Six chickens stand on a door mat as if waiting to be let inside

Fighting for my life trying to uphold my "no chickens in the house" policy today.

The responses of Americans who find out they're commenting on a thread that is talking about NZ issues

1. The double down - insists NZ is an English speaking nation and therefore exactly like US and their point still stands. Sometimes pretends they knew all along and that was the real point.

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.

Blurry screenshot of a video. Sabrina Carpenter and Madonna dressed in leotards singing on a catwalk style stage. Almost everyone in the crowd on either side of the stage stands with two hands up-stretched holding their phones and filming.

🫩

This is my most kids these days take but I keep seeing crowds of people at concerts standing statue still and nearly everyone is holding a phone. It looks like such a bummer. My memories might be hazy but I've never once got home from a gig and regretted the fact I didn't get my phone out to film.

Weekly Review No. 414 (1949) YouTube video by Archives New Zealand

Also...huge cringe at the way media/politicians discussed refugees. It's pretty much 'give us only the whitest ones please.' That sentiment doesn't feature in this video but it's heavy on the ability to assimilate being the sole desirable triat. youtu.be/W_lDL7FrCws?...

a cartoon of homer simpson holding a jar that says bee nu Alt: Gif of screaming Homer Simpson holding a just-opened can that says beer nuts. Colourful worm-like items are spilling out. Marge Simpson stands nearby holding Maggie Simpson.

Regrettably, I think I will have to do DNA testing if I want to go further with this. I'm not expecting to find relatives but maybe it will either confirm the general area he's supposedly from is likely, or rule it out and open further cans of worms 🫠

Screenshot of a section of a newspaper article. Text reads: Erik Krauss has an equally sad story. Now 13 years old, he was left to the care of I.R.O-'s child Institutions. But that is all past and a happier future lies ahead for him in New Zealand.

Screenshot of a section of a newspaper article. Text reads: The oldest of the group, 13-year-old Erik Krauss, lost his father before the war. His mother was among the many who died in its aftermath. Relatives left him to the care of the International Refugee Organisation when they went to Venezuela under a resettlement scheme earlier this year.

Who knows how much a tiny traumatised kid who'd been on his own for years knew about his background. Reporting in NZ mentions relatives but no one in my family has mentioned them. Non-zero chance they picked up a random kid and looked out for him before parting ways at a DP camp.

Screenshot of a section of a newspaper photo and caption. Photo shows six apprehensive looking children dressed in coats and a motley assortement of pants. Text reads: THESE SIX ORPHAN CHILDREN ABOARD THE DUNDALK BAY, which arrived at Wellington yesterday, are members of a draft of 932 displaced persons who hope to find new homes in New Zealand. The immigrants were required to take an oath of obedience to the laws of New Zealand while the ship was still in the stream. After disembarking they left by by special trains for Pahiatua, where they will spend some time in a transit camp.

Trying to do research and hitting naught but brick walls. He appears on shipping records (that's him on the right) but who knows the details are accurate. Latvia was occupied by Russia in 1940, then Germany in 1941, then Russia again in 1945 so I'm having to navigate brick walls in 3 languages 😓

Photo of a photo. Two girls with dark hair sit either side of a blonde boy.

Did a scary thing and booked a ticket for a reunion weekend for WWII displaced persons and their families. I wish I knew more about my maternal grandfather and how he got here. This photo must have been taken soon after he came to NZ as a war orphan from Latvia in 1949. He's so tiny for a 13 yo 😢

Booked in for my flu vaccine next week. Which means it's time for my yearly lament that I have to pay for my kids to get theirs, yet I am eligible for a free one 4 different ways so 3 of those funded opportunities are going to waste 🙃

Similarly wierd window with the chicken pox vaccine too. For kids that went through childhood vaccination before it was on the schedule or missed it. It's free for one year after their 11th birthday. I ended up paying for my son to get it early before we travelled jic.

I'm debating whether I can afford it atm. I'm 39 but on immunosuppressants so it's recommended...not funded though 😤. I'm aware there's a very slow moving review looking at whether funding should be broadened to immunocompromised people currently sitting somewhere within pharmac process.

I've shown up for 7 tests and wasn't in the system for 3 of them and the most important marker randomly got dropped on one of the tests I did manage to get. I drank so much water yesterday trying to get my veins all nice and juicy for nothing 🫩

So glad I took an extended suspension from my thesis while I sort out my health. It's a part time job at the moment. Not helped at all by the fact that I am having constant issues getting the blood tests I'm supposed to have weekly/fortnightly to appear/stay in Awanui's bloody system.

I'd be tempted to argue in favour of a tweak to FBT in favour of EVs. Partner's work (private sector, office-based profession) currently looking to replace their fleet of corollas with utes to be in line with FBT requirements 🤦🏼‍♀️

Having a baby is scary enough *with* modern medicine, but what did people do BEFORE epidurals?

✨Some tips from a medieval medical manual (Treasury of the Poor, 1277):✨

•Anoint the "privates" of a woman with the ashes of an ass's hoof
•Drink another woman's breast milk (!)

man morale at the AP is real bad huh

I think history in general would benefit from a lot more consideration of religion and religiosity.

I'm one of those trans women. I worked ground ops for Artemis I.

I am torn between celebrating the success of my friends and peers and grieving how my dream of working for NASA was shattered by hateful assholes in Tallahassee

Going to watch some Attenborough as an antidote when I get back from the grocery store.

Also the fact that there are SO many people who are engaging with this and not realising it's AI. For reference this is a real tailor bird nest. That first bird is tying the thread in a knot, one of the nests has a top hem and tape on it. Ffs 🫩

I hate that AI has ruined one of the few small joys we have left on the internet–cute animal videos. To be clear this is AI. But why? It's not like there's a dearth of genuine footage of animals doing cute and amazing things. What purpose does this serve?

all these universities kept axing medieval history departments as if they thought tyrants beefing with the Pope was going to stop being relevant

I actually just emailed a local MP about this. I honestly had no idea how overworked and underpaid these women (they're all women ime) are until after this conversation when I started looking into it.

The government has boxed itself in over fuel saving strategies – but there is a way out Promoting fuel saving measures as vital to energy security would help frame the oil shock as a technical problem to be solved, not a political issue to be fought.

Every effective tool for reducing fuel demand right now (free PT, cycling, EVs, lower speed limits) is a policy the NZ coalition government has spent two years dismantling.

My new piece in The Conversation on why they've gone quiet and how they get out of it.
theconversation.com/the-governme...

She said she barely made it through yesterday. I said I hoped she had a less stressful day today without the Easter backlog but the resigned mumble she gave in reply suggests she had little hope of that. These people are vital to our entire health system, and paid barely more than minimum wage btw.

They currently can't run one local centre at all because they don't have the staff. Equipment at one clinic has been broken for weeks meaning each client takes longer to get through. No doubt they are feeling the sting of higher fuel costs when doing their in-home visits too.

Was chatting with a phlebotomist today and they are stretched to past breaking point. I went to the drop in clinic yesterday but left and booked a slot at my GP clinic today when the same tech told me the wait was 1.5 hours (very not normal here).

it's just newt videos for a while.... so cute...