Isaac Freeman

#Ōtautahi, #Aotearoa / #Christchurch, #NewZealand.

He/him. #NZGreens. Funtime Comics. #Cyclist. #Ruby developer. Middle-aged cis-het abled Pākehā man.

Co-founder of magnificent.nz, for hosted libre software.

🌏Toitū te Taiao 🌏
:flag_tino: Toitū te Tiriti :flag_tino:

Public Key

npub1xm2rgyz3f6q4gsf8xfaz4yh7tw366zg6q50ktn36y8hwc4jmuhxqmuw2qs

NIP-05 Address

isaacfreeman@cloudisland-nz.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsrd4p5zpg5aq25gynny732jtl9hgadpydq28m9ecazrmhv2ed7tnqpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qzyrhwden5te0dehhxarj9emkjmn987gdy3

Publishing to

relay.ditto.pub

nostr.wine

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub1xm2rgyz3f6q4gsf8xfaz4yh7tw366zg6q50ktn36y8hwc4jmuhxqmuw2qs

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Last Notes

2026-10-12 03:19:41 UTC

The Green Party has released AI policy today as part of our general election campaign: https://www.greens.org.nz/ai_policy
I’m pretty happy with it. There are some things I’d word differently for a more technical audience, but as something going out to all voters I think it strikes the right tone: “AI” isn’t magic, it’s software made by large, financially unstable overseas companies. Governments can and should regulate it to protect the environment, data sovereignty, and democratic accountability.
#NZGreens #NZPol

2026-08-20 07:22:57 UTC

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@nprofile…gydw 7km doesn't seem very far to relocate an owl. Seems like it would be home before you were.

2026-08-17 03:53:12 UTC

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@nprofile…3eqn Sorry, it's information I've received from a reliable source who wishes to remain anonymous. I don't personally know any specifics about the attacks, just that they're "often very horrible”.
I won’t be pushing for more information, as messages of support are what my contact asked for.
@nprofile…ycjt

2026-08-16 04:38:10 UTC

I gather it’s been a hard time for the staff at #InternetNZ, and they’re receiving a lot of unfair attacks that they can't respond to. If you have a few minutes, It would make a difference to send an appreciative email to membership@internetnz.net.nz
Tell them you respect the work they do, efficiently and effectively every day. And tell them you want InternetNZ to remain a community-run organisation that respects Te Tiriti and Te Reo Māori, promotes equitable access, and makes a huge difference to New Zealand.
It's a small gesture, but helping people keep going in the short term matters, and it makes resistance in the longer term possible.

2026-08-15 02:17:48 UTC

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@nprofile…gydw Exceptin' Alice.

2026-08-10 23:21:27 UTC

Personal recommendations on the #InternetNZ Motions…
✅ Motion 1 is a sensible minor adjustment to be more flexible with terms on the Board. Sometimes the person you need is only available for two years, or the last person who knows how something works is available to stay for another year while new people get up to speed.
❌ Motions 2-5 are malicious. They're from the right-wing FSU. At one level they burden the organisation with a bunch of bureaucratic reporting rules that will allow well-resourced right-wing groups to generate misleading press releases. At another level their purpose is to imply that the organisation isn't already sufficiently transparent. InternetNZ already does a good job reporting on AGM motions, disbursements, finances, and complaints while maintaining the dignity and safety of people it donates to.
1/2

2026-08-07 22:39:04 UTC

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@nprofile…3eqn We had those. If I remember correctly the stories were mostly good but each one had a superfluous Disney-style sidekick character.
Or did I imagine that? It seems like a terrible idea.

2026-08-06 20:36:45 UTC

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@nprofile…gydw I once dropped in to an open day for one of these CBD townhouses. I was the only visitor, so once I'd established with the real estate agent that I was just a curious passer-by rather than a potential customer she got quite honest. She agreed they were unaffordable and unappealingly public for actual residents. Instead, she figured they were for AirBnB and maybe a few large companies to accommodate employees on short-term assignments in Christchurch.

2026-07-31 20:36:29 UTC

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@nprofile…jc6e New Zealand making increasingly desperate attempts to have our corruption noticed by Transparency International.
@nprofile…dzr8

2026-07-28 21:10:16 UTC

Looks like AI psychosis got Boy George.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jul/27/you-say-genocide-i-say-war-boy-george-releases-pro-israel-song-we-will-dance-again

2026-07-26 05:48:35 UTC

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@nprofile…r769 There's a good deal of background work going on to prepare for doing more than bare minimum further along.

