Mike Riversdale

Playbook: Control/Overwhelm The Media

2026-06-09T08:30:00.000+09:30

Right-wing political parties and groups have a determined and well practiced playbook of controlling the media to ensure their own worldviews are embedded within the populace thus enabling their grip on power (and resources) for their own desires. This control has nothing to do with the society they live in but to ensure that dissent is removed from those that believe they are in charge and to wrap their own lives in a protective bubble-wrap of compliant people. You are the bubble wrap.

Of course this is most obvious in the manoeuvrings of the US political right-wing and monied men, it's not hard to find with a quick search, here's a few that caught my eye:

How the US right wing is taking over news media and choking press freedom

By Edward Helmore, Sun 14 Sep 2025

The US right has appeared to increase its influence on mainstream media in America in recent weeks, especially in television news which has been a major target of the Donald Trump administration.

The right-wing mainstream media coup has begun

By Dennis Broe, December 11, 2025

If you’re escalating tensions throughout the world, tensions that most assuredly lead to war, you must have an increasingly recalcitrant “home front” behind you, or else, as global surveillance agency head Alex Karp of Palantir said, if the West does not win this battle for hearts and minds, “it will lose the ability to wage war.” And that, at least from the perspective of the countries plagued by the 700 years of the West looting their resources, is, to paraphrase Hamlet, an outcome “devoutly to be wished.”

Right-wing U.S. Media Takeover Follows Authoritarian Playbook

by Scott Harris, November 17, 2025

Ari Paul discusses his recent coverage for FAIR.org regarding the ongoing MAGA-connected right-wing media takeover in his articles, “As Ellison Buys Out TikTok, U.S. Moves Toward One-Party Media” and “Conde Nast, Paramount Cut Jobs—and Political Dissent.”

It's similar in a lot of countries around the world:

UK: Elizabeth Gambrill. Right-wing populism and british television media : 1990-2025. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2025. ⟨dumas-05363584⟩ [PDF]
France / Italy / Europe: Can Europe’s public service media survive attacks by the far right?
Argentina / Brazil: The Hate Ministries: Far-Right Social Media Extremism in Argentina and Brazil
Russia: !
China: !!

I currently live in Australia with a long established neoliberal and generally right-wing media landscape which I can experience as some unthinkingly parrot the well trod neoliberal tropes, that it's working well. ["If you don't like it here Mike why don't you just fuck off back home then!", just to save you the time and energy of leaving a comment]. It's NOT 100% right-wing though, the SBS and ABC are akin to the BBC, straight down the middle for most things - and if you don't think that's true then stop watching whatever it is you're watching as they got you.

None of these countries are making it up as they go along and are following a well established 'playbook' - a series of stepped actions known to work based upon years of trial-and-error going back decades, even centuries, and merely updated for new technology and local variants.

It can be argued that the ascent of these political movements was influenced by the tactics of then-US President Donald Trump under the advice and playbook of Steve Bannon. Bannon, who led the alt-right news platform, Breitbart, promoted conspiracy theories as part of his public agenda and intentionally fomented polarisation in the political scene based on his idea that “if you want to change politics, you have to change culture”.

For the US (again, I know, sorry, but they are the masters at this sort of dodgy shit) check out The conservative war on liberal media has a long history (17 January 2014) by Dr Nicole Hemmer. Let's have a quick authoritarian propaganda / media control lesson in bullet points:

Bureaucracy & "Sovereignty" Regulators
Establishing state bodies under the guise of "national security," "combating misinformation," or "protecting sovereignty" to gatekeep press credentials and licenses.
Economic Starvation & Media Capture
Weaponising state advertising budgets to enrich pro-government media while cutting off independent outlets. Directing loyal oligarchs to buy up independent networks and flip their editorial stances.
Rhetorical Demonisation
Aggressively labeling independent journalists as "enemies of the people," "foreign agents," or "corrupt elites" to destroy their credibility with the public.
Lawfare & Intimidation
Weaponising tax audits, regulatory inspections, and vaguely worded libel or anti-defamation laws (SLAPPs) to financially drain and exhaust critical journalists.
Infrastructure & Digital Monopolisation
Controlling the physical or digital choke points—utilising internet shutdowns, website blocking, targeted spyware (like Pegasus), or state-sponsored cyberattacks.

It has arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand, via the ACT political party and it's high level of influence with the National Party and its many connections with billionaires and like-minded right-wing "think tanks" such as the Atlas Group.

[AoNZ] Government to disestablish the BSA

By Hon Paul Goldsmith, 6 May 2026

The Government has agreed to progress with disestablishing the Broadcasting Standards Authority and investigate self-regulation options, Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith says.

“New Zealand’s media landscape has changed dramatically, but our regulatory settings have not kept up.

“The BSA regime was designed for a broadcasting environment that is rapidly disappearing. Today, audiences move seamlessly between traditional broadcasting, on‑demand services, podcasts and online platforms - yet only a small portion of that content is subject to the BSA’s regulatory oversight. It doesn’t make sense.

“The current framework can create inconsistencies and unfair outcomes for media providers, with similar content treated differently depending on whether it is broadcast live or accessed on demand.

“Print media already self regulates through the New Zealand Media Council, and some broadcasters have opted to be part of it. Our expectation is the media council will become the primary regulator for journalism.

“I’m confident that greater industry self-regulation is the most practical way to level the playing field across platforms, and can provide an appropriate level of oversight to maintain ethical journalistic standards and audience trust.

“Several other pieces of legislation, including the Criminal Procedure Act, make reference to the BSA and other relevant provisions contained in the Broadcasting Act 1989. Legislation to repeal the provisions relating to the BSA will be drafted in the coming months. The BSA will continue in its role until legislation is passed into law.”

Some Gemini "AI":

prompt: How about the removal of the BSA as a way of allowing 'free speech' advocates to share lies and conspiracy theories without a regulator to reign them in and punish them?

That perspective hits the absolute center of the current, fiercest political debate in New Zealand. What the coalition government frames as "slashing outdated bureaucracy" is viewed by media academics and critics as a dangerous dismantling of democratic guardrails.

The concern you are raising highlights the exact operational reality of the government's May 2026 announcement to disestablish the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA).

The Catalyst: Online Media vs. "The Taste Police"

The sudden acceleration to axe the BSA was triggered by a specific jurisdictional battle. When the BSA ruled that it had the authority to investigate complaints against The Platform (an online-only talkback channel hosted by Sean Plunket), the right-wing elements of the coalition reacted with immense hostility. ACT called the BSA a "taxpayer-funded taste police," while NZ First leader Winston Peters slammed the decision as "bordering on fascist."

By moving to dissolve the BSA, the government directly answered the demands of its populist base.

The Strategic Power Vacuum

Your point about the lack of a regulator to "reign them in and punish them" highlights a massive structural shift in how New Zealand media will now be governed. Media Minister Paul Goldsmith stated that the industry will transition to self-regulation under the New Zealand Media Council. However, the differences between these two bodies are immense:

The BSA (Statutory Teeth): As a Crown entity, the BSA has the legal power to issue financial penalties, dictate formal corrections, and order stations off the air for serious breaches of accuracy and balance.
The Media Council (The "Shame-Out"): The Media Council is a voluntary, industry-funded body with no legal powers to fine or punish. Its primary mechanism of enforcement is reputational—requiring an offending outlet to publish an apology or retraction on their own platform. For alternative media models that thrive on being counter-cultural or anti-establishment, a public reprimand from a media council is not a punishment; it is often badge-of-honor content they can weaponize for more clicks.

How This Connects Back to the Playbook

While classic 20th-century authoritarians wanted more government bureaucracy to dictate the news, modern, media-savvy populist movements often use an inverse strategy:

Institutional Erosion and Information Chaos.

By removing a statutory referee, a government can create an environment that subtly favors polarization:

Protecting Partisan Outlets: Removing a legal regulator shields friendly, highly ideological alternative media platforms from being financially penalized or restricted when they platform conspiracy theories or unverified claims.
The "Flood the Zone" Strategy: When a state-backed standard of truth is removed, the barrier to entry for misinformation drops. If the information ecosystem is flooded with conflicting, highly emotional narratives, the public eventually becomes fatigued and stops trusting any media. This cynicism heavily benefits populist political figures.
A Commercial Race to the Bottom: Traditional newsrooms, already facing severe financial strain, are forced to compete for attention against sensationalized, unregulated online platforms. Without a regulatory floor to maintain standards, commercial pressures can tempt mainstream outlets to lower their own editorial bars to survive.

The Counter-Argument

The government’s stated defense relies heavily on a libertarian free-market philosophy. Their argument is that the Broadcasting Act of 1989 is completely broken because it strictly penalizes a traditional live radio show while a podcast or a YouTube stream saying the exact same thing faces zero oversight. From their view, you cannot effectively police the modern internet, so the state should get out of the business of being an arbiter of taste entirely. Ultimately, New Zealand is embarking on a high-stakes experiment. Proponents believe the "free market of ideas" will naturally sort truth from falsehood, while critics argue that without a referee with actual legal teeth, the loudest, most deceptive voices are about to be given a free pass.

