James Brock

Hilarious. Sad thing is, entirely true…

A little bust of sunshine on your feeds this morning… kōwhai going off on Maungakiekie

Flyer titled Botanical Society of America – Edgar T. Wherry Award, Pteridological Section, 2025 Recipient. Autumn leaf background. Large centered photo of James Brock (University of Auckland), recipient of the award. A QR code and BSA logo appear at the bottom.

🎉 Honoring the 2025 Edgar T. Wherry Award Recipient, James Brock (University of Auckland)!

Presented by the BSA Pteridological Section, this award recognizes exceptional student research in pteridology.

Learn more: botany.org/home/awards/...

#BSA2025AwardsBlitz #IamaBotanist #BSASectionAwards

I hope that your journey has been calm so far! I’ve had a lot of wobbling in my travels so far this year… wishing you a calm voyage

Safe travels! Do you mind the altitudinal boredom?

It drives me fully up a wall when every year they add another year to the tally. “Long COVID lasts at least a year. Some cases are stretching two years. Three years on, some say they’re still sick.”

Of fucking course we are. Does any of this seem like it spontaneously clears up?

Four frames. Title: Round and round table. Three people along table with paper and pencil. 1. Guy on left: “Right. We really need to do something about intergenerational wealth inequality.” Woman in middle: “Yes! Well for starters we could fund education equitably.” 2. Guy on right: “Not if it means taking anything away from private schools!” First guy: “ok. Then we should make housing more affordable…” Woman: “Not if it reduces the return on my investment!” 3. First guy: “Well, at least we should tax mining resources properly for health, childcare, aged care…” Guy on right: “But if we tax them, they’ll go elsewhere (and stop donating to us)!” 4. First guy: “So, what do you propose we do about intergenerational wealth inequality?” Woman: “The young people are resourceful. They’ll think of something.” First guy has put question mark on his paper; woman has scribbled on hers; third person screws up his paper.

Round and round.
My @smh @theage cartoon.

😁 it happens…

I’m intrigued as to what the options your brain presented were… (garbled grammar)

Anyone else have days when an otherwise common word suddenly looks like it’s spelled entirely incorrectly? Today my entirely normal brain is struggling with the word leaf…

(Yes I am a plant scientist)

Make it Write?

We’ve been here before. The Make it Count maths action plan took $30 million from a Māori education initiative and handed it to commercial publishers Erica had undisclosed relationships with.

Is she using dodgy data as a pretext for funnelling cash to private providers, again?

Anti-fash sandwich songs… time to take down the wealthy with anything we have I guess?

Please, someone, explain to me how the trope of National being good with the economy persists? They’re vandals, smashing the country up to feed to the wealthy/greedy. $671m wasted…!!

A new semester, a new pen drive… my biannual ritual of buying yet another device to take my slides to my lectures. Sadly pen drives just seem to run away at the end of every semester - ne’er to be seen again…

Science on the go! This is the temporary remote office of the Managing Editor of the New Zealand Journal of Ecology @newzealandecology.bsky.social … somewhere near gate 157, Terminal B, LAX

Also: I’m on my way home 🇳🇿 ❤️

Cartoon. Title: “Meanwhile, in Auckland…” Image shows a woman up the Sky Tower, like King Kong, swiping at helicopters flying all around her. She’s saying “Shoo!” Down the right hand side it says, “A Plague of Mozziecopters Besets the City and Nearby Islands” “MPI* is indifferent to residents’ alarm. Says, Rich people gotta do what rich people gotta do”. Then down the bottom it says, “*Ministry for Prosperous Individuals”

Private helicopters are buzzing around Auckland and nesting on Waiheke Island.
My Stuff #cartoon today #NZpol #TheRich #Helicopters

At the University of Northern Colorado for the IAVS @iavs5.bsky.social excellent annual conference… and the acronym for our hosts on their double doors reads UNC UNC, or to botanical surveyors from New Zealand UNCunc… Uncinia (I know it’s now Carex) uncinata: bastard grass. Glorious.

So I won an award! My presentation on fern dispersal and zoochory was awarded the Edgar T Wherry prize for best presentation on fern science at the Botany 2025 conference. Awesome. Not least as I think many folk are still a little cautious about the ideas of zoochory… chuffed.

An excellent choice: they have the most wonderful skirts!

Made it to Denver and waiting for my last flight on to California!

Frankfurt airport is chaos this morning (as ever), but I’ve made it to my gate (yay) in time for the computers to fail (boo) and my flight is now delayed (boo). Building on my getting stuck in traffic on way to Birmingham airport earlier. Frazzled. Especially on top of farewells to (elderly) parents

Reviewing an edit of a scientific article and wrote a comment referring to a semi-colon as a semi-colin. Now slightly saddened that this is not, in fact, the name of this punctuation mark.

A fun aspect of #longCovid is the inability to travel with cannabis-derived medication (I use CBD to manage symptoms). When I leave NZ (as I did last week) I have to deal w/ a resurgence of chronic fatigue and brain fog. Hopefully one day we’ll escape conservative moral panic over these medications!

Sadness wells like a shelf without Jaffas…

People really need to understand that Seymour is not alone.

His strategy to steal New Zealand's wealth is supported by a huge network of think tanks that is shared around the world so they can better fleece countries down to their bones for their morbidly wealthy owners.

New Zealand's Rich Listers climb above $100 billion despite 'tough' times Meanwhile, the co-founders of Zuru Toys, the brothers Nick and Mat Mowbray retain top spot

If NZ’s richest can climb above $100b during a so-called “tough year”, then maybe the problem isn’t the economy it’s who the economy is working for?

Growth for the few. Cuts for the many. That’s not progress. That’s inequality.

TPM backs a wealth tax
fairness isn’t radical, it’s necessary.
#NZPol

Venn diagram with Bono in the left circle, an oboe in the right, and a bonobo in the centre.

Venn diagram

Thank you! Hopefully I’ll get over to Ngā Manu NR sometime…

Awesome picture! Where is that patch of bush Andy? Is it publicly accessible?

Stop conflating being transgender with being sick This week, RNZ reported on a tragic death. In the process it perpetuated many harmful messages about young trans people.

Stop conflating being transgender with being sick
thespinoff.co.nz/society/13-0...