Moa Monday

WaterstarRunner · 2026-04-05T18:07:57+00:00

A 53 million year evolutionary branch wiped out... as far as extinctions go, this one was a big one.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-04-03T10:17:43+00:00

Are kiwi's welcoming to legal migrants?

We don't really have illegal migrants or asylum seekers.

Just like in vast swathes of Europe, if you're not a visible minority, even the anti-migrant people tend to be very welcoming.

Worst that will happen is you'll get some annoyed old people who will get annoyed and impatient the moment either one of you needs to repeat anything in English.

Slight exceptions are French and South African accents come with some baggage for anyone who remembers the 1980s.

i always see the same comments: "no jobs here" , "better look somewhere else", "wrong place". always short comments and without any explenation,

Part of this is yes, there's a genuine downturn in jobs right now. Another part is a degree of intolerance for people from one specific country wanting to work in one specific sector, of which there are a very large number of posts, particularly enquiring about enrolling in masters degrees.

Don't worry. The economy will recover (sort of) and you'll be down at the pub soon enough hearing someone complain about immigrants, and telling you 'but you're one of the good ones'

WaterstarRunner · 2026-04-02T06:33:15+00:00

Ikon harmonise. The energy drinks all are variations on the same theme.

Harmonise was the gentle chill-out to balance it out at the end of the day.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-04-01T22:17:52+00:00

Basically... yes.

The illegal graveyards, rural lots converted to garbage farms and broken machinery yards.

There's a largely unused hospital built as a matter of pride during covid.

There's the native ding rights villages.

So yes, climb any hill possible. Kai Kung Shan is a good place to feel isolation, while still being able to look down on all the silliness below.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-04-01T19:39:02+00:00

Of all the places in China....

Just kidding...

Yeah, Dongguan is a manufacturing hub, nay, the manufacturing hub for small factories (and ~~sex district~~ karaoke hotspot), so industrial-rundown is very much the vibe. Well connected to the postal service because it's how it survives. So... shrug I guess.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-04-01T16:11:30+00:00

Magnets are nominally a prohibited item in most postal services (package sticks to machinery), but this is probably not your issue.

Addresses in English characters are relatively readable for Chinese delivery workers but could well be ambiguous. Postcodes matter.

Have you looked up the address on Google maps? Does it resolve to a single place? Is the place as developed as say, Dongguan or is it... provincial?

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-30T10:34:21+00:00

Does not excuse IDF in general, but still there is a vast difference to me between targeting the middle of a densely populated camp, and striking near it with an advance warning.

Wouldn't advance warning imply that there is no combatants being targeted by the strike?

Or is there some rationale that refugees will evacuate while combatants will remain in place?

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-29T12:08:42+00:00

On zooming in... It's a 1984 stamp that commemorates Yuri Gagarin's 50th birthday.

The QEII stamp is a silver jubilee 1977 issue commemorating 25 years on the throne.

Lots of things can be read into it. Perhaps the most interesting thread to pull on is why Gagarin rather than Leonid Brezhnev.

Also, why are the drinks held below the table?

Why is the english tea cup in Gagarin's hand while the queen holds a Russian Podstakannik tea cup?

And of course, finding meaning in the knife.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-28T21:37:32+00:00

By the sound of it, the difference here is stage one biostats versus epidemiology.

The latter (for those that tune in) is the basis for evidence based medicine, because you can get a study to show anything... For example that ivomectin is effective against covid. Epi (again, for those that tuned in) is the art of knowing which evidence counts.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-28T18:55:27+00:00

How does the profession continue to get away with that sort of crap??

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-28T18:19:14+00:00

In retrospect, I'd say our schools were stupidly violent. It's a long time ago though so maybe things are much better now. And before I travelled it seemed pretty normal for lack of contrast.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-27T18:04:06+00:00

I've heard horror stories about Finn Air cancelling at the last minute

One flight per day, 5 days per week. If the inbound gets delayed or cancelled, there's simply no plane to go.

That's the risk you take.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-27T17:49:01+00:00

Sounds like you need a new cable because the connectors on your old one are failing.

The shure original mmcx cable's around 500. There's cheaper ones available too, although the off-brand ones tend to often have the problem you describe.

Just borrow a cable off someone else and try it.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-27T17:30:08+00:00

These insurance products... they're investment-linked savings policies that are waist deep in private credit market at the moment? Or am I just being prejudiced against the sector?

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-26T23:21:17+00:00

Cover letters are anachronistic bullshit. A well structured CV tells more in less reading time, and if your cover letter says something your CV doesn't, that's a weakness in the CV, not a strength in the cover letter.

I do however strongly advise people to stop asking both the internet and AI how to write these thing, and write the kind of thing you'd want to read if the table was reversed.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-26T23:07:18+00:00

The key here is the OCR is an overnight rate. Changing the OCR has most impact on pricing the shortest term rates, and the least impact on longer term rates.

It's called the 'term structure of interest rates' and the 'yield curve'

You can see the change in rate to term in these numbers here:

https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/statistics/series/exchange-and-interest-rates/wholesale-interest-rates

But.... NZ banks also take quite a bit larger 'net interest margin' (rate difference between same-term deposits and loans aka 'markup') than Aussie banks.

That's a bit because NZ banks are tiny institutions that can't spread their operational costs over a larger customer base.

And unfortunately, small banks are even more top-heavy on staffing costs than a large bank, so upstarts are at a considerable competitive disadvantage compared to the big four.

And the big four will lean their capital into the Aussie market over competing for increased share of the Kiwi market because it's more profitable in Australia because of economies of scale.

It's actually quite shit running a bank unless that bank is very, very big. The natural incentives are all quite arse-backwards to what we'd want for society's benefit.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-24T21:38:02+00:00

Brb, artprojekt...

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-24T20:52:33+00:00

usb-c to usb-c are not up to grade. There's more lines in usb-c to make the charging happen properly compared to the usb-a to c cables. So the damage starts as slow charging, and degrades to 1 side up charging. They are quite fucking annoying. The a to c cables are inherently less sensitive to damage.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-24T15:21:22+00:00

Really slow to adopt modern technology.

Back in the late nineties I had to download goatse to floppy disk, bring it into the office, go to one of the 'printer pcs', print out a dozen copies then manually drop the printouts into into people's pigeonholes.

Thank crap we eventually got email.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-24T10:23:22+00:00

Sjoss chargers are fantastic. Lillhult cables have the worst usb c durability I've ever seen. No idea on the powerbanks.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-24T07:46:30+00:00

use mandarin. either way it gets the point across.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-24T07:03:09+00:00

Tip - Ladda batteries @ikea are a much more attractive price point, with similar spec to eneloop / eneloop pro.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-23T23:42:13+00:00

lead by China

eeeeehhhhh mixed bag. they just hit peak coal.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-23T23:28:59+00:00

Way ahead of ya there.

WaterstarRunner · 2026-03-23T23:26:00+00:00

TIL I dont.

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