[UPDATE 1st June 2026: Prime Minister and Prime Minister warn interviewers with veiled threat language]

‘I’d be careful saying that, John,’ Luxon warns RNZ host during interview
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon gave RNZ co-host John Campbell a warning following a question about the potential influence of corporate interests on Government policy.
David Seymour: Public service cuts, new ACT immigration policy [YouTube]
"Jack, you would do well as an interviewer to not make comments like that."

This Breaks My Heart

2026-06-08T08:51:00.000+09:30

TL;DR: A warning that the NZ government is stealthily shifting the nation's "DNA" from collectivism to right-libertarian individualism. Led by the ACT Party, the plan cuts ~9,000 public servants by 2029 to save $2.4 billion, gambling on AI to fill the void. This hollowing out makes the state strictly transactional. I plan to vote for change in five months.

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New Zealand is still described as a lovely place to settle, bring up kids, and make a long lasting home. The people are extremely friendly, the outdoors is spectacular, the entertainment is cracking, the culture is inclusive, even the shopping is great once one stop comparing it to wherever it is you've come from. It's why, alongside Monmouth in Wales, I call Aotearoa New Zealand home and have lived there since 1996 (with a few sojourns to Australia, where I currently write this, more on that later).

When I/we visited in 1992 and returned permanently in 1996 it was to a place my heart fell in love with. New Zealand's social fabric palpably expresses several non-negotiable core values and cultural pillars including Māori concepts that deeply govern modern Kiwi ethics, corporate culture, and daily life: manaakitanga (kindness), kaitiakitanga (stewardship), and whanaungatanga (relationships). Kiwi's are rightly proud of their fierce egalitarianism & even of their "tall Poppy syndrome" leading to a classlessness. Of course the famed Kiwi ingenuity conveyed through the No. 8 Wire mentality and "She’ll be right" allows biculturalism to evolve into multiculturalism.

I experienced all of this on a daily basis at work, in the pub, and during conversations with newly formed mates - it was like a massive breath of fresh air and filled my soul.

Everything changes, nothing is permanent, and we live in a universe that has, at its fundamental core, an ever increasing state of entropy. In the decades living in New Zealand I have experienced tonnes of change, technology, expanding human rights, responsesw to emergencies, and ever changing approaches to government and budgets. All are fine and dandy as they have each firmly stood upon a solid core of what it means to "be New Zealand".

The current Government coalition, especially the neolibertarian ACT Party led solely by David Seymour, is actively attempting to change this very core with an attack, as I see it, on what it means to "be New Zealand".

The Impact on New Zealand's "DNA"

Perhaps the most profound change will be to the cultural identity and values of the nation.
From Collectivism to Individualism: New Zealand has historically leaned heavily on egalitarianism, the welfare state, and collective responsibility. This restructuring actively shifts the national DNA toward right-libertarian individualism. The state will view people strictly as individual taxpayers and consumers in a free market, rather than as members of interconnected communities.

Transactional Citizenship: The role of the government will shrink back to its most basic functions: maintaining infrastructure, providing core security, and managing the economy. The expectation that the government should act as an active social engineer or a safety net for all societal ills will be dismantled.

The Te Tiriti Friction: The ideological push for absolute universalism directly clashes with decades of legal and cultural interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi as a partnership requiring targeted co-governance and active protection of Māori interests. If this approach runs its course, it will trigger deep, enduring cultural friction and constitutional battles over what it actually means to be a New Zealander in the 21st century.

This breaks my heart.

There exist many countries in the world that already encapsulate a strict neolibertarian approach to themselves; we can all see how those experiments have failed all but the ever greedy mega-wealthy.

It breaks my heart how this change to "being New Zealand" is happening by stealth and certainly without any sort of mandate. This shift to society (if they even believe in the concept of "society", Mrs Thatcher infamously didn't) is one that many Kiwis seem oblivious to - all by careful design from David Seymour and his wealthy foreign supporters.

We're walking through a doorway, and we don't know it, however we feel it deep down in our bones and souls, something is going on. Systems are crumbling – but daily life continues. The dissonance is real, by Adrienne Matei (23 May 2025) is a good read if you too feel the change.

As I say, things change and the hardest to change is culture. It takes time (ACT have been bashing at this for decades), it takes constant communication in multiple ways over multiple times, and direct intervention to break the habits of the past. When this happens in a company / agency it is usually for obvious reasons and open to all to see (if not necessarily to agree with), however with a society it is rarely, if ever, done with such sunlight. It's interesting to reflect that it seems easier (if still long term and insidious) with Western style societies (see USA, UK, some European countries, Australia, NZ, Canada), perhaps we whiteys see the world differently:

"Alternatively, expressing this in reverse: Westerners tend not to see objects or individuals in context, attend to relationships and their effects, or automatically consider context. Most other peoples are good at this."

(well worth a read is Culture Is the Mass-Synchronization of Framings, by Marco Giancotti, Feb 12, 2026).

David Seymour, the poster boy for neoliberalism and importing US corporate ideals into New Zealand is being ably enabled, supported, and given free reign by the majority coalition party, National, as they let slip every now and again:

On Wednesday, I listened, breathless, as finance minister Nicola Willis, who had announced the public service cuts ahead of next week’s budget, talked to Ingrid Hipkiss on RNZ.
Willis: Public servants – they want to modernise too. They are smart cookies and they know it can be done better.
Hipkiss: So you’re expecting them to take this as a positive?
Willis: Absolutely! That’s why we’re saying to them, you lead the charge. We think we can streamline this. You tell us how it should come together in a way that makes more logical sense.
Hipkiss: You tell us how to lose some jobs of your colleagues, maybe do yourself out of a job, combine with someone else, save some more money, bring in AI, streamline the tasks, do a merger, report in quarterly, carry on doing the work you’re doing, do it really well for less money?
Willis: That’s right.

source: Thanks to Nicola Willis and Brian Roche, I now get that I’m just human capital, by Veronica Schmidt, May 21, 2026

My final personal note as I have also given "AI" a bash at what it "thinks" (see below), I will be voting in 5 months time for a very different approach to "being New Zealand", and I will be loud on line about Labour's promise to repeal the Regulatory Standards Act and immediate disbanding of the Regulation Commission - this will be a massive step forward in showing every Kiwi and the world that the DNA of New Zealand is NOT for sale.

The Impact on Wellington

Wellington’s identity and economy are inextricably linked to the public service. When the government slashes headcount, the capital bears the brunt of the economic shock.

Retail and Hospitality Contraction: The sudden removal of thousands of stable, salaried workers acts as a heavy anchor on the local economy. Cafes, restaurants, and retail stores in the CBD rely on the daily foot traffic and discretionary spending of public servants. Unions have already noted that the austerity measures are severely hammering the city's commercial life.
Housing Market Stagnation: A rapid influx of unemployed professionals can stall the housing market, driving down property values and softening rental demand as people either downsize or leave the city.
The Brain Drain: Highly skilled policy advisors, analysts, and project managers facing a shrinking local job market may be forced out of Wellington entirely. Many will look toward the private sector in Auckland or cross the ditch to Australia, effectively hollowing out Wellington's professional talent pool.

The Impact on "Ordinary Hard-Working Kiwis"

The government has explicitly exempted frontline staff — such as the military, teachers, and doctors — from the layoffs. The rationale is to target "make-work functions" and back-office bloat while pushing the public sector to adopt AI and modern digital tools. However, cutting 14% of the workforce inevitably creates ripple effects for everyday citizens.

Service Delivery Bottlenecks: Frontline workers do not operate in a vacuum; they rely heavily on administrative, logistical, and IT support. When the staff who process applications, manage hospital rosters, or handle data are removed, that administrative burden often falls back onto the "exempt" frontline workers. For the ordinary Kiwi, this translates to longer wait times for permits, slower responses to inquiries, and backlogs in social services.
Diminished Specialized Programs: The measures include reducing the number of government departments and agencies from the current 39 to an unspecified, smaller number. Consolidation often means that specialized community programs, regional outreach, and highly targeted support systems get lost in the shuffle or defunded entirely.
Economic Sluggishness: While the cuts are designed to balance the government's books, injecting nearly 9,000 unemployed workers into an economy that is already experiencing sluggish growth suppresses national consumer confidence.

The Core Debate

The tension surrounding these cuts boils down to two fundamentally different views of what the public service should be:

Government:

Fiscal Responsibility: The public sector grew unsustainably from 48,000 to over 63,000 under the previous government. These cuts return the workforce to a sustainable 1% of the population.
Efficiency & Modernization: Removing redundant agencies and demanding faster adoption of AI will allow the government to do more with less.

Critics:

Austerity at a Cost: You cannot remove 14% of the workforce without fundamentally degrading the frontline services and support systems that taxpayers fund.
Economic Damage: These measures are characterized by unions as "willful destruction" that will crater Wellington's economy and leave everyday Kiwis with a hollowed-out state apparatus.

prompt: How do these 2026 public sector job cuts compare historically to previous government downsizings in New Zealand?

