Always!

And so (not) to bed. 😔🐌

Two consecutive posts, the first one from Katie Pie with two pictures depicting her black cat in distinct modes (a perfect loaf in the morning, conserving heat; a void circle in the evening, absorbing heat)… followed by a post from the Moby-Dick bot, containing this line from the novel: “one distinct picture on this side, and another distinct picture on that side; while all between must be profound darkness and nothingness.”

Timeline serendipity!

A masterpiece!

Volume up for the tragedy of one minute away from dinner
#cuddleUnit6

Wrinkly Dog squashed up against my shoulder on the couch

Extremely comfortable position

Twinsies! Those lovely feet, so tempting.

A classic Calvin and Hobbes strip by the peerless Bill Watterson, part of a series in which Calvin’s dad is just trying to get ONE NICE PHOTO of his famously ungovernable son… who always manages to make the weirdest face just as the camera goes click. (One of many examples floating round the internet but tbh every good bookshelf should include the collected works of Watterson.)

Actual footage of me trying to get a nice photo of Loki…

Same black cat on a blue armchair, her left cheek pressed firmly against the cushion, the rest of her high in the air like a game of Heads Down, Tails Up

If I had a face as perfectly round as hers, I’m not sure I’d habitually sleep so as to completely flatten one side of it… but she is a creature of habit!

Honestly, he’s beautiful, but tonight’s attempt to capture the scruffy fluffy boy cat in all his glory has produced a blurry image of a fuzzy monster with his tongue out. Posed on a nice red rug tho, framed by a turquoise couch and a yellow couch, so, primary colours working hard to redeem the image.

🤪 #nzpets

The senior black and white cat assuming a tidy loaf position on the blue rug, paws tucked away most winningly, with bonus owl ears on account of not liking to have her photo taken at this time of night.

🦉🍞 #nzpets

A little black cat sprawls on the windowseat, with one round cheek smooshed into the cushion so firmly that she looks pretty much exactly like the melting-face emoji, except made of black velvet.

🫠 #nzpets

The insurance companies are more aligned with the Greens view of climate change, adaptation, and the locked in effects than the current Government of New Zealand.

New Zealand Declares Emergency in Capital After It Was Battered by Torrential Rain There were landslides, flash floods and the closure of more than 100 schools in Wellington and the surrounding region.

New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, and the surrounding region were under a state of emergency on Tuesday, after heavy rains triggered flash flooding and landslides that swept away cars, forced more than 100 schools to close, and buried roads and homes.

Science-folks: If we run 100 experiments, we might find 1 or 2 of them may have results that can make many dollars.

NZ Govt: Excellent. We will fund those 1 or 2 experiments.

As if we needed more proof it was a bit damp out in Wellington today, she approached me in the supermarket car park. #birds

Wellington NZ hospital carpark flooding picture as IAG warns that weather events are increasingly erratic, frequent & intense - just like the climate scientists warned

Break up supermarket duopoly and guarantee liveable incomes We are building a future where we do more, faster, to protect our planet and make sure everyone is treated equally.

"It is, on the surface, the boldest thing any political party has said about the grocery market in years."

A certain commentator on the NZ First announcement.

There's just one problem: the Greens announced a policy to break up the supermarket duopoly 4 years ago.

www.greens.org.nz/break_up_sup...

How did we not know before today that a group of kea is called a circus? Because of course it is! Anyway, Bruce is now The Boss.

WHERE is it circulating RNZ? WHERE was it posted? WHERE did Jones appear? Why should that platform matter, profoundly, for any critical appreciation of what he said? What has that platform seeded, and spread with regards to what Jones noted, and how? What's he signalling, to whom, & why? #nzpol

Why a storm that did this much damage came with so little warning Localised downpours and thunderstorms have caused chaos in the capital and left people wondering where the warnings were.

Weather events are becoming more frequent, more intense and often times more unpredictable. This is yet more evidence of that behaviour.

Do not expect to have a warning but be grateful when you do and plan as if the next one is going to arrive unannounced.

Still relevant three years later.
newsroom.co.nz/2023/02/22/t...

Extreme weather scientists warn of impending funding drought 'Some nerd sitting in an office' doesn't seem like exciting research to fund but it's answering urgent questions about severe weather, a climate scientist says.

Just as the impacts of climate change are really starting to bite, AoNZ as a nation is busy 'deprioritising' research funding into it. You can probably tell from some of the quotes how chill I'm feeling about this.

Patchwork of silks and cottons of a variety of colours. Girl's frock of mulicoloured patchwork in silks (including patachute silk) and cottons, the dress has a squared neckline with an organdie frill, and padded puffed sleeves are lined, and the gathered skirt had a built-in organdie petticoat with a hem frill. The dress fastens at the back with five pearlised buttons and stitched buttonholes.

Child's party dress, 1944.
Due to wartime fabric rationing, the dress is made of scrap cotton and parachute silk.
Ref MISC.265-1983, V & A Museum.

ANALYSIS: Government set to reduce Treaty in legislation to lowest possible standard - what it means Sweeping changes to Treaty clauses across 23 laws could lower te Tiriti to its weakest legal standard, reshaping how it influences decisions in health, environment and beyond.

yes we've all been frothing with the coup, meanwhile Mani Dunlop is out here reporting on this fuckery and what it means.

www.teaonews.co.nz/2026/04/20/a...

A map showing rainfall intensity across the Wellington region, labelled “1 hour rainfall total (mm) ending 20-04-2026 04:00 (NZST)”. There’s virtually no rain north of central Wellington, and a tiny blob of 75mm+ over the southern suburbs.

I don’t know how you’d even begin to try forecasting that. This map (from graphs.gw.govt.nz/envmon/daily...) shows how localised it was. Apparently the mayor said it was 3x the local record rain intensity.

77mm in one hour in Berhampore. That’s just an incomprehensible rain intensity anywhere at any time, let alone in Wellington in Autumn. We used to use 7mm an hour as a threshold for “heavy rain”, and this was more than 10 times that.

My son woke up at 3am and took a video of our street transformed into a fast-flowing river. Bizarrely, with a holiday last week up north and a summer holiday in the Coromandel, that kid has directly experienced *three* extreme weather events so far this year.