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Daniel Collins

@watercyclist.bsky.social
3.3K followers 202 following 255 posts

Water, climate change, science, policy, and people. Particularly floods, adaptation, and uncertainty. Dad, Pākehā/Ngāpuhi, MIT PhD, Ōtautahi/New Zealand.

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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
A new creative project: postage stamp mosaics. It's not unique, but I can find ways to add my own flair. Here: the 1982 24-cent map of NZ, tiled to reflect lat-long divisions. I have plans to explore other themes and other silhouettes, and possibly also an online market place. Any requests?
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
On removing Māori words from early readers: "Languages are living and local. As such, our educational resources should support our tamariki's evolving communication needs here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Structured literacy need not exclude cultural legacy." www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/3607...
thepress.co.nz
The Press letters to the editor: August 14
Can 5-year-olds understand words in more than one language? Readers have views on that, and a range of other subjects today.
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 21/07/2025
Palestinians are starving to death Palestinians are starving to death Palestinians are starving to death Palestinians are starving to death Palestinians are starving to death Palestinians are starving to death Palestinians are starving to death Palestinians are starving to death Palestinians are st
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Can anyone help my to identify the artist? It's from an old family photo, probably taken in France.
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Dr. Cassandra Mudgway @legallyfeminist.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
ICYMI, Lawyer Tania Waikato had to lock down her social media due to threats made against her b/c she spoke out against the Regulatory Standards Bill and enlisted security when making her sub. This is the result of targeted online attacks by a certain Minister #nzpol waateanews.com/2025/07/10/a...
waateanews.com
Lawyer Requires Personal Security to Oppose Controversial Bill
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Alyssa Long @measuredandslow.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Crocheted a geode, like you do 🧶 #crochet
A soft crocheted geode made of yarn and pink beads on the inside to imitate crystals A soft crocheted geode made of yarn and pink beads on the inside to imitate crystals. It is shown from the side to show the outside “rock”A soft crocheted geode made of yarn and pink beads on the inside to imitate crystals. It is sitting on a marble counter
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
For Christchurch folks, I'll be giving a talk at the art gallery on the water cycle as seen through art. I'll be weaving together art, science, history, politics, and geography to build a story of hydrology and hydrological change. Come along if you can! Or let's chat if you can't!
christchurchartgallery.org.nz
Climate Action: Daniel Collins
Continuing our Climate Action series, Dr Daniel Collins (Ngāpuhi) looks at Aotearoa New Zealand’s water cycle, from mountain rainfall to river mouths, through artworks from our collection exhibition, ...
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 22/06/2025
✅ Submission on the Regulatory Standards Bills. With limited time & technical expertise I focused on the Principles. ❌ They ignore personal well-being; public goods; Te Tiriti; etc. No balance. ❌ They presume values & costs of legislation can be monetised. ❌ They are un-Kiwi. Into the bin with it.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
Cake decorating videos are a lie. They make it look much easier than it is 😫 Buttercream frosting does NOT. STICK. TO. SPONGE. CAKE.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
It's not as crystal clear as scientific measurements, but looking at historical postage stamps (NZ) can paint a picture of retreating glaciers. Particularly for the Fox Glacier (bottom).
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
These stamps of Aoraki/Mt Cook are from 1898. Among the earliest stamps globally not to feature portraits. On the left, the Hooker Glacier is probably the white area beneath the mountain. But would the view on the right also have included the glacier?
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
This 1946 NZ stamp shows a view of Lake Matheson on the West Coast, with Aoraki and Mt Tasman visible in the distance. It also shows a sliver of the Fox Glacier, just above the distant trees - alas, not a view we can see today.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
How long should it take large firms to pay invoices from contracted consultants? It's now 4 weeks, with two reminders. If there were two bread-winners in the house, or if I had more time outside parenting to bring in work, it wouldn't be so dicy. ... The burdens of the precariat.
