Douglas

BREAKING! Fast Track panel rejects seabed mining PRESS RELEASE Kiwis Against Seabed Mining are celebrating the Fast Track Panel's draft decision to decline Trans Tasman Resources' bid to mine the SouthTaranaki seabed. The draft decision was publis...

BREAKING: Fast Track panel declines seabed mining bid.
"This is a victory for the moana, for all the people across Taranaki and Aotearoa, from Iwi and hapu and councils and everyone who loves our ocean," said KASM chairperson Cindy Baxter.
#nzpol
www.kasm.org.nz/post/breakin...

Paula Penfold searched 1000 New Zealand Epstein files. Here’s what they reveal Inside the web of connections revealed in more than 1000 New Zealand documents from the Epstein archive.

You’re welcome.

There’s also a tool in here so you can search the files yourself .. easier than the DOJ site which is clunky as, and I’ve stripped out the duplicates/irrelevancies

We need to bring back www.nzonscreen.com/title/tvnz-t... is what I'm reading here

Series of anonymous messages from Epstein files signed Jx on the right are several tweets she signed the same way Rowling? To: From: Sent: Subject: Jeffrey Epstein Wed 3/27/2013 11:13:12 PM Re: ok On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 12:11 AM, > wrote: Of course you would! I know that. (And thank you) But if I don't see the inside of another airplane or NY until summer I will be a happy woman. Ill let you know when I'm next there. Have fun o the 4th. On Mar 25, 2013, at 3:11 PM, Jeffrey Epstein wrote: 4:46 PM - Apr25, 2014 ill explain,, the again when we meet., 1 of course would pay your ticket, if that is the issue rather than lack of available time On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 7:42 PM, • wrote: I don't know what you're trying to say, wordsmith. I can't go around flying places for dinner parties. Although I'd love to. I may be in NY the week of the 8th, but not sure yet.... On Mar 25, 2013, at 3:27 AM, Jeffrey Epstein wrote: april 4th. chud barak peter mandelson. etc. you are agin invited. (the pronuncaiton of agin appropriate )

@hehimta BREAKING A just watched in realtime as jk rowling's superyacht samsara was completely removed from marinetraffic and other services. not just AIS off; the entire vessel listing is gone incl. all port logs. marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details... Nothing to sea here Oops... Something went wrong Please refresh the page, or contact us if the error persists.

🤔 It’s definitely not suspicious at all to have people point out your common Twitter sign off is in the Epstein files and ten completely delete your yacht’s logs right?

AI-generated data contamination erodes pathological variability and diagnostic reliability Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly populating medical records with synthetic content, creating a feedback loop where future models are increasingly at risk of training on uncurated AI ...

"AI is rapidly populating medical records with synthetic content, creating a feedback loop [that] drives a rapid erosion of pathological variability and diagnostic reliability...this renders AI generated documentation clinically useless after just two generations" www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

Every Lego catalogue, in full, from 1966-2015. At the link brickset.com/library/cata...

“Stop asking candidates if they “believe in” climate change and start asking if they understand it. It’s science, not Santa Claus.”

Can we please never forget this. #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

Screenshots from Fallout showing Lucy, along with the words “One side is murdering people, enslaving them, crucifying them, and the other side is just vaguely problematic.”

yeah, so Fallout nailed it

Like who would put a post shop in a servo rather than a local bookstore which already functions as a postal hub. Decision-making completely detached from customer experience.

Last night New Zealand had a pretty spectacular meteorite.

Here is one view from Marlborough, facing South.

(not mine, from Facebook)

Reminder to all NZ musicians who released an album in 2025 that you have about 4.5 hour left to nominate yourself for the TAITE MUSIC PRIZE. You probably won't win, but you will get reviewed in The Spinoff when I do my annual thing of listening to the entire list. Do it. Do it now.

Bandcamp Fridays Return in 2026

Checking when the @bandcamp.com fridays are in 2026 - daily.bandcamp.com/features/ban... - first one next Friday February 6.

Experience mapping with Playmobil: filling the gap between the digital and physical space A few days ago I used my old Playmobil to map an experience that crosses the digital and physical space.

