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Splakey

@splakey.bsky.social
74 followers 52 following 269 posts

A little fish swimming with big ideas in Te Whanganui a Tara

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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 1h
My hot takes on the Kingmakers debate. Qiuelae held her own, but faded down the stretch. Rawiri spoke truth to power (when allowed to speak). David still auditioning for the debate team. Chlöe knows her brief, always. Winston’s shtick is tiresome. #nzpol
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 11h
It’s deliberate mismanagement. When everything devolves into the commodity form, the latent capacity of those raw materials is sold off and the “excess” labour is stripped of its humanity. #nzpol
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Lacanian analytic/economic theory really should be a thing. This thread is so much more coherent than the endless, tiresome variations on “vibes” narratives that pass as media analysis (looking at you, Stuff 👀). Thank you! #nzpol
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Budgets are moral documents, first and foremost. “… a fully rounded picture would include some sort of measure of the true liabilities of not investing in public health services, social housing and the health and wellbeing of our poorest, youngest and most vulnerable.”
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Manoj Doss not exist @manojdoss.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Interesting when 1) a 5-HT2A agonist sharpened neural tuning/precision of working memory representations (www.jneurosci.org/content/22/7...) and 2) working memory capacity (rather than precision) tends to be more readily impaired by 5-HTA psychedelics compared to NMDA dissociatives.
jneurosci.org
The Physiological Role of 5-HT2A Receptors in Working Memory
Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has an essential role in the cognitive process of working memory, dysfunction of which is considered to be a core deficit in schizophrenia. Although this cortical region...
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Manoj Doss not exist @manojdoss.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Together, *might* suggest dissociable effects of psychedelics and dissociatives on WM capacity vs. precision: capacity less impaired by dissociatives, precision less impaired or even enhanced by psychedelics.
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Carl B Latro @carlblatro.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
How the New Zealand economy actually works. As in not like a household budget. andrewdicksonnz.substack.com/p/everything... #nzpol #NewZealand #MMT
andrewdicksonnz.substack.com
Everything You've Been Told About Government Debt Is Arse-Backwards
On the 30% rule nobody voted for, and the household budget fantasy that organises our decline.
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Cry me a river, Damien. #nzpol
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Just leaving this as a marker of a certain moment in the “before” time.
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
When play is replaced by compliance, we are lost. Winnicott: ‘It is creative apperception more than anything else that makes the individual feel that life is worth living.’ He contrasts this with compliance, a relationship to external reality that ‘carries with it a sense of futility’.
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Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Ever wonder what "information" really means? Here's our new paper, led by @frosas.bsky.social, that lays out the multiple ways the term is used in natural science. rdcu.be/fCDGv
A chart describing four faces of information: Engineering, Statistical, Thermodynamic, and Ontological.
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Environmental Law Initiative - Aotearoa NZ @eli-aotearoa.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Last night, the New Zealand Government passed into law the Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill. We've been opposing that law change, alongside Mike Smith, and many others for the last few months (in fact, 93% of public submissions opposed it). #nzpol #climate #ClimateLitigation
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
This is an American solution to a universal problem. As a hospital worker, I appreciate the work of security. But research clearly points to other root causes, all of which this govt fails to address. As with the push to hire more prison guards, this govt prioritizes force, not knowledge or care.
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
I don’t know if it’s intentional intellectual dishonesty, but the cases cited (Albania, Lesotho, Italy) do not in any way track with what TPM is doing. In those cases, it was the entrenched coalitions gaming the electoral maths to claim seats from independent, smaller parties … 🧵 #nzpol
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Unless the Post editors are willing to spend 10x the ink on how the Coalition restricting voter access erodes the foundation of democracy itself, this is nothing more than racism in respectable clothing. #nzpol
Post headline reads: Gaming MMP risks the system itself
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Alas, the Penk Pity Party cannot end until Damien has sounded a final howl of white male fragility. Stuff will now return you to your regularly scheduled neoliberal stenographers. #nzpol
Stuff article entitled “ex Navy officer saw the iceberg ahead. National threw him overboard.”Accompanied by photo of a bigot and a dildo.
