The Covid pandemic was extraordinary because it was Jacinda Ardern’s personal authority and charisma, not State capacity, that underpinned the successful response. When State capacity was required - vaccine procurement, roll out, enforcing sovereignty on Parliament’s own damn lawn - it was wanting
It is.
It's really hard.
I have my husband and daughter - I might have lost my mind otherwise.
it’s a bit weird when a public figure has been pretty consistently useless throughout their career and gotten a free pass for it and then suddenly, seemingly overnight, all the news outlets that orchestrated the free pass are all busting out bad poll results and years-old embarrassing photos
Solar farms could increase global crop yields by hundreds of billions of pounds, thanks to the protective microclimate created beneath their panels.
www.positive.news/environment/...
It's not easy is it. I mostly stay home or see people outside because I quite like being alive also. It gets lonely.
I keep seeing articles about that survey and freaking out, and then remembering later that it's been debunked. But the narrative around it hasn't faded away. So this is a very good question.
Ā fluffy baby albatross practicing flapping its stubby little wings
The world is a big and scary place, but this fluffy baby albatross is practicing flapping its wings on a sunny Dunedin afternoon.
A whole lot of Tamaki Makaurau and Poneke locations for recent measles exposure.
Yes. Starmer’s trajectory should be an object lesson to lefty parties everywhere, *not* a model.
Yep, he did. He also backed Trump - by rights he should be too embarrassed to show his face in public.
Let's talk about behaviour. Let's talk about how it is that we tut tut on the front page of every newspaper every time a woman dares to breathe differently and utterly, miserably fail to talk about why they might have done so. Let's talk about the willingness in New Zealand to deprioritise pay equity, women having a voice and a seat at the table, the right to make reproductive health decisions, the ability to own a home, the right to obtain medical support without a side of misogyny, the ability to be a leader - including a politician. Let's talk about the fact that violence takes many forms. Let's talk about the passive language that mentions all of these things happening to women with no attribution of responsibility - or accountability for a change in behaviour (or policy.) Let's talk about why we seem to be able to call out a women behaving in a certain way but totally unable to call out evidence of violent behaviour and violent policy across the board.
“Let’s talk about why we get angrier about a woman being angry than we do about the way women are treated in New Zealand.”
I wrote this a couple of years ago and it’s since become a marker of everything that still hasn’t changed.
Happy International Women’s Day 🫠
whereyouare0.substack.com/p/anger
You know that feeling when you're struggling to stay awake? #kakapo chicks Tiwhiri-A3 and Tiwhiri-A4 in Tiwhiri's nest on Pukenui/Anchor Island. Both around two weeks old, and doing well. #kakapo2026 #conservation #parrots
'Kaleidoscope' (1976-89) was perhaps NZ's greatest TV series about the arts. It was added to the UNESCO NZ Memory of the World register in 2017
Contrary to retro stereotypes about cultural elitism, it covered a wide range of topics. 30 full eps can be streamed 👇
www.nzonscreen.com/title/kaleid...
@alistaircoleman.bsky.social
Reminded by FB.
NZ headlines 6 years ago
Shout out @lyndonhood.bsky.social for making strangers dreams come true while I'm still running around orange county and eventually making dinner 🥰🥰
If I suddenly got very rich, I'd spend summers there and miss our winter.
When men's workload is automated, it's genius; when women's workload is automated it's a character flaw and morally questionable.
As I mentioned to @dimsie.bsky.social this was pretty much the sequence baked in as soon as the Straight was shut down. As we see more and more suppiliers powering (see LNG in Qatar as an example) the sequence Kent describes becomes not possible but inevitable. It's not if, it's how long.
Ah, you're making me homesick. There are few places better than Vancouver in summer.
This is just to say
I am ignoring
the polls
that are so bad
and so low
and which
you were probably
going to use
as an excuse for the spull
I’m not sorry
I can’t be rolled
I will have my entitlements
and I won’t be told.
This the season for babies at the watering hole in the Namib desert. Baby gnu resting in the heat of the day. Half grown ostrich chicks. And just now, three teeny tiny warthog babies.
I've been watching the live feed regularly for about a year now - it's fascinating and very soothing.
Gross. She looks so pleased with herself with her dirty shoe in all our faces.
Mr Luxon is one of those very rare people whom its impossible to apply a theory of mind. Can you imagine his inner life in any form but its absence? The only books he reads are self-help. He cannot maintain an exchange of complex thoughts. Every interview descends into banalities within minutes
And why is he always so awkward? He manages to mostly look like a Doctor Who alien in a human skin suit.
New Zealander, watching the cricket, posts on BlueSky: “Only four more overs in this innings.”
Americans flood the replies: “They’re called outs not overs and there are only ever three of them per innings. Don’t watch if you don’t understand the rules.”
😂 yep. That was a wee bit of a tell.
A sandy coloured spoodle resting his head against my knee and smiling up at me. His face is a bit lopsided because he had some kind of virus or infection that paralysed one side of his face a few years ago. He recovered and the paralysis eased, but one side of his mouth is pulled back still.
Portrait of a dog who's very happy that all his people are in their proper places again.
What message were they trying to send? Luxon as relatable man of the people?
Ick.
Looking fancy! Those glasses are 🔥
