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Avron 🇳🇿

@avron.bsky.social
151 followers 81 following 260 posts

Old Millennial, queer, autistic, depressed, pakeha, born and raised in Aotearoa. My block/mute/ignore reactions are based on years of tumblr bots/spam. TILT (Thing I Like Tuesday/Thursday) - lasted five months.

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Reposted by Avron 🇳🇿
Paul Hünermund @p-hunermund.com · 05/10/2026
Evidence on taxing the rich from Norway www.nber.org/papers/w35854
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Eddie Clark @dreddieclark.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Have a look at this nightmare of the votes:seats conversion in Quebec and then see if you can tell me with a straight face you think reopening NZ's electoral system is a good idea. 25% plus or minus 3 can get 59 or 40 or 19 seats. 12% plus or minus 1 can get you 9 or 0. Absolute nightmare.
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Jessica Price @delafina777.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
This should be so obvious that it doesn’t need to be said, but given what kind of weekend it’s been on here, apparently it does: If you don’t want old rapists running the world, in office, in the board room, making decisions for all of us get comfortable with “ruining” young rapists’ lives
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Jolisa Gracewood @nzdodo.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Let’s go! (Again!) #nzpol Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections Map 6573 kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/coll...
A gorgeous pictorial map from 1889 of railway tours around New Zealand.  It highlights not just the routes but also the many fun activities to be enjoyed at various locations. Includes Mount Cook-Aoraki; Rotorua; Lake Wakatipu; Bluff; Queenstown; hot springs in Te Aroha and Hanmer… so much was accessible by train, let’s go back to the good times!
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Avron 🇳🇿 @avron.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Board games I played through September 2026, images from bgstatsapp.com First image is everything recorded at boardgamegeek.com the second is everything played at boardgamearena.com I only record (bgg) online play (bga) with people I might have been at the same table with, so no overlap this month.
5 x 6 grid of board game covers, with numbers in the bottom left of each cover, almost all a "1"
Clank Catacombs was played three times. Blue Moon City, Faraway, For Sale all got two plays.
image from the bgstats app.5 x 4 grid of board game covers each with a number in the bottom left, mostly "1" leading to a total count of 104
Play count for each of the shown board games during the month of September 2026. Using the website boardgamearena.com to play.
Chakra (30), Space Base (27) at nearly a game a day. 7 Wonders (11) was mostly using the recently added Leaders expansion.
image from the bgstats app
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Avron 🇳🇿 @avron.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Book (re)ading in September (images from app.thestorygraph.com) I'm well back into the Star Trek (re)read, and have finished the first bookcase. And first 15 years of publications. Two versions of the novelisation of movie 7, long time to read one particular book, more read in the month than normal.
Calendar view of what Star Trek books were read on which days during September 2026, there are two versions of movie seven, one is YA the other is the "normal"version. Still not consistent page count by day. 13 different books are shown, two are branching months.
app.thestorygraph.comFirst, middle, and final book read (finished) during the month of September 2026.
Also a point chart of how many pages were read on each day through the month. Mostly at least close to 100 pages a day, until the end of the month.
12 books finished, 2338 pages read. All was print books
app.storygrapph.com
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Stephanie Rodgers 🍉 @bootstheory.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The story of early Christianity is wall-to-wall "we were persecuted, but we stood up for our faith even when they threw us to lions" and these Temuvangelists are out here like "please don't ask me about gay people, if I tell you what I really think you won't vote for me" Cowards, bigots, and liars
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Avron 🇳🇿 @avron.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A second-hand game that was obviously used indicates the owner understood and enjoyed it. An unplayed game may have been too confusing, etc. to even try. Granted, not likely much of a concern for most in the hobby. But some further indication of worth.
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Elizabeth Bear @matociquala.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Advice for my younger friends: if you want to encourage yourself to stay healthy and functional, to exercise and eat well... ...pick a couple of motherfuckers you really want to outlive.
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Smooth Dunk @smoothdunk2.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
when ai leaves u behind
7 panel comic.

Panel 1:
A Red Guy with AI across his chest looks like he’s about to run away. A Yellow Guy stands next to him. Red Guy says “I’m the future, buddy. You comin’?”
Yellow Guy replies “Nah”

Panel 2: 
Red Guy is almost out of the panel. He leans in and says “Enjoy getting left behind, pal”
Yellow Guy replies “ok”

Panel 3:
Yellow Guy stands alone.

