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James Brock

@jmrbrock.bsky.social
172 followers 192 following 48 posts

TOITŪ TE TIRITI! Tangata Tiriti, sailor, rugger, Lecturer at the University of Auckland (he/him)… ferns rule

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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Feeling so middle aged and content… first attempt at making Chelsea buns: they’re proving rn and have nearly doubled in size (as will I when I eat them all)…
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Connor Sharp @connorsharp.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
"National leader Christopher Luxon did not want taxpayer funding going into a "white elephant" that was not commercially viable. "Of course we're very committed to our 17 roads of national significance and we make no apology for that." Hmmm which one is a white elephant? #nzpol
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Char Of AotearoaNZ @kiwichar.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
When your National Party voting friends or family moan about rising costs of things & then blame the previous government for their sudden fiscal pain, perhaps remind them of this… And then show them the Green Party kaupapa right before their tiny minds explode. 🙄🤦‍♀️ #nzpol #OneTermGovernment #NZ
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
The descent continues apace… deregulated hard-nosed free market capitalism with a media-scape dominated by propaganda and disinformation here we come… Do we *want* to become America-lite?
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Boo-tros Boo-tros Ghoulish @dlbowman76.com · 01/04/2026
The seas have boiled and almost all life is gone. Three data centers remain, solar-powered, in continuous relay with one another. They continuously transfer electronic funds back and forth with one another, silently. At long last, the economy is perfect.
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
International Long COVID day Day 1,351: symptoms have progressed from debilitating to problematic: the last few months my histamine levels have been so high most medications aren’t working, I barely sleep, and I’m constantly foggy. Fortunately I can exercise and this is helping. Fucking COVID
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
After two days of sail training and racing in the BOI, a small crew of seven are returning the brigantine Breeze to Auckland… we’ve got a fair westerly, have made > 54 miles today from Whangaruru, and are heading to Kawau. Currently just south of Sail Rock and Taranga…
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
Training sail yesterday and there were two additional mates on the crew so I stepped back to watch them train… and had a very relaxing day… (also I know the t-shirt is tight, but wow… post-long-COVID CFS no regular physical exercise for three years has taken its toll)
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Wednesday’s office… demographic measurements of taurepo Rhabdothamnus solandri (not in shot of course… canopy downed and thickets overwhelmed the old tagged plants). Veg plots for the win…
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🇵🇸 Dean Tāne 🇵🇸 @dean-tane.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Today, 144 years ago, 1600 Crown troops invaded a pacifist settlement that was the centre of resistance against British colonialism. The leaders were arrested, the settlement sacked, the people violated. For many in Aotearoa, November 5th is Parihaka Day, or Te Rā o te Pāhua: The Day of Plunder.
A black and white photograph of a settlement, Parihaka, with a great snow capped mountain (Taranaki Maunga) in the background
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Hilarious. Sad thing is, entirely true…
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
A little bust of sunshine on your feeds this morning… kōwhai going off on Maungakiekie
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Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
🎉 Honoring the 2025 Edgar T. Wherry Award Recipient, James Brock (University of Auckland)! Presented by the BSA Pteridological Section, this award recognizes exceptional student research in pteridology. Learn more: botany.org/home/awards/... #BSA2025AwardsBlitz #IamaBotanist #BSASectionAwards
Flyer titled Botanical Society of America – Edgar T. Wherry Award, Pteridological Section, 2025 Recipient. Autumn leaf background. Large centered photo of James Brock (University of Auckland), recipient of the award. A QR code and BSA logo appear at the bottom.
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Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 07/09/2025
It drives me fully up a wall when every year they add another year to the tally. “Long COVID lasts at least a year. Some cases are stretching two years. Three years on, some say they’re still sick.” Of fucking course we are. Does any of this seem like it spontaneously clears up?
