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Marsden

@marsdennz.bsky.social
79 followers 63 following 259 posts

He/Him, Webdev from Ōtautahi, Aotearoa (Christchurch, New Zealand). Interested in #SocialIssues, #BoardGaming and #TabletopRoleplaying.

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Reposted by Marsden
Ms Hooper @mshooper.bsky.social · 10h
Opinion: No one is wasting more ratepayer cash than the government #nzpol
thespinoff.co.nz
No one is wasting more ratepayer cash than the government
The $9 million already spent on council amalgamation proposals is just the start.
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Idiot/Savant @norightturnnz.bsky.social · 19h
Violent offender given discharge without conviction because it might interfere with his violent career www.rnz.co.nz/news/crime-a...
rnz.co.nz
Army officer attacked taxi driver after being asked for $20 fare
New Zealand Army intelligence officer Arthur Finegan denied a "nasty" assault - until he was confronted with CCTV footage showing an attack that left a taxi driver unconscious.
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Christchurch City Libraries Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi @christchurchlib.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
We have a number of photos of Johnson's Grocers and a write up of the history of the store in #CanterburyStories including views of the maximalist interior and trademark white dusters worn by the staff. ^MT www.canterburystories.nz/stories/indu...
Black and white photo taken on 8 April 1987 of Johnson's grocery staff, fully laden shelves behind them, © Christchurch Star, CCL-StarP-03868A.Sepia toned photo: Mr Johnson with his green grocer shop taken in November 2010, again the shelves are fully laden and stacks of food products fill the space. Mr Johnson is wearing the trademark white duster that all the staff wore. Photo by Stephanie Defregger, Entry in 2021 Photo Hunt, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, CCL-PH21-StDe-001.Colour photo of the street frontage of Johnson's grocers including black boards and delivery bicycle. Johnson's wonderful grocer's shop taken in 2009, An entry in 2012 Photo Hunt, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, CCL-PH12-112.
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Sacha @sachadylan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Simeon sneakily changed the finance to lower interest-only repayments, then a lump sum in the future for another government to take care of. #NzPol
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Grant Jacobs BioinfoTools/NotJustDNA 🔬🧬🖥️✍️📚🇳🇿 @notjustdna.bsky.social · 21h
#Christchurch #NZ The city council has released a new interactive map showing climate change risks across the city. Note, “The assessment is not intended to assess individual properties or make decisions about particular locations.” You can view the map here: ccc.govt.nz/environment/...
Example of map view. Blue coloured regions are flooding risk. You can see the large areas of flooding risk in the red zone areas to the east of the city (mostly now without houses).
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Grant Jacobs BioinfoTools/NotJustDNA 🔬🧬🖥️✍️📚🇳🇿 @notjustdna.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
#NZpol Saw this excellent quote-reply to Simeon Brown’s latest attack on Labour. Worth sharing.
David Peez @RebelEkonomista

"The truck driver in Pakuranga helps pay off a lawyer's loan." No, Simeon. He doesn't. Not a cent.

When the government lends a student money, it creates the dollars and credits their account. No tradie's tax was collected and posted to a law degree. When the graduate repays, those dollars are deleted, drained back out like tax. They don't land in the truck driver's pocket either.

So nobody foots the bill. The worker and the graduate aren't on opposite sides of a ledger. Setting them against each other is the trick, and it runs on the same myth as "add it to the tab", that the government is a household counting coins. It issues the currency. The real limits are real resources and inflation, not a truck driver's tax bill.

"Someone always pays." Sure. Just never the person you keep pointing at.