Panel 4: 
Close up on Yellow Guy, there is a quiet “huff-huff-huff” noise coming from behind him

Panel 5:
Yellow Guy turns to look behind him

Panel 6: 
Close up on Yellow Guy’s face as if from the point of view of an attacker.
Yellow Guy yells “Jesus Christ”

Panel 7:
AI Red Guy is now chasing the Yellow Guy. 
Red Guy: “Use me”
Yellow Guy “No”
Red Guy “USE ME”
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Tze Ming Mok 莫志明 @tzemingdynasty.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
I don't know how we make it happen, but the abuse of urgency under this term of government has been so nakedly damaging to our democratic infrastructure, that it's the strongest argument for constitutional change I've seen in a while.
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Elizabeth Zelle @kohizeri.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"the assessment did not consider the crocodiles" is my new metaphor for people choosing to just ignore the data point that doesn't agree with them
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Aaron Hawkins @ahawkins.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
'The adult minimum wage will be frozen for 3 years, while a training wage would be set at 60% of the adult minimum wage for workers under 20' Less than $15/hr. For a 19 y/o. In 2030. Which they'd have to take because they've also cut off your access to a benefit. Adult, indeed.
stuff.co.nz
ACT pledges to freeze adult minimum wage, lower youth training rate
The party says wages can sustainably rise when workers become more productive and businesses can afford to pay more.
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Dr. Curiosity @drcuriosity.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
People with an interest in supporting those with disabilities may want to get on this, if they haven't already. www.nzrelay.co.nz/about-us "New Zealand Relay is a free, government-funded service that enables people with hearing and speech communication difficulties to use the phone."
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Nikes | AlexLeeDee @alexleedee.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
A reminder that good policies everywhere attract the most outrageous naysayers, and the best thing to do is just push on anyway:
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Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
As both an academic and a writer, I am repelled by the "this looks like a long document. Would you like me to summarize it for you?" that seems to appear at the top of every pdf viewer now. NO. The *entire point* of good writing (either books or journal papers) is that every sentence has a purpose.
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Micah @rincewind.run · 10/09/2026
Discworld QOTD, from The Light Fantastic “Unseen University had never admitted women, muttering something about problems with the plumbing, but the real reason was an unspoken dread that if women were allowed to mess around with magic they would probably be embarrassingly good at it…”
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 10/09/2026
You know, when you find out that the art you like is made by people you've learned hold views you find wholly repugnant, I don't think you need to disavow ever having enjoyed the art. It's okay to acknowledge you liked or loved that art, but are now putting it aside. That was then, this is now.
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Ryan CrawCour @ryan.crawcour.social · 10/09/2026
Just to keep the record straight. Remember this when Willis tries to tell you about Labour's "recklessness" and how they saddled generations with debt. note: they didn't, but they did borrow to save lives and jobs and keep businesses alive in a pandemic, not to fund their tax cuts. #nzpol
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Oisín McGann @oisinmcgann.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Wilt looked like a big human, but André looked like he came from a different world that existed on a bigger scale than ours.
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Marsden @marsdennz.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
"There is no safe age verification... ... At this point, anyone still supporting age verification requirements, especially claiming it’s for “child safety,” should have to answer for all the millions of people put needlessly at risk due to data breaches like this." www.techdirt.com/2026/09/03/h...
techdirt.com
Hackers Had A Live Feed Of Every ID This Verification Company Scanned. For Over A Year.
From the very beginning of this recent obsession with identifying everyone online (yes, they like to call it "age" verification, but it always ends up as identity verification), we've been pointing out that it was a huge privacy nightmare waiting to happen. Or maybe it wasn't waiting. Maybe it was already happening. This week a...
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Idiot/Savant @norightturnnz.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Well, that's one way of avoiding bad headlines about corruption... www.thepost.co.nz/politics/361...
thepost.co.nz
NZTA moves to gut integrity team after watchdog raised concerns about mega road projects
NZTA’s integrity investigators called for a forensic audit of a cyclone rebuild alliance. Now the agency is proposing to shrink the team and outsource investigations.