2026-07-24 23:01:01 UTC

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My personal recommended ranking is:
1. Bianca Grizhar ✅
2. Daniel Specter ✅
3. Nabil Sabio Azadi ✅
4. Annette Culpan ✅
5. Keoni Mahelona ✅
6. David Chisholm ✅
7. Jan Rivers (runs an anti-trans organisation called Genspect) ❌
8. Douglas Brown (lawyer for the Free Speech Union) ❌
9. Jillaine Heather (lawyer for the Free Speech Union) ❌
If you have other opinions about the precise order, no worries. But keep all the ✅s above the ❌s.
#InternetNZ

2026-07-24 22:57:17 UTC

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Good advice continued. (3 images)
(2/2)
#InternetNZ
https://files.cloudisland.nz/media_attachments/files/116/977/423/239/131/113/original/be790a8b4ae8e88d.png
https://files.cloudisland.nz/media_attachments/files/116/977/423/491/755/203/original/5f3b3b0b7f84d5d6.png
https://files.cloudisland.nz/media_attachments/files/116/977/423/753/593/704/original/69097a48c90425bd.png

2026-07-24 22:53:27 UTC

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Here's some good advice on how to vote for #InternetNZ.
Not my work. They’re from a source I consider very reliable and with highly relevant expertise, but who wishes to remain anonymous.
1/2
https://files.cloudisland.nz/media_attachments/files/116/977/407/899/566/873/original/b1d6476ad58beb5a.png
https://files.cloudisland.nz/media_attachments/files/116/977/408/154/917/884/original/67de2d1157ee53d0.png
https://files.cloudisland.nz/media_attachments/files/116/977/408/418/329/854/original/032ae6575ca10f4d.png
https://files.cloudisland.nz/media_attachments/files/116/977/408/689/932/742/original/e52c8e4e323a149b.png

2026-07-24 22:40:23 UTC

Voting is open for #InternetNZ board members. If you're a member, and want this community-run organisation protected from being reduced to a private business, now's the time to vote.

2026-07-21 07:06:45 UTC

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@nprofile…3src I really liked the background outdoor noise. Being Icelandic is part of your brand, so having a sense of place is relevant. It's distinctive, but not distracting or gimmicky.
I listen to a lot of podcasts because I can combine them with other activities. So even if there was some overlap with blog posts, I'd likely hear the podcast first.

2026-07-14 00:34:20 UTC

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@nprofile…m5mz This is definitely the baseball cap for me, but I've never been shown it. I just get generic ads for over-50 men. I've spent thirty years training algorithms for targeted ads and not once have they ever shown me anything I wanted to buy.

2026-07-13 06:41:38 UTC

RIP Sam Neil.

2026-07-07 21:50:32 UTC

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@nprofile…0v7k Here's Marama on an under-16 social media ban:
> Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson acknowledged that parents were worried, but the core issue was tech giants "running unregulated, exploiting our people for their misinformation and disinformation," and social media harm affected people of all ages.
> ”They need to be held to account instead of just taking something off young people," she said.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/581442/social-media-ban-backed-by-online-harm-inquiry-prompting-act-disagreement

2026-07-07 21:49:02 UTC

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@nprofile…0v7k One of the challenges for a party like the Greens is that our policy joins up: we break it down, but the answer to a specific question often runs across multiple policy areas.
Relevant policy documents for big tech in general:
- https://www.greens.org.nz/digital_policy
- https://www.greens.org.nz/research_science_and_technology_policy
- https://www.greens.org.nz/business_policy
Within the party, there's a Green Geeks network (I'm one of the co-convenors) for people interested in tech policy. We produce briefing notes for MPs which aren't official party policy (that requires a thorough consensus process) but propose positions on particular issues. We have a specific note opposing an under-16 ban, and are preparing one on VPNs.

2026-07-07 21:12:35 UTC

From a distance, it seems like a Clacton by-election is a huge opportunity for the UK Green Party. Yes, it's a stupid stunt by Farage to distract from his corruption, but it's happening. Labour and the Lib Dems have already bowed out, so the Greens will have the only viable anti-Farage candidate. Worst case scenario is that Farage wins and the Greens were the only party who stood up to him.
The Green candidate will be a local, and it's a running joke that Farage doesn't care about Clacton. Nobody likes being subjected to a forced by-election. The Greens are a far more plausible anti-Establishment party, and they'll have a rare sustained period of media attention to hammer home just how posh and out-of-touch Farage is.
Most likely Farage will win, but the Greens will give him no break from scandal and he'll return even more compromised. Whereas the Greens will reinforce their message that they're the only major party fighting Reform everywhere.
Plus… they could win.
#UKPol

2026-06-29 22:12:11 UTC

Has anyone I know used Zitadel for single-sign-on to web applications? I'm especially interested in:
1. how it compares with Authentik, and
2. how well documented it is for specific web applications (as opposed to general principles).