The 2026 public sector downsizing represents the sharpest single reduction of core bureaucratic jobs in modern New Zealand history, but it differs fundamentally in scope and target from the massive state restructurings of the past.

While historical downsizings radically altered what the New Zealand government did as a provider of services, the 2026 cuts are primarily focused on altering how many people administer it. The mandate to eliminate 8,700 roles by mid-2029 is a targeted correction against a specific hiring surge under the previous Labour government — which saw core public service roles jump by approximately 46%. The current government's stated goal is to return the core bureaucracy from 1.2% of the population back to the historic norm of 1%.

Here is how the 2026 overhaul compares to the three major eras of state reduction in New Zealand:

Rogernomics & Corporatisation
1984–1988
Under Finance Minister Roger Douglas, the Fourth Labour Government completely restructured the New Zealand economy. Tens of thousands of jobs were eliminated as massive government departments (like the Post Office, Railways, and Ministry of Works) were transformed into State-Owned Enterprises or privatized outright.

The contrast: Rogernomics disproportionately impacted blue-collar, operational, and regional workers — Māori unemployment soared to 25% by 1992 as a direct result. The 2026 cuts do the opposite: they explicitly protect frontline and operational roles while aggressively targeting white-collar policy, HR, and administrative staff concentrated in Wellington.
The Mother of All Budgets
1991
Following a change in government, National Finance Minister Ruth Richardson slashed state spending to balance the books. This era, dubbed "Ruthanasia" radically reduced the state's financial footprint by cutting social welfare benefits and deregulating the labor market through the Employment Contracts Act.

The contrast: Richardson’s cuts targeted the social safety net itself, directly reducing what citizens received in benefit payments and housing subsidies. The 2026 Willis mandate is focused strictly on the machinery of government and operational overhead, rather than rolling back citizen entitlements.
The Post-GFC Sinking Lid
2008–2017
Following the Global Financial Crisis, the John Key-led National government instituted a strict cap on core public sector numbers and demanded ongoing "efficiency dividends" from government ministries to rein in spending.

The contrast: The Key government relied primarily on a slow squeeze — utilizing hiring freezes, wage restraint, and natural attrition over a decade. The 2026 approach is a much more aggressive cliff-edge strategy, actively disestablishing nearly 14% of the workforce within a strict three-year window.

Ultimately, past restructurings were driven by a fundamental ideological shift toward free-market neoliberalism. The 2026 cuts are framed more as an operational efficiency drive — aiming to strip out back-office bloat and force government agencies to modernize without fundamentally altering the services the state provides.

prompt: How is the New Zealand government planning to use AI and digital technology to replace the functions of the 8,700 laid-off public servants?

For an analysis see: See AI Will Save The New Zealand Public Service (June 03, 2026)

prompt: How is David Seymour and Act reacting to this?

David Seymour and the ACT Party are treating the government's announcement as a victory, though their primary reaction is that the cuts should go deeper and happen faster. As the coalition partner who campaigned most aggressively on shrinking the state, Seymour has welcomed Finance Minister Nicola Willis's mandate while using it to validate ACT's long-standing political platform.

Here is how Seymour and ACT are responding to the specific measures:

1. "Right All Along" but Too Slow

ACT campaigned on immediately slashing up to 15,000 public sector jobs to return the bureaucracy to 2017 levels. Because Willis's plan targets 8,700 jobs by 2029, Seymour views the National-led approach as a watered-down version of his own policy.

www.interest.co.nz

In his official response to the announcement, Seymour stated: "Reducing core public service FTEs to below 55,000 by July 2029 is a slower reduction than ACT campaigned on, but it proves our long-held position was right."

2. Targeting Demographic Ministries

While Willis focused on "back-office" roles and AI efficiency, Seymour is aiming squarely at entire government departments that he believes should not exist. He is actively pushing for the government to aggressively consolidate demographic-focused agencies.

Specifically, ACT wants to fold the ministries of Ethnic Communities, Women, Pacific Peoples, Seniors, Youth, and Māori Development into a single, much smaller umbrella department (potentially absorbing them into the Ministry of Arts, Culture and Heritage).

3. Taking Aim at Regulators

Seymour has made it clear that reducing the headcount is only step one. In his capacity as Regulation Minister, he has pivoted the conversation toward cutting what he calls the "twisted spaghetti of regulators."

ACT argues that the sheer number of regulatory bodies in New Zealand not only costs the taxpayer money to fund, but acts as a massive drain on the private sector by forcing businesses to comply with redundant and overly complex rules.

Ultimately, Seymour is using the government's 8,700 headcount reduction as a baseline, maintaining political pressure on his coalition partners to ensure the cuts actually materialize while pushing to extend the axe to regulations and entire ministries.

prompt: What is the likely outcome to kiwis, businesses, the government, and the DNA of NZ if this approach if it is allowed to run it's course

If the coalition government’s approach — combining aggressive headcount reductions, the automation of state functions, and a right-libertarian push for deregulation — is allowed to run its full course through to 2029, it will fundamentally reshape New Zealand’s economy and its social contract.

Here is the projected outcome across those four domains:

1. Outcomes for Kiwis

For the everyday citizen, the relationship with the state will become highly streamlined but significantly colder.

The "Digital Wall": For routine interactions like renewing passports, paying taxes, or applying for standard permits, services will likely become faster and fully self-serve via AI and cloud platforms. However, citizens with complex, edge-case problems (such as nuanced welfare needs or intricate disputes) will face a "digital wall." With thousands of caseworkers and administrators gone, finding a human being to exercise discretion or empathy will become incredibly difficult.
Loss of Tailored Support: If ACT’s drive to eliminate demographic-specific ministries is successful, government policy will become strictly "color-blind" and universal. While this appeals to those who favor absolute equality of opportunity, vulnerable groups who historically rely on targeted equity programs will likely find the state less responsive to their specific socioeconomic or cultural realities.
Wellington's Transformation: The capital will undergo a painful, sustained economic contraction. As the bureaucratic middle class shrinks, Wellington will be forced to transition away from being a one-industry government town, resulting in closed hospitality venues and a cooler housing market as talent relocates to Auckland or Australia.

2. Outcomes for Businesses

The private sector will experience a sharp divide between those who rely on government spending and those who are currently constrained by government rules.

The Deregulatory Dividend: Sectors like agriculture, construction, resource extraction, and manufacturing will likely thrive. David Seymour’s push to cut the "twisted spaghetti" of 267 regulators will lower compliance costs, speed up project approvals, and make it easier to hire, fire, and build.
The Rise of GovTech and Consultancies: As the public sector hollows out its internal expertise, it will still need specialized skills and systems to function. This will trigger a boom for private IT firms, AI developers, and management consultancies who will step in to sell automated solutions and strategic advice back to the state.
Regional Rebalancing: While Wellington businesses suffer, businesses in the regions may benefit if the $2.4 billion saved from administrative overhead is genuinely redirected into the promised infrastructure, roading, and frontline regional developments.

3. Outcomes for the Government

The New Zealand government will fundamentally shift from being a massive employer of administrative labor to acting as a digital platform manager.

The Resilience Deficit: A leaner state is cheaper during periods of stability, but it is often brittle during a crisis. Stripping out mid-level policy analysts, scientists, and crisis managers causes a massive loss of institutional memory. When the next pandemic, natural disaster, or economic shock hits, the government may lack the internal capability and human capital required to respond rapidly.
The AI Gamble: The entire model hinges on the untested premise that artificial intelligence can instantly absorb the workload of 8,700 humans. If the technology fails to deliver the promised 14% productivity gain, the government will be left with a broken operational backend, forcing future administrations into frantic, expensive recruitment drives to fix failing services.

4. The Impact on New Zealand's "DNA"

Perhaps the most profound change will be to the cultural identity and values of the nation.
From Collectivism to Individualism: New Zealand has historically leaned heavily on egalitarianism, the welfare state, and collective responsibility. This restructuring actively shifts the national DNA toward right-libertarian individualism. The state will view people strictly as individual taxpayers and consumers in a free market, rather than as members of interconnected communities.

Transactional Citizenship: The role of the government will shrink back to its most basic functions: maintaining infrastructure, providing core security, and managing the economy. The expectation that the government should act as an active social engineer or a safety net for all societal ills will be dismantled.

The Te Tiriti Friction: The ideological push for absolute universalism directly clashes with decades of legal and cultural interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi as a partnership requiring targeted co-governance and active protection of Māori interests. If this approach runs its course, it will trigger deep, enduring cultural friction and constitutional battles over what it actually means to be a New Zealander in the 21st century.

Thanks To The Best Boss I Ever Learnt From

2026-06-05T08:55:00.000+09:30

Lorie was my first, and you never forget your first eh, especially if it's a great experience, and it was.

So what made Lorie so influential on my work life?