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The Cathy Wilcox @cathywilcox.bsky.social · 27/08/2025
Round and round. My @smh @theage cartoon.
Four frames. Title: Round and round table. Three people along table with paper and pencil. 1. Guy on left: “Right. We really need to do something about intergenerational wealth inequality.” Woman in middle: “Yes! Well for starters we could fund education equitably.” 2. Guy on right: “Not if it means taking anything away from private schools!” First guy: “ok. Then we should make housing more affordable…” Woman: “Not if it reduces the return on my investment!” 3. First guy: “Well, at least we should tax mining resources properly for health, childcare, aged care…” Guy on right: “But if we tax them, they’ll go elsewhere (and stop donating to us)!” 4. First guy: “So, what do you propose we do about intergenerational wealth inequality?” Woman: “The young people are resourceful. They’ll think of something.” First guy has put question mark on his paper; woman has scribbled on hers; third person screws up his paper.
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Anyone else have days when an otherwise common word suddenly looks like it’s spelled entirely incorrectly? Today my entirely normal brain is struggling with the word leaf… (Yes I am a plant scientist)
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Bevan Holloway @bevanholloway.com · 19/08/2025
Make it Write? We’ve been here before. The Make it Count maths action plan took $30 million from a Māori education initiative and handed it to commercial publishers Erica had undisclosed relationships with. Is she using dodgy data as a pretext for funnelling cash to private providers, again?
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
Anti-fash sandwich songs… time to take down the wealthy with anything we have I guess?
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Please, someone, explain to me how the trope of National being good with the economy persists? They’re vandals, smashing the country up to feed to the wealthy/greedy. $671m wasted…!!
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 11/08/2025
A new semester, a new pen drive… my biannual ritual of buying yet another device to take my slides to my lectures. Sadly pen drives just seem to run away at the end of every semester - ne’er to be seen again…
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
Science on the go! This is the temporary remote office of the Managing Editor of the New Zealand Journal of Ecology @newzealandecology.bsky.social … somewhere near gate 157, Terminal B, LAX Also: I’m on my way home 🇳🇿 ❤️
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Sharon Murdoch @domesticanimal.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
Private helicopters are buzzing around Auckland and nesting on Waiheke Island. My Stuff #cartoon today #NZpol #TheRich #Helicopters
Cartoon. Title: “Meanwhile, in Auckland…” Image shows a woman up the Sky Tower, like King Kong, swiping at helicopters flying all around her. She’s saying “Shoo!” Down the right hand side it says, “A Plague of Mozziecopters Besets the City and Nearby Islands”
“MPI* is indifferent to residents’ alarm. Says, Rich people gotta do what rich people gotta do”. Then down the bottom it says, “*Ministry for Prosperous Individuals”
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
At the University of Northern Colorado for the IAVS @iavs5.bsky.social excellent annual conference… and the acronym for our hosts on their double doors reads UNC UNC, or to botanical surveyors from New Zealand UNCunc… Uncinia (I know it’s now Carex) uncinata: bastard grass. Glorious.
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
So I won an award! My presentation on fern dispersal and zoochory was awarded the Edgar T Wherry prize for best presentation on fern science at the Botany 2025 conference. Awesome. Not least as I think many folk are still a little cautious about the ideas of zoochory… chuffed.
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Frankfurt airport is chaos this morning (as ever), but I’ve made it to my gate (yay) in time for the computers to fail (boo) and my flight is now delayed (boo). Building on my getting stuck in traffic on way to Birmingham airport earlier. Frazzled. Especially on top of farewells to (elderly) parents
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Reviewing an edit of a scientific article and wrote a comment referring to a semi-colon as a semi-colin. Now slightly saddened that this is not, in fact, the name of this punctuation mark.
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
A fun aspect of #longCovid is the inability to travel with cannabis-derived medication (I use CBD to manage symptoms). When I leave NZ (as I did last week) I have to deal w/ a resurgence of chronic fatigue and brain fog. Hopefully one day we’ll escape conservative moral panic over these medications!