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Sarah Pallett @sarah4ilam.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Shocking stuff. The committee is now expected to report back TOMORROW. A month earlier than scheduled. Tens of thousands of OUR submissions remain unread, unprocessed and unconsidered. @duncanwebbmp.bsky.social is doing a great job fighting this. We can help by emailing committee members. #nzpol
rnz.co.nz
Labour alleges 'appalling lack of process' over Treaty Principles Bill deadline
The committee has "rammed it through with outrageous haste", with a report now expected tomorrow, but excluding thousands of submissions, Duncan Webb says.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
For people in Christchurch, the Linwood Community Arts Centre has their annual exhibit of artists new to exhibiting. Go check it out! There's even a piece by me, melding scientific data and historical art to comment on our shrinking glaciers under climate change. www.linwoodarts.org/first-steps-...
linwoodarts.org
First Steps 2025: 31 March - 26 April - Linwood Arts
Eastside’s annual exhibition for artists who are new, or nearly new, to exhibiting is back for 2025 with a huge variety of works from 16 local artists in Eastside and another 10 in the Mini Gallery. T...
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
Happy Pi Day! May your Ides turn into pies, with a simple rotation of the 'Id' by π.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
The NZ government's new school lunch programme is disgraceful, poor quality, wasteful of food and funding, and dangerous. www.nzherald.co.nz/gisborne-her...
nzherald.co.nz
Student ends up in A&E with second-degree burns after hot school lunch ‘splattered everywhere’
'This child has basically had to be taken to A&E ... quite upset and in a bit of pain'.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
For something completely different from my normal fare, a piece of glaciological art I recently completed. 'Fox Glacier, not looking up' Draws from a 19th C watercolour, glacier length time-series, and reference to a painter who drew inspiration from a geologist.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Along my te reo Māori journey, I am enamoured by the kupu hou 'wahapū', relating to either eloquence or to the mouth of a river (etc).
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
What are good* alternatives to Facebook? Friendica and Diaspora seem up there. * similar functionality * low hurdle for adoption * better privacy
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Q for artists & art gallery staff. I wish to make some transformative art based on digital images of copyright-lapsed, NZ works. Respectful, but manipulated. Obv I approach gallery owner. Is permission necessary, or just good manners? Could it just come down to whether they like the creative idea?
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
With apples and pears galore, the 'pop' of the lids is the happy sound of PV = nRT in action.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
The most audacious treasure hunt I've prepared for my 5 y.o. son yet. A 2-day trip to and through the Waitaki. 🪨 Rocks 🐧 Wildlife 🛝 Playgrounds 🖍️ Art 🎸 Tom Petty 🤯 Core memory
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
I'm doing some research for a talk on water (and climate change) as seen through art, and I'm finding some poignant gems. Particularly Colin McCahon's blurred landscape 'Tomorrow will be the same but not as this is' (1958-59). Can you say 'non-stationarity'?
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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 12/01/2025
Scientists developed the first climate models in the late 1960s (for which the Nobel Prize in physics was recently awarded!). How have these models held up against what happened in the real world after they were published? Surprisingly well, it turns out:
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
A new letterbox, for when your street needs more colour, puns, and literary references.
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Bronwyn Hayward @bmhayward.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
At a time when the NZ government making concerted attempts to defund social sciences and humanities in favour of a few physical sciences alone, I particularly appreciate this ‘airline safety video’ pitch from Bryony James of VUW
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
I find it a happy coincidence that 'tika' (te reo Māori) and 'tickety-boo' (English) have very similar meanings.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
My second year learning te reo Māori done ✅ NZ Certificate in te Reo level 4. The journey started as a way of being a better Dad; emboldened by racism. Toitu te reo.
