Raine Hananui

Winner of top science prize blames ‘batshit’ Budget for brain drain Dr Samuel Mehr says the Government values science, but their ‘idiotic’ approach to funding it will cost them their best and brightest.

I appear to have spoken to a reporter who took seriously the gravity of NZ's science crisis

does anybody have a newsroom pro subscription so that I can learn what other choice phrases I used on the record?

newsroom.co.nz/2025/10/29/w...

Hoiho - the world’s rarest penguin, fewer than 150 mainland pairs left

🐧We researched one of the world’s rarest #penguins. The yellow‑eyed penguin (aka hoiho/takaraka) isn’t one homogeneous species after all!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#hoiho #conservation #genomics #birds #nzwildlife #endangered #wildlife #nature

our govt wants to spend 327 times more on a single road ($18b) than they are currently spending yearly on all of basic science in new zealand ($55m) #nzpol

A starfield image from a professional telescope, divided up into many rectangles. There are lots of bright diagonal lines across the starfield, those are from satellites that flew through while the image was being taken.

Good morning. Starlink has now launched more than TEN THOUSAND satellites into orbit. Nearly 1400 have already been burned up in the atmosphere so far.

Here's a "lovely" image from my Kuiper Belt discovery program with dozens of satellite streaks in a 3 hour […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]

An experiment in high key tākapu (Australasian gannet) photography. 🪶🇳🇿

It's spring time in #Orokonui Ecosanctuary, and that means my favorite bonded pair of Otago green skinks are active again! Going on 9 years old, the female (green nose) has had a litter of two skinklets (not the technical term) with her long-term mate. #photography #herpetology #NewZealand #Science

A sort video of those two in action. Your can see the male flicking his tongue - this can be a way to cool down in the heat, but is also a way to smell his mate's pheromones *mlem*. I have been watching these two for 3 summers and they have been amazing parents together. #Orokonui #herpetology #cute

I just these these little guys are so neat. Check out how their eyes look open, even when they are closed due to some special eyelid scale trickery! #photography #herpetology #Orokonui #Nature #Aotearoa #NewZealand #lizard #ecology

This is exactly my view on LLMs and AI more broadly. And I've been in AI/ML for 30 years.

Ideal conditions for starting your passion project will never come. You will never feel skilled enough to make it. There will never be a moment where you stop being scared to start. Do it anyway. Do it badly. Do it scared. Just make that thing that’s clawing at the door of your soul; It wants out.

You can’t choose the times you live in. And sadly we live in an age of extinction I wonder who the last person in Ireland was to hear a wolf howl. Did they realise the magnitude of what they were hearing?

www.irishtimes.com/life-style/p...

A kuaka (bar-tailed godwit) parading in front of this morning’s sunrise reflected on the water at Omaha this morning. 🪶🇳🇿

“Māori are lagging in every social and economic indicator, and the rest of the country seems to think that’s an acceptable status quo. But you won’t read about it when Te Pāti Māori are busy hogging the headlines.” — Aaron Smale.

“The idea that people educated in this country should devote a small fraction of their undergraduate study to understanding our history and its relevance to all citizens today ought to be unremarkable.” — Emeritus Professor Alison Jones on Auckland Uni's decision to drop proposed compulsory courses.

Your regular reminder that unions represent PEOPLE. They are simply the voice of the PEOPLE they represent.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
Attack them and you’re attacking the people they represent.
It’s pretty simple.
#nzpol

Purple flower with yellow anthers surrounded by green.

Poroporo (Solanum laciniatum) is looking great at this time of year. 🌏

A large male tuatara sits on the edge of a gravel path, his head and body emerging out of the forest

Yesterday I had my first catch up of the season with my favourite tuatara. For the 12 years that I’ve been keeping tabs on the toutouwai at Zealandia he has been chilling in this exact spot on warm days. A great reminder to slow down and enjoy the rare sunny spring weather!

‘So much for democracy’: Councillor slams mayor’s 11th-hour election move Electoral officer Dale Ofsoske says in 40 years he’s never seen one called.

Kaipara’s outgoing idiot mayor appears poised to go full "Stop the Steal". Sigh. www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-adv...

Come on FENZ get Fire(fighter) wise!! Support your local firefighters on strike this Friday! Sticking for safer working conditions and fair pay! Talk more over at my substack: yeehawtheboys.substack.com/p/come-on-gu...

Jepson and Larsen continue to make me embarrassed to have grown up in the Kaipara

A view from Bealey in the upper reachers of the Waimakariri River looking back to the Southern Alps at Arthur's Pass National Park. It was absolutely bucketing down on the West Coast, while even here the wind was warm.

The magnificent Waimakariri River draining the waters of Kā Tiritiri-o-te-moana (the Southern Alps) onto Kā Pākihi-whakatekateka-a-Waitaha (Canterbury Plains), Aotearoa New Zealand.

The hot NorWester foehn wind was absolutely howling

Nikon Z7ii 20mm F/11 ISO62 1/200th

#GreatNZRoadie #Nikon #NZ

They are totally screwing science over, & no mistake. This decision (to roll multiple funding sources into one & use non-expert reviewers) will seriously harm the NZ science ecosystem.

I've been looking through this as an online resource, and I think it is a nice resource for those out there handling ecology type data. Well done on the authors.

Thomas Blakie standing at a podium at Te Pae with the panel on stage next to him.

“As Ngāi Tahu we migrated south to Te Waipounamu… We have been adapting all our lives.
I think it’s really inspiring as a young person to think back to our ancestors and how they have succeeded because we are all here today.”

The awesome Thomas Blakie at #AF2025 @adaptationfutures.bsky.social

Late changes demanded to gene tech bill, splitting coalition

NZ First draws a line in the sand: either genetically modified organisms stay in labs, or the gene tech bill stays in limbo, writes Fox Meyer.

Farmers off the hook on climate means rest of us pick up the slack Comment: The Government's methane announcement is the policy equivalent of a steaming cowpat on cross-partisan climate consensus.

My analysis: The Government’s methane announcement is the policy equivalent of a steaming cowpat on cross-partisan climate consensus and international efforts to tackle the crisis.

The headline effect of a new, weaker climate target is a warmer, more dangerous world.
newsroom.co.nz/2025/10/13/f...

NZ’s native lizards are at risk from land development – future policy must ensure better protection All but four of New Zealand’s 120 lizard species are threatened or at risk. But little consideration is given to lizards during most land development projects.

NZ’s native lizards are at risk from land development – future policy must ensure better protection share.google/dr0dcolpE1yb...

Shrinking job market forces scientists to pursue careers offshore After 13 years studying for a biology degree, Ian has had to apply - unsuccessfully - for labouring jobs.

I have a Master of Environmental Science and I and many of my science cohort are in the same situation - can't get a full-time job because there are almost no grad/entry level jobs out there www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Check out our new paper led by Rebecca Kinaston & I in @newzealandecology.bsky.social newzealandecology.org/nzje/3616. Thanks for inviting me to be a part of this study Rebecca - with Jill Hamel, Chris Lalas, Amy Adams, @atennyson.bsky.social, Richard Walter & Michael Richards 1/6