Read more: http://therebeleconomist.substack.com
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Andrew Dickson @andrewdickson13.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I’m going to be writing more from this OIA batch. The first piece is here: andrewdicksonnz.substack.com/p/david-seym...
andrewdicksonnz.substack.com
David Seymour’s Two-Tier Attendance System
At one school, children can learn at home two days a week. At another, the same thing counts as an absence.
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Andrew Dickson @andrewdickson13.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
So we ourselves an extraordinary contrast. A charter school can build two days of home learning into its model. But a sick or disabled child at a state school can be doing teacher-set work at home and still enter the system as absent.
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Andrew Dickson @andrewdickson13.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I got myself a batch of OIA documents from the Ministry of Education about school attendance. One of them presents David Seymour with a rather awkward problem. It begins on 11 February 2025. Intrigued? #nzpol
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Marsden @marsdennz.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Robyn and Callie packing themselves to attend Quilt Symposium in Ōtautahi this weekend. #Cats #CatsInBoxes #CatsOfBluesky #ProofOfCat #BlackAndWhiteCats #TabbyCats #Pets quiltsymposium.com
A black and white cat loafed in an otherwise empty plastic storage tub (42 litre), looking up at the camera with golden-yellow eyes.A large tabby cat with a green tag on her collar sitting in an otherwise empty plastic storage tub (42 litre) and looking up at the camera with pale yellow eyes. A large tabby cat sitting in an otherwise empty plastic storage tub, neck stretched over the side to touch noses with a black and white cat who is standing  perpendicular to the tub with her tail curled high.
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David Hood @thoughtfulnz.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
As people have been feeling the daylight savings shift last night, my annual comment that the practical long term of effect of swapping back and forth to daylight savings makes the clock most stable with regards to dawn. (and my objections to permanent summer time is the predawn active commutes)
Showing what times sunrise happens under different daylight savings models
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Anna McMartin/The End is Naenae @annamcmartin.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Anna Doesn't Handle Distractions, and now she knows why. Come laugh with me, cry with me, then laugh again. the-end-is-naenae.ghost.io/am-i-good-en...
the-end-is-naenae.ghost.io
Am I good enough at being useless?
I’m nervous as hell about sharing this, but I’ll put it out there in the hope it brings comfort to somebody else. I promise you it has a happy ending. My thought process always went this way.    Was...
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David Hood @thoughtfulnz.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Let us all remember that the creator of the Morris Worm of 1988 didn't intend to infect 10% of internet connected devices in the world and the accompanying damage, but his poor design choices resulted in his legal responsibility for the outcome. Of course, he wasn't an oligarch.
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Louise Hutt @saycheeselouise.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
At the Hamilton PSA debate, candidates were asked about disability NZF: Incoherent answer Labour: We don't have a policy announced Opportunities: We have no policy whatsoever Me: this govt's attacks on the disabled community are unacceptable, here's our policy, it was co-written by disabled people
The Green Party will build an Aotearoa where disabled people are valued and they and their whānau live with dignity and autonomy. An Aotearoa where disabled people and whānau have access to the services they need — like transport and good quality housing — means everyone can thrive in caring communities. 

Our current laws, policies and social norms mean disabled people are often denied the same rights as others and are excluded from places and activities non-disabled people take for granted. These barriers are often worse for tāngata whaikaha Māori and for disabled people from marginalised communities. 

The current Government has made it harder for disabled people to access the support they deserve and which enables them to participate equally in life and their communities. 