2026-06-21 00:18:16 UTC

My new office isn't quite finished, but I've moved in anyway.
For some reason it seems very important to choose the right music to play, and I have chosen _Underground_ by Thelonious Monk.
https://files.cloudisland.nz/media_attachments/files/116/785/223/356/659/274/original/cf5fe977ee46ebe6.jpeg
https://files.cloudisland.nz/media_attachments/files/116/785/223/644/767/306/original/01fd09dcad9f91a6.jpeg

2026-06-20 20:08:26 UTC

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@nprofile…gydw Such a good album.

2026-06-01 06:42:51 UTC

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@nprofile…3eqn For sure. It's a somewhat tenuous connection. I don't know of any other near-future hard space SF on TV. I'd like to see more too.

2026-06-01 01:34:36 UTC

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@nprofile…3eqn Have caught up on FAM, only seen first season of The Expanse. I enjoyed it, but had to watch with subtitles as I could hardly understand a line of dialogue. I'm wondering whether to read the books first.
Other things: Babylon 5 is kind of like if humans with Expanse tech had encountered other species with Star Trek tech a couple of generations ago. Modulo nineties production values on a tight budget, and playing with contemporary expectations that nothing change between episodes (spoiler: everything changes, and they arguably invented modern “prestige” TV writing, but it's not obvious at first).
I am always going to recommend Babylon 5 though.

2026-05-26 07:59:06 UTC

I'd better start a list of good rhymes in case I need to have a career as a rapper.
So far I have:
- oysters and mussels / boisterous tussles / moister than Russel's
- giant mutant ants / Mayan adjutants

2026-05-25 00:14:03 UTC

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Magnificent is the new company that @nprofile…v9wr and I have founded, which I may have alluded to mysteriously from time to time. We will be providing libre web applications like Nextcloud, OnlyOffice, and BigBlueButton to organisations that don't have the time or resources to self-host.
#MagnificentNZ

2026-05-25 00:13:38 UTC

Oh hey…
https://magnificent.nz

2026-05-23 20:35:39 UTC

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@nprofile…gydw I know there are higher priorities for conservation, but suppose we go another twenty years without a sighting of a South Island kōkako. If the breeding population of North Island kōkako has continued to grow, and there are suitable predator-free locations, should we introduce North Island birds into the South Island?

2026-05-18 22:11:18 UTC

I found a typo in a US government document. Presumably there is no existing fixed definition for the word "specificaton”, so I am considering whether it might be possible to establish a conventional meaning that would allow me to legally restructure their entire government.

2026-05-17 20:35:56 UTC

Among the number of those worthy and illustrious persons of whom it may be said with complete veracity that this is the birthday, I have at this juncture the distinct and unvarnished pleasure to account, in light of the passing of a fifty-second year, my humble self.

2026-05-08 03:12:29 UTC

I gather that anti-Treaty group Hobson's Pledge have just emailed their members telling them to join InternetNZ. So… good time to spread the word again. If you can join, encourage someone else to join, or renew your membership, now's the time.

2026-05-05 04:25:00 UTC

The InternetNZ AGM is scheduled for 13 August. This means that if you, or anyone you know, hasn't joined or renewed their membership, there's still time. There's a 90-day, so if you're an active member by about 13 May you'll still be eligible to vote in the AGM.
Right wing groups will be recruiting again to try to get another candidate onto the InternetNZ Board, with the goal of removing its main function as a civil society organisation focused on equitable access to the internet. So if you're a member, please check that you're current. And if you're not, please consider joining so there's a strong vote at that AGM for a progressive candidate.
#InternetNZ

2026-05-04 19:03:07 UTC

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@nprofile…5w5c I've known some reasonably decent people who got involved early on when they thought it was going to be basically a libertarian party. But they left pretty quickly.

2026-05-03 03:34:15 UTC

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@nprofile…3src “One of the biggest financial crises”… that raises an interesting question. Is the imminent financial crisis from the US war on Iran separate from the imminent financial crisis from the collapse of the AI bubble? Or are they one big imminent financial crisis?

