Notices by Kōtare :tinoflag: (jdmcg@mastodon.nz)

I know there are all sorts of meaty issues about the #WorldCup being played in the USA, but can we pause for a moment to check out this picture of SoFi stadium in LA where they're playing some of the games, and admire the quite incredible amount of land devoted to the carpark.

Maybe if you live in the US this is normal. Man, it really is not.

I live a stone's throw from the MCG in #Melbourne which has a capacity of 100,000 people and is in near constant use. The only park it is surrounded by has trees and grass.

What a temple to car ownership this is!

I see that the Guardian is finally catching up with the news that Substack profits from Nazi content.

The mealy mouthed argument the owner uses to defend this - that suppressing harmful speech is somehow worse and that sunlight is the best medicine for hateful ideology - has been dramatically disproven by the widespread proliferation of the worst demagogery and the radicalisation of millions of people as a result.

All kinds of bigotry are currently flourishing right out in the open, and no libertarian fantasy about the market place of ideas is going to stop it.

Demonetise hate speech.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters

My family and I are heading to #Melbourne in January, not just for a visit but to live. The process of packing up your entire life and shipping it to another country is...challenging. I'll post more about the exact circumstances of that at a later date - but suffice it to say, I have *thoughts* to share about the broken social contract in Aotearoa (and how it affects people with rare disorders specifically.)

I'm absolutely gutted to be leaving my community behind, including my job where I work with volunteers and youth workers around the country to support our rangatahi. I would prefer to be staying, but I can't get the treatment I need and my symptoms are progressing. It's a choice of staying here and having a long, painful death - or moving to Australia, being paid more, and living a full life into my old age. So...yeah. It's become an obvious choice.

As a result, one thing I'm going to need is a new job. Community-based, for-purpose work is my preference. Any tips, connections, or thoughts are welcome!

#GetFediHired #Australia #NonProfit

New World's bold new approach to customer engagement:

Spotted on my walk today, on a pole in Blockhouse Bay.

@mmiasma @Kierkegaanks in Aotearoa we celebrate 'Moehanga Day', which remembers the time in 1806 when Māori discovered the British Isles.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/26-04-2025/the-maori-who-discovered-europe

“Of course, various indigenous, white-skinned tribes already inhabited the British Isles for thousands of years, but Moehanga was the first Māori to discover Britain.The Britons were a warlike people, renowned and feared for their prowess at fighting other European tribes and even raiding and conquering lands and taking slaves on distant continents."

My wife just shared with me that one of her colleagues has her son at home for a two week visit right now.

He's a student at Harvard. His visa has just been revoked and he cannot return to the US.

His life, his academic career, all his belongings - just cut off. Extraordinary. What a global humiliation this US fascism is.

@foone pretty sure this is a piercingly accurate shot at the entire SEO industry.

My 17yr old was ranting last night about teachers encouraging the use of AI and how stupid it was.

They had done a quiz about a film, and the quiz had been ai generated. They spent most of the lesson pointing out all of the mistakes in the quiz and the woefully incorrect answers.

It became an impromptu lesson on why you *shouldn't* use AI.

"I hate everything about it" she finally said.

Meanwhile, In NZ News:

I was doing some research for a proposal i'm putting together at work yesterday and went down a rabbit hole on youth crime.

It will not surprise you to learn that in NZ, despite the shock headlines, there is no youth crime crisis. Youth crime dropped by almost 60% between 2010 and 2020. Some localised increases, driven by homelessness, have not disturbed this trend.

The real crime here is undermining the mana of youth for cheap political advantage (while cutting funding to support services)

I was speaking with an English academic last week, who is planning a field trip to NZ about the proliferation of charities aimed at supporting youth and how to navigate them.

"Why are there so many?" he asked.

But we both knew the answer before he'd finished asking it. In NZ the vast majority of charities are a community response to an otherwise unmet need. They are not a solution in themselves but a symptom of poor governance.

Thinking today about "Eat my lunch" & Seymours school lunches

@lightweight oh yes. Have been through this. The staff looked at me like I'd crawled from the bottom of the sea.

@ptoothfish that's the problem with today's generation. In my day we were servile, dammit.

@jeffowski I spend about a day per week on average volunteering for a charity and it makes me feel greatly superior.

Seriously, though, my approach is to influence systemic factors enough, through collective action, that there is no longer any need for us to exist. I suspect we'll be in business longer than my own lifetime, but you gotta have goals.

My 12 year old who loves sport wrote a school speech that was a fiery repudiation of the misogyny of the sporty boys in her class, inspired by the fact they wouldn't pass to her in a soccer game. She addresses them directly in the speech to say that their behaviour is unacceptable and out of touch. It is amazing.

Her teacher, however, suggested she tone it down as it wasn't "all the boys" and also they might respond better if she made them like her.

Dear readers, she did not tone it down.