ben dafydd gillard
benchaotica@mastodon.nz
<p>Abolish police, prisons, borders, and private property. Go on without hope. No self, no will. Hard Determinist. they/them :heart_bi: </p><p>*avatar description: head of a thin white man, very short grey hair, unshaven, wearing roundish glasses, unsmiling.<br />*header description: dirty lower surface of an aeroplane wing</p>
Posts
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I wonder if any other certificates in the wild have the same fault? It seems unlikely that they wrote their own key/certificate generation software. Is there a bug in that software, or is there a way to mis-use it to create these weak private keys? Either way it seems possible to me that this is not an isolated incident.
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From the Silver Linings Department: emissions fall as fuel prices deter motorists. &quot;Stats NZ has released data for the April to June quarter, showing that [GHG] emissions across the economy fell by 2.9 percent, and by 5.3 percent for households alone.&quot; Unfortunately methane emissions, primarily from agriculture, have not changed much. Graphs in the article. Also &quot;Renewable sources accounted for 93 percent of New Zealand&#39;s electricity generation in the year...
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C-130 just flew south westwards over west Auckland, lowish and slowish. Quieter than the old H models i think.
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An odd cloud this morning. About 30 seconds between these two. A minute later it was gone. That sharp corner had a vortex. I could see the cloud flowing around the corner.
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Watching a lot of farm harvesting on youtube. Looking at my jars of rice and lentils differently.
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I still want to know how 4 actually happened.
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Very promising results for a new OCD treatment from Norway being trialled in Aotearoa. https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/wellbeing/new-ocd-treatment-having-dramatic-results-in-nz-expert-says
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I have completely stalled on Sarah Wilson&#39;s &quot;I Eat The Stars&quot; but i&#39;m enjoying Mark Fisher&#39;s &quot;The Weird and the Eerie&quot; which has pointed me to some new-to-me media like Brian Eno&#39;s music (Ambient 4 (On Land)) and The Quatermass Conclusion.
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It is easy to feel that, against the other elections in the next couple of weeks, Aotearoa&#39;s parliamentary elections are relatively inconsequential and, in turn, our own single vote in it is a drop in the ocean. But in so much turmoil, with all the systems unbalanced, who can say what will matter and what will not? What will damp out and what will tip?
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I don&#39;t think magnesium improves my sleep but it does seem to make my dreams more vivid.
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&quot;Žižek Is Making Sense, and That&#39;s a Problem&quot; Vlad Vexler on YT. 6:29. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q1XYIUGHaxA
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4 cop cars, two unmarked, lights and sirens heading up new north road city-wards [?] from blockhouse bay road. #copWatch Edit: and one unmarked (possibly one of the four) back to other way, turns down Rosebank Road towards Avondale.
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Greenhouse gasses reached a new high last year. Carbon Dioxide reached 426.8 ppm. Methane released by bushfires was detectable for the first time in the change of composition of atmospheric methane. (I assume something to do with isotopes of Carbon?) The strong El Niño is likely to increase that rate. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/environment_climate/2201037/greenhouse-gas-levels-again-hit-record-high-in-2025
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The glacier on Slovenia&#39;s highest peak, Triglav, has officially gone, after a summer of heatwaves. The mountain itself is so significant to Slovenia it is on the national flag. Article includes a picture of a sad grey little chunk from the 3rd of this month. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/27/slovenia-mourns-loss-glacier-highest-peak-scorching-summer
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NZFirst is right we need to put more into preventative healthcare including better access to healthy food. But cycleways and pedestrianised city streets are also beneficial in that regard and didn't get a mention. Smokefree NZ, a big preventative healthcare win, was cancelled by NZFirst. And as others have pointed out, their policy doesn't mention vaccination either. As a whole their health policy sounds cribbed from RFK jr, even down to the slogan, and that's a red flag obviously.
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Unemployment at 11 year high of 5.6%, increases in long term and youth unemployment. Annual wage growth at 5 year low of 2%. (Most recent inflation rate: 4.1% CPI) "The number of people between 15 and 24 years who were unemployed, not in education or training increased to 13.8 percent from 12.9 percent." Not great numbers four months before an election. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/892951/unemployment-rises-to-11-year-high-of-5-point-6-percent
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Smart glasses with a built in laser that targets the camera in other smart glasses.
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Eye-opening. Neatly clarifies a range of confusions i had about fascism. Much to think about. From the blurb: &quot;No direct sci-fi angle here, just a clarification of a widely-held misconception about what Fascists believed, exemplified by an oft-repeated fake quote.&quot; https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jwGSKr0tw2M
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Re: the &quot;AI Bubble&quot;, something to keep in mind is that the so-called AI industry is not a purely commercial endeavour, like tulips or labubus. It&#39;s more like the Manhattan Project, or the even more expensive B-29 programme, or the space race, or the arms race. In that sense the financial concerns are not the primary governing influence.
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Nap after dinner was a tactical success but a strategic failure.
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The increasing heat in the UK will only be a problem for a few decades. When the AMOC collapses, cold will be the main problem for them.
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In a way it&#39;s comforting to have normal grotty QBW weather for QBW. Perhaps a little warmer than it used to be though?
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From NACTFirst&#39;s point of view, so-called AI replacing public service jobs is a win-win: either it can more or less do the work, in which case they are rid of those annoying human workers and their annoying union, or it fails and destroys the public service.
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Last night i enjoyed the films &quot;We&#39;re All Gonna Die&quot; (road trip, mild sci fi, grief + feels, humour, bees, mild romance) and &quot;Iron Lung&quot; (horror, blood, confined space, bleak, tedium, shouting). Both are on YouTube. Use uBlock Origin to cancel the ads.
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Apparently an Antonov An-124 landed at Auckland yesterday. An uncommon visitor. Blurb says it was private cargo from (or via) Hawaii. -&gt; youtube video of landing, taxi. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H9URL9_EKbQ
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Boil water notice issued for parts of Royal Oak, Hillsborough, Mount Roskill and Three Kings. [In Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland] Article has link to map of affected streets. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/591610/boil-water-notice-for-auckland-suburbs-until-further-notice