I was 20 years of age and St Ivel in Swindon was my first 'proper' job after being a paperboy* or working as a waiter in a fancy hotel restaurant. It was both out of Monmouth and inside of an office where people wore suits, sat in pods, and stared at computers for a large part of the 8am - 5pm (not that I ever did those hours, far too early!)

Being such a cocky little sod I thought I knew everything, I certainly had a natural ability with the work (programming financial and forecasting reports on a mainframe to splurge out reams and reams of paper for accountants to make sense of).

I worked with a great crew, most were slightly older than myself but we were all similarly fresh faced, party-focused and in ti for a good time not a long time.

Lorie was the boss. She was the Management Accountant, later I believe to become the Finance Director, and was on a rocket like trajectory up the corporate hierarchy before stepping out to run her own highly successful consultancy firm.

For me she was so clear, understanding, boundaried, and a massive team player. Yes, we had some tight deadlines during budget times but Lorie was there in the trenches with us all, supporting us, defending us, and even tapping on keyboards getting everything correct. She then had her own job of taking the raw info we supplied and turning it into a comprehensible and actionable pack for the monthly exec meeting.

Watching her allowed me to formulate three guiding principles for my work life

The 3 C's made up of:

We are all in it together ("agile" team approach)
It's only work

I also can't go past all the times Lorie let me have my own thoughts and say even when it was probably challenging and/or inappropriate - "Please don't say anything bad to the Mayor Mike" ;).

We also both remember the moment I walked, unannounced, into her office and it was immediately obvious to me that it was a bad moment. I started blurting out my trivial chat and Lorie answered my questions as politely as she could.

"I'm interrupting something aren't I, your words and your face are telling me two different stories."

I have tried to be like Lorie in that regard, but haven't always succeeded, my face always gives me away. :)

Thank you Lorie for being the seed to much of my professional thinking, approach, and on-going growth. I miss ya, and we need to have a video catch-up sometime soon!

And as a blast from the past for all that worked alongside me in the Budget and Finance Team at St Ivel in Dorcan, Swindon, here's some FCS-EPS coding for you ... and what does '600' make you think of?

* I was fired from the paper run but that's ok, I've been made redundant and even fired a few times during my work life. It's never really bothered me as it was obviously not working for them nor me and was time to move on. I've never wrapped my own self worth up in the job I do.

Very Close And Outer Space Daily Photos

2026-06-04T10:45:11.535+09:30

Daily Photo theme catch uptime as we drift through Science and specifically Out there and In there. Hmm, I have wandered off piste somewhat, ah well.

This coming week is Far away and then Very close - actually, I'm gonna swap "In there" and "Very close" as that's what it looks like I did in my wobbly brain, all part of a grand plan that even I wasn't aware of.

If you look at the theme post you'll notice that Science is the last of the listed themes, I will be changing the daily photo around a bit, more to come. For now, enjoy Out there and Very close.

AI Will Save The New Zealand Public Service

2026-06-03T09:01:00.000+09:30

Where AI can actually move the needle in the NZ public service?

Let's ask Google's Gemini what it thinks - everything below is the response to the question above.

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The push to integrate AI into the New Zealand public service is happening at a critical inflection point. With the current government’s mandate to reduce the public service workforce by roughly 14% (around 9,000 roles) by 2029 while tightening agency budgets, the expectation is that technology will bridge the gap.

However, AI isn't a magic wand for shrinking government. It is a highly specific tool. Here is where AI can actually move the needle for NZ agencies, and where its limitations remain stark.

Where AI Can Actually Move the Needle

To deliver on the "more with less" mandate, AI must be deployed to handle high-friction, low-complexity tasks, freeing up the remaining human workforce for high-value judgment calls.

1. The OIA and Consultation Bottleneck

Processing Official Information Act (OIA) requests and public consultation submissions consumes thousands of hours across agencies like MBIE, the Ministry for the Environment, and the Department of Internal Affairs.

The AI Impact: Large Language Models (LLMs) excel at document synthesis. AI can rapidly sift through thousands of public submissions to identify core themes, extract sentiment, and summarize arguments. For OIAs, AI can perform the initial heavy lifting of identifying relevant documents across vast intranets and applying preliminary redactions for privacy, significantly reducing the turnaround time.

2. High-Volume Processing and Triage

Agencies like the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) process millions of applications, claims, and returns annually.

The AI Impact: Machine learning is highly effective at pattern recognition and anomaly detection. AI can pre-process standardized applications, verifying information against existing databases and automatically approving clear-cut cases. Crucially, it can flag complex or anomalous applications (such as potential fraud or high-risk social needs) for immediate human review, acting as a sophisticated triage system rather than a replacement for decision-makers.

3. Predictive Resource Allocation

The public sector traditionally operates reactively. AI offers the ability to shift toward predictive governance.

The AI Impact: By analyzing historical data across health, transport, and social services, predictive models can forecast demand peaks. For example, predicting localized spikes in specific healthcare needs, optimizing the maintenance schedules of infrastructure (like the NZTA roading network), or modeling the long-term fiscal impacts of proposed policy changes under various demographic scenarios.

4. The "Digital Front Door" for Citizens

Navigating government websites to understand entitlements, visa requirements, or tax obligations is notoriously difficult for the average citizen.

The AI Impact: Advanced, agency-specific conversational AI (trained exclusively on secure, verified government data) can guide citizens through complex processes in plain English, Te Reo Māori, or Pasifika languages. By answering routine inquiries accurately, it prevents citizens from defaulting to overwhelmed contact centers, reserving human agents for complex casework.

The Reality Check: Where AI Fails in Government

The recently launched Public Service AI Work Programme aims to establish safe sandboxes and enterprise tools, but the reality on the ground requires navigating significant hurdles.

The Capability and Security Gap: There is a vast difference between consumer-grade free AI tools and secure, ring-fenced enterprise AI. If agencies cannot afford or properly implement secure enterprise models, public servants may resort to "Shadow AI" (using free tools on personal devices), which creates massive data sovereignty and privacy risks under the Privacy Act.
The Empathy Deficit: A core function of the public service involves human connection and complex judgment. Roles in Oranga Tamariki, frontline healthcare, or complex dispute resolution require empathy, nuance, and cultural context that AI simply cannot replicate.
Te Tiriti and Data Sovereignty: The NZ public service has specific obligations regarding Māori data sovereignty. AI models trained on international datasets can embed foreign biases and fail to recognize the unique cultural and historical context of Aotearoa. Ensuring AI tools handle Māori data ethically and accurately is a significant ongoing challenge.

Ultimately, AI will not replace the core analytical and human-centric functions of the NZ public service. It will, however, dictate how that work is done, acting as an administrative exoskeleton that allows a smaller workforce to manage the same volume of operational output.

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What are the specific privacy and data sovereignty risks of implementing AI in New Zealand government agencies?

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Implementing artificial intelligence in the New Zealand public sector is not just a technological challenge; it is a profound legal and ethical one. Because the government holds vast amounts of highly sensitive, compulsory data on citizens (health records, tax details, criminal history, and welfare status), integrating AI introduces specific vulnerabilities.

Currently, New Zealand takes a "light-touch" regulatory approach, meaning there is no standalone AI law. Instead, agencies must navigate AI implementation through the existing Privacy Act 2020 and their obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Here are the specific risks New Zealand agencies are grappling with.

Core Privacy Risks

The Privacy Act operates on a set of Information Privacy Principles (IPPs). AI fundamentally challenges several of these core rules.

Speculative Data Collection (IPP 1): The law dictates that agencies can only collect data necessary for a specific, lawful purpose. However, AI models are hungry for data and are often trained on large datasets "just in case" the information becomes useful later. This creates a direct tension between how AI is developed and the legal requirement to minimize data collection.
"Shadow AI" and Unauthorised Disclosure (IPP 5 & 10): One of the most immediate risks is public servants using unapproved, consumer-grade AI tools (like free versions of ChatGPT) to draft reports, summarize meeting notes, or write code. If sensitive citizen data or confidential government policy is pasted into these public prompts, it is essentially transmitted offshore to train commercial models, resulting in a severe privacy breach.
Biometric Overreach: When agencies explore AI for facial recognition or voice analysis (e.g., identity verification for Customs or the Ministry of Social Development), the risks escalate. Under the recently introduced Biometric Processing Privacy Code 2025, agencies face strict new obligations, including mandatory proportionality assessments, to prevent overly intrusive surveillance of citizens.

Māori Data Sovereignty and Te Tiriti o Waitangi

Data sovereignty is the right of Indigenous peoples to govern the collection, ownership, and application of their own data. The rapid rollout of AI presents unique risks to Māori data sovereignty.

