair Paulya Benefit is a director of Bayleys, but insists that she had nothing to do with it. Yeah, right. https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/361012822/major-national-donor-paid-25m-selling-state-houses #NZPol #Bay...

• View post

  The NZ government has rejected a ban on the public sale of fireworks. This decision defies public opinion and lacks common sense. https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/govt-rejects-calls-to-ban-public-sale-of-fireworks-q5pk852b #NZPol #Fireworks

• View post

  Four headlines in today's Guardian. Spot the odd one out. #ClimateChange

• View post

  This is sad. Papatoetoe Intermediate School has cancelled its school camp this year because so few families could afford it. Last year camp cost $240/ This year, it's over $350. Only 160 out of 750 students confirmed they could go. School camps are a right of passage for kiwi kids. I curse the coalition government which has made so many families so very poor. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/education/771967/auckland-school-forced-to-cancel-school-camp-as-families-unable-to-afford-it #NZ #Edu...

• View post

  This seems significant. The Bank of England will stop accepting bonds linked to coal. This means commercial banks can no longer use bonds linked to coal as “collateral” when they borrow money from the BoE. "The Bank’s new policy suggests that bonds linked to thermal coal are now too risky to sit on its balance sheet, as an international shift away from dirty fossil fuels towards greener energy could end up wiping out their value." Please. Let it happen! https://www.theguardian.com/...

• View post

  Those who keep a wary eye on New Zealand's cooker community should note that twisted conspiracist Billy Te Kahika is in hospital following a heart attack. https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/361007901/billy-te-kahika-jnrs-condition-deteriorates-after-heart-attack #NZ #Cookers

• View post

  In Sam Neill's 2023 memoir, he ripped into his old Christchurch alma mater Christ's College and elite education in general. He said many of the students at the boarding house were the “product of generations of inbreeding”. “Canterbury farming families, for some reason, like to marry among their own. The gene pool is very small. You would think that a cursory examination of how they bred their Corriedale sheep would’ve been helpful in this regard. Sadly, no.” Sam lived by his convicti...

• View post

  Another former National MP and certified cooker joins NZ First. Harete Hipango, who now identifies as Harete Hipango-Brownlie, was a supporter of the anti-vax 'Voices for Freedom' group. S'funny, you never hear a peep from VfF these days. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/691707/nz-first-haven-former-mp-harete-hipango-brownlie-latest-to-make-the-jump #NZPol #Hipango #NZFirst

• View post

  We have cowboys in our forests. In 1993 the Samnic Waingaromia Project was launched with a prospectus offering "Invest $80k... get returns of $1.3m." The actual return was $27k and the average investor lost $50k on the deal. Now the same company has appeared before the environment court denying any responsibility for the forestry slash and debris they left behind on a 1,000ha block outside Gisborne. The court wasn't having any of it. Samnic must clean up the remaining woody de...

• View post

  In case anyone still thinks cruise ships sound like fun, spare a thought for the 1,700 passengers of the 'Ambition' currently stranded off the French coast. Up to 50 passengers are thought to have gastroenteritis and one person has died. The world's most environmentally damaging form of tourism is also becoming one of the most dangerous. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/595128/1700-passengers-held-on-cruise-ship-over-potential-acute-stomach-bug-sickness #CruiseShips...

• View post

  NZ Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced yesterday that "immigration was an emerging political issue..." But Paul Spoonley says Luxon is offering a solution for a problem which doesn't exist. Our points-based immigration system is discerning, we don't have waves of refugees knocking at our door and the majority of Kiwis view immigration positively. Prof Spoonley politely suggests that the PM is reacting to race baiting from Act and NZFirst, "both...

• View post

  While many countries are wrestling with retaliatory tarrifs on US stupidity, China is doing a clever thing. Sure, they slapped a 39% tariff on US goods, but they've also introduced 'export licensing' for a few critical minerals including dysprosium, terbium, tungsten, indium, and yttrium. They've turned off a tap the US didn't realise it relied on. This is a good analysis from someone who knows the subject. https://cleantechnica.com/2025/04/05/china-jus...

• View post

  West Harbour people -- a boil water notice has been issued for all DCC-supplied properties from District Rd in Roseneath to Lewis St in Deborah Bay. https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/boil-water-notice-west-harbour #Dunedin #Flooding

• View post

  The NZ Police manual has been updated. In future, officers who encounter sovereign citizens and learn they hold a firearms licence are to refer the individuals to the Firearms Safety Authority for review. Furthermore, "... where an officer suspects an individual represents a security threat, they should contact the National Security Group at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet." The days of treating cookers as harmless cranks are ending. https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/04/2...

• View post

  With National sagging in the polls and haemorrhaging voters to NZFirst, the scrap between Luxon and Peters consumes a lot of oxygen. Former National Minister Chris Finlayson doesn't believe Luxon's coalition will make it as far as November. He calls NZ First "an excrescence." I looked it up -- it's warts and pimples. "... I think the best thing the National Party can do is try and extricate themselves from this grisly coalition and declare war on New Zealand First…...

• View post

  Kudos to the Independent for this excellent headline. "King Charles gives Trump a shiny gift" https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-charles-state-dinner-gift-white-house-royals-b2966850.html?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub #Headline #UK #Charles

• View post

  This is a ten minute exposure of a comet, specifically R3 PanSTARRS. Look at the utter mess Musk and his buddies are making of our night sky, and they're only getting started. There are currently around 10,000 Starlink satellites in space. Musk wants to increase that number to one million. Follow @sundogplanets for up to date info on satellite pollution and some charming goat news. Photo by Uli Fehr -- via APOD https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260427.html #SatelliteTrails #APOD

• View post

  RE: https://mastox.eu/@ZackPolanski/116456447403331400 Check out the trajectory of the UK Green Party. Voters are seeking an alternative to oil-based centrism, austerity and a system based on inequality. Only one party promises a cleaner, fairer future. It's time. Vote Green. 💚 #UKPol #VoteGreen

• View post

  "I hate Illinois nazis." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTT1qUswYL0 #BluesBrothers @billbennett

• View post

  Keith Ng at the Herald has a good summary of what's known and where we're at. "MMH has confirmed that only a single stolen user account was used in the attack. Posing as a normal user, the hackers were able to trick the application interface into providing the files for 127,000 other users. The control mechanisms meant to stop one user from accessing other users’ files had failed, or did not exist." It sounds like they accessed one person's files, then...

• View post

  98% of Fonterra shareholders voted to sell the goose which laid the golden eggs and today is pay day. The average *tax-free* payment to shareholders is $400k. Farmers voted for the sugar hit, disregarding the fact that the next time the milk price drops, Fonterra's consumer brands won't be there to cushion the shock because they're now owned by French company Lactalis. Short term thinking is not much of a strategy. If anyone knows why this sale of business assets for p...