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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · 1d

Steaks and roasted vegetables are my current go tos for the air fryer but I’m sure I’ve only touched the surface.

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · 1d

The air fryer is genius marketing term for what is basically a small oven. But cooking for one, they’re great.

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · 2d

New Orleans seems to involved in an inordinate number of them. Before the nixed Paul to Lakers trade, there was a potential deal that would have sent to him to Golden State for Curry and Thompson. And what if DeMarcus Cousins hadn't torn his Achilles in the dying seconds of a match against Houston?

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Dr Bex @drbex.bsky.social · 5d

Today's ridiculous announcement from the National Party penalizing young people and their families had me thinking of this meme again

Image from the ghost chips ad with text that reads you know i cant work your ghost jobs

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · 9d

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Sep 4

It might not be enough to overcome the advantages of incumbency, but Sara Templeton gave a far better performance than Phil Mauger in the Press debate.

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Ben Ross @benakl.bsky.social · Sep 3

Ironically the Regulatory Takings clause in the proposed Planning Act would enable developers to sue the arse off Seymour for denying them the enjoyment of property rights

Bernard Hickey @bernardchickey.bsky.social · Sep 3

Here’s my Pick n’ Mixes hot off the virtual presses: David Seymour to campaign to block Chris Bishop's up-zoning of inner-city Auckland, including Epsom; "This plan is not necessary, and will have negative unintended consequences," he says #nzpol. thekaka.substack.com/p/libertaria...

Libertarian leader turns chief NIMBY

David Seymour to campaign to block Chris Bishop's up-zoning of inner-city Auckland, including Epsom; "This plan is not necessary, and will have negative unintended consequences," he says

thekaka.substack.com

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Sep 3

But they could have done the same thing with iRex and claimed the government was saving $2.5b even if the entities paying the contractors were simply shifting from Kiwirail to the ports.

TLDR: He might be able to deliver the project cheaper than iRex but he's unlikely to save "billions".

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Sep 3

The break free to Hyundai and the sunk costs spent on iRex so far are $671m. So now he's got $930m to pay for two ferries plus the portside infrastructure. Expect him to claim that because Port of Marlborough / Centerport are paying for the infrastructure, it's a saving for the government.

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Sep 3

So Winston's max cost is $2b(in order to save "billions"). But wait! In order to make an apples to apples comparison with the Treasury number we need to add 25% to whatever cost Winston comes up with. So his new max cost is $1.6b.

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Sep 3

Winston Ferry math: A thread. 🧵

Winston has repeatedly said he will save "billions" (with a S) and thrown around the price of $4b for iRex a lot (probably to give himself more wiggle room). The $4b was not a true cost estimate - Treasury just took the $3.2 billion and added 25%.

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Alex @shakingstick.bsky.social · Aug 28

The most National party thing ever is happening, and captured perfectly in this headline.

RNZ News Feeds @rnzrss.bsky.social · Aug 28

Govt spends $10m to fix national war memorial bells, fires only person who can play

The government spent over $10 million to do up the national war memorial bell tower, but is now getting rid of the only person who plays it.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Aug 26

Cheap housing has been working in UoC's favour for a couple of years now. On cycleways, I think it's only a noisy minority opposed. Mauger said at the last election he thought cycleways were too expensive. Christchurch actually builds a cheap one, and he wants to rip it out.

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Aug 20

They could have just gone for 3 Waters without the co-governance aspect, but they were convinced they were smarter than Labour, and now they've locked themselves into something which probably won't be nearly as effective.

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Aug 19

My one sentence take on the state of AI: Tech companies have spent vast sums of money building technology so good at lying that sometimes it's even correct.

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The Spinoff @thespinoff.bsky.social · Aug 17

What are you on about? We don’t have an oversupply of housing

We don't have too many houses, and even if we did, having ‘too many houses’ is like having ‘too many bowls of Kiwi onion dip’. It's not a real problem....

thespinoff.co.nz

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Aug 15

By my count, Winston Peters has $529 million of headroom to deliver two ferries and the associated portside infrastructure and fulfill his promise of saving "billions".

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Aug 14

Genuinely curious - why don't the Pelicans do *any* home matinee games? Would have thought there would be a market for a handful of weekend games at kid-and-parent friendly times.

Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Aug 11

The Fellowship of the Ring is a slog, especially the first half before Rivendell. But my 9 year old self read the Two Towers and Return of the King over and over. There are still a bunch of more modern fantasy series I'd recommend kids read first.

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Aug 8

"But one day, if we are brave, we will get rid of the of the u in a lot of British words like colour and armour, but by god we will keep the British u in the word glamour."
"Only glamour sir?"
"Only glamour!"
youtu.be/JYqfVE-fykk?...

Washington's Dream - SNL

YouTube video by Saturday Night Live

youtu.be

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Aug 7

Ugh. Another CGT-excluding-the-family-home in the pipeline from Labour. It's frustrating that for political reasons, no party outside the eminently ignorable Opportunities Party has embraced an easy to calculate, hard to avoid, directly-targets-NZs-obsessions-with-housing land tax

Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Aug 7

If road user charges fully covered the cost of road maintenance and expansions, I suspect they'd drive mode shift pretty quickly. Especially if the electronic RUCs had a taxi-style meter in your car while you're driving.

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Aug 1

Most reporting on members' bills put into the ballot fails to accurately convey just how small the chances of a particular bill being drawn are. It's often just 1 or 2 bills every fortnight, from a pool of 60 or 70. If several members bills are at advanced stages, it can be months between ballots.

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Icebirdmail @icebirdmail.bsky.social · Jul 28

You didn't even mention the changes around smoking rules! There really hasn't been enough discussion of the fact that this is the most pro-killing-people government we've ever had.

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The Spinoff @thespinoff.bsky.social · Jul 28

New Zealand must move beyond empty statements on Gaza

Nothing will change without overwhelming international pressure – and meaningful disruption....

thespinoff.co.nz

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