Bruce Buckman
@brucebuckman.bsky.social
Probationary curmudgeon. 🇳🇿
Love poll stories where the max sampling error is 3.1% yet the story is very excited about the shifts that are mainly within the margin of error.
February 16, 2026 at 6:39 AM
Love poll stories where the max sampling error is 3.1% yet the story is very excited about the shifts that are mainly within the margin of error.
Reposted by Bruce Buckman
Bébé kereru in our wisteria. Most of those twigs are the plant. I think the parent just tossed a few twigs on to and thought that'll do.
February 16, 2026 at 3:50 AM
Bébé kereru in our wisteria. Most of those twigs are the plant. I think the parent just tossed a few twigs on to and thought that'll do.
Real fiddle while Rome burns kinda government we got here.
February 16, 2026 at 5:40 AM
Real fiddle while Rome burns kinda government we got here.
Reposted by Bruce Buckman
National orcishness continues, with a bill to disestablish MfE bills.parliament.nz/v/6/27caed65...
House
bills.parliament.nz
February 16, 2026 at 4:52 AM
National orcishness continues, with a bill to disestablish MfE bills.parliament.nz/v/6/27caed65...
This is a tax.
Experts forecast Meridian, Contact, Mercury and Genesis will report a combined operating profit of about $1.86 billion for the six months to the end of December ‒ an increase of about 45% on the same period last year.
Big four power profits set to soar 45% as Contact Energy kicks off earning week
Experts forecast Meridian, Contact, Mercury and Genesis will report a combined operating profit of about $1.86 billion for the six months to the end of December ‒ an increase of about 45% on the same period last year.
dlvr.it
February 16, 2026 at 2:20 AM
This is a tax.
I remember when Intel had that floating point division bug in Pentium chips that didn’t impact many people but it was a huge scandal that cost them nearly $500 million cause shipping faulty products was still considered bad in 1994.
I think we're now firmly in the era of emergent effects. It's not just about "does the AI do the job", but "what happens when many points of the ecosystem is done by AI". The way these bits interact with each other, with runaway effects that nobody expected/asked for, is upon is.
Holy fuck this is insane. An agentic AI is tasked with contributing code to matplot. The project maintainer says no. The AI then... starts an influence campaign against him?!?
February 16, 2026 at 2:12 AM
I remember when Intel had that floating point division bug in Pentium chips that didn’t impact many people but it was a huge scandal that cost them nearly $500 million cause shipping faulty products was still considered bad in 1994.
I dunno, when one of your MPs is publicly celebrating you for holding an umbrella I’m pretty sure that doesn’t reflect well on either of you.
February 16, 2026 at 2:02 AM
I dunno, when one of your MPs is publicly celebrating you for holding an umbrella I’m pretty sure that doesn’t reflect well on either of you.
Reposted by Bruce Buckman
I didn't know if @marthawells.com knew about this Easter egg that Alexander Skarsgård snuck into the #murderbot TV series!
February 16, 2026 at 1:25 AM
I didn't know if @marthawells.com knew about this Easter egg that Alexander Skarsgård snuck into the #murderbot TV series!
Reposted by Bruce Buckman
For folks not in our region, I know we have a reputation for wind. But what was so scary overnight was there was no let up.
I am used to big gusts, I am used to higher winds. I am not used to both lasting more than 12 hours.
And this is from a part of the region that is more sheltered than most.
I am used to big gusts, I am used to higher winds. I am not used to both lasting more than 12 hours.
And this is from a part of the region that is more sheltered than most.
February 15, 2026 at 10:59 PM
For folks not in our region, I know we have a reputation for wind. But what was so scary overnight was there was no let up.
I am used to big gusts, I am used to higher winds. I am not used to both lasting more than 12 hours.
And this is from a part of the region that is more sheltered than most.
I am used to big gusts, I am used to higher winds. I am not used to both lasting more than 12 hours.
And this is from a part of the region that is more sheltered than most.
Reposted by Bruce Buckman
This morning in (heart)breaking news:
New Zealand: Multiple states of emergency, right now
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon: State of Origin footy match, 2027 🎉
NZ: Wellington cut off, digging out from huge storm
PM: Yeah gidday from Auckland, it’s raining here too ☂️
NZ: Help?
Luxon: Catch! 🏈
New Zealand: Multiple states of emergency, right now
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon: State of Origin footy match, 2027 🎉
NZ: Wellington cut off, digging out from huge storm
PM: Yeah gidday from Auckland, it’s raining here too ☂️
NZ: Help?
Luxon: Catch! 🏈
February 15, 2026 at 7:40 PM
This morning in (heart)breaking news:
New Zealand: Multiple states of emergency, right now
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon: State of Origin footy match, 2027 🎉
NZ: Wellington cut off, digging out from huge storm
PM: Yeah gidday from Auckland, it’s raining here too ☂️
NZ: Help?
Luxon: Catch! 🏈
New Zealand: Multiple states of emergency, right now
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon: State of Origin footy match, 2027 🎉
NZ: Wellington cut off, digging out from huge storm
PM: Yeah gidday from Auckland, it’s raining here too ☂️
NZ: Help?
Luxon: Catch! 🏈
You’d like to think that climate change and all its associated issues would be a major election issue but I dunno, this country can be so ridiculously weird that you just can’t tell.
February 15, 2026 at 7:36 PM
You’d like to think that climate change and all its associated issues would be a major election issue but I dunno, this country can be so ridiculously weird that you just can’t tell.
Reposted by Bruce Buckman
If you are in a perpetual cycle of response and recovery with inadequate preparation, planning and mitigation, no we are not getting good at this.