Data as a Taonga: Under Te Tiriti, digital information about Māori people, language, and culture is considered a taonga (a treasured possession). Feeding this data into generic, offshore AI models—often managed by foreign tech corporations—strips away Māori governance and control over how that knowledge is used or commercialized.
Amplifying Systemic Bias: AI is trained on historical data. If a government agency trains a predictive AI model on historical justice, health, or welfare data, the model will likely absorb and reproduce the historical and systemic biases present in that data. This creates a high risk of automated discrimination, such as flagging Māori applicants disproportionately for fraud investigations or denying service.
The Framework Gap: The government's current Public Service AI Framework relies heavily on international OECD AI principles. Critics and privacy advocates have pointed out that these international baselines do not reflect Te Tiriti o Waitangi or the specific cultural context of Aotearoa, leaving a dangerous gap in how AI is governed locally.

The Accountability and "Black Box" Problem

Beyond privacy and sovereignty, there is a fundamental clash between AI architecture and public sector accountability.

Explainability vs. Administrative Law: Citizens have a legal right to know why a government decision was made about them. However, many advanced AI systems (especially Deep Learning models) operate as "black boxes" — even their developers cannot fully explain the exact pathway the algorithm took to reach a specific conclusion. If an agency uses AI to filter visa applications or calculate tax penalties, but cannot explain the reasoning behind a negative outcome, it violates the principles of administrative fairness and natural justice.

This post was inspired, The government wants to use AI to improve the public service. We asked AI what it would do, by Stuff, May 21, 2026.

Also see: ‘Like drinking from a firehose’ – what it’s like to be the human in the AI loop, by Mary Tate and Haibo Yang, May 28, 2026

AI Hallucinating Information About 'Mike Riversdale'

2026-06-01T09:10:00.000+09:30

"AI" / LLM, it's mostly useless despite Google stuffing it into every part of their ecosystem ...there are hints that it might, in a few years, be useful but we're definitely not there yet.

However, it can be used to generate (on the back of the world's information oh so generously supplied by humans over the centuries!?) weird and wacky malarkey.

We've all seen the 'funny' images and 'humorous' videos but how about a Wiki that is generated on the fly from anything you want.

It's called Halu-pedia, I assume from a concatenation of Hallucination + Encyclopedia, and I entered my name to get a list of pages it would create on the fly for us. Madness really, but what the heck.

More "AI" posts:

"AI", It's All A Bit Worrying, No? (Apr 2026)
I Love The Chinese Room (Dec 2023)
2 Ways Of Sciencing, And 1 That AI Doesn't ... Yet? (Jan 2026)
"As long as the graph goes up and to the right." (Jan 2026)
We're Giving Gods Another Go, But What Religion Will We Get? (Jul 2025)
So How Do I Feel About The Machines? (Nov 2024)

Don't Compare The Yoof

2026-05-29T10:44:00.000+09:30

We know that looking at the "youth of the day" and finding them the most feckless, ignorant, lazy, bunch of no-goods the world have ever existed is a most lazy, ignorant, and reckless thought one can have.

It seems an insidious thought that surfaces every time some reach an age they feel comfortable looking down upon the young.

[side note: be aware of any "youth of today!" quote attributed to Socrates, it seems they can't be verified]

“The beardless youth… does not foresee what is useful, squandering his money.” – The Art of Poetry: an Epistle to the Pisos, Horace, 1st Century BC

Our sires' age was worse than our grandsires'.
We, their sons, are more worthless than they;
so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt. – Book III of Odes, Horace, circa 20 BC

“Whither are the manly vigour and athletic appearance of our forefathers flown? Can these be their legitimate heirs? Surely, no; a race of effeminate, self-admiring, emaciated fribbles can never have descended in a direct line from the heroes of Poitiers and Agincourt...” – letter in Town and Country, 1771

...a fearful multitude of untutored savages... [boys] with dogs at their heels and other evidence of dissolute habits...[girls who] drive coal-carts, ride astride upon horses, drink, swear, fight, smoke, whistle, and care for nobody...the morals of children are tenfold worse than formerly. – Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, Speech to the House of Commons, February 28, 1843

“We defy anyone who goes about with his eyes open to deny that there is, as never before, an attitude on the part of young folk which is best described as grossly thoughtless, rude, and utterly selfish.” – The Conduct of Young People, Hull Daily Mail, 1925

You can find many more if you feel the need. It's a thing eh, many of each generation look back at the one on their heels and sees the end of civilisation.

It is not true.

Those younger than you are no better or worse than you and your friends at their age. You did, thought, acted, in all the same ways, and it really got under the skin of many of your elders.

Before you next make any claim about hose younger than yourself, stop, think, "What did I get up to back then?" and, even if you were a paragon of honour, give them the benefit of the doubt.

Also, 900,000 Kiwis aren't all the same and neither are 10 million Brits, or 4.5 million Aussies. To use broad brushes against any wide ranging group of people is always dumb and the way of the ignorant. You're better than that.

The kids are grand, they are living in a difficult world, one we have all fucked up in our special ways, so support them, they need it now. Yes, they are being young in the world today and not our olden days which, btw, weren't as good as you think they were, and the music was better back then either.

< 15: Become a customer 17: Music wasn't "better back then" >

Remember To Bring A Plate

2026-05-26T10:31:00.000+09:30

A simple phrase, "remember to bring a plate", used by Kiwi's whenever there is a social gathering of sorts - very popular for Thirsty Thursday drinks :)

It means, on the surface, "Bring a plate of food to share" and not bring an empty plate!

The underlying meaning is "Bring a plate of something to share, no matter how small or cheap" as it is the bringing of the plate that matters and not really the contents. It's an expression of community, whanau, love, and friendship and not an expectation that you'll spend hours and hours in the kitchen. Although, if that's your thing then absolutely go for it and you will be praised to the heavens. In New Zealand, the "plate" should ideally be something easy to share, like club sandwiches, sausage rolls, or a slice of cake - remember it's the sharing that matters, not the actual food.

It's not just a Kiwi thing of course, Aussies have the same phrase and I'm sure many other parts of the world us it, or "potluck" to mean the same; here are several phrases from around the world that function similarly to "bring a plate":

English-Speaking Variations

Potluck (North America): This is the standard term in the US and Canada. It implies that the "luck of the pot" determines what everyone eats. You might also hear "covered dish" in the Southern United States and the expectation is usually a larger casserole or a side dish that serves 6–10 people.
Jacob's Join (Northern England): A traditional term used in parts of Lancashire and Cumbria. It refers to a communal meal where everyone "joins" in by bringing a dish.
Faith Supper (UK/General): Often used by church groups or community organizations, implying you have "faith" there will be enough food once everyone contributes.
Pitch-in (Midwestern United States): Specifically common in Indiana, it’s a direct call for everyone to "pitch in" a dish.

International Phrases

American Supper (UK): Interestingly, some in the UK use this term to describe a potluck-style meal, even if it has nothing to do with America or American food.
Buffet Canadien (French-speaking Europe/Canada): In France and Switzerland, this phrase is used for a meal where guests bring the food. It’s essentially the French equivalent of "bring a plate."
A la canasta (Latin America): Translating to "to the basket," this suggests guests should bring their food in a basket to share with the group.
Snyat’ (Russia): While not a single word, the phrase skladchina (складчина) refers to a "pool" or "kitty" where people contribute either money or food for a joint event.
Nyama Choma (East Africa - Context Dependent): While primarily referring to grilled meat, in social "contribute-and-cook" settings, you might hear requests to bring specific ingredients for the grill.

< 41: You're weird 43: Life is about being embarrassed >

It's HOT Here In Australia

2026-05-25T10:23:17.024+09:30

It's the red heart of Australia and so saying, "It's HOT here in Australia" may seem like a blindingly obvious thing to say however, as I write this in May 2026, it's bloody cold in Papunya. The UK is having a an unusually early heatwave and Monmouth's low is our high, I know!

It's usually stinking hot though, especially during the summer months and, according to those that spend their working lives researching and analysing, Australia's growing 'silent killer' could claim thousands of lives by century's end [by Miles Proust, 8 May 2026] - we're talking heat btw.

Deaths would increase by 1,071 per cent in the Northern Territory, 686 per cent in Queensland, 444 per cent in NSW, 412 per cent in Tasmania, 337 per cent in Western Australia, 296 per cent in Victoria, 281 per cent in the ACT and 199 per cent in South Australia.
Urban areas (398 per cent) were projected to see a slightly higher increase in mortality rates compared to rural areas (326 per cent).

Inland and northern regions of Australia will be hit hardest by increased heat.

Basic choice eh, we don't do anything and more people will die. Likely to be people you don't know, people you can mostly just put out of your mind and move on with your air-conditioned life, so all good.

So, Heat is Australia’s ‘silent killer’. Here are the symptoms to watch out for? [by Donna Lu, 7 Jan 2026]; check out the article for:

What are the symptoms of heat-related illness?
How to stay cool and prevent heat stress
What does prolonged heat do to the body?

Symptoms to watch out for:
Hot skin
Confusion
Weakness
Cramps
Dizziness
Vomiting
Fainting

These are probably symptoms for those around you to watch for, and for you to watch out in others when you're out and about.

“The bulk of people who die from heatwaves in Australia is due to cardiovascular collapse,” Loo, a GP in western Sydney, says. The condition often occurs in those over 65 or with pre-existing conditions. “If someone’s got a vulnerable heart and you don’t get enough blood pumping into it, you get heart failure.”

