Yesterday I saw my 2nd "common" ectemnius, on a roadside near Lincoln, #NZ. This wasp is from Europe, Asia, & North America. It was first found in the southern hemisphere in Feb 2020 in Christchurch by Hannah Nolan, for her undergrad entomology collection at #LincolnUniversityNZ. It triggered a biosecurity response, and she passed the course.

There have now been 30 observations, all in and around Christchurch, as it slowly expands.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/266870319

Daily Footrot - the problem with cats

Daily Footrot - springtime

For your consideration

Petition of Tanya Waikato: Cancel the school lunches contract with the School Lunch Collective #NZ #Aotearoa #NZPol

https://petitions.parliament.nz/1beadf52-36ff-4963-bb16-08dd60c31487

Somewhere in the Middle-Earth, I mean New Zealand. The peach colour and how it barely touches the peak is my favourite thing about this photo.

A car has hit people in Auckland's Symonds St. It sounds chaotic at the moment, but here's a witness.

"The car mounted the kerb and swerved towards us on the footpath, then it drove up the footpath outside the Engineering school and then swerved back towards the road and hit a big group of students who were crossing Symonds Street."

"... there is one guy partially trapped under the car, and a woman who was lying on the road. Both are injured but alive."

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360626122/car-mounts-footpath-and-hits-people-auckland-university

What's different about the tauhou this year? We've always had them around in late summer, but this year they have been dashing themselves against our windows and several have died. This hasn't happened before and it isn't obvious what we can do to help them. We have a few diffractive stickers up already that I previously thought were doing as much as needed, but it's clearly not working now.

Tauhou culture shift?

Need for new stickers? More stickers? Different type of sticker?

@va2lam

Ah, sorry, default is followers only.

But started a thread discussing #NewZealand | #Aotearoa and Canada with the question: "Your profile mentions you spend time in #Wellington, the capitol of NZ. Is it like #Ottawa?"

Did you want to repost your responses? or I can…

Racism in #Aotearoa, as relayed on Reddit. Unfortunately Iʼm no longer allowed to comment in the #NZ subreddit, oddly.

https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/1jh5gsp/my_experiences_here_regarding_racism/ #racism

Here's a great fireball caught last night by the camera on my house, submitting data to the Global Meteor Network.

If you thought your rate increase was a bit steep, think of the people in Clutha being hit with 60% increases.

In particular Milton, Waihola, Clinton and Tapanui will all get rises of more than 60% for a typical residence. Several accounts are hitting the $5k mark with an average Milton household paying $4891 (up from $3021).

https://www.smry.ai/proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.odt.co.nz%2Fregions%2Fsouth-otago%2Fproposed-rates-rises-still-ungodly-mayor-says

I have a Kindle Paperwhite which is excellent. I like the 7" screen size, narrow bezels, and the auto brightness.

But not happy with Amazon itself so looking for an alternative - I've already converted all my books to unlocked ePub.

Looking at a Kobo Libra as they seem to be similar spec. (though only colour version is in stock)

Has anyone got experience of both and if so are they really comparable?

I know there are some other alternatives but hard to find in NZ.
#ereader #nz

Please help support these writers if you can, ngaa mihi nui.

This campaign aims to supplement the financial cost of publishing three books by kaituhi Māori. #Māori #Kaituhi #Writers #Boosted #Aotearoa #NZ #Indigenous

In the next 12 months, Āporo Press will publish a debut full-length poetry collection from Nicola Andrews (Ngāti Pāoa), a debut novel by Laura Vincent (Ngāti Māhanga, Ngāpuhi) and a mixed poetry and photography collection by Jo Bragg (Ngāti Porou).

https://www.thearts.co.nz/boosted/projects/three-books-from-aporo-press?tab=about

Elon Musk’s DOGE is tearing through the US government with disastrous consequences.

But beyond its borders, the extreme right is gearing up to push their own DOGE-inspired austerity campaigns in countries around the world.

https://www.disconnect.blog/p/doge-is-going-global-it-needs-to