CarlBLatro

Ageing Pākehā New Zealander. Programmer of sorts. Reckons my own.

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Last Notes

2026-03-24 10:06:51 UTC

How to make toys and houses and diapers and such...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gVc5wCUwmM

2026-03-24 03:14:28 UTC

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That's an excellent idea. When to clone them though? Waiting till she dies seems wrong, somehow. It'd be better to wait until she's of child-bearing age so she can choose the time herself so she can raise herself as she best sees fit. As who better than herself to be her carer and tutor? This would of course allow her to then have grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And they of course would be the heirs to the throne, something every dynasty requires. It'd also allow their subjects the joy of knowing her at all ages of her life.
Actually, this'd be one hell of a Disney franchise!

2026-03-24 01:04:06 UTC

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Hmm. They were speaking in English where I first saw it...

2026-03-24 01:00:57 UTC

Cabocycles, maybe?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biwwjRGYyGQ

2026-03-23 23:42:50 UTC

You bitcoiners be careful now when you exchange your coins for other money. Or at least those of you in the OECD...
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2019028194/ird-increases-view-of-crypto-activity

2026-03-22 23:53:35 UTC

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I've seen suggestions they may have been prototypes. I've also seen it reported that Iran denied they were theirs, (Al Jazeera), and that they'd confirmed it, (Western media). I don't know what the current state of the truth is though.

2026-03-22 23:38:25 UTC

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Pah. Do an Amiga!

2026-03-22 23:34:12 UTC

Elon's latest grand scheme...
https://x.com/SawyerMerritt/status/2035544390593044838
This kinda depends on AI eventually being profitable. Or what they're supposed to enable being possible. Which means humanoid robots and lots of different robotic machines.
This looked a rather cobbled together presentation. I suspect its main purpose is as a boost for SpaceX going public. So Musk talks about hoping to see a railgun on the Moon launching processors into space before he dies, as opposed to dying on Mars, but not on impact. AI data centers in space built from moondust sounds more immediately useful than a Mars colony.
We will see!

2026-03-22 06:52:44 UTC

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Then of course there's Heaven's Gorge :))
https://x.com/AngelicaOung/status/2034629782776987741

2026-03-22 01:07:22 UTC

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Gunna hook mine up to a 3D printer.

2026-03-21 22:41:48 UTC

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There's probably a difference though, in that there's only one way in or out of the Persian Gulf. If you're in the Persian Gulf, you're stuck there unless Iran decides to let you through. Or the US clears the area with their marines...

2026-03-21 22:12:53 UTC

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Bluetooth, which has to be turned on to makes some of your phone's apps work, such as its FM radio.

2026-03-20 21:18:13 UTC

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African Union, perhaps?

2026-03-15 22:00:56 UTC

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Spaghetti is not slop! Pigs might eat both, but you wouldn't! Well, maybe you would, but discerning people wouldn't!

2026-03-12 20:47:43 UTC

That time when NZ said no to a US destroyer...
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19850206.2.44

2026-03-11 21:58:41 UTC

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"I guess there is the big avenue of people who just want to make a group with their friends, or with other florists"
And that's two markets: One that's social and one that's commercial, no matter how small. The social ones have gotten used to the idea that social media should be free, but they also like it to be free of advertising as well. Blue Sky's trying to make that work, but I've not noticed how they expect to do it.
I can imagine a social media that marries the social and the commercial successfully though. It'd be one where users know which space they're in and neither side bleeds into the other. And the sellers in the commercial side are charged to be there and those charges pay for both the social and commercial side of things.
Maybe relays should be in pairs - one social and one commercial?

2026-03-06 22:31:25 UTC

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Does she have an Australian accent?

2026-03-05 20:36:40 UTC

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As more clients become available, some users would move to the newer clients. Which is presumably why a downward trend is showing up for every client.
Why just the top 10? The top 100 would be more fun!

