Ah yes you’re right, he only picks himself for the shortlist.

So Braunias has praised the brilliance of the judges in their selection of the non-fiction titles and modestly picks his own (not Jacinda’s) as a winner, but otherwise the judges are useless and will be spending the entry money on wine and cheese. newsroom.co.nz/2026/01/29/p...

Amazing! Next thing you’ll be telling me they made little cradles for all the cranefly legs.

But wait: Braunias himself is on the longlist this year! No doubt he will refrain from any comments about his competition and the judges LET’S SEE.

This image, which strongly resembles a photograph, instantly caught my eye because it is a form that I've never seen previously in the Ediacara. Intrigued, I clicked. Very disappointing to see the credit for this image is given to "AI - Science Daily".

*What the hell, Science Daily?*

Garbage. ⚒️🧪

Have done the same.

Looks amazing! Wish I could read it.

Word.

Next Thursday is the TENTH ANNIVERSARY of the "Waitangi dildo incident"
HOW WILL YOU BE CELEBRATING?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waitang...

I presume their counterpart channel in the cola wars would have been called Hot Coke.

I don't have Steadman's book but I would be surprised if there were no extinct Falco in the 1000+ bird species that recently went extinct in the Pacific and won't be included in most phylogenies. They could act as a bridge or a source.

I would say the huge simultanous speciation of Falco at the end of the Miocene makes a precise branching order a nightmare to sort out. I can't find a paper that delivers the precise relationship in that phylogeny; most put our falcon with an Australia-centred radiation.

That group of falcons seem to have all diverged around the same time, there are connections almost as close to Falco in Australia and Madagascar, and the taxonomy seems messier than that lovely clean phylogeny. Falco coming from the neotropics would indeed be weird, all our birds come the other way.

I'm coordinating a Wikipedia project on the Kaikōura area, supported by the District Council and @wikimediaaotearoa.bsky.social. Keen editors, whether experienced or newbies, are welcome to sign up and help with the To Do list. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...