The Green Party is ambitious in its plan to create a more accessible Aotearoa by building on the Enabling Good Lives framework and grounding our approach in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Our approach will operate on a high-trust model and apply to all disabled people, including those with disabling conditions who do not currently access support. The Green Party is committed to an Aotearoa where disabled people and whānau thrive in caring communities.
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Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ @padresj.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
There is so much disinformation about the "Super El Nino" floating around the internet b/c mentioning any sort of mechanism that affects weather seems to start a shouting match. So here's a good video that gives you JUST the info you need in under 2 minutes.
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Yell In a War @jelenawoehr.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
it really needs to be more openly discussed that all the people advocating for “we should be fine with losing basic skills if we get more systems thinking” are men, meaning socialized to expect to be able to offload basic tasks of daily living onto a wife as part of their compensation for existing
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Alison Mau @alisonmau.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The funding sitch is a whole other thing.. turns out less than 1% of funding from philanthropic orgs in Aotearoa is targeted to family and sexual violence. Shitty but true. Fortunately we have plans for a diversified funding model but for now..💙 givealittle.co.nz/org/tika
givealittle.co.nz
Tika
Tika is an independent way to report sexual harm. When your report connects with others, take legal action together. Safe, private and free.
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Marsden @marsdennz.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
"Why would you choose to generate zero cash flow rather than generate some cash flow? ... ... commercial property is valued by the rent ... A shop ... leased at $100,000 per year might be worth $1.5 million ... the owner has to lower the rent ... now worth $1.05m." thespinoff.co.nz/politics/24-...
thespinoff.co.nz
New Zealand city centres have an empty shop problem. Do the Greens have the answer?
The commercial property vacancy rate in city centres keeps rising. The Green Party thinks it has a solution.
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David Farrier @davidfarrier.com · 23/09/2026
an amazing new project launches today in new zealand: people can report sexual harm, and get matched with others who reported the same person. when you report, you get a lawyer - and lawyer-client privilege. for free. i profile the website, technology, charity, & law firm here: www.webworm.co/tika/
webworm.co
This Could Change The Way Victims Get Justice
David Farrier's Webworm looks at Alison Mau and Zoë Lawton's Tika: a new way to report sexual harm in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
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🐻Iona🐻 @bewarethefish.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
In those twelve years the NZ media has targeted multiple brown women politicians, including publishing made up stories about the sex life of Wellington's former mayor being spread by bad faith actors. It's not just that the NZ media don't care, it's that they're active participants in this.
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Frank @fmacskasy.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Next time Luxon denies his rotten govt is racist, anti-Maori, and using TPU tactics - Emily Writes provides a very lengthy record of their actions. www.emilywrites.co.nz/te-tiriti/
emilywrites.co.nz
A list of (almost) every government attack on Māori and Te Tiriti
Not too long ago I was discussing the government and their attacks on Te Tiriti with a group of people. One of them said I know there's been the Treaty Principles Bill, but has there really been much ...
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Marsden @marsdennz.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"Despite 2026 only being the second election cycle for the fund, it has already received international recognition." #NZPol #Aotearoa #EqualAccess #DisabilityInPolitics #Representation thespinoff.co.nz/partner/22-0...
thespinoff.co.nz
Levelling the field: The fund helping disabled people compete in this year’s election
'It didn’t advantage me, it just meant I was able to do what every other candidate did.'
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Catherynne M. Valente @catvalente.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
From my new essay about the new social contract AI/AGI is actually meant to force us to sign: catvalente.substack.com/p/grand-thef...
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Idiot/Savant @norightturnnz.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Sign the petition here: petitions.parliament.nz/9aa71bc4-7e9...
petitions.parliament.nz
Petitions are addressed to the House of Representatives and ask that the House do something about a policy or law, or put right a local or private concern.
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Idiot/Savant @norightturnnz.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Standing Orders Committee's "solution" to record levels of public enagement is to adopt a purpose statement for SCs that would effectively allow most submissions to be ignored. And that's how you lose social licence.
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Funranium (AKA Phil Broughton) @funranium.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
It is ALWAYS a good time to review the Geek Social Fallacies. Teach them to the young that they may live better than you did.
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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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Musical Chairs @musicalchairs.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Auckland is a big service economy; it's stalled because there is not enough money flowing through it. There are tens of thousands of people ready to work, but not enough work for them. Low demand = low consumption = more stagnation. Luxon can't see it because he believes in magic markets. [🧵 1/n]
https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/361083029/luxon-auckland-stop-talking-and-get-some-stuff-done
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Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 18/09/2026
This is the far more likely pathway for how AI will end us all, btw. Not via some superintelligent swarm of paperclip maximizers, but by a cascading sequence of dumb fuckups driven by human beings who have arranged things to be fast-moving and catastrophically fragile while also being really lazy.
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Stephanie Rodgers 🍉 @bootstheory.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The "AI will kill us all" panic says everything about the dudes promoting it: genAI is already killing people through inaccuracy, encouraging violence and self-harm, and giving bad leaders false confidence to make harmful decisions But that's not a *cool* kind of "killing us all" so they don't care
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Andrew Dickson @andrewdickson13.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Apparently Chlöe Swarbrick beating Nicola Willis in a poll on who New Zealanders trust to manage the economy came as something of a shock? Not to me. I’ve been listening to how Swarbrick talks about money. There’s something interesting going on. 🧵
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Tom Eastman @tom.eastman.nz · 18/09/2026
I am old enough to remember when it was "every program expands until it has email built in"