2026-03-05 09:59:06 UTC

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https://www.dairynz.co.nz/environment/climate/carbon-offsets/

2026-03-05 09:48:50 UTC

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It sounds like grazing land being converted to pine plantations here in NZ, and that is for carbon offsetting. Cheaper to manage forestry than sheep or cattle.

2026-03-03 01:52:46 UTC

'Western' air defenses in the Middle East seem pretty crap.
https://7news.com.au/sunrise/airbase-used-by-australians-in-the-uae-hit-by-iranian-drones-richard-marles-confirms-c-21812822

2026-03-03 01:04:43 UTC

This is old now, from last Christmas Eve, but well worth a read.
https://howardyu.substack.com/p/the-one-chart-that-explains-everything

2026-03-02 01:40:17 UTC

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My main laptop still has Win10 on it, since I managed to get an extra year's support for it. There's some stuff I need Windows for, but I don't want to switch to W11!
I tried to dual-boot the small laptop but mucked that up... :)) My first try with Linux was in the early 2000s. It eventually decided it didn't like the PC I had at the time.

2026-03-01 23:15:18 UTC

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I put Linux Mint on a small laptop I bought second-hand in 2020. This was after Microsoft decided it wouldn't support Win10 anymore and wouldn't allow Win11 on any of my current Win10 machines either. Now I'd been using this laptop to mainly watch Youtube videos for about an hour a day. And I'd charge it for about an hour or two a day as well. (I use it where it's not convenient to be plugged in.) With Linux though, it was draining a lot out of the battery while not plugged in, as in much more than Win10 was. This was obviously a battery problem of course, (and buying a new one fixed it), but I was surprised Linux used more power than Win10 in 'Suspend' mode. Very happy Linux exists though!

2026-03-01 22:40:50 UTC

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It may be your subconscious that's the genius. Where do those ideas that pop into our heads come from? Meaning the ones that are not at the end of a train of thought. Having more than one mind in our heads seems a more likely cause than a god. If our minds are the end result of billions of years of evolution, why shouldn't there be more than one?
Personally though, I don't think a genius would be forever changing things. They'd get it right the first time.

2026-03-01 03:40:19 UTC

Says it all...
https://mastodon.social/@finestructure/116149115188398068

2026-03-01 03:15:36 UTC

"More than half of the UK’s electrical power was supplied by renewable energy on February 25 2026. That consisted mainly of solar, wind and hydroelectric sources. The next day, a new source of electricity started feeding into the grid for the first time – geothermal power."
Not a game-changer for the UK, but interesting all the same.
https://theconversation.com/what-the-uks-first-geothermal-power-plant-means-for-the-nations-electricity-supply-276909

2026-03-01 01:31:23 UTC

It seems a good day for this AI AMA...
https://x.com/sama/status/2027900042720498089

2026-03-01 00:46:26 UTC

Tehran walking tour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEZtZyT6aPA

2026-02-28 23:43:39 UTC

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A lot of big assumptions there. The biggest being that this might lead to regime change. Or that regime change would be for the better. Did regime change happen in Afghanistan? Or Vietnam? Or what about the one that accidentally happened in Cambodia? Or the one that happened on (the first) 9/11? Trump's best use of the US's military would've been to ensure Ukraine was kicking Russia out of Ukraine. He's doing the opposite of that though.
The US couldn't beat the Taliban. There's no way they could beat the much more advanced Iranians. And given the current state of Gaza, there's no way the people of Iran will embrace America and Israel trying to 'liberate' them.

2026-02-28 23:05:09 UTC

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What's wrong with an upside-down stars and stripes?

2026-02-28 22:49:40 UTC

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Hmm. leg and thigh, arm and forearm. What's weird is that leg (technically) refers to the bit that connects to the foot whereas arm (technically) refers to the bit that connects to the body!
Programmers are forever having to dream up names for things, and it's one of the hardest parts of programming. Whoever dreamed up the (technical) names of the body would've made a real crap programmer!