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I’m seeing a lot of hot takes on how National’s emergency caucus will play out tomorrow. I’m here to reassure you that when the dust settles, Winston will still be in charge. #nzpol
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Just gonna leave this here in case any actual journalists are keen to ask PM Bishop a follow up question. #nzpol
Picture of Chris Bishop (long knives not pictured)
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
I’m curious, Damien, is it as painful as watching a woman die freezing under a bridge because of his policies? #nzpol
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Science Magazine @science.org · 24/07/2026
A new analysis in Science of more than 116,000 bird songs has revealed that the astonishing variety of passerine birdsong is built from just eight basic acoustic motifs, like trills, whistles, and harmonic notes. scim.ag/4ft2KBF
scim.ag
The global biogeography of passerine songs
Although bird songs are classic models for understanding the evolution of vocal communication, their global diversity has long made the development of a unifying framework challenging. By analyzing th...
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Why Do We Tell Ourselves Scary Stories About AI? - nautil.us/why-do-we-te...
nautil.us
Why Do We Tell Ourselves Scary Stories About AI?
Why Do We Tell Ourselves Scary Stories About AI?: Our tales of AI developing the will to survive, commandeer resources, and manipulate people say more about us than they do about language models.
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Te Ara Paerangi Com - Research Advocacy Capability @te-ara-paerangi.community · 11/07/2026
"The cause is the rentier capture of the assets that constitute the reference standard of living: housing, principally, but also education, healthcare, and the credentialled pathways to professional employment." Excellent essay. Sound familiar? #NZPOL
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Aeon Magazine @aeon.co · 04/07/2026
Human prosperity depends on nature, but no global metric has captured this with precision. Enter the Nature Relationship Index. An Essay by Yadvinder Malhi
aeon.co
It doesn’t have to be us versus nature | Aeon Essays
Human prosperity depends on nature, but no global metric has captured this with precision. Enter the Nature Relationship Index
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Ganesh Rajaram Ahirao @ganeshahirao.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
#nzpol ... yeah ... sigh ... and once more for those at the back ... pretty much what he⬇️ said ... and me➡️ ganeshnana.substack.com/p/the-fix
ganeshnana.substack.com
The fix
The Economic Governance Act 2027 – a total transplant for our broken economy
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Manoj Doss not exist @manojdoss.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Check out our recent review on how psychedelics don’t simply enhance cognitive flexibility by Raquel Kosted, @drjjdonegan.bsky.social, Josh Cisler, and Greg Fonzo. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 1/12
sciencedirect.com
Psychedelics do not always enhance cognitive flexibility: The potential role of time-varying effects on reward learning processes
Although research on psychedelics (hallucinogenic serotonin 2 A or 5-HT2A agonists) has shown initial promise in ameliorating a range of psychiatric c…
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Absolutely. Mandating rather than actually supporting personal savings is about gutting the social safety net, twisting the notion of personal responsibility so that the state can abandon its responsibility to working people & shift capital irreversibly to the free-lunch rentier class. #nzpol
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
“If we sell our minds too cheaply to our machine creations, we not only overestimate them – we underestimate ourselves.”
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
A must read.
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
“This is exactly the kind of pathogen that's going to test whether the global health security infrastructure is functioning,”
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Nature @nature.com · 13/05/2026
There's a growing concern that AI tools used to help produce innovative drugs could also make it easier to create new threats go.nature.com/4fhtqXx
go.nature.com
AI can design viruses, toxins and other bioweapons. How worried should we be?
Scientists are debating whether to limit biological AI software to ward off threats.
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Aeon Magazine @aeon.co · 10/05/2026
Particles are nature’s smallest constituents, but that doesn’t mean they’re fundamental. So what is the Universe made of?. An Essay by Felix Flicker
aeon.co
Why reality is more than the sum of its particles | Aeon Essays
Particles are nature’s smallest constituents, but that doesn’t mean they’re fundamental. So what is the Universe made of?
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Offered without comment
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
May is budget month so I’m warming up by practicing saying “stagflation”
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
LOL. National, please continue making your pro-war noises as loudly as possible over the next six months. #nzpol www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...
thepost.co.nz
Australia is preparing for war. Why isn’t New Zealand?
As Canberra pours billions into defence and braces for regional threats, Wellington is still clinging to outdated assumptions about security.
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Manoj Doss not exist @manojdoss.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Now that it has been out for a week, I thought I’d address a few strange takes regarding our recent mega-analysis on the effects of psychedelics on brain function (specifically, resting-state functional connectivity). 1/15 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
An international mega-analysis of psychedelic drug effects on brain circuit function - Nature Medicine
Analysis of neuroimaging datasets across five major psychedelics revealed a shared brain signature and provides a comprehensive insight into how these drugs reorganize brain architecture.
