skittermouse

a system with three levels - continue, pause, suspend - would manage the trans-Tasman bubble.

"Pause" would be a temporary halt to travel and "suspend" would be longer term if there was a more serious outbreak.

finally the pavlova wars can resume!

they're so cute! welcome to the world, ancient babies 💚

more about tuatara here & here, and some info about recent sequencing of the tuatara genome here if that's your cup of tea!

loki has some very cute & wholesome stickers in his shop, in both french and english. he explains his decision to sell on redbubble here, if that is of concern. you can also download the stickers from his deviantart to print them yourself (which he mentions here).

image description: a black & white cat and a brown raccoon operate a vintage sewing machine, with the cat carefully guiding red fabric through the needle to embroider the word "anarchie" in black thread, and the raccoon working the treadle. there is a round bomb next to the sewing machine, with the end of the fuse forming the artist's signature - Loki. within the iron frame at the bottom of the sewing machine the words "new hope" are formed in gold.

text in the top left corner reads "repair the social fabric", text in the lower right corner reads "choose anarchy". smaller text in the top right corner reads "resistance" and "mutual aid".

Roughly four out of every five commutes are done in a car, but research shows car trips of 15 minutes or longer can lead to poorer life satisfaction, poorer family life satisfaction, declining community participation and lower productivity at work.

And the trend is going the wrong way: in New Zealand, car ownership, car usage, and time spent in cars have all risen in the past two decades.

Meanwhile, active modes of transport which were typically associated with better mental health outcomes have actually declined since the 1970s.

the actual report is worth a look, i'm glad they have brought up things like transport poverty, accessibility for disabled people, how some types of transport infrastructure can lead to social severance, and acknowledged how the stresses associated with various different forms of transport can be cumulative in their effects. i also found this interesting, from the report:

As well as the discussion about how increasing traffic noise is making streetscapes more confusing and stressful for people with disability, there was also an interesting discussion with the homeless expert about the restorative effects of a reduction in noise pollution during the COVID lockdown. She noted that while there were significant concerns about an increase in mental health challenges for homeless people during lockdown, in fact the reverse had been the case, and this had in part been identified as due to a decrease in traffic (and construction) noise in the CBD, which had made the environment much calmer. The mental health social worker who participated in this project also echoed these comments, saying that while some of her clients had experienced an increase in anxiety about the virus, others had found lockdown to be a restorative time where they felt more comfortable going outside, in part due to less noise and less traffic stress.

which reflects my experience too, i loved the reduced traffic noise during lockdown and felt happier on my walks because i could hear trees rustling & birds, and wasn't having to dodge cars when crossing roads. it felt a lot safer & more relaxing without so many vehicles around.

A substantial class of investors have certainly been made exceptionally wealthy by the Covid-19 response, even as those who work for a living have seen their incomes stagnate.

But while this separation of 'investors' or 'speculators' from 'homeowners' might be politically convenient, it makes something of a false distinction.

Whether a house is owned as a home, or purely a source of income, any non-improvement appreciation in value comes at someone else's expense.

Until New Zealand acknowledges this, little will change: whoever is in charge, and no matter how many new homes get built.

yeppp renters always on the pointy end of the stick :(

if you want to do more than signing online petition and/or you're not comfortable with even using a burner on change[dot]org (which, fair enough), some other things to do might be:

• spread the word
• email the city council directly: info@hcc.govt.nz
• email the mayor & councillors directly: list here
• i'm sure you can think of some more inventive things, especially if you are local 😇

i was going to wait until i'd drawn up a few more to post but i am proud of this one! "aroha atu, aroha mai" is te reo māori and it sorta means love & compassion flowing outwards as well as flowing back to us, a mutual caring & respect kind of thing.

image description: handwritten text reads "aroha atu, aroha mai", beside a picture of a cheerful penguin holding a pink heart

"The fact that more than a third of people have less than a single week's expenses available to them and almost half have less than $1,000 in rainy day savings rings alarm bells for me. This puts them in a potentially vulnerable position," ASB chief executive Vittoria Shortt said.

think you can lose the word 'potentially' there lol

i am not so good at drawing but i like to do these anyway. the paper labels hold up pretty well, surprisingly!

image description: 3 hand-drawn stickers on white address labels.

• top sticker: text reads "stay hydrated" next to a drawing of a cat happily holding up a water bottle.
• middle sticker: text reads "reach out if you need" with many hands reaching to each other in the background.
• bottom sticker: text reads "see some litter? pick it up! all the day you'll have good luck!" accompanied by a drawing of a cat cheerily putting some trash into a bin.

saw someone post about this elsewhere, seems pretty cool

H.O.R.I.Z.O.N. is an intentional digital space that aims to assemble a playbook for an online and offline world more attuned to the intelligence of ecology, queerness, and sovereign living.

H.O.R.I.Z.O.N. was conceived by the Institute of Queer Ecology (IQECO). Operating as a decentralized collective of creative practitioners, IQECO produces artwork, programming, and exhibitions that draw on queer, feminist, and decolonial theory in order to “make space for imagining an equitable, multispecies future.”