2026-02-28 10:10:37 UTC

"The US and Israel launched airstrikes on Tehran on Saturday, targeting senior regime figures, command centers and key elements of Iran’s air defenses"
https://www.euractiv.com/news/us-israel-strikes-mark-latest-chapter-in-iran-conflict/

2026-02-27 22:24:02 UTC

Our future will be using AI agents to stop us wasting time dealing with middlemen, only to find out AI agents consider us to be the middlemen.
https://bsky.app/profile/stopthatgirl7.bsky.social/post/3mfqituq2lk22

2026-02-27 21:20:33 UTC

You come to the crossroads. Do you go left, right, or straight ahead?
https://bsky.app/profile/sharonodea.com/post/3mfqub5njo222
(No, you're not allowed to turn around. That's not an option.)

2026-02-27 19:41:39 UTC

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As I was saying. :))

2026-02-27 19:35:00 UTC

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Hee. Already changed.

2026-02-27 19:34:03 UTC

LOL! Someone's misbehaving on Wikipedia...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Goodwin
"Matthew James BadLoss (born December 1981) is a British..."
I expect it won't be there for long...

2026-02-27 18:42:48 UTC

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Not according to the NHS...
"Rabies is spread by mammals, such as dogs, bats, raccoons and foxes. In the UK, it's only found in some bats."
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/rabies/
:))

2026-02-27 10:12:56 UTC

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And a discussion about it, from a New Zealand perspective...
https://thekaka.substack.com/p/a-mini-hoon-with-ben-reid-on-citrinis

2026-02-26 01:59:05 UTC

Have a dog? Give them something useful to do...
https://www.calebleak.com/posts/dog-game/

2026-02-25 22:08:17 UTC

"In an email sent to list holders, Amazon said beginning March 25, it will reveal users’ shipping addresses to third-party sellers. The platform added that gift purchasers might end up seeing your address as part of this process, too."
https://www.404media.co/amazon-wishlist-address-private-third-party/

2026-02-25 21:34:45 UTC

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Perfect! In a world where kids are never home alone. And where all care-givers agree with that POV.
Teaching kids the internet equivalent of stranger-danger seems a good idea, regardless of whatever laws are introduced to protect them.

2026-02-25 19:46:05 UTC

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I saw this a week or so ago...
https://bsky.app/profile/aunz.theconversation.com/post/3mf7bh3ti6e2t
I doubt it'd achieve the primary aim of age-restricting legislation though. Meaning protecting kids from the dangers of the internet. Only keeping kids off the internet would do that.

2026-02-23 10:52:59 UTC

Passwords...
https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/23/password_opinion/
I installed Linux on one of my computers a few months back, and it does love asking for passwords. Along with upgrades equally as common as Win10 did upgrades. But I didn't have to enter a password for every Windows upgrade, unlike with Linux.

2026-02-21 22:37:40 UTC

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Does that apply to France and the US too? It's hard to see why nuclear wouldn't be included in their defense spending as well.

2026-02-21 22:26:03 UTC

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"The English word butter ultimately comes from the Greek word bouturon which means 'cow cheese'."
https://nekorandom.com/2024/01/08/fun-fact-butter-etymology/
Which kinda suggests 'peanut butter' is the precedent that make's coconut milk and all the other milks perfectly OK as names.

2026-02-21 22:10:08 UTC

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Not heard of that!
It kinda depends on where 'butter' the name comes from, I guess. If it was just a different name for 'spread', then it's not a gotcha.

2026-02-21 22:05:20 UTC

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I'm bemused that dairy farmers have never complained about peanut butter, as far as I'm aware, but it kinda sets a precedent in the food-naming business.

2026-02-21 21:50:27 UTC

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Nope. They still haven't got around to peanut butter.

2026-02-21 10:45:56 UTC

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Something, something Obama.

