pshemk

Watch: Winston Peters refused to wear high-viz in tense exchange with rail boss The Minister for Rail had a tense exchange with the CEO of Auckland’s City Rail Link over a request to wear a high-viz vest during a site visit and test train ride. He eventually put it on, but only a...

Old bloke who ought to know much better behaving like a small child who won't put on a sweater before going outside in cold weather

Seeing how nice they look it doesn't feel very accidental 😄

kapokapowai lived as it left, in beauty

Trying to capture the middle ground doesn't feel like a winning strategy. They need to move boldly on tax issues.

And this is not with flat population numbers either. So it's going backwards even faster

SPITEFUL MISCREANT DESTROYS ROSE GARDEN --Oakland Tribune, 27 March 1912

1912

I had a sudden "hmm, was Winston always problematic or are we just judging him by the standards of today", then I froze for 20 minutes as my brain played back the last 35 years while grabbing me by the collar

Washington Post: “Is fascism bad? The answer may surprise you”

Teen Vogue: “Here are three fun tips you can use this summer to disable an armored personnel carrier”

The forecasts vs actuals for *employment* give a better sense of what's going on.
Basically, loads of people have giving up looking for work and they are not included in the denominator for unemployment.
Unemp rate = 158,000 / 3,041,000 = 5.2%
Employ rate = 2,882,000 / 4,312,000 = 66.8%
[3/n]

This beautiful mural is painted on a magical little bookstore called Rainbow Booksellers, right in the heart of Milwaukee, Wisconsin! 🌈📚 #books #bookstore #milwaukee #wisconsin #booksky #art #mural #readsomething 😍

Colourful and HEAVY bollards shaped like sheep in central Christchurch, NZ

Remember these? Still probably my favourite bollards/barriers I’ve seen anywhere in the world. They aren’t just cute and fun (and extra seating) — they’re REALLY heavy. Cars should NOT try messing with these sheep! I took this pic while working for Christchurch NZ years ago. #CityOfSmiles

All-time high temperature in Japan: 41.8°C.
The old record (41.2°C) was from last week...

The physics of light refraction through broken glass

It's 2025 and we're still using "amount of time drivers spend sitting at specific traffic lights" as a primary guide for how we judge the environmental impact of "more housing in cities."

When you wonder why they are preventing people from enrolling and voting within the last 13 days, this is why...
#nzpol

It’s Easy to Hate Traffic Cameras. But They Do Save Lives. They raise issues of fairness, and critics claim they’re only about revenue. More speed and red-light cameras, however, would prevent a lot of deaths and injuries.

Yes, traffic cameras work, but it's a myth that people hate them!

Survey after survey shows that most people support automatic enforcement (and often want more of it).

This is a false controversy, fed by a minority of disgruntled drivers & journalists seeking narratives with conflict.

It's now a 'little' more:

143 people burned alive in a Tesla
(And I'm running behind)

PS: Nissan Leaf, on the road since 2009: zero burned alive
(Best sold EV model worldwide on 1-1-2020)

BEACH (with seahorse)

I'M AT THE BEACH

BEACH RULES CATCH SOME RAYS

Why does the decor of every beach house seem like it was designed for a person with amnesia who needs to be reminded where they are

Luxon at the Nat conference: 'the country needs to "say yes" more' To what? You did an investor summit: nothing. You told the last government off for investing in housing and ferries and biffed them. What exactly are we supposed to be saying yes to, Lord Liz Truss of the South Pacific? #nzpol

miss the days when someone was lying and you had video to show they were lying and ppl would go “oh! they were lying”

In today’s HeraldonSunday #nzpol

Cartoon. Title: “What did happen to the dinosaurs?” Image shows Shane Jones as a dinosaur, holding a placard with one of his little arms. The placard reads “Bring Back Fossil Fuels” Lots of people are shouting, “Watch out!” “Shane!” “Run! “OMG!” “Run!” “Shane! “ “Duck!” as three meteors thunder towards him.

The unrepentant unreconstructed Shane Jones.
My Stuff #cartoon today #NZpol #FossilFuels #ClimateCrisis

Headline: Vehicle Industry Association wants the Clean Car Standard further relaxed as prices rise, imports plummet

TripAdvisor report 2030..
'NZ not what I expected at all. You can't swim in the rivers, trust the tapwater, or breathe the air in the cities. Shit, you have to pay to take a walk in the hills. Oh, and the cars, OMG! Cast offs from the clean countries that I should have gone to instead.'

Now, since mid-2023, the YELLOW line has been negative because Govt have sold more bonds than necessary to cover deficit spending. Why? Because Treasury/RBNZ are undoing 'QE' - selling bonds to soak up cash that RBNZ created between 2020 and 2023. This is called 'QT' quantitative tightening. [8/n]

30 percent of people seeking help are doing so for the first time - NZ Food Network charity The New Zealand Food Network says even families in dual-income households are having to reach out.

Food banks are supporting half a million people per month to eat.

Food is a fundamental human right. Our laws should provide for this basic need without reliance on food banks.

No surprises this govt supports a deeply flawed, fundamentally broken approach to democracy - their silence says it all.

A green road sign in a sere brown grass field, with hills in the background. An arrow pointing straight is labeled “Wisdom”, and an arrow pointing right is labeled “Anaconda.”

Ahhhhhhhhh it is the anniversary of first seeing the greatest road sign i’ve ever seen:

Glad to see awesome councillors like @richardhills.bsky.social and @juliefairey.bsky.social running again for Auckland Council.

A shame to see "weird men" Maurice Williamson and Jamie Lee Ross running. Let's not let the Auckland community forget.

Read more: www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3607...