Bruce Buckman
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brucebuckman.bsky.social
Bruce Buckman
@brucebuckman.bsky.social
810 followers 450 following 4.9K posts
Probationary curmudgeon. 🇳🇿
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brucebuckman.bsky.social
Impressed that it still eking out the last rays though. Sun is pretty low.
A power usage graph showing solar in yellow and grid in blue.
November 28, 2025 at 6:41 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
Oooohhhh. Go away clouds. I want sun.
Mobile app showing solar generation and usage.
November 27, 2025 at 9:50 PM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
TLDR
Leave Luxon Alone!
November 27, 2025 at 8:21 PM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
A young tui with it's back toward camera, showing its blue feathers.
November 27, 2025 at 7:04 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
Remember how in Sleeping Dogs America sends troops to help oppress New Zealanders rebelling against a corrupt authoritarian regime? Seemed pretty sci-fi at the time.
Warren Oates berates Sam Neil in Sleeping Dogs.
November 27, 2025 at 5:54 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
TFW the solar installers turn up a couple of weeks early 👍
Solar panels being installed on a roof.
November 27, 2025 at 4:43 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
I feel like MetService is gaslighting me:
The Metservice app claims it’s only 57% humidity right now.
November 27, 2025 at 3:09 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
Ugh
A thermostat showing 26°C inside the house.
November 27, 2025 at 2:46 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
And a hearty fuck you to you YouTube.
A YouTube screen inviting me to look at my 2025 Recap like I’m some type of sad loser who wants to revisit the lows of my content addiction.
November 27, 2025 at 2:09 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
All the flax are in flower so it's tūī time. This chap is a youngster (no tufts), a fledging from this season.
A young tūī without its white tuft feathers perches on a flax stalk.
November 27, 2025 at 1:49 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
www.stats.govt.nz/news/census-...
Of the census usually resident population count, 3.5 million people were born in New Zealand and 1.4 million were born overseas.
November 27, 2025 at 1:02 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
The comments from the State Department in the 1news story are just bonkers.

www.1news.co.nz/2025/11/25/t...
“Our concern in New Zealand is less the actual kind of live migration, but it’s what we see as a growing propensity among liberal democracies in the world to buy into the globalised migration narrative – hook, line, and sinker,” said the official. “The idea that you can just import large amounts of people from a different culture – a radically different culture even – and assume that everything will be fine and hunky dory when case studies have shown that that isn’t the case. “When it comes to New Zealand I think the problem isn’t so much live right now, but it’s a risk that we see potentially affecting New Zealand as time goes on.”
November 27, 2025 at 12:37 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
What this looks like is three former mafia members who’ve found god and just knocked on your door to ask if you want to chat about jesus
A national party image proclaiming “We’re proposing to overhaul local government”. Three pale middle-aged white guys stare ominously out from the image, as if they are about to make you an offer you can’t refuse.
November 26, 2025 at 10:04 PM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
This gets to the core of a fundamental problem with humans and information. Humans are lazy. And humans are far too trusting. Combined this means people decide on who to trust & then do the minimum to absorb info. And we built them a machine that lies confidently.

pivot-to-ai.com/2025/11/05/a...
7% of news consumers ask a chatbot for their news, and that’s 15% of readers under 25. And just over a third — though they don’t give the actual percentage number — say they trust AI summaries, and about half of those under 35. People pick convenience first. [BBC, PDF]
November 26, 2025 at 9:03 PM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...
She said the independent forecast gave strong reason to believe "growth is ahead of us and better times are ahead of us". Everything’s coming up Milhouse!
November 26, 2025 at 3:26 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
I always assumed it was a pun reference to Monty Python
November 26, 2025 at 12:52 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
Flash process designer be like …
November 25, 2025 at 8:20 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
‘NZers confused by democracy. We will make things simple by removing another layer of democracy’ is a heck of a pitch.
www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
"Local government is meant to serve communities, not confuse them, but right now the system is tangled in duplication, disagreements and decisions that defy common sense," Bishop said. He said he expected the changes would put "downward pressure" on rates. "The government's belief is that local government has lost the social license and that New Zealanders have lost faith in local government - this is borne out by the fact that over half don't bother to vote in local elections."
November 25, 2025 at 4:49 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
I know I’m not a naval architect but I always assumed the thing that let ships reach a safe port without assistance was working engines and the lack of working engines was when you absolutely needed external assistance.

www.beehive.govt.nz/release/cost...
“Put bluntly, the cost to taxpayers is too high for something that’s unlikely to be needed - and unlikely to be useful even if it is. “The Government is procuring two new Cook Strait ferries, due to enter service in 2029, which have additional safety features including power and propulsion, navigation, communications, fire safety, watertight controls, and critical monitoring. This significantly increases the vessels’ abilities to reach a safe port without external assistance, which further reduces the requirement for an emergency ocean response capability.
November 24, 2025 at 11:32 PM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
Grand Moff Tarkin: "The regional governors now have direct control over their territories."
November 24, 2025 at 9:03 PM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
When the processes put in place to stop bad ideas being enacted, stop you from doing the things you think are important there’s a very high chance the things you think are important are bad ideas.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
"I'm just signalling very strongly that, and it's not a surprise in my conversations I've had with local government leaders as well, that this is a country that has so many layers of management and government that actually it's stopping us from getting things done," Luxon said. "It's hard and difficult decisions, but I'm sorry, we have to keep changing the way we run the country to make it simpler and easier to get things done."
November 24, 2025 at 6:44 PM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
A movie that takes place where you’re from?
Under The Mountain (2009)
November 23, 2025 at 10:28 PM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
I think there’s some weird camera distortion in that shot making the shoes look elongated cause aren’t these the same shoes?
Musk wearing SpaceX sneakers
November 21, 2025 at 2:46 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
Me trying to tame the marketing emails in my ‘no smart features for you’ gmail inbox.
November 21, 2025 at 12:38 AM
brucebuckman.bsky.social
🎶 Then gov, gov will tear us apart again
Gov, gov will tear us apart again 🎶
Stuff headline: ‘Absolutely not falling apart’ Luxon says of coalition as Peters and Seymour clash
November 20, 2025 at 11:45 PM