2026-02-21 02:17:12 UTC

"The four-year Cass Review, carried out for NHS England recommends limiting the use of puberty blockers to research settings. It also urges unhurried holistic care, caution around irreversible treatments, and the recognition of complex factors such as mental health, neurodiversity and social media as possible contributors to the rise in young people questioning their gender.
Report author Baroness Dr Hilary Cass is a paediatrician and former president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in the UK. She joins Susie live from the UK."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2019023992/dr-hilary-cass-puberty-blockers

2026-02-19 22:21:37 UTC

Talking about the weather...
"In 2002, across the country, only four days of local states of emergency were declared. In the first two months of this year alone, there have been at least 70."
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/02/20/a-state-of-emergency-again-and-again-and-again/

2026-02-19 21:38:11 UTC

AI's cost may be outstripping its usefulness.
https://bsky.app/profile/theregister.com/post/3mfacnhf7wr2v

2026-02-19 20:04:27 UTC

It's not surprising a former British prince has been arrested in the wake of the Epstein files. What is surprising is all the Americans who've been mentioned in the Epstein files without the police knocking on their doors.

2026-02-19 10:26:18 UTC

Ministers say the oddest things...
https://bsky.app/profile/sanjanah.bsky.social/post/3mf6h46ocy22m

2026-02-18 22:06:48 UTC

"Users who switched from the chronological feed to the “For You” feed were 4.7 percentage points more likely to prioritise policy issues favoured by US Republicans (for example, crime, inflation and immigration). They were also more likely to view the criminal investigation into US President Donald Trump as unacceptable."
https://theconversation.com/a-few-weeks-of-xs-algorithm-can-make-you-more-right-wing-and-it-doesnt-wear-off-quickly-276153
I started to only read the 'chronological feed' a while back, since the 'for you' feed had become just too vile. Been trying to get off the platform entirely, but my yesterday's prune of those I still follow there only got it down to 80 users. Sigh...
The above study's from 2023, so quite old now. God knows what it's findings would be now.

2026-02-18 20:17:26 UTC

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You're forgetting the second-hand market! As in when it comes time to sell that Mac Mini because you're upgrading two years later.

2026-02-18 20:09:54 UTC

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He was politically naive though, in having no climate change policy in place. Along with not understanding that giving some individual a UBI would be seen as no more than a cheap stunt, at best.

2026-02-18 09:54:54 UTC

This guy's part of NZ's richest family. (Our rich lists aren't of individuals, for some reason.) Anyway, they're planning to disrupt the building industry...
https://x.com/NMowbray23/status/2023631139622318347

2026-02-18 09:29:37 UTC

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I doubt that'd be enough, as why would the users care about what's behind the curtain? Do they care about what makes their other apps work?

2026-02-18 09:21:52 UTC

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A few pleasantries isn't the same as having learnt a language. And even the free language translators are very good these days. I've not read the article, but did it say she hasn't learnt any English?

2026-02-17 20:42:41 UTC

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The same way Chinese tourists cope in an English speaking country? And she could use the phone then, too, for that matter.

2026-02-17 20:25:23 UTC

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It depends how the relationship began. If online, they may have been communicating via a translator from the beginning. Trying to learn a new language would seem very slow after using a real-time translator.

2026-02-16 22:37:11 UTC

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Meaning the earlier agreement mentioned here...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Strategic_Economic_Partnership_Agreement#Earlier_agreements

2026-02-16 22:31:12 UTC

This looks promising...
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-and-indo-pacific-blocs-eye-major-new-trade-pact/
"Ottawa is “championing efforts to build a bridge between the Trans-Pacific Partnership [CPTPP] and the European Union, which would create a new trading bloc of 1.5 billion people,” Carney told world leaders and the global business elite in Davos."
Incidentally, the CPTPP grew out of an economic partnership signed between NZ and Singapore in 2001. It's coming along nicely!

