Dr. Curiosity

What are puberty blockers? What is gender affirming care? All the information you need to fight misinformation

Also, I know I already said 4/4, so I guess this is post 5/5 LOL

But read some proper reasoned stuff on blockers. Have arguments ready for your racist sexist uncles at Christmas

www.emilywrites.co.nz/what-are-pub...

Keynote speech – AI and mana motuhake: the case for te reo Māori Speaker: Dr Te Taka Keegan This talk offers a brief introduction to artificial intelligence (AI), exploring how its rapid development and deployment is disrupting work practices and how control over AI technologies remains concentrated within Big Tech. Mana motuhake embodies the principle of Māori self-determination — the right to act and live as Māori. But how can mana motuhake be realised within the realm of AI? This presentation will examine how the mana motuhake of te reo Māori in AI has been misappropriated, and highlight the efforts Māori are undertaking to redress this imbalance by creating AI resources for te reo Māori that are authentic and aligned with mana motuhake. Open to public. Monday, 8 December, 5:30pm Archway 1 Lecture Theatre, Dunedin

In case relevant to your interests, the University of Otago's Indigenous Knowledge and Technology Symposium in December will be having a public keynote, also online via Zoom:
"AI and mana motuhake: the case for te reo Māori"

www.otago.ac.nz/news/events/...

A close-up shot of one of the artichokes I did not harvest. Within the spiky open petals, a crown of delicate purplage.

Purple time. *fingerclick*

...I simply do not have enough NOPE for this.
pivot-to-ai.com/2025/11/18/v...

I barely know how to express how sad and angry I am at the politicisation of essential healthcare for trans kids.
Just - this election can’t come soon enough. And when it does, we need to fight as if lives depend on it - because for some, that’s the literal truth.
#nzpol 🏳️‍⚧️

Govt halts new puberty blockers prescriptions for gender-affirming care Green Party MP Ricardo Menéndez March says the government is "buying into imported culture wars" .

Karen Chhour is quoted in this piece actively promoting conversion practices, after previously comparing gender affirming care to torture at Lake Alice. This coalition is evil. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Aside: Fairuza honestly seems like a pretty cool and happy human being these days, especially for someone who was put through the entertainment industry wringer through her early life. I love that for her :-)

(You should all 👀 when established US hacking cons start losing venues over current politics,)

new paper by Sean Westwood:

With current technology, it is impossible to tell whether survey respondents are real or bots. Among other things, makes it easy for bad actors to manipulate outcomes. No good news here for the future of online-based survey research

Some of the time I've certainly found myself wishing that our current coalition tripped over each other more, rather than less.

Sadly the two things they do seem to agree on are eroding our democratic norms and riding roughshod over regulatory processes in order to make things bad faster.

More orange, more zoom, more texture going on.

Enhance.

Sky up there, doing a whole lot in the sunset. Sorry I can't use words well enough to describe all the blue-orange-grey ridiculousness.

I'll do my best to let everyone know when we suddenly have far too many :-)

The feijoas, they do flower.

You know what this means? In another 3-4 months or so, we will have more little grey-green alien pods than we know what to do with.

Rebecca was one of the founders of Interplay and programmed & designed for some of the most influential games of my youth, notably Bard's Tale I & III and Wasteland. She will be missed.

Me to tech clients: the important thing to focus on is keeping the furries happy

A "404 Page Not Found" page. There is an "Anteriad Help Bot", which has some pre-prepared options, and a "Choose an Option" text input at the bottom. Which you cannot write in.

This is not what you should see on a "Do Not Sell My Personal Info" link when a UK company is announcing that they're harvesting your data.

Their "help bot" doesn't let you type anything. Their contact form requires you to put in a lot of extraneous information to harvest.

Dark UI patterns galore.

I'd like to share this old video of hers, where she talks about her time working on the 3DO port of Doom.
it's a wild story that stuck with me, and a reminder that sometimes "bad games" have amazing people working on them

I seem to be saying this a whole lot recently, but: you need enough scaffolding to support the work, but not so much that it becomes a cage.

It should be something that helps you reach further, not trip over. Just how that looks can vary wildly depending on what you're building and why.

With any luck, the commitments will actually be resourced and implemented. In the past we've done a poor job of making enough resources available in the public service to actually _do_ the open government work that we have ostensibly committed to.

Provide your feedback on potential commitments Based on discussion at the online workshops, the Commission has identified 4 potential commitments for NAP5: 1. Review protected disclosures practice 2. Develop a corruption assessment tool 3. Support ethical government – private sector career transitions 4. Explore options to improve transparency of senior leaders’ conflicts of interest A document with the details of each commitment is available from the link in this post. Feedback is via an online form, or emailing ogpnz@publicservice.govt.nz

For those with an interest in NZ's Open Government Partnership national action planning, feedback is being sought before Nov 28th:
www.publicservice.govt.nz/system/open-...

It's definitely interesting that they're focusing so much on their aquaculture when talking to the media, and quietly ignoring the continued environmental damage from bottom trawling. How much have Sanford really changed their processes this this case in 2021?
www.mpi.govt.nz/news/media-r...

Glad you had an excellent birthday :-) I hope the year ahead brings many good things too.

Some kind of bullshit "surge pricing"?

ACC's use of AI to help decide who gets help shocks advocate "It's all about 'how can we ramp up exits, how can we get more people coming off the scheme," says an ACC advocate

Have the people who approved this ever heard of Robodebt? 🤦‍♂️

This observation is being made about the United States, but it could equally apply here in New Zealand.

Another wall piece nearby, saying: "Kia Atawhai ki te Iwi" "Care for the People"

Wall art: "Woman, Life, Freedom" by Kophie Hulsbosch (Meep One). Featuring Iranian activist Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being detained for not wearing a hijab as is mandatory in Iran.

Ōtautahi, showing up.
watchthisspace.org.nz/artwork/1110

Tempted. Though one time it got so extreme that it overflowed and became intreme pizza instead. That was seriously underwhelming.