2026-04-25 09:24:11 UTC

The studio is coming along well. Half the ceiling is now in place.
But also I have invented a way to make a little movable shelf that a person can use when they are at the top of a ladder and don't want to go back down for tools.
I guess one could also wear a tool belt, but I made a shelf. I am very proud that I had the idea to make a shelf.
https://files.cloudisland.nz/media_attachments/files/116/464/618/212/868/672/original/f7d540f21eeb0642.jpeg
https://files.cloudisland.nz/media_attachments/files/116/464/618/548/895/485/original/f6f14cb2e38274a7.jpeg

2026-04-16 09:33:00 UTC

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@nprofile…gydw Seems like a pump-and-dump scheme. The company is going under and the shares are about to be worthless… but if you can inflate their value in the short term you can sell out quickly and somebody else will be the sucker.
Always a shame when it happens to a company that once made good products that people wanted to buy.
@nprofile…wj33 @nprofile…lqmm @nprofile…kpw3

2026-04-12 06:47:59 UTC

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@nprofile…5w5c I have an elderly relative who came out with that once. I was shocked: it's obvious to all cyclists that about half of the car drivers on the road are too lazy to indicate, but until then I hadn't realised that some were making an active choice.

2026-04-06 06:35:36 UTC

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@nprofile…r769 A question I find useful is “How come we can still bounce lasers off the mirrors that the Apollo astronauts left up there?” Because that's something they don't mention in the hoax shows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Ranging_Retroreflector

2026-04-06 06:22:17 UTC

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@nprofile…r769 For what it's worth, I knew a guy who went through a moon landing hoax phase. I caught up with him again a few years later at a Skeptics meeting. So the radicalisation process doesn't always go in a straight line.

2026-03-30 18:43:36 UTC

Always amused by American tech pundits speculating on how often ordinary people buy new phones. They probably only upgrade every other year. Maybe sometimes they go three years because the new phones aren't exciting enough.
I'm interested enough in technology to listen to this on my six-year-old phone, but still don't feel it's worth the money to buy a new one this year.

2026-03-26 06:14:44 UTC

Last few days join InternetNZ or renew your membership if you want to be eligible to vote in the AGM later this year.
Atlas-connected right-wing group FSU will be continuing their attempts to take it over. They want to change its fundamental purpose to increase access to the internet in New Zealand, and turn it into a mere commercial operation.

2026-03-20 07:03:09 UTC

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@nprofile…fh5u It's worked for them so far. As far as they know.

2026-02-22 02:50:43 UTC

I keep forgetting that I own sash clamps.
There are a lot of wood-related problems that you can solve with four good quality sash clamps if you remember that they're hanging on the wall just behind you.

2026-02-12 19:57:10 UTC

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@nprofile…5w5c Already has.
Oh, like, bad _for him_?
I'm OK if he dies rich, so long as it's in tax exile, unable to visit the many countries where he'd be immediately arrested, his name a byword for incompetence and corruption, and politicians terrified to be associated with him or anyone like him.

2026-01-08 18:57:16 UTC

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@nprofile…gydw Huntsbury! That's only four valleys away from here.
How do we tell them about all the harakeke we have in Heathcote?

2025-12-22 19:18:07 UTC

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@nprofile…g3p0 It's hard to see any PR value for Willis in debating Chlöe. It's very very important to National (and Labour) that the Green Party be perceived as fringe. Their long-standing economic positions depend on maintaining a consensus that ignores basic concepts like physical resource limits, managing commons, or evaluating wellbeing.
Staging a debate is always always always an exercise in setting the boundaries of allowable discourse. These two positions are the ones that matter, no others exist.
A Willis/Chlöe debate would require Willis to defend the crumbling edifice of neoliberal economics. A Willis/Richardson debate would have them both agreeing on that, and make whatever petty differences they have seem significant.
They may be pushing it, as nobody else can discern any meaningful difference to debate. But it's a typical TPU tactic to push something ridiculous and see if they can con journalists into trying to explain why it makes sense, or even matters.

2025-12-16 07:40:32 UTC

I have no insightful things to say about the shootings in Bondi, but I have some very obvious things I could say. Sometimes we forget to say very obvious things like these.
Anti-semitism is real and pervasive and dangerous.
This is still true even when false accusations of anti-semitism are slung around as political slurs against anyone who opposes the genocide of Palestinians.
Criticising the government of the modern state of Israel isn't anti-semitism.
But anti-semitic phrases and talking points are frequently repeated by people who claim to be pro-Palestine.
And not always unwittingly. Organised anti-semitic groups are very keen to turn people's righteous anger about genocide into racial hatred of Jews.
It's hard to navigate all this when your intentions are good. But you are not excused from trying.
Because anti-semitism is real.

