Yes, Swiss scientist Fritz Zwicky coined the term “dark matter” which is impressive, but he also coined the term “spherical bastard” to describe people who are bastards no matter which way you look at them, and I think that should be celebrated more.

Goddamn that’s gorgeous! Although as a New Zealander I just can’t get over an entire country with no trees!

Okay. Let's take a moment to talk about How To Be A Hugo Nominee And Come Out Of It Happy About the Honor. I realize this is relevant to like, twelve people. I don't care, those twelve people deserve my time. (You may have seen a version of this thread before. I do it every year.)

The first panel shows a crow with the title "How to live a good life". The second panel shows a crow cawing at itself in the mirror with the subheading "Make friends". The next panel says "Explore" and shows a crow looking into a commercial waste bin. The next says "Try new things" with a crow eating something vile. The next one says "Be curious" and shows the crow grabbing a hissing cat's tail". The final frame says "Get a hobby" and shows the crow looking closely at a book of matches.

How To Live A Good Life #oldknees

"Kuwait invokes ‘force majeure’ on its fuel, allowing it to forfeit delivery to NZ’s refined fuel suppliers"

Neat development #nzpol

Left-spiralling snail Ned dies before finding a mate The rare snail's quest to find true love has come to an abrupt end.

Ned is Dead. Dead on Wed. So it's said. Ned is Dead.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/communi...

Dead unwed.

How Email Open Tracking Quietly Took Over the Web You give up more privacy than you might think each time you open an email.

In honor of Tim Cook's stepping down, here is the story of how I emailed him, not once but twice, with open email tracking enabled, only to discover that, not once but twice, my emails to the CEO of Apple were opened on a computer running Windows.

AI tells tenant she should ask for $40,000 - tribunal hands her $80 Tenants using artificial intelligence to help them make applications to the Tenancy Tribunal are creating a backlog.

I don't feel sorry for property managers having to front the tenancy Tribunal. But it is a good reminder that AI is not legal advice and should not be used to generate legal documents. The real issue is law that pivots towards landlords. AI won't fill that gap either

www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

SSSSSPUUUUUUUULL!

An ‘ordinary’ storm with extraordinary impacts: what made Wellington’s deluge so intense? Analysis: The storm is part of an increasingly familiar pattern reminding us that our communities and infrastructure aren't yet prepared to cope with what a warmer, wilder future holds.

Why an ordinary storm can have an extraordinary impact - a great explainer about the Wellington events by @cubaraglanguy.bsky.social www.rnz.co.nz/news/weather...

Yikes! #AoNZ
www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz/.../traf.../...
A bridge washout has closed State Highway 2 Remutaka Hill Rd.
The closure is likely to stay in place overnight. Plan your journey accordingly. (!!!)
Detour route will add approximately three and a half hours to your journey time.

Thats great but he really should've known how to do these things before becoming Prime Minister.

Goodness train networks are great.

We should have them.

No thank you

THIS. And for a lot of people in Wellington, this ain't the time or place but we could all usefully ask "cui bono?" when it comes to undermining public trust in this kind of thing until its all privatized for pennies on the dollar. #nzpol

That's part of why we have a terrible respiratory illness problem for poor children. Damp houses, inadequate power to heat and dry them. Fucking bullshit man

I support the right of everyone to block me for any reason whatsoever, including that their dog farted while they were reading my post.

That said, occasionally I do go through three stages of being blocked:

1) Huh?
2) Seriously?
3) Yeah, that’s probably for the best. We were not gonna be friends.

I hate you all

Lord give me the confidence of an ex Air NZ CEO to go on the television to tell the whole country I’m doing a great job when my personal favorability is polling at 16%.
I beseech you, oh lord, for this level of confidence.

I *am* a good writer (not that any of my fiction will see the light of day, thanks whakamā) and all I can say is "Any writing is better than no writing."

Put it on the page/screen. Then do something else for a while. When you get back it's edit time and that will spark off more writing.

any advice from writers for when you desperately need to start writing something but you can't because you're terrified of it being terrible

... Damn you

I swear to god. I didnt know the name but I read this and went "i bet its the one thet goes..." then looked it up.

AND IT WAS

a bear vacuuming a floor as a japanese salaryman looks on in terror

found out about the manga kuma gurashi which is like those ones where a manic pixie dream girl comes into a salaryman's life and starts doing all his domestic chores for him to heal his heart except in this one it's a realistically drawn bear and the salaryman is terrified on every single page

Can I just remind you that people have spent the last 50 years blaming rock music and video games for kids self harming.

Now my industry is forcing you to eat LLMs that absolutely will kill some proportion of you, and it's like: "this is great!"

The richest 10% of Americans own roughly 87% of stocks.

The richest 1% alone own roughly half of all stocks.

It's worth pointing out once again that the stock market is not the economy.

‘Everyone is Replaceable’: Death Rattles Oregon Amazon Facility A worker died at Amazon’s Troutdale warehouse last week. Employees were told to look away.

Late stage capitalism, people.

www.thewesternedge.media/p/everyone-i...

Meanwhile, in Hungary 🇭🇺

Mayor Zohran Mamdani behind the counter of a bodega in The Bronx, flanked by various people. A journalist with a microphone labeled “Shop Cats” is standing in front of the sales counter, and holding the mic up to a black and white cat sitting on the counter next to bananas. The cat has an expression like in the famous “Sir, are you aware that you are a cat” meme

“Sir, are you aware that you are a cat, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani is standing right behind you?”