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Veronika Meduna @veronikameduna.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
"This decision defunds Māori research and researchers by stealth" Tahu Kukutai in my latest for @science.org on cuts to the Marsden Fund, NZ's only fund for "blue-sky" research; features Paul Spoonley, @nicgaston.bsky.social et al www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Amid cuts to basic research, New Zealand scraps all support for social sciences
Scientists shocked as “blue-sky” Marsden Fund has half its budget shifted to research focused on helping economy
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Eddie Clark @dreddieclark.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
I've said before that govts have let both physical and intellectual infrastructure in this country run down over years and we're going to wear the cost of that over the coming generation. Today's Marsden decision is as big a vandalism of public capacitor in NZ as the cook strait ferry cancellation.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
To the tune of 'Blue Skies': Bluesky smiling at me Nothing but Bluesky do I see The blue bird’s tweeting has gone Followers transferred, from now on Never saw a spike in social media flight Sever their links to the hell site Noticing the folks finding their tribe When they arrive, feeling the vibe
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
The wisteria has found the plug for the car. Should I be worried?
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
'Once upon a time inside a star, an oxygen atom was born.' And so began tonight's bedtime story, that spanned billions of years from the origin of oxygen, to water, to planet, to an ever more complicated water cycle, ... to the water my son put in a bowl in the freezer today as an experiment.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
I'm contemplating whether to submit on the Treaty Principles Bill in both English and te reo Māori, with a few - but substantial - mistranslations between the two.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
1. Credit where credit is due. 2. AI has a high electricity and water price tag.
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Eddie Clark @dreddieclark.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
I get this but imo we shouldn't buy into Seymour's framing. What I'd insist on is that this has nothing to do with individual rights; it's one party to an agreement that set up this country trying to change the deal unilaterally. As unconstitutional as if the US federal gov tried to abolish states.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Here's a tip for parents: pretend weekend trips away to exostic destinations with your kids, with themed activities. Parents I've told about this IRL have loved the idea, so I'm sharing it here. Fun and educational without the fuss and cost of real travel.
Handing over a pretend plane ticket at an actual airport... with staff's consent.Visiting Rutherford's Den. My son's not tall enough, so he improvises.Building a stone henge as a burial site for a dead baby bird we found.Baking scones.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
A fantastic and fitting response to a fundamentally flawed and purposefully divisive bill. People shouldn't complain about a violation of Parliamentary rules if they ignore violations of Te Tiriti.
rnz.co.nz
Treaty Principles Bill haka highlights tensions between Māori tikanga and rules of Parliament
Te Pāti Māori's extraordinary display of protest interrupted the first vote on the Treaty Principles Bill.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
Believing that flooding won't get worse under climate change is so antediluvian.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 09/11/2024
"Reverse the polarity!" is well-known techno babble used in lots of scifi shows. But sometimes it IS actually the solution. I was in a summer job as a student, helping build a device to measure airspeed across a model puka leaf.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 09/11/2024
I've been silent here for quite a while, but - wow - the mass immigration to these blue pastures from the salted and scarred wasteland, over the past month or so, is palpable. May we all find and build uplifting communities.
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Eddie Clark @dreddieclark.bsky.social · 07/08/2024
Yes all of this, but on the specific ground of truthfulness, the key piece of information to cite here is that *none of the customary rights available to Maori under the law remove land from public ownership*. "Restore... to public ownership" implies it's being made private. That is outright false.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 19/06/2024
I'll use this in talks I give about society and water. Society functions well (designed to) within a middle range of hydrological conditions. Too much = flood. Too little = drought. Ironically, we exacerbate the situation by living in floodplains, and growing water-intensive crops in sunny places.
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Grumpy @grumpyyetamusin.bsky.social · 15/03/2024
Congrats on electing a Nat MP! How's that working out for you? www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
rnz.co.nz
Government rejects Westport's plea for flood protection funding
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown told the mayor it was not the government's problem.
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 14/03/2024
Happy Pi Day!
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 16/02/2024
One day someone is going to live at the intersection of Squirtle Lane and Jigglypuff Place, in Las Vegas.
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Nate Wolff @natewolff.bsky.social · 09/02/2024
❌ I’m in a slough of despond ✅ I’m in a freshwater marsh of sadness
a chart advising that we "avoid using anti-wetland language"
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Daniel Collins @watercyclist.bsky.social · 05/02/2024
Do I think about the Roman Empire or their conquests often? Not a chance. The conflicts that I think about most often are the NZ Land Wars and WW2. Both very close to home, and both relevant to today. Toitū te Tiriti.
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