February 15, 2026 at 6:14 PM
If you are in a perpetual cycle of response and recovery with inadequate preparation, planning and mitigation, no we are not getting good at this.
Luxon is just so bad at his job. Not even about his politics. He’s just straight up bad at the job. Like 90-day trial, ‘sorry Christopher we’re going to have to let you go’ bad at his job.
February 15, 2026 at 6:51 PM
Luxon is just so bad at his job. Not even about his politics. He’s just straight up bad at the job. Like 90-day trial, ‘sorry Christopher we’re going to have to let you go’ bad at his job.
Reposted by Bruce Buckman
This is also half the reason for @fyi.org.nz going down so frequently: 95% of our traffic is from AI scrapers. They don't limit their request rates or react to site slowdowns, and just keep hammering away even if all requests are timing out.
The "AI revolution" in science is going so smoothly that my instititutional library is having to deploy multiple technical protection measures against "poorly behaved Gen AI crawling" just to maintain its timely service library.ed.ac.uk/research-sup...
February 15, 2026 at 2:44 PM
This is also half the reason for @fyi.org.nz going down so frequently: 95% of our traffic is from AI scrapers. They don't limit their request rates or react to site slowdowns, and just keep hammering away even if all requests are timing out.
Reposted by Bruce Buckman
Iwi conservation work wipes out rats across 700ha of Kaimai Mamaku forest.
Rat-free forest offers rare boost for kōkako north of Rotorua
Iwi conservation work wipes out rats across 700ha of Kaimai Mamaku forest.
www.teaonews.co.nz
February 15, 2026 at 5:33 PM
Iwi conservation work wipes out rats across 700ha of Kaimai Mamaku forest.
Having no power while reading about the awful weather down south. It all feels a bit apocalyptic eh. A summer of omens except the people in power aren’t reading them.
February 15, 2026 at 8:51 AM
Having no power while reading about the awful weather down south. It all feels a bit apocalyptic eh. A summer of omens except the people in power aren’t reading them.
Reposted by Bruce Buckman
What would be super cool is if people stopped inventing apps and training robots to ruin our lives and instead invented a type of cat food that doesn't squirt ungodly gravy all over my wrist when I open the package it comes in.
February 14, 2026 at 1:43 PM
What would be super cool is if people stopped inventing apps and training robots to ruin our lives and instead invented a type of cat food that doesn't squirt ungodly gravy all over my wrist when I open the package it comes in.
Reposted by Bruce Buckman
Franzi Schimmer captured this Grizzly bear in Brooks Falls, Alaska just floating along, tippy-tapping down the river, browsing the salmon.
Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.
Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.
February 14, 2026 at 9:47 PM
Franzi Schimmer captured this Grizzly bear in Brooks Falls, Alaska just floating along, tippy-tapping down the river, browsing the salmon.
Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.
Prior to hibernation, up to 40% of a bear's body mass is fat, which is less dense than water (~0.9 g/cm^2), so the murder-monster is also a floaty-boaty.
Oh look it’s the supposed terrible at business Labour Party going through the alleged Party of business’ rushed Indian trade deal with a pen highlighting all the actually terrible for business sections.
www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
February 15, 2026 at 2:57 AM
Oh look it’s the supposed terrible at business Labour Party going through the alleged Party of business’ rushed Indian trade deal with a pen highlighting all the actually terrible for business sections.
www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
Avoidable deaths from the current purge of science in the US will not be confined to the US.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Exclusive: Key US infectious-diseases centre to drop pandemic preparation
Staff members have been instructed to scrub this topic and ‘biodefense’ from the agency’s website.
www.nature.com
February 15, 2026 at 2:37 AM
Avoidable deaths from the current purge of science in the US will not be confined to the US.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Bruce Buckman
A tūturiwhatu (New Zealand dotterel) with a photobomber in the foreground at Omaha this morning. 🪶🇳🇿
February 15, 2026 at 12:56 AM
A tūturiwhatu (New Zealand dotterel) with a photobomber in the foreground at Omaha this morning. 🪶🇳🇿
Reposted by Bruce Buckman
Really quick chart to show the rise of declared state of emergencies due to sever weather events. See the trend?
Also we are only 45 days into 2026!
Can we talk about climate change now?
#NZPol
Notes in Alt Text
Also we are only 45 days into 2026!
Can we talk about climate change now?
#NZPol
Notes in Alt Text
February 14, 2026 at 10:04 PM
Really quick chart to show the rise of declared state of emergencies due to sever weather events. See the trend?
Also we are only 45 days into 2026!
Can we talk about climate change now?
#NZPol
Notes in Alt Text
Also we are only 45 days into 2026!
Can we talk about climate change now?
#NZPol
Notes in Alt Text
Reposted by Bruce Buckman
It’s so funny to think about the fact that there’s people out there deferring every life decision to this
February 14, 2026 at 9:53 AM
It’s so funny to think about the fact that there’s people out there deferring every life decision to this
Reposted by Bruce Buckman
One very cool bird moment on Tiritiri Matangi in January was watching two juvenile North Island robins / toutouwai battle over a skink. I'd like to think they're bickering siblings. One clearly won out! 🪶
www.instagram.com/p/DUuSlteCeu...
Video below ⬇️
www.instagram.com/p/DUuSlteCeu...
Video below ⬇️
February 14, 2026 at 9:10 PM
One very cool bird moment on Tiritiri Matangi in January was watching two juvenile North Island robins / toutouwai battle over a skink. I'd like to think they're bickering siblings. One clearly won out! 🪶
www.instagram.com/p/DUuSlteCeu...
Video below ⬇️
www.instagram.com/p/DUuSlteCeu...
Video below ⬇️