2025-12-15 01:56:41 UTC

Are there any Linux people on Mastodon?
I want to know how best to dual boot Linux on an M1 MacBook Pro. Ideally Ubuntu, as that's what I'm used to having provisioned on servers. I would like it to be stable, and support as much of the hardware as possible, including an external monitor.
It would be nice if I could boot from an SD card without partitioning the internal drive, but I doubt this is possible.
I do not want to run it through virtualisation software hosted on macOS, because my goal here is to see how feasible it would be to fully switch my everyday life over.
I probably have other idiosyncratic preferences that I currently assume are too normal to mention, but will prove to be strange.
How does one do this in 2025?

2025-12-13 20:27:22 UTC

I would like feedback on a line of thinking, as follows.
What's going on in the United States is clearly fascism. Fascism traffics in ultranationalistic “lost glory” narratives, where the essentially glorious nation has been blocked from its rightful dominance by enemies inside and out.
However… Germany in the 1930s genuinely had been blocked from dominating Europe. Russia in the 2000s genuinely had been reduced from a superpower to a petrostate. But the United States in the 2010s was arguably still the most economically, militarily, and culturally powerful state in the world.
Given this, the “Make America Great Again” narrative is a different class of fascist bullshit. All fascism presents a package of lies, but American fascism lacks the kernel of truth that other fascisms exploited.
What am I missing here?

2025-12-08 06:50:24 UTC

Everything is terrible and I am bad at everything and very tired and old and shut up brain we just have a cold. You are like this every time we have a cold. It is literally the first symptom.

2025-12-07 09:39:06 UTC

Does anyone know a definitive origin for the term “libre software” in English? In particular, can it be pinned down whether “libre” derives from French, Spanish, or some other Romance language?
The clearest reference I currently have is from a European Commission working group in 2000, which says the term is both Spanish and French, and sometimes used “even when speaking in English”. But I'm wondering whether there's anything earlier to cite.
#Libre

2025-12-04 19:32:30 UTC

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@nprofile…fwwf I am concerned about the disturbing tendency I see to re-evaluate the previous vile government as being not so bad compared to the current vile government. I don't have time for people being nostalgic about John Key. He was marginslly better than Luxon, but he was still a monster. I have honestly seen people claim that George W. Bush was a good leader just because he's now the third worst US president instead of the second.
If there's any way out of this collapse, there need to be standards. People deserve leaders who can clear some meaningful bar of competence and kindness, not just ones who are no longer the worst.
So I vote for remembering and speaking of dishonourable past leaders. Because in practice the alternative isn't forgetting them, it's actually valorising them.

2025-11-27 09:15:33 UTC

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@nprofile…sp74 New Green Party quiz night team name just dropped.

2025-11-16 06:51:48 UTC

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@nprofile…glz5 There is a legend that a very hot summer in Jamaica in 1966 meant nobody wanted to dance to ska, so musicians slowed it down and invented rocksteady.
Another that it was caused by a new drummer for the Skatalites who couldn't play at the same speed as the previous drummer, so the band deliberately changed their tempo.
Another that rude boys would deliberately dance to ska at half speed, because it made them look menacing and cool.
In any case, reggae emerged from rocksteady, so whatever the story it began as slowed-down ska.

2025-11-15 01:47:52 UTC

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@nprofile…98cu Like, you would think that the difference between a regularly flood and a “flash” flood would be that the latter has more expensive tastes. But apparently this is a different usage if the word “flash”.

2025-11-15 01:44:17 UTC

Flash floods are not as ostentatiously stylish as you'd think.

2025-11-15 01:40:42 UTC

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@nprofile…98cu
https://files.cloudisland.nz/media_attachments/files/115/551/164/024/192/427/original/d74ce58228350d61.jpeg

2025-11-15 01:12:16 UTC

I got home right before a sudden thunderstorm. This was very pleasing, and I shall now stay home for the rest of the day. There will be a lap available to all the household's disconcerted cats.

2025-11-12 02:27:13 UTC

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@nprofile…fsjn Don't be fooled by appearances. Look into their eyes.
The Oamaru elephant is nervous and uncertain. It is not a confident elephant. It is physically strong, but unreliable. It has no fat to draw on when conditions are harsh. It will over-exert itself and quickly tire.
The Christchurch elephant has the battle-scarred thousand-yard stare of an elephant that has been tested many times, and is still standing. It is lesser in raw strength, but greater in wisdom and preparedness. It knows exactly how to wield the capabilities it possesses to deliver the precise response demanded by each situation. It has developed the rotund physique of a relentless adversary with resources to sustain it against lengthy trials. You can see that it is not scared.