2026-02-16 01:48:34 UTC

Carole Cadwalladr "The US coup: one year on"
https://substack.com/home/post/p-187842262

2026-02-15 23:00:14 UTC

Part of a memoir, actually...
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/02/16/the-conspiracy-theorists-daughter/

2026-02-12 02:39:49 UTC

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I'd not heard that, but it looks like it may be a made up story based on this man's introduction of birds into the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Schieffelin
But ignoring Shakespeare, introducing non-native species is what acclimatization societies did.

2026-02-11 21:35:27 UTC

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Kinda need more than one for this to catch on.
I wonder if they ever tried to get European Robins established in NZ? As they aren't here now. As there's NZ robins, they possibly couldn't see any point in bringing them here.

2026-02-11 08:42:08 UTC

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Don't make a clone. Make something better. There's a thread here about some of the current discord alternatives...
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@mdiluz/116043145998840217
and he also links to this for an alternative take on the state of play...
https://taggart-tech.com/discord-alternatives/

2026-02-09 08:20:59 UTC

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Reminds me of the NZ gardening guru who mentioned on his TV show that placing a plastic bottle half-filled with water on your front lawn will stop dogs shitting on it. And lots of people did.

2026-02-09 08:16:42 UTC

Hee...
https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/09/who_me/

2026-02-07 22:20:54 UTC

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Been seeing "compute" for quite a while now, as in the past two or more years, so it's deliberately used there. And yes, it means "computational power”. I think. Or maybe that something has a computer. As in "the compute's in your phone, not in the glasses". Maybe.

2026-02-07 05:16:22 UTC

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And...
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2026/02/07/russia-was-never-supposed-to-have-starlink-so-why-did-spacex-wait-so-long-to-cut-it-off

2026-02-07 04:11:58 UTC

We've all done it...
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/crypto-firm-accidentally-sends-44-billion-bitcoins-users-2026-02-07/

2026-02-06 23:37:03 UTC

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Hmm. No, they've known Russia's been using them for at least two years...
"In February 2024, Ukraine's Defence intelligence said to have confirmed the use of Starlink satellite communications by Russian forces in occupied areas of Ukraine. According to Ukrainian military, Russian troops had been communicating over the Starlink system for "quite a long time" and were now using thousands of Starlink terminals"
From here...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_in_the_Russo-Ukrainian_war#Reported_Starlink_use
The IPO reasoning is looking quite likely!

2026-02-06 23:23:46 UTC

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It seems so: "In recent weeks, Moscow’s most effective drone unit started fitting them on long-range drones."
Though there's also this reasoning...
https://x.com/RealJakeBroe/status/2019841100966687230
:))

2026-02-06 22:14:57 UTC

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Possibly. It may have only been detected in the last few months. But surely SpaceX knows where they are - and if they're registered or not? Anyway, it will be interesting to see if it makes much difference to the war.

2026-02-06 21:17:09 UTC

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Why hadn't this happened a couple of years back?
Still, now would seem to be a much better time, given how stretched Russia is now. It would seem to be a more devastating blow now than when drone warfare was in its infancy.

2026-02-04 21:12:00 UTC

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nostr forums sound like a good idea.

2026-02-04 21:00:38 UTC

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Yes. For a lot of people, bitcoin is mostly related to scams of one kind or another, along with them being told it's a bubble that's about to burst. It's not something they encounter in their day to day life. I'd think it's nostr's biggest turnoff, and it's a problem Mastodon doesn't have.

2026-02-02 21:56:27 UTC

A message I was presented with on Facebook this morning...
"To make sure that you're a real person, we need you to record a video selfie. We'll ask you to move your head during the recording to help us capture your face at different angles."