I love this approach explained by Nicole Nardelli using Playmobil figures to show what the current experience is like, along with what an ideal experience vision might be like.

https://uxdesign.cc/experience-mapping-with-playmobil-filling-the-gap-between-the-digital-and-physical-space-d0414f5aaf39

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

Meanwhile 42% of New Zealanders surveyed did not believe RNZ was an organisation they could trust: www.rnz.co.nz/about/audien...

Speaking of, the Terms of Reference for the Privacy Commissioner's investigation into ManageMyHealth have been published.

I haven't read it yet but I'll do a tl;dr shortly

www.privacy.org.nz/tuhono-conne...

One thing I’ve wished for, for a while now is a mandatory retirement age for politicians. In NZ’s case it could be set to the retirement age of court judges, IIRC that’s 72 years old.

No entering a parliamentary term of office older than a judge’s retirement age, etc.

Colin Hay ‘strenuously disapproves’ use of Down Under at March for Australia rallies Former Men at Work frontman, who was born in Scotland and emigrated to Australia, tells anti-immigration protestors, ‘Go write your own song, leave mine alone’

Former Men at Work frontman Colin Hay has disavowed the use of the band’s 80s anthem Down Under by Australian anti-immigration protesters, saying the song “does not belong to those who attempt to sow xenophobia”.

Winston Peters questions NZ's funding for World Health Organization The New Zealand First leader says the World Health Organization has forgotten its original mandate.

Ancient party list cooker who’s feed off the taxpayer for decades yell’s at unelected bureaucrat clouds

A reminder to the news media: “conflicting accounts” is what you say BEFORE the incontrovertible video evidence appears. After that, your job is to ask why one side is lying, not to repeat the lie and pretend no one knows the truth.

Golden Triangle by Train: Te Huia to Tauranga Over half of New Zealand’s population lives in the Golden Triangle, and it is one of the fastest-growing parts of the country — it makes sense to have a modern, safe and efficient train service betwee...

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/go...

Also, I've found over the quarter century I've been in the workforce that the biggest determinate of what you're paid isn't what qualifications you have, it's the union density at your workplace

I've done 'unskilled' industrial jobs that paid the same as some of the 'skilled' IT jobs I've done

Bread (one loaf 600g) to flour (1.5kg bag)

Still thinking/exploring the data around bread prices. Even if you were comfortable with the conventional wisdom that by the time you factor in this, that, and the other thing it is as cheap to buy bread as to make it, you might want to look at that assumption again after the past year.

Alex Pretti "used to tell people off when they made sexist comments to female physicians. He bought me coffee when I had a really bad day as an intern...I laughed alongside him daily. He made a point to teach medical residents without judgement, but with a smile on his face and a joke."

Statement from Michael and Susan Pretti Parents of Alex Jeffrey Pretti “We are heartbroken but also very angry. Alex was a kindhearted soul who cared deeply for his family and friends and also the American veterans whom he cared for as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA hospital. Alex wanted to make a difference in this world. Unfortunately, he will not be with us to see his impact. I do not throw around the ‘hero’ term lightly. However, his last thought and act was to protect a woman. The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He had his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down, all while being pepper sprayed. Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.

Kare 11 local news just read, in full, this statement from Michael and Susan Pretti, the parents of Alex Pretti.

"Please get the truth out about our son."

Auckland/ Waikato peeps. Turn off your morning alarm for Monday and have a sleep in ( if you can!) ⏰

a perfectly normal-seeming grove in the italian countryside on a clear sunny day, a farmhouse amid trees surrounded by vineyards. there is no evidence of anything untoward in the picture.

in light of today's events, i want to share a story i was told during a study abroad summer in italy, where i took a class on the rise of fascism.

the picture below is the site of a mass grave. captive partisans were brought here by nazis, forced to dig, and then executed on the spot.

the strawberry boys, for your nerves.

Today I learned “Norwegian Christian laws forbade citizens from conversing with and interacting with trolls, and in documents dating from 1274 to 1781, doing so would result in severe punishment” (source: Wikipedia), and I kinda think many people nowadays would be better off if this law was revived