2025-11-04 04:50:44 UTC

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@nprofile…glz5 Thanks, I'll have a listen.
I do find it hard to imagine what role a former Labour leader could have in a Green Party. I suspect it would be too disruptive to have him as an MP, and the media would assume he was running everything. I'd also be concerned that he'd model it as a left party instead of a green party, or at least assume that the distinction was more superficial than it really is.
Perhaps there's a need in the UK for something like New Zealand's Alliance Party, built essentially on an electoral pact for various progressive parties to fight FPP elections together. But the Green political brand was stronger on its own once we shifted to MMP. The UK Greens may have already achieved that without PR.
@nprofile…g3p0 @nprofile…98cu

2025-11-02 06:34:45 UTC

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@nprofile…5nnv A few years back I worked for a company that was bought by Z. The greenwashing was super obvious, and it weirded me out that nobody else seemed to be bothered by it. They said they were on an exciting mission stop selling petrol, but offered no coherent plan, and in the meantime could we help them sell some petrol. Everyone acted like this made sense. When I asked how they were going to stop selling petrol, they explained patiently to me that it is actually very hard for a company that sells petrol to stop selling petrol.
I've never felt more like I might be autistic in my life.

2025-11-01 23:11:20 UTC

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@nprofile…glz5 Galloway is definitely a much clearer case. Perhaps it would be fair to say that there's a spectrum from person-driven to movement-driven. Your Party is somewhere in the middle. My view is that it's not movementy enough to survive, but reasonable people may differ. I am pretty biased towards the movementy side of the spectrum.
I guess we also all tend to perceive the parties we know best as movementy, and reduce those we don't know to personalities.
@nprofile…g3p0 @nprofile…98cu

2025-11-01 21:58:43 UTC

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@nprofile…glz5 That's fair. There are certainly people behind them, it's just not obvious to me that there's a movement in the sense I'm (somewhat idiosyncratically) using. I don't have a sense of any overall ideology beyond general leftism, or other Strong institutions sharing the same values in other spheres and that makes me feel the entire project is vulnerable.
I'm open to the possibility that I've been affected by a misleading portrayal of the project as “Corbynite” when there's much more there than one man. But fundamentally I know what a Green Party is because I know what the green worldview is. I don't have a good mental model for what Your Party is about.
@nprofile…g3p0 @nprofile…98cu

2025-11-01 18:29:28 UTC

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@nprofile…glz5 When I say movement, I mean an ideology that's expressed in many projects and institutions. The green movement isn't just the Green Party, it's also Greenpeace, Forest & Bird, the Sierra Club, and many other strong organisations. It's grounded in science and has a coherent economic analysis. The party belongs to that movement, not the other way around.
Corbyn seems like a decent guy, but I don't see a movement behind him. At most he's appealing to a movement that the Labour Party used to represent, but that wasn't enough to overcome the neoliberal movement that it currently exists to serve.
I'm being super reductive of course, and perhaps there's a better word for what I mean. But I'm generally unconvinced by parties that form around particular people. No matter how rapidly they grow in the short term, they're not stable.
@nprofile…g3p0 @nprofile…98cu

2025-11-01 05:43:06 UTC

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@nprofile…glz5 I agree on growing membership and maintaining culture. I think what's critical there is that there be a wider movement and workdview that the party represents. There is a solid small-g green perspective that grounds economic and social concerns in ecological science. It needs a political wing, thus the Green Party. The specific people are important tactically, but if all current MPs and members disappeared overnight, a new green party would rapidly form. No other existing party is going to advance a green political agenda.
This is why I was never particularly interested in Your Party. That's some people trying to catalyse a movement, not a movement creating a party. Likewise TOP in New Zealand.
@nprofile…g3p0 @nprofile…98cu

2025-11-01 05:25:03 UTC

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@nprofile…glz5 I'm an outside observer, and would defer to anyone more familiar, but my impression is that Te Pāti Māori's current troubles have a lot more to do with John Tamihere's personality than any systemic issues. A lot has been said about generational differences and iwi allegiances and urban/rural splits, but I suspect these are outsiders' projections of what they imagine the factions to be.
I'm certainly familiar with this dynamic in media portrayals of imaginary Green Party factions.
@nprofile…g3p0 @nprofile…98cu