2026-02-01 00:47:47 UTC

Russian politician calls for an end to the war in Ukraine, before getting told to shut up. His reasoning being because it can't be won by either side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuKJ_wlwV7s
#Russia #Ukraine

2026-01-27 23:19:11 UTC

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At least you're not having NZ's summer!
https://theconversation.com/nzs-sodden-january-explained-whats-driven-this-months-big-wet-274416

2026-01-27 22:59:17 UTC

Crusher quits.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/01/28/judith-collins-to-leave-politics-head-up-law-commission/

2026-01-27 22:37:14 UTC

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Yes, as in your phone talking to your glasses, if your phone isn't actually in your glasses.

2026-01-27 02:25:41 UTC

"She had Elon's baby...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG-pL7aZoeY

2026-01-27 00:49:39 UTC

"Xi’s greater haste can be seen in his aim to achieve joint operational capability for a Taiwan invasion by 2027, whereas Zhang clearly placed this goal closer to 2035."
That's from here...
https://jamestown.org/zhang-youxias-differences-with-xi-jinping-led-to-his-purge/
I can't believe China would be stupid enough to invade Taiwan, but doing so while Trump is President would seem to be the most opportune time. Hence Xi's 2027 deadline.

2026-01-26 03:39:45 UTC

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Maybe they thought it'd have the biggest impact if released all at once? On their website they're all available too, so I assume it was deliberate and not an RSS cockup.
I listened to them all, and the question I'd ask is would Putin have got elected president if the apartment bombings hadn't happened? They said he was polling at 2% before them. [checks] Well, his polling was all over the show up until November...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2000_Russian_presidential_election
The 2% poll was followed by a 48% one followed by a 14% one, etc. The bombings were in September.
Maybe Putin didn't like the uncertainty and thought he'd do something to boost his popularity? (Until proper control of elections could be implemented.)

2026-01-23 00:23:52 UTC

The current state of the world as seen from NZ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jrw0XyE_ck

2026-01-21 10:44:07 UTC

Nice to notice there's at least one leader in the Anglosphere of countries who's not afraid to talk sense. The world needed this, I think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE981Z_TaVo

2026-01-18 00:37:45 UTC

"These guys like Thiel and [White House AI czar David] Sacks have been fixated for 30 years on trying to normalize and re-assert the public use of slurs. One of the examples they use [in their 1998 polemic The Diversity Myth] is the r-slur, which had just fallen out of favor in the early ‘90s. And they were explicitly saying not being able to use these slurs reflects growing political power from these groups, and that's why we need to bring them back. ... I really think the thing that they’ve been working towards for 10 years is to get Trump to be able to use the n-word in public. And I think we are less than a year away."
https://sf.gazetteer.co/theyve-pickled-each-others-brains

2026-01-17 22:59:36 UTC

When New Zealand made 'cars'...
https://newsroom.co.nz/2026/01/18/nz-skodas-czech-mate/

2026-01-15 22:43:58 UTC

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Just refreshed my memory from a photo, and they weren't glass all on one side. Searching around, they may have been one of these types...
https://absolutetinyhouses.co.nz/our-tiny-houses/

2026-01-15 22:23:07 UTC

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Three 'houses' very similar to that were put in the grounds of local house. The main difference was they had a flat roof. All one side of them are like that, with the interior appearing to be just a bedroom and kitchen, although I assume there was a shower somewhere. And nothing to look out onto either, other than a hedge.

2026-01-14 22:12:25 UTC

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Are the chooks yours?

2026-01-13 22:45:31 UTC

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I didn't watch it. And given an elderly Emma Peel was in it, that probably means something. Still, it's probably not a good metric for deciding who you should respect.

2026-01-05 11:02:41 UTC

"NASA's largest library at the Goddard Space Flight Center will close permanently on Jan 2 under the Trump administration's reorganisation plans."
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/nasas-largest-library-to-permanently-close-on-jan-2-books-will-be-tossed-away-10170584

2026-01-04 21:49:48 UTC

Dreamwidth is experiencing an influx of new Russian users from LJ of late...
https://dw-maintenance.dreamwidth.org/97897.html
Denise's comments in that thread make interesting reading. They fight well for their users!
#Dreamwidth