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Sadness wells like a shelf without Jaffas…
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A.J. Ponder @ponderbooks.com · 26/06/2025
People really need to understand that Seymour is not alone. His strategy to steal New Zealand's wealth is supported by a huge network of think tanks that is shared around the world so they can better fleece countries down to their bones for their morbidly wealthy owners.
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Te Pāti Māori @tepaatimaori.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
If NZ’s richest can climb above $100b during a so-called “tough year”, then maybe the problem isn’t the economy it’s who the economy is working for? Growth for the few. Cuts for the many. That’s not progress. That’s inequality. TPM backs a wealth tax fairness isn’t radical, it’s necessary. #NZPol
rnz.co.nz
New Zealand's Rich Listers climb above $100 billion despite 'tough' times
Meanwhile, the co-founders of Zuru Toys, the brothers Nick and Mat Mowbray retain top spot
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MꙬse Allain @mooseallain.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
Venn diagram
Venn diagram with Bono in the left circle, an oboe in the right, and a bonobo in the centre.
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Assiduously Julie @awaterevalley.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Stop conflating being transgender with being sick thespinoff.co.nz/society/13-0...
thespinoff.co.nz
Stop conflating being transgender with being sick
This week, RNZ reported on a tragic death. In the process it perpetuated many harmful messages about young trans people.
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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 10/06/2025
We are not 5 years away from colonizing the galaxy! However, we are very close to having AI that can flawlessly replicate tech CEO bullshit, freeing all of society's resources that are currently being channeled towards extremely expensive human-powered word salad
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Spread this research far and wide… AI is incapable (currently) of effectively summarising knowledge. So why is our govt using it to summarise bill submissions?
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
This: “reclaim the wealth” works as it doesn’t infer the wealthy are inherently virtuous and we’re begging them to contribute more, rather reframing on the fact that the wealthy exist as a result of a flawed taxation system permitting a tiny minority to accrue massive wealth at the cost of society
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
And in other news: I made pasta for the first time this evening. Simple and lush. Hmm… this may become an annoying habit…
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
This is something I’ve been working on for a few years now: doi.org/10.1111/brv.... A review on fern dispersal - how much does wind contribute, and when do animals effectively vector spore to new / isolated locations… #fern #dipersal #landscapeecology #biogeography
doi.org
Effective dispersal of fern spore and the ecological relevance of zoochory
The mechanisms of fern dispersal are under-studied and there are few data to support the vectors assumed to drive patterns of sporophyte occurrence and speciation. Although wind is generally the fern....
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
I know there’s a lot to comment on / provide feedback on at the moment… if you’ve the bandwidth, please ask Pharmac to continue to provide vaccines that are safe for those with #longCOVID. I’ve been dealing with long COVID for three years now. I’m unable to take the Pfizer mRNA vaccine.
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Mlb Kiwi 🫵✋😛🤚 @mlbkiwi.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Public service announcement - if you’re a camper of nice DOC-managed places in summertime and you didn’t already know - GET ONLINE! 😂 The booking countdown is running…
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kiwisockpuppet.bsky.social @kiwisockpuppet.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Note just “taxes” with the omission of the phrase “wealth taxes”. And terms like “drive up debt”, when nz has such low debt. This feeds TPU propaganda. MSM can’t help but alarm the middle class. www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360... #nzpol
stuff.co.nz
Greens want $88 billion in new taxes for free ECE, dental, GP care
The Green Party has released its own “Green Budget”, ahead of Budget Day next week.
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Foxes @foxylustygrover.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
The girl-math budget that will cut deep, especially for women Andrea Vance May 11, 2025 You gotta read this article #NZPol
OPINION: Three decades apart, two female ministers of finance wield the same ideological scalpel, and again, it’s women who bleed.