In addition to cardiovascular collapse, kidney failure and heatstroke are also causes of heat-related death.

Kidney failure can occur when someone is dehydrated and not adequately replenishing the fluid they are losing. “You can lose 1 or 2 litres of water in one hour with sweating,” Loo says.

Dr Loo, talking about urine, tee-hee

S'ok, we got water to cool us down with, it's everywhere! Humanity is running out of water and it could mean war, UN warns [by Adam Vidler, Jan 21 2026]

By the numbers, 75 per cent of humanity are now living in water-insecure countries, while 2.2 billion people around the world lack safely managed drinking water.

Half the world's large lakes, on which the UN says 25 per cent of humans "directly" depend, have lost water since the 1990s.

And 70 per cent of the world's major aquifers show long-term decline.

But let's not get too down hearted and take a leaf out of the 9News book, look, women with big boobs, that's more cheery eh!

Thank You David Attenborough

2026-05-23T19:04:45.514+09:30

A week or so ago the world went a tad Attenborough Birthday crazy and let out a giant breath when he made it to, and past, the date.

He's been a dude saying the best things for such a long time it's got to the point we can't imagine him not being around. The amazing TV work he and the hardworking crew share still astonish and delight, we're all small kids with our mouths wide open when we awarch along.

So many memories: Happy centenary, David! Attenborough’s 100 most spectacular TV moments

Standouts for me, Lyre bird, shark hunting up to the beach, the lizard running the snakes, ants on the march, but top for me is Attenborough with the Rwandan gorillas.

Catfishing: The Wikipedia Guessing Game

2026-05-21T12:50:00.000+09:30

Wikipedia pages are almost always added to appropriate categories - check at the bottom - and the Catfishing game asks you to guess the Wikipedia page title by only listing the categories.

For example, these categories:

... are all on this page:

Computer Screens Of All Sorts

2026-05-21T08:39:44.632+09:30

Daily photos help keep me centered, it's my way of ensuring there is a moment that is just for me - it's not the only one but it's locked in every morning and I adore it. It's a creative exercise, it can stretch my brain, and of course I get to look back across my archives and see some wonderful moments.

I group my daily photos via a 4 weekly theme, and this is the end of Screens focussing upon Computers and bringing this theme to a close - check out the rest at Celebrities Connecting Via Screens Whilst We Watch.

Before We Knew, Everyone Else Knew

2026-05-20T12:33:20.935+09:30

Nat and I count May 20th as the date we 'got together', but it seems that others 'knew' we were gonna well before we did ... the power of 2 + 2 = 5 is strong with many* ;)

It's been a heck of an adventure and I can't imagine anyone else I would've wanted, been able, or enjoyed being alongside as much as I have with Natalie. Our first date was in a bar in Levin and I am writing this in a school in the red heart of Australia as Natalie wander past my office window. We've had travel adventures, sexual adventures, drunken adventures, family adventures, being with friends adventures, walking on the beach adventures, and most of all we are still having more adventures with each other.

There's been much to learn about each other which inevitably leads on to learning deeper about oneself, and long may this continue.

We have had an amazing start to our partnership / relationship / love-in / friendship and the future plans already head out past 2027 and into 2028 (subject to change, future investments can go down as well as up, nothing is set in stone, we'll cross each bridge as we come to it), it's just so exciting!

As I have said, I just can't imagine being with anyone else and I am such a lucky and happy fella!

Happy anniversary love! 💖

* although, to be fair, they weren't wrong and they did eventually get '4' even if Nat and I didn't know

The Final Inspector Adam Gjelstad Cover Is Delivered

2026-05-20T09:32:06.619+09:30

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PAPUNYA, NT — May 20, 2026 —

The Final Inspector Adam Gjelstad Cover Now Available

The End Of The Line, now available in all good bookminds, brings to a close the Inspector Gjelstad pretend novel cover series.

Every hit book series ends and we wave goodbye to characters we have come to know and love, and so it is with the best selling Inspector Gjelstad novels as we deliver the most exciting, mysterious, and humorous conclusion cover.

Viewers the world over have thoroughly enjoyed the series and to them we leave you with this review from the real-life Adam pertaining to this explosive final cover.

Well that's rather ominous, good review 👏
It looks like I'm undercover as a rent boy in 90s Amsterdam 😂

We welcome back angler, man-about-town, and professional golfer, Paul Thompson, to deliver the final Inspector Adam Gjelstad novel, The End Of The Line. The original Inspect Gjelstad novel, Downtown Murder, was initially to be written by Thompson however, despite many calls from the publisher and the now infamous public clamouring from his eager fanbase, no manuscript was ever delivered. We thank Riversdale for stepping up at such short notice and producing the award-winning series of novels.

As we farewell Inspector Adam Gjelstad and, of course his faithful companion KK van den Boogardt, let's take a nostalgic look back at the 7 preceding novels and their pretend covers.

About Us

Riversdale Creative Publishing has been at the forefront of fake / pretend book covers since our esteemed founder, Mike Riversdale, was bored one Sunday afternoon and decided to crack it into. We are proud that our artisan creators continue to publish pretend book covers and will do until Sir Riversdale gets bored again and moves on to something else.

Contact

Mike Riversdale, somewhere in his own head and also up his own ass.

###

Happy Birthday Neeks

2026-05-19T09:26:57.492+09:30

It's been a very long time since I published an Anika Moa post but this 2006 photo of her popped up as well as a reminder that it's her birthday during the week.

Have a gorgeous one buddy, gonna play your songs to the outback during the week :)

* Photo credit: Anika Moa, October 20, 2006 at Sandwiches, Wellington, New Zealand by treyguinn on Flickr

We All Want To Be A Chugga-Chugga Train

2026-05-18T10:38:25.297+09:30

Before the train get amongst wot the young 'uns are listening to, "experimental math rock band from Quebec: Angine de Poitrine" - and if you find them weird you're old but also hang on for the train song further down this page.

Rick talks about them:

AND, Google search them on a desktop/laptop - ha ha ha ha, love it: https://www.google.com/search?q=Angine+de+Poitrine

Ok, let's get to be a train via The Electric Knickers:

Well done for arriving at the end, let's be a train with Quentin!

Who Are You

2026-05-18T09:59:00.000+09:30

This post, alongside my love of science and particular time, is about a passion of mine –you. I've found a few intriguing articles that ponder who the who inside you actually is; or isn't, enjoy.

There is no you in your brain — your identity is a “society of the mind”

By Masud Husain, April 14, 2026

[..] patients with brain disorders poignantly reveal how even very basic brain functions play a key role in determining who we are. They are crucial parts of the “society of the mind” that creates our self, but they are also crucial to keeping us within society.

The Mystery of Personal Identity: What Makes You and Your Childhood Self the Same Person Despite a Lifetime of Change

By Maria Popova, 7 October, 2014

This paragraph by philosopher, writer, and MacArthur Fellow Rebecca Goldstein has had me staring into the distance pondering everything for weeks; who am I?

I stare at the picture of a small child at a summer’s picnic, clutching her big sister’s hand with one tiny hand while in the other she has a precarious hold on a big slice of watermelon that she appears to be struggling to have intersect with the small o of her mouth. That child is me. But why is she me? I have no memory at all of that summer’s day, no privileged knowledge of whether that child succeeded in getting the watermelon into her mouth. It’s true that a smooth series of contiguous physical events can be traced from her body to mine, so that we would want to say that her body is mine; and perhaps bodily identity is all that our personal identity consists in. But bodily persistence over time, too, presents philosophical dilemmas.

It's brain smushing to sit with this thought, how am I the same person whilst everything – physically, mentally, culturally – about who I am now is so completely different?

You?

I leave you with a slightly different view of you, the you amongst all the others you's that are, have been, and possibly will be.

Articles about you, and how amazing you are:

Celebrities Connecting Via Screens Whilst We Watch

2026-05-15T09:37:38.701+09:30

I'm a bit all over the place with the Screens theme but hey, who cares! Here's the Connecting set of 7, along with Celebrity, and Watching. I think it's Computers next and then we're done with this theme (sounds like a chore, but it's not really).

Lot easier just to join the albums tbh:

Connecting (via screens)

Celebrities (on screen)

Watching (screens)

Moving Away From US Tech

2026-05-13T10:37:00.000+09:30

It's a slow process for me held back by how great Google Photos is and why Proton can't give us a dedicated Contacts app. I'll get there, in the meantime here's a few other people's views and techniques of moving yourself from the US tech giants.

Getting off US tech: a guide

By Paris Marx, July 18, 2025

An excellent read that covers not only Paris' chosen app but alternatives that may suit you better. Oh, great use of flags to let you know what country each service/app is from.

To do anything online, you’re going to need a browser. Most people are using Chrome, with Firefox and Safari grabbing big chunks of the market too. But there are some great alternatives.
I’ve taken to using Vivaldi 🇳🇴 on my computer and my phone, and it’s great. I find the cloud tab syncing works better and more reliably than Safari did across Apple devices.