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Christchurch City Libraries Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi @christchurchlib.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Our new pop-up exhibition starting at Tūranga on Saturday, Suffrage Day, highlights some of the interesting jobs and work undertaken by local women (even though for voting enrolment purposes their occupations were not recorded) ^MT www.newsline.ccc.govt.nz/news/story/m...
Ascot Millinery girls 1951 by Margaret & Alan Scott, CCL-PH20-DW-123891, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Image of 8 women standing in front of the Edmonds Band Rotunda. All of them wear coats, hats, and gloves. The image is black and white but lightly colourised with some green in the grass and fleshtones on the women's faces.
From left, Margaret Scott who worked in the office. Joyce Meal, Lois Parkinson and her sister, Val. Muriel Watts, Leila Helman, Miss Farr and Mrs Woolf (owner)."
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Funranium (AKA Phil Broughton) @funranium.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Cheryl has made a fine point. I, nor other safety professionals, have really said much about general safety precepts as they relate to AI, as opposed to the bullshit artist millenarian cultists that are happy to do so at length. One of the reasons is "These tools are an active detriment to safety."
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Anil Dash @anildash.com · 17/09/2026
I would like media to care more about the reality that tech tycoons want to kill people than what they’re imagining about AI wanting to kill people. We have multi-millionaires (with support from billionaires!) calling for ethnic cleansing, a thing that has happened in living memory. Not theoretical!
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Andrew @openpolicy.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Let's be really clear: Paul Goldsmith asked MoJ to find him cost justifications to restrict the OIA. They've done so. The numbers are largely bogus - inflating numbers of *recorded* OIA requests. A serious assault on our right to information MOJ advice: www.justice.govt.nz/assets/Docum... #nzpol
justice.govt.nz
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Hungrymama @hungrymama.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Is most definitely friend-shaped
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New Zealand Professional Firefighters' Union @nzpfu.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
A scathing report into FENZ has confirmed what the NZPFU has said for years: FENZ leadership has failed the frontline. Swipe through to see 5 damning revelations from the Parliamentary Inquiry. #NZPol
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D Jukic She/her @dejanajuk.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
“Rashbrooke has just published a report, Swimming in a Sea of It, with his colleague, Professor of Taxation Lisa Marriott, on vested-interest lobbying, when powerful or influential individuals or groups shift decision-making processes in their favour, & the public good can suffer as a result” #nzpol
rnz.co.nz
Vested interests and the power of lobbying in NZ
A new report released on Thursday highlights the pros and cons of vested-interest lobbying and spotlights the lobbied, including current and former ministers, MPs and ministerial staffers
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Hungrymama @hungrymama.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
An excellent yarn - both funny and moving
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Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The thing about trying not to pick a side is that the nazis *instantly recognize* which side you picked. They immediately identify you as an ally. They know exactly what side you're on. It doesn't fool the victims, it doesn't fool the Nazis, the only people it could possibly fool is centrists.
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Marsden @marsdennz.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
"National is presenting a smaller deposit as help, while the bank receives an additional quarter of a million dollars in repayments over the life of the loan." #NZPol #HousingAffordability #Mortgages keenlens.substack.com/p/the-5-depo...
keenlens.substack.com
The 5% Deposit Mortgage Should Be forbidden by Law , not made a Housing Policy
The Keen-Lens Macro Letter ⚡ Flash Letter New Zealand · Housing, Credit & Political Economy · September 2026
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Kai Blin @kblin.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I was in a thread on here recently discussing how editors are struggling to even get people to decline invites. I just got an invite from Food Biotech that requires me to create an Elsevier account to decline. It takes me one click to delete an email. Don't make it take > 3 clicks to decline.
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drrawiritaonui.bsky.social @drrawiritaonui.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
52,000 signature Ngāti Kahungunu do not undermine Te Tiriti o Waitangi petition sucessfully delivered.
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Catherynne M. Valente @catvalente.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
From my new essay on AI and the end of humanity people seem either weirdly excited about or weirdly willing to lay down for: catvalente.substack.com/p/all-you-ne...
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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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Andrew @openpolicy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
This point is valuable for people in NZ to consider: allowing DX Mail to compete with NZ Post may have made the market more efficient for companies sending lots of mail. But it’s very likely to have come at the cost of accessible postal services for the rest of us. #nzpol
Screenshot of the old (18 August 2020) Twitter post by Randy Picker about US law on postal services, which itself contains a screenshot of a judgment he cites.
“Randy Picker @randyp. • 18 Aug 2020
So smart and sophisticated. Understood that gov't post office monopoly was required given planned cross-subsidization between urban and rural areas. Otherwise private firms would enter and creamskim on urban routes. All part of constructing a nation with universal access.
‘The business of conveying letters being made a governmental function, it must, in the nature of things be exclusive. Having to perform this duty on routes where the distances are long and the letters few as well as where the distances are short and the letters many; and being required to do this at rates uniform, according to the distance, whether the letters be few or many;—it follows that, if individuals are permitted to engage in the business, by confining their operations to the routes on which they incur but a small expense and transact a large business, they can perform the service on such routes at a less charge than the Government, and will necessarily, in time, deprive it of all the business arising within the sphere of the competition.
Individual enterprise, if left unchecked, will
engross the productive routes, and the Government must be left to convey the unproductive mails only. As the means by which this is done is produced by rates of postage, adjusted in reference to the productive las well as the unproductive routes, the winding up of the post office operations, under such a state of things, must speedily follow. What, then’”
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Sen @dresdencodak.com · 17/07/2026
You can read all of Dark Science (as well as my various side comics) for free on my website! dresdencodak.com/archives/
dresdencodak.com
The Comics - Dresden Codak
Now in book form! Scientist Kimiko Ross has a problem: her money’s gone and a bank exploded her house. With no place else to go, she travels to Nephilopolis, the city of giants – built from the ruins ...
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CEO Johnny Cans @oldmatecans.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
What fine, fine healthcare workers we have in this wonderful country working under almost unbearable conditions and still being calm, kind and supportive.
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