Russell Brown

This is going around again and it is not true. Like every site on the internet, Bluesky uses machine learning to do a first-pass approximation of image classification to detect and label content. They have repeatedly confirmed outside services do not use Bluesky user data to train their models.

Good to see this angle is being picked up. What hapless policy-making.

Treasury: "Because of this, it is hard to reconcile (from a purely logical perspective) how building a new medical school is going to be better than any non-build option, if we aren’t facing a capacity constraint."

The University of Waikato paid Steven Joyce $1m to get $82.85m of taxpayers' money.

Treasury warnings over medical school ignored The government ignored repeated warnings from Treasury not to approve the new Waikato Medical School amid concerns about cost overruns. The...

www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin... Treasury repeatedly criticised Waikato Medical School proposal, but those complaints fell on deaf ears. @publicaddress.bsky.social

Yeah, that is some majestic shit right there.

Don't do it.

Whether against Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, Ghahraman, Ardern, other MPs, Wiles, Bloomfield, & others involved in pandemic response, transgender activists, drag queens, judges, lawyers or academics - effects of doxxing are inherently harmful, & often leads to kinetic violence or vandalism.

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Oh. Surely not a campaign of harassment of a history professor by Turning Point USA, founded by famous champion of civilised debate Charlie Kirk. Can't be.

Do you have the right guy there? Not seeing any trolling.

Calling people attack dogs is not at attempt to deescalate and maintain civility, it's a attempt to escalate to distract from a failing economy. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

A small wrinkle in the Jobseeker policy The government’s recent changes to benefits feel like this: the house is on fire, and this policy is them turning off the smoke alarm and saying it’s fixed

#nzpol Sometimes a policy is so stupid it makes you question the very fabric of reality. Decisions so fabulously, almost wantonly dumb, you wonder if we actually live in a simulation. Welcome to the world of removing Jobseeker Support for 18 & 19-year-olds. craigrenney.substack.com/p/a-small-wr...

Spotted this gem in a footnote on page 62 of Treasury's He Tirohanga Mokopuna

"Between 25% and 30% of everyone born in New Zealand is living overseas by age 30, and emigration rates are even higher among those with tertiary qualifications"

Radical idea here - how about stop shitting on our young?

We did it for apples and kiwifruit!

But if they couldn’t, there’d be no product to invest in and hence no money to invest in Phase 3 trials, which cost a lot of money…

Oddly enough, psychedelics and ECT do some similar things in the brain. Only one is actually enjoyable however.

Sandringham's your better bet. Everything at Mahadeo's seems to be under a centimetre of dust these days. My Sando regular is Top in the Town, because they play the Hindi pop bangers.

Definitely. At Indian grocers if not elsewhere.

Sure can. *Extremely* good for curries. www.woolworths.co.nz/shop/product...

Strictly speaking, a sativa-dominant hybrid, but yeah.

I wouldn't make pesto with jarlic either, but in a curry? Sure. Almost preferable.

PS: Vertical's patented plant, DKJ127, was selected from a population o plants of the Jack Herer strain, which was first bred in the Netherlands and is named after a famous American cannabis activist. It's cannabis. active.inspection.gc.ca/english/plav...

City is made of council Please vote. I do not know how else to say this.

'So many of your daily problems are caused by council. They get away with it because everyone thinks they’re boring and irrelevant.'

Vote!

@haydendonnell.bsky.social

Vertanical, the company developing the extract, has other pain trials at an advanced stage. vertanical.com/en/

Full-spectrum extract from Cannabis sativa DKJ127 for chronic low back pain: a phase 3 randomized placebo-controlled trial - Nature Medicine A phase 3 trial found that VER-01, a full-spectrum cannabis extract, reduces chronic low back pain, improves physical function and sleep and shows no signs of dependence or withdrawal.

The article in Nature is here. Participants in the Phase 3 trial were started on one "dose unit" (2.5mg THC, which is low) daily and titrated up until they experienced relief, to a maximum of 13 (32.5mg, which is quite high). www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I say "just", but finding the right mix of minor cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids isn't trivial. Breeding for attributes and being able to produce them consistently is hard. But it's not a completely new thing, as suggested by the neurologist here. www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-react...

Cannabis extract found to be effective for lower back pain A clinical trial has found that VER-01, a drug derived from cannabis, eases chronic lower back pain without serious side effects or signs of addiction

🧵Well, well, well. Finally, here's a substantial RCT on cannabis for pain (in this case, lower back pain) which bears out the observational studies. VER-01 the "drug derived from cannabis" is actually just a full spectrum plant extract standardised to 5% THC. www.newscientist.com/article/2498...

This is a policy with no basis in any analysis. It's designed to look tough. It actually makes them look thoughtless and out of touch. It's arbitrary, mean, and simply designed to disguise the fact that the government is failing young people. Is this what being back on track feels like?

This creates frankly bonkers outcomes. If one parent works an hour less a week, their child gets $13,942. In fact, one parent can work 11 hours less a week and the household is still better off. Secondary benefits (like Accommodation Supplement) are likely to stretch that gap even further

#nzpol The government has announced that 18/19 year olds, who live in a household where the parents earn $65,529 or more, can't claim jobseekers support. If both parents work 27 hours on the minimum wage - $634 a week - they will be expected to now financially support their adult offspring. A 🧵