I've used the Vivaldi web browser on all my devices for months and it just works whilst not tracking me.

With DuckDuckGo installed on my mobile devices I am protected by all the app tracking that goes on in the background, such a great feature, as you can see from today:

I popped DuckDuckGo on my partner's mobile and she was blown away by the hidden tracking that her apps were doing - all blocked now.

I also showed her how to Archive apps she doesn't need daily. This leaves all her data on her device and a hook icon that reinstalls the app when she taps it. Archiving not only stops the tracking but everything else the apps are silently doing which noticeably speeds up the device.

Leave big tech behind! How to replace Amazon, Google, X, Meta, Apple – and more

By Steve Rose, 26 Feb 2026

[..] the good news is we can go elsewhere. The rest of the world is weighing up its reliance on US technologies, and in Europe especially we’re realising there are better alternatives to just about everything big tech is shilling, if by “better” we mean greener, more ethical, more independent, more respectful of your privacy or simply less disturbingly, monolithically powerful. Making the switch is easier than you might imagine.

A basic list but even if you swap.to just one alternative you'll have made a massive difference to your online privacy and safety.

I replaced Google's core apps with open source alternatives, and I'm never going back

By Jon Gilbert, Jan 31, 2026

I regularly try out alternative apps, but none have held up to Google's suite. That was the case for years, until I tried out the Fossify suite of apps.
While they're not all winners, I've finally found a suite of core apps for my phone that give me the Google experience without the bloat.

I've replaced some of the simpler Google apps with Fossify versions – calculator, files – all work fine and dandy.

I'm still waiting for a better Calendar from Proton (especially a better widget) alongside the aforementioned dedicated Contacts app, and then I shall move off the Google Suite completely.

Apart from Google Photos, I am definitely stuck for the time being, and no I am not going to self host Immich, yet.

Oh, oh, one more I'm currently playing around with, a password manager. I use 2FAS Auth as my authenticator app which is great and I no longer need Google's or Microsoft's. I'd like to move my passwords away from the US as well but hey I'll do a whole post about where I land, for now though, BE WARY OF WHERE YOU PUT YOUR PASSKEYS as they cannot be moved".

Taken. Info You Give Away All The Time

2026-05-13T10:11:30.422+09:30

Visit https://sinceyouarrived.world/taken and it will tell you all the info that your web browser silently passes back to it.

A simple trick but very effective - report back to the user what the browser (Chrome, Vivaldi, Edge, Safari, Firefox etc) has just told the web server. Every page on the Web collects this information, all the time, and they rarely tell you. To be fair much of it is for technical reasons, how to supply the images, what language to set the page etc ... but of course it's not just for that.

This is what taken. just told me - see, it knew I had left that page to type this in ...

Where you are

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

You appear to be in Melbourne, Australia. Your internet provider is Netskope Inc. We know this because your IP address — 163.xxx.xxx.43 — was the first thing your device sent us. We know the rest of it. We chose not to display it. Most pages would not have made that choice. We did not ask for your location. Your address arrived before you did.

When you arrived

09:37 · Australia, Darwin

It is in the morning where you are. Your device reported your timezone before the page finished loading. A website knowing your local time can infer when you sleep, when you work, and when you browse because you cannot sleep. Nothing about this was requested. The information arrived on its own.

What you brought with you

Chrome · Windows · 1536×864 @ 1x · 32-bit color

You are reading this on a computer running Windows. Your browser is Chrome. Your screen is 1536 by 864 pixels. Your screen accepts 10 simultaneous touch points. Your device volunteered all of this in the first milliseconds of the connection. It will do this again on the next page you visit, and the one after that.

What renders your world
Intel(R) UHD Graphics 730 (0x00004692) Direct3D11 vs_5_0 ps_5_0

Your graphics processor identified itself as Intel(R) UHD Graphics 730 (0x00004692) Direct3D11 vs_5_0 ps_5_0. This tells us the manufacturer, the generation, and roughly the price of your machine. Combined with your screen size and font list, this string alone can distinguish your device from most others on the internet. The technique is called WebGL fingerprinting. No permission is required.

How much is left

Battery: 100% · charging

Your device reports 100%, charging — which is also what no-battery-at-all looks like to a webpage. We cannot tell whether you are a laptop on full charge or a desktop without a battery, and neither can any other site. The two are indistinguishable from this side. In 2015, researchers demonstrated that battery level — combined with discharge time — was unique enough to track users across websites for up to thirty minutes. Your exact percentage, right now, is a fingerprint. Firefox removed this API in 2016. Your browser still exposes it.

What you speak

English

Your browser’s primary language is English. This is transmitted in the header of every HTTP request. It has been doing this for as long as you have used this browser.

What you carry

Georgia · Courier New · Comic Sans MS · Impact · Trebuchet MS · Garamond · Verdana · Tahoma · Lucida Console · Cambria

Your device carries these typefaces, of the seventeen commonly probed by fingerprinting checks. On desktop, the specific combination of fonts is often nearly unique — fonts accumulate over time, with apps and OS updates, and the resulting set becomes a fingerprint made of letters. Advertising networks combine this with your screen size, language, timezone, and GPU to identify devices across websites. Without cookies. Without accounts. Without a name. The technique is called browser fingerprinting. It is legal in most jurisdictions. It is happening on most pages you visit. None of them mention it.

What you allow

Cookies: enabled · Light mode · 0 MB stored by others

Your browser accepts cookies. Websites can write small files to your device that persist after you leave — files that identify you when you return, that follow you across sites, that remember what you looked at, what you almost bought, and how long you hesitated. We have not written one. Your browser would let this page write up to 10 GB to your device — a private room, ours alone, like the one given to every site you visit. We left it empty. Most pages don't. You prefer light interfaces — your operating system told us. You have not enabled Do Not Track. This is the default. It means either that you chose not to, that you did not know it existed, or that you know it makes no difference. All three possibilities are informative. This page stores nothing on your device. When you close this tab, it forgets you exist.

Where you were before

www.instapaper.com

You came here from www.instapaper.com. Your browser told us the address of the page you were reading before this one. Every link you follow tells the destination where you were. The page you just left knows you left. This page knows where you came from. Neither was asked.

You left

0.0 seconds away

You just switched to another tab — or another app — and came back 0.0 seconds later. The Visibility API named the exact moment you left and the exact moment you returned. Every website you open can read this signal. Most advertising platforms use it to calculate whether you are actually seeing their ads, or just leaving them open in a background tab. Your attention is a commodity. We just watched it leave the room.

The question is, did your web browsers that you're using right now do the same on this page ... yes, yes it did. Some of the information will be used to show the page properly, but some of it is fed into Blogger statistics (how do you think the "Popular Posts" below this is generated) and Google Analytics - it's how I know that Lanzhou / 兰州的各位好 visitors pop in now and again

How To Add Your Emergency Details To Your Phone

2026-05-11T08:10:00.000+09:30

I haven't had the need for it but I'm sure there will be a time when I fall over in the street and there's no-one around that knows me. I hope whoever finds me calls the appropriate services and my phone is OK because ALL of my emergency contact details are on the phone, accessible to anyone that needs them at the time.

Blood type, emergency contacts, any medication I'm on, even if I am a donor or not (I am), and whether I'm pregnant or not (I'm not).

Every phone has the ability to store these details AND it's all accessible without having to unlock your phone.

A mobile phone doesn’t need a SIM card to make an emergency call. It only needs to be charged and within range of a mobile network or, if the phone can, a satellite connection.

Android (Samsung, Pixel, OnePlus, etc)

https://support.google.com/android/answer/9319337

Add emergency info

On your phone, open the Safety app .
Sign in to your Google Account.
Tap Your info.
Add your emergency info.

For Medical information:

Tap Medical information.
To add info like blood type, allergies, or medications, tap the item in the list you want to update.

For Emergency contacts:

Tap Emergency contacts > Add contact and choose the existing contact you want to add.

Find emergency info

On a locked screen, swipe up.
Tap Emergency > View emergency info.

iOS (Apple)

https://support.apple.com/en-au/safety-features

Add Medical ID

Open the Health app and tap the Summary tab.
Tap your profile picture in the upper corner.
Under your profile picture, tap Medical ID.
To make your Medical ID available from the Lock Screen on your iPhone, turn on Show When Locked. In an emergency, this gives information to people who want to help. To share your Medical ID with emergency responders, turn on Share During Emergency Call. When you make a call or send a text to emergency services on your iPhone or Apple Watch, your Medical ID will automatically be shared with emergency services.*
Tap Edit or Add next to the field you want to update. You can add details such as Medications, Allergies and any Conditions you have.
Tap Done .