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Avron 🇳🇿 @avron.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
May have plans for the first weekend of next month? bgbtb53.lilregie.com Will I want to be surrounded by so many strangers?
bgbtb53.lilregie.com
Board Games By The Bay - Christchurch, October 2026
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Sassy Little Hobbit @sassypolitico.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
They shut down flu tracking and flu is out of control. They cancelled ferries to save money and now we are gonna get shittier ferries that cost more. They fired all the public servants and unemployment went up. They gave landlords tax breaks and homelessness people are dying on the streets.
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Malcolm RF 💚🇳🇿 @p-no-nwa.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
If you want them to work, pay them what they're worth.
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Avron 🇳🇿 @avron.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Book reading in August (images from app.thestorygraph.com) Took the early part of the month to finish reading The Dark is Rising sequence, the middle of the month to read a Marvel Comics history, and the end of the month was Star Trek again. Another day of no reading, due to the same friend...
Calendar view of pages read through the month of August 2026.
10 days were finishing the Dark is Rising sequence. Another 10 to read Marvel Year by Year, and the last 10 days have been reading Star Trek again.image from app.thestorygraph.com
First, Middle, Last books finished through the month. misleading in that the third of the month spent reading a Marvel history isn't apparent.
Chart of pages read per day shows the inconsistency. And doesn't account for words per day at all.
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Avron 🇳🇿 @avron.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Board games I played through August 2026, images from bgstatsapp.com First image is everything recorded at boardgamegeek.com the second is everything played at boardgamearena.com I only record (bgg) online play (bga) with people I might have been at the same table with, so no overlap this month.
5x5 grid of board game covers with numbers in the bottom left of each. Indicating play count for the month which is almost all single plays. Flip 7 was played four times, and 7 Wonders twice.4x4 grid of board game covers with numbers in the bottom left of each. Indicating play count at BoardGameArena.com for the month which is mostly single plays. Flip 7 omitted.
Chakra again leads (31) with Space Base close (25). Gizmos (8), 7 Wonders (7), and Race for the Galaxy (2) the only others played more than once
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Andrew Dickson @andrewdickson13.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
A kid at home with the flu learns one thing, that their parents care enough to let them rest. At school they learn nothing and take the classroom down with them. Full receipts here: andrewdicksonnz.substack.com/p/crouching-... fin/
andrewdicksonnz.substack.com
Crouching Bureaucrat, Hidden Ideologue: David Seymour’s Flu Factory
OIA emails show how David Seymour pressured health officials to ‘soften’ sick-day rules, costing the country $100 million in lost output and thousands of hospital days in 2026 alone.
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Diane Duane @diane.dianeduane.com · 28/08/2026
Thread. (Jeeez.)
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Ellen Rose @icklenellierose.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Finding out just how many games revealed at Opening Night Live used gen AI in their development is disappointing but unsurprising.
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Idiot/Savant @norightturnnz.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Government which promised "no new taxes" promises that all internet use will require an ID card, which may cost money, and is absolutely a tax on your time and privacy.
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Diane Duane @diane.dianeduane.com · 23/08/2026
Name your favorite Disney princess (wrong answers only).
Cmdr. Susan Ivanova on one source of her command authority: “God sent me.”
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Stephanie Rodgers 🍉 @bootstheory.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The number of writers who use genAI tools to "research" is possibly the most baffling thing to me It's not a search engine! It's generative! And predictive! These are like the only two things the techbros don't lie about! "oh it's just a starting point" READING TEA LEAVES WOULD BE AS EFFECTIVE
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 21/08/2026
Hey: Polls mean shit if you don't get out and vote
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Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
One of the most striking things in the actual paper is that this effect is almost entirely driven by the declining performance of male students who use AI.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 19/08/2026
Democratic Socialism: Myth Vs. Fact theonion.com/democratic-socialism-m…
MYTH: The government will take away your money and give it to the poor.