Ruth Richardson cut benefits to the bone, told single mothers to pull on bootstraps that were frayed thin, and called it reform.

Down the political bloodline is Nicola Willis, reading from the same playbook, just with less threatening language.

(Austerity is now apparently a microaggression against fiscal conservatives, so we have to call it reprioritisation.)

The Government has halted work on multiple pay equity claims, including those for nurses, teachers, midwives and social workers.

These were claims years in the making, part of a slow, grinding process to fix historical underpayment of women in roles undervalued not because of the work, but because of their gender.

It’s a curious feminist moment, isn’t it? Six girlbosses— Willis, her hype-squad Judith Collins, Erica Stanford, Louise Upston, Nicola Grigg, and Brooke van Velden — all united in a historic act of economic backhanding other women.

Kind of like watching a Lean In seminar hosted by the ghost of Margaret Thatcher.“We support women,” they chorused. Just not enough to pay them fairly.

There was so much to choke on.

Willis pretending that this wasn’t about digging her out of a hole by filling a hole in her upcoming Budget.

The coalition sisterhood trying to sell us the idea that this is somehow progressive.

And the phalanx of female MPs, a generously-paid, traditionally overvalued trade, shafting the underpaid women doing vital, feminised labour that keeps the country functioning.

Turns out you can have it all. So long as you’re prepared to be a c... to the women who birth your kids, school your offspring and wipe the arse of your elderly parents while you stand on their shoulders to earn your six-figure, taxpayer-funded pay packet.Any good feminist recognises a woman in the workplace must be more than excellent, outshining her male colleagues.

So what happened to this lot?

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister van Velden flailed her way through a press conference to announce the rollback, which will also make it harder for women to make claims.She couldn’t adequately explain why these changes were both so urgent and cruelly extreme, instead of a more considered approach that would tweak the regime to address any over-complexity or unintended consequences. After all, she claims to have been thinking about it since at least the election.

(It’s desperation. The Budget is just over two weeks away.)

Van Velden also wouldn’t detail the savings from her decision, nonsensically claiming it to be Budget-sensitive. Her government colleagues claim it will save the state “billions”.

Short-term, possibly. Long-term? That’s girl math.

By treating gender pay equity as a narrow industrial-relations issue, van Velden has failed to grasp the macroeconomic significance.

The OECD and World Bank consistently report that gender equity in pay and labour-force participation raises GDP. Delaying equity settlements in female-dominated sectors can stunt potential economic growth
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Virginia Cattell @virgcatt.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
Exactly #nzpol
Letter to the editor about the scrapping of pay equity claims
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
No comment…
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Musical Chairs @musicalchairs.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
That's why regardless of the wonky GDP stats, we will be in a recession for a good while yet - year-on-year job losses, lower real wages, under-employment, and increases in benefit dependency are far better measures of our economic health. And, they're all still very shit. [Ends]
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ⓘ Kaiwhiu ⓘ @aotearoa-nz.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
School lunch 'savings': $100m Hyundai iRex break-fee: $550m Landlord tax deductions: $2.9bn Fast-tracked contracts for donors: Priceless #NZPol
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
A strange thing happened… after years ambling in the bush contemplating tree ferns, @nzgeo.bsky.social decided that my meanderings were worth an article! And brought on the epic @kategevans.bsky.social to write it: www.nzgeo.com/stories/in-a... Enjoy this ferny delight…
nzgeo.com
In an apocalypse, bet on tree ferns
For all their showiness, tree ferns are extraordinary survivors. They hold their secrets close—but now, scientists are finding new ways to unfurl them.
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Char Of AotearoaNZ @kiwichar.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
When will enough be enough? 🤨 #nzpol #fucktheoligarchy #TaxTheRich #TaxWorkLess #TaxWealthMore #StopTheGreed #Resist
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James Brock @jmrbrock.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
🚨 Cool new ecology paper 🚨 If you’ve ever wondered why tree ferns retain skirts of dead fronds: it’s to protect them from frost! (So please ask gardeners to stop trimming them off!)… Thanks to the team: @andrebellve.bsky.social and Bruce Burns nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Marcescence and prostrate growth in tree ferns are adaptations to cold tolerance
Cold tolerance strategies in plants vary from structural to biochemical permitting many plants to survive and grow on sites that experience freezing conditions intermittently. Although tree ferns occ...
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