A few things I've learnt from writing >4,000 word pieces:
- They tend to be more popular than my short pieces!
- They're more definitive - like reference material, not a hot take.
- Not everyone will reach the end, and that's okay.
- Write so that the people who do find it incredibly satisfying.
That someone in history thought they looked robin-like. So vibes. Neither old world, new world, nor Australasian robins are particularly closely related to each other en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroica
Papers Past Privet
By the looks of it, the London Horticultural Society (in 1845) thought it would make a nice gift to New Zealand
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/N...
New Zealander, watching the cricket, posts on BlueSky: βOnly four more overs in this innings.β
Americans flood the replies: βTheyβre called outs not overs and there are only ever three of them per innings. Donβt watch if you donβt understand the rules.β
We stood together against anti-Palestinian racism and they cancelled our festival. So we organised our own.
Very tired now, but very proud of Constellations!
Great in depth coverage from Hannah Story here
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03...
If you're in town for this year's Wild Dunedin festival, come & check out our event on how palaeo & genetics can help inform evidence-based kaitiakitanga & conservation management of taonga species. We have some great speakers lined up with more to come wilddunedin.ssboxoffice.com/events/the-p...
I'm losing the ability to contrive law school exam hypotheticals that are more absurd than the actual news
A katigΕ
When I first reported on this, I kept being asked: "Sure but how bad will it be? Will it really stick around?"
Personally, in my not a lawyer but as someone who understands that generative AI is not a person, I think claiming free and frank advice confidentiality around its use is rubbish- future uses of it are in no way affected by making logs public- there is not "chilling" on the output.
What's funny is that we know from generations of experiments that human memory is ridiculously, cartoonishly malleable.
People manipulating their pictures like this are literally fucking with their memories. They will remember that event differently, because of the meddling afterwards.
Last Prime Minister to be reΓ«lected after taking over mid-term: Peter Fraser.
Last former Prime Minister to be reΓ«lected after losing: Keith Holyoake.
A spider that looks quite a lot like a katipΕ but the stripe on its back is yellow
Ok, Google-fu has failed so Iβm going to have to see if someone here knowsβ¦
What type of spider is this?
Grant Witness is hiring! We're seeking a full-time data scientist to join our team building data resources to support journalism, litigation, and activism protecting science, public health, and the rule of law. grant-witness.us/apply.html #rstats
ποΈListen to CFOI Director Maurice Frankel OBE on the latest episode of the Guardians of Data Podcast, discussing the remarkable story behind the UKβs FOI Act
Do not miss previous podcasts with the excellent @jonbainesdata.bsky.social and @lynnwyeth.bsky.social!
actnowtraining.blog/2026/03/04/g...
#NZ π¦ New measles case
- Auckland airport a location of interest, from Thursday 26 February 7:30pm until 1:00am on Friday 27 February. Those there should watch for measles symptoms from today to Friday 20 March.
TWA/HealthNZ new bulletin β¬οΈ
1/2
Ah but we have already been banking country specific inflation increases over the last couple of years, so we can apply that stockpile to the upcoming fuel induced...
{earpiece} ... I am being advised reality does not work like that.
![A man flipping a coin into the Uncomfortable Truths Well.
Well: "You'll never find a large language model that frees you from the burden of clarifying your ideas."
Man: "But _I_ know what I mean!"
[Adapted source: XKCD #568 (Well 2)]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6wkwtpuhlohlvbppyud3nkts/bafkreidae7dzyoamuq3sazxaqpszrhz5jbmtclt7xzuqgciy6rdc4f5tfu@jpeg)
A man flipping a coin into the Uncomfortable Truths Well. Well: "You'll never find a large language model that frees you from the burden of clarifying your ideas." Man: "But _I_ know what I mean!" [Adapted source: XKCD #568 (Well 2)]
Since this comes up far, far too often in my life...
(With apologies to @xkcd.com.)
Fortunately we have had a many years ongoing priority to reduce transport inflation by having the mass movement of internal goods focused on rail fulled by renewable electricity.
(listens to earpiece) Oh No.
it's a shame this piece doesn't mention at all the nerds like me who build receivers (it's pretty straightforward if you're somewhat techie) and feed the data to @flightradar24.com. It's data crowdsourcing at its best; you get a free premium account in return; everyone benefits.
Walking to the Senate expecting another day of driving impact, aligning stakeholders, and scaling the Roman Republic to the next level. Instead, I encountered unexpected feedback.
But what I would say to you is not everyone will share your vision, and the only soothsayers I listen to are English.
Photo of sunrise off Cheltenham Beach with a swimmer's raft in foreground and several Waka in middle silhouetted against sunrise. 7.15 am ISO 25 F2.4 1/1250s
MΕrena whanΔu Waka on the water off Cheltenham Beach on one of the stillest mornings in a long while. Summer isn't over yet. Kia pa to rΔ!
In particular, the I care section hit for me. Now and then I check how AI systems would structure and organise the IT courses I run, even given access my materials (so carefully considered language and progression of ideas) and people would learn so much less, and that matters to me.
Screen shot of app with filters on left and searchable table on right
25 free resources, presentations & tip sheets so far added to my searchable table of #NICAR26 materials, including
10 Things you Didn't Know You Could Do in R
AI Glossary for Journalists
Decoding Deportation Data
apps.machlis.com/shiny/nicar2...
Plus lots from prior yrs
#RStats #Python #GenAI #DDJ
I get a lot of questions these days about data from BLS and other agencies. Some of this is about fears of political interference. Some of it is about the reliability of the data, especially in light of recent big revisions. In a story today, I tried to tackle both.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/06/b...
If you want to take your mind off awful politics and look at awful science stuff instead, this is a good read: www.sciencedetective.org/scientific-d...
Ross, while Aotearoa wasn't surveyed, there is a semi-related question in the World Values Survey, and to the extent that feeling people can be trusted relates to feeling people are good, NZ is much further from the US than Canada or Australia. So you are likely correct. bsky.app/profile/thou...
