@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 1w ago

Just now remembering how ten or fifteen years ago my best mate (a bit of a hacker, as well as my business partner) made a small device he'd carry around in his pocket that turned off every tv and display within a few metres. He hated the constant barrage of bright, moving images in public spaces. Anyway, he caused all sorts of havoc if we ever found ourselves in a mall, but it was nice to sit in a pub without big screen tvs blasting football at us. Thinking of him this grand final day in #Melbourne.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 2mo ago

Been sketching buildings alongside the track in East Richmond and 'No Fun' is one of my favourites. I'm a bit out of practice - I did a degree in architecture 30 years ago when all i did was draw buildings - but still, I'm having fun. #Melbourne #Richmond #drawing

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 2mo ago

Yesterday was hard. Woke up with atrial fibrillation and spent the day stressed and wondering if i should go to the hospital. Got called by the charity i'd done two interviews for to say that even though they loved me and i was amazing they were hiring the other person. Then cooked an amazing dinner for the family which i couldnt eat because I've got an endoscopy coming up. Of course all of this inspired many hours of bleak introspection and second guessing of all my life choices. I'm trying to sit with disappointment today without sliding into despair. My heart at least has settled down so i can go for a gentle walk. I'm worried about money, my girls, my long suffering hard working wife, and how to summon the resilience & perspective needed to change this state of affairs. Sorry for the personal moan, I'm just feeling it keenly this morning.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

"ThE kIdS aRe oUt oF CoNtrOl!"

I'm doing research for a presentation and today found a table showing that in the 1990s, when i was last considered a youth, the youth crime rate in NZ was *five times* higher than it is today.

Unfortunately, i don't think this awkward fact (and easily checked statistic) will stop the entirely constructed narrative of a youth crime wave being used to get votes in the election this year.

The real question this raises for me is why aren't young people doing *more* crimes?

#NZPol

mastodon.nz

Mastodon NZ

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 3mo ago

Boosted by @trending@homestead.social

I have gone to war with Pharmac and I have worked alongside Pharmac as part of a reform process. I think it is an important agency, in fact it is critical for healthcare in NZ that it performs well. Their health economics failed me of course, by indicating that the cost of my care was worth more than my life. The reason, and I shit you not, was that if I survived the proven and successful treatment options (and I would), I might live so long that I would end up costing the health system more as I grew old. Cheaper to let me die young. The economic models used by Pharmac are outdated, are not humane, are poorly understood by staff, and fundamentally flawed by a very narrow focus on the constructed 'benefit' of a human life. Now, imagine training an AI on those models (and all of their past decision making). Pardon my French, but fucking hell. Article: Pharmac urged to use more AI #Healthcare #NZPol #Pharmac https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/pharmac-urged-to-use-more-ai-minister-david-seymour-says-it-will-make-entity-more-humane/JR5OH4TFCNFKXACLUKFKKEP2CU/

Pharmac urged to use more AI, minister says it will make entity more 'humane'

NZ Herald

Pharmac urged to use more AI, minister says it will make entity more 'humane'

Pharmac says it will start small and 'build over time'.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@chu@climatejustice.social @LyallMorrison@cloudisland.nz @MikeFromLFE@cupoftea.social @fritzoids@mas.to i taught self defence for over a decade, and ensured my daughters got their blackbelt too. As someone with numerous blackbelts of my own i can say that the ultimate lesson is not how well you can kick (although that's a pretty cool skill) but what i'd describe as being physically confident in a space. It's situational awareness combined with an understanding of your own body. Dancers often have this btw. I've broken up or intervened in several violent situations, not because I'm super tough (I'm not), and all without throwing a punch. I've defended myself and a few others by recognising the danger and acting in a way to either defuse or avoid it. Twenty years of training so that i should never use it. Sounds cliche, i know, but i look at my board breaking, hip throwing daughters walking with confidence and think, yup, they're safer now.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@cestfleuve@mastodon.nz 'poverty' is a real, visceral state that many have experienced and which we can imagine (or feel right now) in human terms. 'Cost of living' is an economic phrase that puts emotional distance between ourselves and those suffering. It's weasle words, used by people that are sheltered from poverty.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

OMG organisations in NZ that still ask for a bank deposit slip as proof of account what freakin' century are you living in?

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

My daughter made some cinnamon brioche today because a school friend was coming over and she wanted to impress them.

Anyway, I'm eating brioche for supper.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 2mo ago

I've been involved with non-profits as a volunteer, in governance, and in leadership since about 2011. I've noticed something fairly consistent during that time: Funding for sector support, general operations, sector capability, system-change, and advocacy is consistently denied. Funding for one-off projects, direct support to a community, and even individuals needing crisis funding attracts a lot of money (comparatively). This aligns with the idea of removing 'back-end' admin and prioritising frontline services. We've seen it in this government's approach to things such as healthcare. But it also means that the system is brittle. Well-supported sectors are flexible and can grow, adapt, and improve, collaborative work can be coordinated at scale. Funding frontline-only is all about treating symptoms and removes this collective perspective. In terms of optics it is simple and understandable to most people. It feels good and easy to grasp the benefits (and TBF it very often *is* doing good). But it's also neo-liberal economics applied to social work - it fragments people into special causes, ensures the system is never challenged seriously, and erodes collective effort. Anyway, just had a funding application denied for sector capability. Feeling a bit salty. #Charity #NonProfit #Funding

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

I tried to problem solve an issue i was having with Optus by logging into my account on the Web. I used their online chat, which was predictably useless. I was then prompted to connect to a human. I said yes.