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
What conversations between Republicans looked like when Eisenhower was POTUS. (also, love that the incidental music is Franck’s Symphony in D minor)
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
To be fair to Winnie, it’s hard to speak at all whilst boot licking. #nzpol
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Again, there is no moral test that Luxon cannot fail. #nzpol
Stuff article headline,”Luxon stops short of condemning Trump, calls Iran rhetoric unhelpful”
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Willis has the look of someone figuring out what “regime change” actually means. Unfortunately for us, she has no clue how to handle any of this. Remember: #ETTD #nzpol
Picture of Nicole Willis above headline,”Live: Inflation will go 'much higher' this year, Willis warns, as Trump issues fresh threat to Iran”
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Luxon: “Keep working, keep the kids in school, doing all that stuff. Please don't think 'it's Covid 2.0, I'm making sourdough at home again'." Indeed. Covid 1.0 was a successful govt intervention to save lives This is a shit show(and good time for sourdough) #nzpol www.odt.co.nz/news/nationa...
odt.co.nz
'Problem is not going away': Govt urged to do more on diesel
The government should start prioritising diesel allocation now as the fuel situation is only getting worse, Westpac's chief economist says. It...
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 25/03/2026
‘My ties to Habermas were multi-layered. He was a mentor and an antagonist; a figure who showed me early on how to practise “critique with an emancipatory intent” but from whom I eventually had to distance myself.’ Nancy Fraser, new on the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...
lrb.co.uk
Nancy Fraser | After Habermas
Jürgen Habermas may be variously described as the moral conscience of postwar Germany, the last great systematic...
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Headed out to a performance of Schubert’s Cello Quintet (D956) now!
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
“ ‘Technological imperatives, not popular opinion, are the most important sources of change,’ they write. The supremacy of technology is their theory of history.” 1/2 engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...
engelsbergideas.com
The march of the sovereign individuals
Co-authored by James Dale Davidson, an American financier, and William Rees-Mogg, former editor of The Times, The Sovereign Individual forecasted a world of ceaseless technological advancement and lib...
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
“Thiel is consciously seeking to position himself as a figure of religious authority, using scripture and philosophy to preach in favor of a capitalism that murders democracy.” www.thenerdreich.com/peter-thiels...
thenerdreich.com
Vatican Rebukes Peter Thiel's Antichrist Lectures in Rome
A papal adviser calls Peter Thiel a heretic after his secret Rome lectures on the Antichrist draw global attention and a Vatican rebuke
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
“An instance of this failed judgment is in Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia. Clausewitz argues his primary fault was misjudging the impact of taking Moscow on the Tsar. Had Napoleon been right that this would force the Tsar to come to terms, the campaign strategy would have been sound.” 1/2
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Aeon Magazine @aeon.co · 19/03/2026
In memory of Jürgen Habermas, we’re sharing an essay that draws on his theory of deliberative democracy to rethink climate change, arguing that climate change is not only a scientific problem, but a political and moral one
buff.ly
How can Habermas help us think about climate change? | Aeon Essays
Jürgen Habermas offers a framework for action on climate change – justice and deliberation are as important as the science
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Dr Karaitiana Taiuru MITP, MInstD @ktaiuru.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
I am excited to release, perhaps the world’s first Indigenous Peoples AI Framework for understanding and describing the nature of an Artificial Intelligence (AI). Drawing on mātauranga Māori, tikanga Māori, and te reo Māori. www.taiuru.co.nz/kaupapa-maor... #ai #maori #indigenous
taiuru.co.nz
Kaupapa Māori AI Framework
World's first Indigenous Peoples AI Agent Framework for understanding and describing the nature of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) agent.
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
As US military assets flow out of the region, just gonna leave this here in case you are curious what the folks behind the US administration really intend to do when China takes Taiwan. 1/2 stanfordreview.org/the-illusion...
stanfordreview.org
The Illusion of Taiwanese Strength
On the morning of February 24, 2022, Russia declared war on Ukraine. A complex and multi-faceted operation, Russia launched a series of simultaneous attacks along various different axes with the inten...
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Splakey @splakey.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
“among one of the best pandemic responses in the world” notes the (2nd!) Royal Commission I clearly remember how collectively frightened, but determined, NZ felt going into COVID We enter the current crisis with mean, self-pitying leadership and a Trumpian “idea of a plan” This ends poorly #nzpol
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 16/03/2026
‘Most philosophers have tried to fuse sublimity and decency, to fuse social hope with knowledge of something big. Universalism of the sort Habermas insists on still suggests the possibility of such a fusion.’ Richard Rorty on Jürgen Habermas, from 1987. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v0...
lrb.co.uk
Richard Rorty · Posties
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