2025-10-31 23:43:58 UTC

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@nprofile…glz5 For sure. Being everywhere is important, and needs to be organised when you have to do it on a volunteer basis.
@nprofile…98cu @nprofile…g3p0

2025-10-31 23:23:59 UTC

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@nprofile…glz5 I generally agree with you that there's little sign of a Green surge in New Zealand right now. We're holding up well, as we have been for years, but Labour can offer warmed-over neoliberal nonsense and still rely on 2-3 times the votes.
However… I also think this isn't anything major we're doing wrong, just a general complacency in our society fed by pervasive denialist propaganda. You do what you can in that environment, but the main thing is to stay true to your principles, remain a credible institution, and be ready to take advantage when the old order collapses. That seems to be happening for the UK Greens now. I don't think we can force it here.
@nprofile…98cu @nprofile…g3p0

2025-10-25 19:33:42 UTC

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@nprofile…p7rx That's OK, nobody expects you to boost the same number of posts everyd… oh, post-BOOSTER. Not POST-booster. Never mind then, my advice probably isn't relevant.
Look after yourself.

2025-10-25 01:13:47 UTC

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@nprofile…cjng Zork is being very stoic about the whole thing.
https://files.cloudisland.nz/media_attachments/files/115/432/149/688/809/954/original/bc1bfaa1ef51521b.png

2025-10-20 01:41:07 UTC

"We've heard the lesson of last term: too much, too fast - not enough finished... The next Labour government will be different."
- Chris Hipkins
You can always rely on the Labour Party to understand one-third of what it needs to do. There was definitely a problem last time with not finishing much of anything. Good analysis, kudos for that. I am, however, not sure that promising to attempt even less, at an even slower pace, is really the way to address that.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/576428/labour-announces-future-fund-as-first-key-election-policy

2025-10-13 06:11:25 UTC

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@nprofile…sxdw My opinion on self-driving cars has evolved over time. I used to think they were impossible, but now I realise that I underestimated the probability of the government removing all legal consequences for killing pedestrians and cyclists.
@nprofile…f7tf

2025-10-12 05:34:44 UTC

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@nprofile…sxdw I feel like fixing that would be very much in the spirit of the book. However, it's a text that people find so inspiring that they don't want it to evolve… even though the authors are describing a framework that they've designed to evolve.
Really, it should never have been published as a book. It should have been a card file, and come with empty cards to add your own patterns.
@nprofile…6xvq

2025-10-09 23:03:36 UTC

I keep seeing headlines about how Israel has agreed to a deal to release hostages, but the bodies of the articles only mention Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Is there any requirement that Israel release its Palestinian hostages?

2025-09-25 07:46:05 UTC

I'm Antifa, and so are you.

2025-06-20 06:08:14 UTC

I sat down to make a submission on the Regulatory Standards Bill, thinking it might take a couple of days to plan and write.
Then I remembered that I already wrote a submission when this was a Ministry document. Due to the weird process chosen for this bill, I could just edit what I already had, changing “proposed bill" to “Bill”.
I've tightened it up a bit and made it flow better, but it only took 20 minutes.
Maybe you’ll find the same.

2025-06-18 20:00:23 UTC

Max Rashbrooke on the Green Party's new fiscal policy.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/19-06-2025/the-greens-have-broken-dramatically-with-the-james-shaw-era

2025-06-14 20:28:24 UTC

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@nprofile…5wev I played bass for the Winter Ducklings back in the nineties. People loved our epic slowed-down industrial metal cover versions of classic fifties bubblegum pop tunes.

2025-06-14 20:19:19 UTC

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@nprofile…5wev How social are tūī? I'm wondering whether this is one particularly adventurous bird who's been to Heathcote Valley and Cashmere recently, or whether it indicates others are likely to follow.

2025-06-13 20:49:07 UTC

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@nprofile…rrhg @nprofile…5wev Don't human languages vary in the degree to which word order matters? I recall learning some Esperanto, where subject and object order doesn't matter, because objects are always marked. Do we have good evidence that sequence is necessary in human language?

2025-06-04 07:44:15 UTC

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@nprofile…s06p We've never had a government in New Zealand that was for 100% socialisation, and I don't believe there's ever been anything on the economic left as extreme as we've seen on the right from National and Labour in the last forty years.
As you say, the sensible position should be to do what actually works. Socialise natural monopolies and basic services, regulate markets and shape taxation to incentivise desirable outcomes, compete with SoEs where necessary.

