There is an opportunity here for a future govt to augment the Infra Comm and establish a Govt Design Office (or similar named) that builds in design capacity on the public side.

Nominating the entire season 2 of Andor under Long Form is one way to avoid vote splitting on an individual episode!

This is why I am not in favour of free fares. With additional funding we should expand transit coverage and frequency first to make it more useful to more people.

This sucks. It's not quite what it used to be but is still a reliable old friend. Only a short walk from work so its our go-to for lunchtime pints (pies too).

4:3 aspect ratio helps, rather than hinders, the theatrical staging IMHO.

I have an architecture joke but you won't appreciate it.

The BSG reboot worked (amongst other reasons) as it did not require any knowledge of the OG series.

I'm with Eddie on this. Firefly was only new in its own combination of derivative genre tropes. Otherwise it is just like your standard 90s action adventure show, with smug writing. BSG made other TV SF at the time feel obsolete.

"Doctor Who" Inferno: Episode 1 (TV Episode 1970) ⭐ 8.1 | Adventure, Drama, Family 23m | TV-PG

We've seen this before: "Doctor Who" Inferno: Episode 1 (TV Episode 1970) - IMDb share.google/su83RAhagzom...

Or gracefully retire like Bill Watterson.

Drop an album that was important to you when you were 19.

I second the book rec, its a great read and social/political history too. Extensively footnoted.

Also Steinlager Classic is a good one. Bitter and subtly hoppy.

Karla defects to the West, and drops the lighter he took from Smiley at the first meeting.

Nice one Eddie. And it is going to get worse, so good call. I refreshed my CPU/GPU early in '25 on my 5yo PC and I'm very glad I did so then.

We have salmon ready for tomorrow too. And a simple glazed ham.

I can't claim to have listened to every episode but have enjoyed those that I have!

Personal view: Housing/Transport do overlap in land use planning, so they could work well. This govt might not like the advice they give. MoE should be independent to be able to offer free and frank advice that might conflict with other ministries. Suspect MoT would win the internal cultural fight.

I read this and it is inane. BIM modelling of large infra and building projects has been standard and expected for a long time. Req human input, skillp and judgement and I have yet to see a deployable AI tool that significantly changes this.

I really enjoyed the book when I read it earlier this year on your recommendation. Pleasantly surprised by the humour too.

*coughs*

"software architect"

To show good faith and be useful they should pivot to campaign constructively (no pun intended) for a replacement bridge. An at grade crossing will be a worse urban outcome.

Heh. Completely forgot about Red Orchestra as it was to play with a friend but then found it wasn't for me. Still bought physical media, plus 2 kids in this timeframe explains the 6 year span. But does include two of my favourite games of all time (Civ5 & Cities Skylines).

Institutional trauma after the warning failures of Cyclone Gabrielle - they are now hyper sensitive and the threshold for issuing warnings has dropped.

Sq south elevation needs to work properly in a public way. Maybe in a few years after the CRL midtown station helps bring more life to the area there will be renewed interest and something non-bad could happen.

I would not be sad to see this building be redeveloped, despite the early 2000s nostalgia from some out there. On the other hand I don't see the path forward to a good replacement in this political-economic state - Council does not have the capacity (or even interest) to steer it and the Aotea 1/

Never had this at home but played at mate's place late into the night on a number of occasions. Thoroughly engrossing.

Also this sad story:
Coroner finds cinema barrier too low - NZ Herald share.google/aal9Dy6GMJy9...

Silo is good fun too.

When walking into PBTech on Queen St in Auckland, Stephen Fry was walking out. He gave me a withering & despairing look at my double take when I recognised him.

My pet theory is that rates are like a bill or direct debit, you notice when you have to pay. PAYE is much more frictionless. I also think this makes a mooted wealth tax much less viable as for many there will be no liquidity at time of payment. Estate and capital gains taxes would be simpler.