The Broke Bonsai Bloke me my coffee & bonsai🇳🇿🌳✂️🌲☕️

NEW — The remaining American members of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla being held in Israeli prison have been freed, a family member of one confirmed to me. They were driven to the Jordanian border and will be staying the night in Jordan before flying home.

Video of them today saying “Free Palestine”:

Love this. Superbly done. Please send this far and wide. @donwinslow.bsky.social

Final council speech Image of Tory whanau Wed 8 Oct 10am

If you’d like to hear my final council speech (with some sass), feel free to come to council tomorrow morning. DM for more details.

Hornbeam #Bonsai

Autumn colors in my acer bonsai forest

Herbstfärbung im Ahornwäldchen
#bonsai

Thank YOU to everyone who has helped make our first week a success 🙏

🌱

YouTube video by Nigel Saunders, The Bonsai Zone The KW Bonsai Society's 2025 Fall Show, The Bonsai Zone, Oct 2025

A good. Can rely on Nigel Saunders to provide footage of a good #Bonsai show in Canada
🌱🇳🇿

youtu.be/ZkB38NGwW0o?...

Not sure how to transfer the link from FkBook (sorry 😂🤦‍♀️) but tickets are now on sale for his Auckland seminar if you’re interested. #nzpol #TaxWealthMore #TaxWorkLess #Aotearoa #NewZealand

10 Years of the Palmy Bioinfo Meeting - Genomics for Aotearoa New Zealand The Palmerston North Bioinformatics Meeting celebrated its 10 anniversary with a pot luck dinner in September. The meeting is not affiliated with any university or public research organisation. It is ...

A wee bit late on this post. Te Ara Paerangi Community is a project of GFANZ. The Palmy Bioinfo Meeting is part of the GFANZ story as well.

Being kind and looking after one another - next thing you know good things happen. Sometimes for years.

I am also not keen on having to know the ins and outs of running my own stuff. I will fail to keep up with what may seem incidental stuff to keep it going. Bluesky is or was clunky enough for me as just a lazy user so I guess I ask a bit much for not paying anything but I value my time and input.

Bluesky seemed in the latest uproar to have banned a person with now way to return & also perhaps any other ATproto platforms they ran gave them not way back. I'm ignorant of all this stuff though. I am no longer patient for being a sandbox test subject ..should all be running smoother by now?

I tried or dipped my tow into Mastodon but something was off. And I think I need to actually meet and get to know and trust the server host person/place.

I'm after that level of local.

Coffee of freedom o'clock comrades.
🌳✂️🌲☕️🌳✂️🌲☕️🌳✂️🌲☕️🌳✂️🌲☕️🌳✂️🌲☕️🌳✂️🌲☕️🌳✂️🌲☕️🌳✂️🌲⏰️☕️

Cheers
Confronting, frustrating Bluesky day but a realization of the value of the community gathered/gathering here & wish it to remain connected, safe, hopeful. Can Bluesky be that? Can it sustain for 2026 in AoNZ?
Resilience?

Question: Should the Jobseeker benefit for teens depend on their parents' income? Results: Yes: 19% No: 74% Not sure: 7% Source: Stuff

1/2
Luxon just can't catch a break, gotta be the first time in history that bene-bashing is this unpopular! Of course there was that one time when Simon Bridges tried right at the start of Covid but that only cost him his job #NZPol

Peach #Bonsai in a low profile pot and one in a deep development pot both filling out with spring growth.
🌱🇳🇿

Evergreen alder bonsai held in my left hand planted in a greenish blue oval pot.

Evergreen alder small #Bonsai
🇳🇿🌱

It’s always nice to see and hear a Tūī at dawn. This little Guy/Gal was quite happy to sing and pose for us photographers over the weekend at Western Springs #birds #photography #tui 🪶📸 🇳🇿

Peters insists Kiwis detained in Israel 'can find their own way home', taxpayers won't foot flights The family of the trio detained were in tears asking for the Govt to bring them home.

The three achieved more diplomatically than the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Perhaps he should reimburse NZ for funds wasted on his UN trip last month, so those resources cover their return flights. After all, they had their own transport until unlawfully detained by another government.

Let's stop pretending New Zealand isn't in bed with the Americans and Israelis

Why I think local hosting on non app store reliant SM is the next need along with data sovereignty.

Apple and Google block apps that crowdsource ICE sightings. Some warn of chilling effects Apple and Google blocked downloads of phone apps that flag sightings of U.S. immigration agents, just hours after the Trump administration demanded that one particularly popular iPhone app be taken do...

Countries around the world and the UN Human Rights Council all need to consider what it means that a single totalitarian government now controls Google and Apple’s app store content.

apnews.com/article/appl...

So I watched the documentary on Jarcinda Ardern and her time as PM yesterday, great film BTW.

The footage of the protests on parliament grounds and the cookers outside her parents hone was infuriating.

Remembering that Winston rubbed shoulders with them, hypocrite.

#nzpol

The way media and business have IMMEDIATELY escalated and wrapped around to attack activists smacks of the same tacit coordination that we saw in the US when the far right weaponised Charlie Kirk’s death. This is being led by government ministers & is a massive attack on free speech & protest rights

I think some community run, hosted,funded local spaces running independently per country/region that feed into Bluesky by choice could be a go, not Mastodon so much. Much like Bluesky seems to pull heavily from many other platforms via links posted by users. hope to retain connection as we scatter.

The rightwing government are coordinating their message to escalate political tensions by openly lying about their political opponents and the media is amplifying and aiding that message.

This is a political strategy and is only different from current US fascist strategy as a matter of intensity.

A black and white photo of Te Pāti Māori caucus in session. MPs and kaimahi sit around a long wooden table covered with laptops, papers, and coffee cups. Some are smiling and talking while others listen or take notes. A screen on the wall shows participants joining by video. The atmosphere is focused, warm, and collaborative.

Our future is already here.

This week, Oriini Kaipara enters Parliament as MP for Tāmaki Makaurau, carrying forward the kaupapa of Takutai Kemp

Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke is named in TIME100 Next 2025

Two wāhine toa. One message: Māori leadership is the future

#NZPol #WāhineToa #OurFutureIsHere

Mice are doing just fine while cats away ....all good nothing to see here ...enjoy

Mother and dutiful son. #Peacemaker Season finale this Thursday on HBO Max.

Rana, Youssef and Sam, the three NZers who were abducted by Israel from the Global Sumud Flotilla, are on their way home

#NZPol
#Kikorangi