2025-05-18 19:55:36 UTC

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@nprofile…k87k
VLADIMIR: The Vengabus is coming
And everybody's jumping
ESTRAGON: New York to San Fransisco
An intercity disco
VLADIMIR: The wheels of steel are turning
And traffic lights are burning
ESTRAGON: So if you like to party
Get on and move your body

2025-05-17 19:32:26 UTC

Of me it is the birthday.

2025-05-14 01:19:16 UTC

Green Budget has dropped.
https://www.greens.org.nz/green_budget_2025
#NZGreens #NZPol

2025-05-05 22:37:45 UTC

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@nprofile…cgjt Sorry if that came across as condescending.
Yeah, I suspect that this is almost all of the zero-employee companies.

2025-05-05 22:29:35 UTC

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@nprofile…cgjt There may be some, but the joke here is really about an ambiguity in the word "employees”. We often use it loosely to mean "people who work for the company”, but technically it means something more like "people who have an employment contract”.
Most will be people who are self-employed, or small companies that use contractors who are technically separate entities.
There are very few companies in New Zealand what would count as even medium-sized in a larger country.

2025-05-05 21:17:13 UTC

According to these official government statistics, nearly three quarters of businesses in New Zealand have zero employees.
https://www.business.govt.nz/data-for-business
From this I can conclude:
1. Our economy is haunted.
2. Per capita, New Zealand is the most productive country in the world.

2025-04-25 06:48:48 UTC

My children have raised an important question. If Batman and Robin slide down batpoles to get to the batcave, how does Alfred get there? Is there an Alfredpole? If so, how did he manage in this episode to arrive carrying a tray with cups of hot tea?

2025-04-23 20:09:23 UTC

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@nprofile…n580
[stands to attention]
[places hand over heart]
[opens mouth to sing Canterbury anthem]
[realises he doesn't know whether Canterbury even has an anthem]
[brief pause for thought]
Fly let's fly away
Honey bees are flying today
If you love honey
Then you'll love Honey Puffs

2025-04-23 07:57:12 UTC

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@nprofile…5wev Would it be suitable for kids aged nine and ten? They will have no problem with the distance, but might not find it easy to stand still without climbing all the trees.

2025-04-11 05:57:58 UTC

I came here to make friends and chew bubblegum, and I brought an extra packet of bubblegum if you want some.

2025-03-29 20:54:33 UTC

If you've been waiting on joining InternetNZ to keep it from falling into the hands of the right-wing FSU… the time has come. To vote in the important AGM in July you'll need to join before the end of March.
Their membership process has been overwhelmed with numbers they've never had before, and it's not clear yet how many are aligned with FSU and how many are there to defend the new constitution. Best make sure they don't get to co-opt an important institution.

2025-03-26 23:45:32 UTC

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@nprofile…5wev So… for the good of the pigeons we need to feed hairdressers heavier cakes.
@nprofile…g2ay

2025-03-16 00:25:48 UTC

Reminder that the so-called Free Speech Union is trying to take over InternetNZ to force a right-wing agenda on an organisation that's trying to adopt a constitution that acknowledges Te Tiriti.
https://internetnz.nz/news-and-articles/internetnzs-proposed-constitution-released/
If you haven’t already, you can join InternetNZ for $21 and vote to support it continuing as an organisation that cares about digital equity. If you can join before 31 March, you’ll be eligible to vote before a critical AGM in July.
https://internetnz.nz/membership/

2025-03-09 23:14:25 UTC

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@nprofile…2hrv Meeting to be chaired by Weasel.
@nprofile…ufeq

2025-02-28 19:34:12 UTC

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@nprofile…5wev Over here in southeastern Christchurch you can tell when there's a kōtuku around because of all the photographers. They can't go anywhere without paparazzi.

2025-02-26 08:05:16 UTC

InternetNZ is the non-profit, member-run organisation that runs the .nz domain. They are introducing a new constitution that centres Te Tiriti, and have a policy agenda for 2025 that includes digital equity and targeting disinformation.
The so-called Free Speech Union have a campaign trying to stack the membership to stop this, and assert a right-wing agenda.
If you're able to join InternetNZ, now's a good time.
https://internetnz.nz/membership/

2025-01-19 06:11:14 UTC

There will be a hīkoi in Ōtautahi on Waitangi Day, 6 February, from Victoria Square to New Brighton.
:flag_tino: Toitū te Tiriti :flag_tino:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1AtSc6KG6Z/
https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2025/waitangi-day-hikoi-otautahi/christchurch
#NZPol