Add emergency contacts

Open the Health app and tap the Summary tab.
Tap your profile picture in the upper corner.
Under your profile picture, Tap Medical ID.
Tap Edit next to Emergency Contacts.
Tap the Plus button next to “Add Emergency Contact”. Tap a contact, then add their relationship.
To remove an emergency contact, tap the Delete button next to the contact, then tap Delete.
Tap Done

Find emergency info

Go to the Health app on your iPhone.
Tap your picture at the top right, then tap Medical ID.
Tap Edit, scroll to the bottom, then turn on Show When Locked and Emergency Call.

Note: A first responder views your Medical ID from the Lock Screen by swiping up or pressing the Home button (depending on your iPhone model), tapping Emergency on the passcode screen, then tapping Medical ID.

Organisations Are Not 'Loyal', You Don't Have To Be Either

2026-05-07T16:15:00.000+09:30

It's always a shock when I hear, or it dawns upon me, that someone is loyal to an organisation.

Loyal; adjective

British English, /ˈlɔɪəl/, LOY-uhl
OED's earliest evidence for loyal is from 1531, in the writing of Thomas Elyot, humanist and diplomat.
Having or demonstrating undivided and constant support for someone or something.
Dogs are very loyal animals, which is why they make wonderful pets.
George is a loyal and loving husband.
Firm in allegiance to a person or institution; allegiant.
Faithful to a person or cause.
We must remain loyal to the mission.

Yeah, I know, #2 is exactly what I'm talking about. I still find it strange, especially in this capitalist / neoliberal world that the majority of us live within, that people are under the misapprehension that organisations have any sense of what loyalty is let alone how to express it.

Government agencies are controlled by the political whims of their ever changing / voted in masters and mistresses, and whatever the media decides is "news". Look at the demise of around 9,500+ jobs by the current National / Act NZ First Government in Aotearoa New Zealand - where was the loyalty for those?

All (?) philanthropic organisations, educational institutions, and even charities will, with much sadness and downward focused eyes, make decisions that benefit themselves when they fully understand that it causes you much hardship.

I hardly need to mention commercial entities do I, driven by money only, just look at the tech companies around the world dumping their employees as fast as their "AI"+PR will allow them - Meta 8,000 people, Microsoft 8,750, Amazon 14,000, and Atlassian 1,600. In AoNZ the construction industry put 19,300+ people out of jobs, and the manufacturing companies weren't loyal to 10,000+ people.

Loyalty should be an equal two-way path, it evidently never is, and the days of such times have long gone:

Post-War Era (1950s–1970s): This was the height of the "lifetime employment" model. Companies often promoted from within, and it was common for workers to spend their entire careers at a single company.
The 1960s–1970s: Popularity of unionisation, collective bargaining, and stable economic conditions incentivised companies to maintain a stable workforce to avoid strikes and turnover.

It all began to change in the 1980s, accelerating in the 1990s as global competition, the rise of the internet, and a focus on shareholder value led to widespread downsizing and the decline of the traditional pension model. What a surprise, during the Reagan & Thatcher years it all changed and the employee became a commodity and not a person.

Unless you want to throw your hard earned trust and loyalty away then choose actual people and not organisations, they don't care and haven't since last century.

Be loyal to those that are in your heart, people that stand next to you, friends that are there for all the times.

< 29: Out on the skinny branches 31: You don't have to be an expert >

Happy Map

2026-05-07T12:28:02.664+09:30

The Happy map by Alvin Chang, a data journalist and professor at The New School.

In 2017, more than 10,000 people tracked experiences that made them happy as part of a research project. The researchers gathered more than 100,000 happy moments.

Map methodology
The map is initially split up into 200,000 regions using a voronoi algorithm; it looks like a giraffe's fur. From there, the top-level category—the “continents”—are initially given a starting atom, based on the average agency and time scores. It is then allowed to take over atoms based on the countries, states, and cities (moments) that it needs to fit within its bounds. That conquering process determined what the map looks like. This ultimately means that the moments mostly follow the x- and y-axis of time and agency, like a scatterplot. But since two things can't occupy the same space, it's not a perfect scatterplot. The moments are then placed on the map with illustrations of people. The people were drawn on paper with an ink pen and fountain pen, then digitized so they could be used as icons.

How Does Shazam Actually Work?

2026-05-06T12:32:29.578+09:30

Being excited about everyday tech isn't something any of us do anymore, but do we know how it works - not me! Shri Khalpada has us covered with How The Heck?, a series of interactive explanations of everyday technology designed primarily for curious, non-technical readers.

QR Codes: Black-and-white squares that survive coffee stains
GPS: Turning time into distance with Einstein's help
Shazam: A connect-the-dots trick for sound
Solar Panels: The Sun, silicon, and soft costs
If you like these, you can follow the author, buy him a coffee, or suggest what comes next.

I fell across How The Heck Does Shazam Work? and the article, like his others, walks you through the method not only with everyday English but wee interactive widgets that help you visualise what's going on. It doesn't scrimp on the details, you will come out of it knowing exactly how Shazam and the like work!

In a nutshell:

Your phone captures sound as a waveform.
A process called the Fast Fourier Transform is used to convert it into a three-dimensional representation of sound called a spectrogram.
An algorithm keeps only the loudest peaks of the spectrogram.
The algorithm pairs nearby peaks to create unique fingerprint hashes.
Each hash is an address.
The system looks up every hash from your clip and instantly which songs share them.

But really, you need to read / play with his full article to truly understand how Shazam and tech like it works.

Shri has created many more data-driven learning pages, it is most excellent: https://perthirtysix.com/section/learn

btw: I didn't know Shazam had been bought by Apple in 2018 for a reported US$400 million, is that why iPhone people talk about it all the time?

More Investigations Into Time, It's Very Wibbly Wobbly

2026-05-02T15:47:13.539+09:30

What a wild ride this post has been as people tell us that time doesn't exist but also it's been measured to have a negative number (something went out before it went in), but hey we all experience time differently anyway so what does it all matter, check out the clock to feel it in action.

I'll start with the hard science just so we all know defining time is as easy as grabbing hold of fog.

Is time a fundamental part of reality? A quiet revolution in physics suggests not

By Florian Neukart, January 29, 2026

Time, in this view, is not something that exists independently of physical processes. It is the cumulative record of what has happened. Each interaction adds a new entry, and the arrow of time reflects the fact that this record only grows.

Sounds like time is an emergent property of Bitcoin!

source: Great Mysteries of Physics 1: is time an illusion?, March 8, 2023

Space-Time Does Not Exist – Here’s Why That Matters

By Daryl Janzen, October 4, 2025

Events do not exist; they happen. Consequently, space-time does not exist. Events happen everywhere throughout the course of existence, and the occurrence of an event is categorically different from the existence of anything — whether object, place, or concept.

Hmmm, not sure I go along with this however it makes for a compelling if challenging argument.

Ok, so we don't know what time is but apparently we can measure it even when it's not there.

Physicists have measured ‘negative time’ in the lab

By Howard Wiseman, May 1, 2026
Also see: Physicists have measured 'negative time' in the lab, by Howard Wiseman, May 1, 2026

What one finds is that the photon actually arrives far earlier than that. In fact, it arrives so early it appears to have spent a negative amount of time inside the cloud – to exit, on average, before it enters.

! No, I don't get it but apparently, "Our experiment is fully explained by standard physics."

Still talking about time but let's change tack slightly moving away from the hard science and towards what it can actually mean to us humans.

How Indigenous ideas about non‑linear time can help us navigate ecological crises

By Philip McKibbin, February 12, 2026

[..] non-linearity challenges us to imagine beyond anthropocentrism. We conceptualise time in human ways, but it is not only us who are threatened by, and forced to navigate, these crises. Breaking free of linear time helps us to think about the world beyond “the human”. It leads us to wonder.

If time doesn't exist as a fundamental property of the universe we exist within and/or it's an emergent property then each concept of time is akin to everyone's concept of love, something that can be described and experienced differently by each of us, totally valid eh!

Researchers Hana Burgess and Te Kahuratai Painting contrast Māori time with colonial [Mike: Western] time, saying:

With settler colonial ontologies, time is flattened, made one dimensional, reduced to a linear process […] Along this arrow of time, the “present” is placed at the pinnacle of existence, disconnected from both the past and future.

Why Time Moves Differently In Different Languages

By Erica Brozovsky, 31 Mar 2026

In English-speaking countries, the past is "behind" us and the future is still "ahead." But there's much more linguistic variety in how we talk about time... and it might actually influence how we perceive it.

Time, it's "a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff", and to prove it check out this clock that fits your Western view of counting time but will make your brain explode!

The Accursèd Alphabetical Clock

Created by Ryan Bateman

This clock displays the current time alphabetically.

In Three-Hand mode, the hours, minutes, and seconds are each independently sorted by their English spelling, with a hand for each. In Combined mode, every possible time (43,200 of them) is spelled out, sorted alphabetically, and a single needle points to the current one.

I've written much about time even though I am no clearer on any of it, you?

Time, A Discussion, 2024
All Things Time, 2025
Space-Time, I Still Don't Know What It Is, No-One Does, 2026
The Hours Slip Way, The Days Drag On, But The Weeks Fly By, 2020