FACT: You are the poor.
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David Ritchie @dritchie.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Yes, Aunt May is getting younger, but so is Peter Parker, just at a slower rate. Extending the trendlines, we are able to ascertain that in 2058 both characters will be played by 21yo actors. #spider-man
Trendlines intercept mid 2058 when both actors are 21 years old
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Diane Duane @diane.dianeduane.com · 20/08/2026
(sighing) Seriously, the stuff you suddenly realize you need to add to an info page... (ebooks.direct/pages/our-fr... )
Text: "We strongly believe that if you've been kind enough to buy an ebook from us, we should replace it for free. And why not? It doesn't seem fair to make you pay for something twice. (Also, we don't have a space program to fund, and therefore we don't feel the need to be quite that grabby.*)

"So if you lose files, or need replacements for some other reason—say your hard drive crashes, or you lose them when changing computers, or whatever—just email us at our support address: EbooksDirectStore@gmail.com, and quote your order number in the email.

"We will be back to you as quickly as we can (usually within 24-72 hours) and will mail refreshed or new download links to you at the address you used to order.

"That's all there is to it.

"And thanks again for your business! We very much appreciate it.

(highlighted / boxed text:) 
"*We also promise not to crash used/badly orbited spacecraft into your local moon."
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D Jukic She/her @dejanajuk.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Simeon Brown has been lying about recruitment. #nzpol "These documents expose that the health minister was aware that our health system was not filling hospital vacancies as part of a deliberate savings plan & that patient care has suffered as a result. It's scandalous”
rnz.co.nz
Documents reveal Health NZ hiring crackdown
Health NZ leaders told the Health Minister tight controls on hiring staff were crucial to delivering its budget and that recruitment of any frontline worker was only possible with the sign-off of seni...
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TransActual @transactualuk.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Can you help us reach more people than ever before? Respond to our Trans Lives Survey today, and share on your social media, so we can get a full picture of the experiences and views of trans people in the UK. Take the survey here: form.typeform.com/to/BRppksJ3 #TransLives #TransSurvey #Trans
A pink and blue graphic with a black and white cartoon of some people on the bottom. 

Text reads: TransActual is launching its biggest survey for the trans community yet!

TRANS LIVES SURVEY

2026

We want to hear about your experiences as a trans person living in the UK.

It's quick, anonymous, and will help us campaign for our community!
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Dr. Curiosity @drcuriosity.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Some concepts I wish we taught universally in schools: * accuracy versus precision * efficiency versus effectiveness * source reliability versus source credibility (there are more, yes, but those three have come up in a lot of conversations recently)
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The Trandalorian @charliejaneanders.com · 19/08/2026
YES! I wrote about this recently in my newsletter buttondown.com/charliejane/...
Important: conflict is not necessarily heat. Western storytelling tropes have conditioned us to think that conflict is automatically the most exciting and fascinating thing. But in fact, heat can just as easily come from tenderness and kindness and community-building. I often feel more suspense during a gentle sweet moment than during a tense fight scene or argument, because I get super invested in the sweetness and desperately want it to endure. Ironically, the more media I consume, the less suspenseful most thrillers seem, versus romantic comedies and low-incident cozy hangouts. Things that are engineered on purpose to create suspense often just feel too mechanical for me to care about what happens.
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University of Otago - Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka @universityofotago.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
A new Otago study shows young people who have lived in public housing for at least 10 years are significantly less likely to commit crimes or to become victims of crime than their peers in the general population. Read more here ⬇️
otago.ac.nz
Young people in public housing less likely to be involved in crime
Young people who have lived in public housing for at least 10 years are significantly less likely to commit crimes or to become victims of crime than their peers in the general population, a study by ...
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Andrew R _ @andrewr4.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Wow, demanding sick kids go to school to improve attendance is working so well.
RNZ
School absences at three-year high as winter illnesses take toll
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Duncan Webb MP @duncanwebbmp.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
The law says CNZ / the Arts Council must set guidelines for the allocation of funding. I asked for those guidelines. They do not exist.
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Sassy Little Hobbit @sassypolitico.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
The best time to start taking precautions was in 2020 and the second best time is anytime from now. If flu and RSV vaccines are linked to reduced dementia risk, you can deduce quite easily what it means if you keep getting it over and over again unvaccinated.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 14/08/2026
Why wait
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David Hood @thoughtfulnz.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
As I gather Reddit are having another round of confusion, for when it spills over to here: Medsafe (clinical guidelines): most adults don't need a vaccine to avoid serious infection (hospitalisation with acute covid). Pharmac (legal entitlement): adults can have a booster every 6 months.
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Stephanie Rodgers 🍉 @bootstheory.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
This one IS quite fun albeit it's possible *someone* messed up the mic settings We're back in a proper studio from this point, thanks Waitohi | Johnsonville Library
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