Dear readers, i was not connected to a human.

I kept a transcript of the nonsense that followed which included false information about my account, repeatedly asking me the same question (already answered), then providing me an imaginary issue ticket.

Over 2 days i emailed, phoned, eventually talked to humans and finally had the problem temporarily resolved. It should have taken 5 minutes.

I realised, too late, that Optus customer support does not exist to encourage contact with customers, but quite the opposite.

So much time and money has been spent on making things terrible.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

Replying to

P.S. we don't need advice on getting around the ban, thanks.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@isaacfreeman@cloudisland.nz Great news! I know some non profits that would benefit from exiting the corporate software hellscape. I'll start having a few conversations.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@chu@climatejustice.social @LyallMorrison@cloudisland.nz @MikeFromLFE@cupoftea.social @fritzoids@mas.to good on you. And believe me, I've taught hundreds how to kick, elbow, bite, gouge, throw, break and otherwise, under pressure and against larger opponents. If i didn't think those skills might sometimes be needed, i wouldn't have bothered. Some of my students came with trauma, many with fear. They taught me a great deal i would never have understood otherwise. So yeah. Kick ass.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@RedRobyn@mastodon.nz honestly being gay and doing crimes feels like a pretty legit response to the world right now and there is no shortage of general - ahem - gaiety around here. Maybe the crime wave is on its way?

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Niall @SimonCHulse as with so many things, the government *should* be playing a central role in enabling equity of access to de-carbonised transport and energy, but it is missing in action (or even deliberately sabotaging attempts to achieve this). Crossing the ideological rift required for them to take meaningful action on climate change is unlikely for most of the characters running the coalition, and Labour is too timid to do much without being led by the hand. The only answer is to make them irrelevant. They'll fight this with xenophobia, scare tactics about crime, economic concerns, tax bribes and other tired bogeymen of course - so i hope the more progressive parties are ready for this.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@babetoduarte @georgepenney I was born and raised in NZ and I'm 20% feijoa.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@paulhellyer@mastodon.nz the Unite Against Covid 19 campaign was a masterclass of comms and design at every level (and political leadership too, of course). Clear, instantly recognisable, easy to follow, unifying. Hell, to be nostalgic for a pandemic really throws the current state of things into perspective.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

Replying to

This fridge out here doing the biggest numbers of all my posts in 2026.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@TerribleMaps@zpravobot.news New Zealand is, quite correctly, missing from this map.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@peter@thepit.social Bingo! I've got a clean sweep. What do i win?

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Jumpmed @AubreyDeLosDestinos @Kingu @dgar bro. It's uppercase.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Graulv @anuragg @Kingu i read this at a library when i was nine and some days i wonder if i simply hallucinated it.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@bluewave_kiwi we could send in a couple of old ferries.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@mattwillis @billbennett holy hell Jones is a terrible person. Not so much dog whistling for all the racists as ringing the dinner bell.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 14mo ago

Replying to

@AJ_andrew69@mastodon.social from outside the US it seems a very big assumption that you'll have anything resembling free and fair elections by then.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@FrancescaJ fantastic!

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 2mo ago

An "AI going rogue" is just a poorly made product failing in public. #AI

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 2mo ago

Headlines like this ("Rising shop violence demands stronger penalties") pop-up often and are seldom challenged. Retail crime has not changed over the past 6 years anywhere near what has been reported, and with shifting reporting practices it is very difficult to compare contemporary rates with historical ones. Even so, these headlines are enough to drive draconian policing, facial recognition cameras, and racial profiling. It sits squarely in the "Let's use police to protect property and never ask if people are OK" category. #crime #NZPol https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/crime-and-justice/855714/rising-shop-violence-demands-stronger-penalties-retail-nz

rnz.co.nz

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@billbennett@mastodon.nz @SmudgeTheInsultCat@mas.to was about to exclaim that this is the most kiwi bird ever, then stopped myself. Then posted about it, obviously.

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@jdmcg@mastodon.nz

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@interpipes@thx.gg @janeishly@beige.party i think that's a stretch given that it is easy to compare classes of crime (burglary, assault, etc) and see exactly the same trend. Bear in mind I'm talking about the *rate* of crime, not the overall volume, which shifts with population changes. Crime across all age groups has been decreasing for decades in most developed countries with only some exceptions. Sexual crimes, for instance, are now *more* likely to be reported than they were previously (though still wildly under reported as a whole).

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