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Sage Anastasi

@sageanastasi.bsky.social

890 followers 1.2K following 2K posts

Pākehā, dream avatar of gender magic. PhD student working on political & social polarisation, trying to make data scientists read Laclau. Opinions mine. he/him 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 Mastodon, where I am not active but there are DMs: @[email protected]

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Sage Anastasi @sageanastasi.bsky.social · Jul 28

Bringing this back for today. What an honour to have Tom Lehrer rock up to our little country, ask what civil rights issues were going on (the All Blacks' upcoming tour of Apartheid South Africa), and then immediately write a song about it.

David Hood @thoughtfulnz.bsky.social · Oct 28

Auckland Star 16 April 1960, page 1

Oh Mr Nash by Tom Lehrer

When the early missionaries first brought Rugby to New Zealand,
It became the state religion right away,
And to the ten commandments has been added an eleventh,
And it says: No matter what -- thou shalt play!

dmdb.org/lehrer/lehre...

Song against the All Black Tour of South Africa

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Richard Easther @rjme.bsky.social · 2d

A lot of questions go unanswered e.g. why did the @methanesat.bsky.social team fly a spacecraft that, by their own admission, was not designed to deal with the entirely predictable radiation environment you find in space. That doesn't make sense.

QUOTE ... the onboard fault detection software places the spacecraft into safe mode for the ground operators to assess and reset the required electronics. These ... events continued throughout the life of MethaneSAT as the high solar activity continued. MethaneSAT was not designed with the costly radiation-hardened
components found, for example, on military spacecraft.
— MethaneSAT spokesperson

This is not so much an excuse but a confession, to the extent that colleagues of mine literally laughed out loud when they saw it. Yes, solar activity (which produces charged particles that are mostly blocked by the atmosphere but cause problems for spacecraft) was at the peak of its 11 year cycle in 2024. But it is a well-known feature of the space environment. It makes no sense that any satellite, military or otherwise, would not be built to withstand the expected conditions.

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Sage Anastasi @sageanastasi.bsky.social · 4h

Yeah, I would love to see some local discussions about the police budget etc. It feels hard to apply some lessons when it's set nationally rather than by each city. Stopping this is a pretty clear-cut case though.

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Funranium (AKA Phil Broughton) @funranium.bsky.social · 5h

It’s not just me writing those reports.

In general, you regulators don’t have time to go looking for trouble but they do need to respond to reports. They really appreciate it when you do most of the work for them.

Lindsay 👩‍🔬🚲 @llbroadwell.bsky.social · 1d

"you can add a laser engraver module to this machine!"

ok cool does it have an enclosure that will filter out the laser wavelength and does it have an interlock

"no what for"

.....

aight that's a report written for the EU Consumer Safety Gateway on the sale of dangerous goods

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Gary Chiles 🚲 🍄 ☕ 🦚 🐱 𝟜 𝟚𝟘 @testtubeone.bsky.social · 5h

The only move that will make a difference is regulating social media platforms.
This policy is victim blaming on a massive scale by a Government that is too timid and too captured to deal with the real problem of unregulated internet capitalism.
Failing to do their jobs shouldn't receive any praise.

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𝕍∃, Cyber closed shell syndrome relief fund coordinator @vortexegg.com · 5h

In image of Elrond screaming at Isildur, with a speech bubble making it look like he is saying the quoted post.

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · 6h

Dear NZ: fight civil asset forfeiture with everything you have in you. Love, the US

Dr. Curiosity @drcuriosity.bsky.social · 7h

A concorning snippet, here:

"That campaign will receive $5.9 million from the Proceeds of Crime Fund - money taken from criminals - and the Government wants to make it faster for police use the proceeds of crime laws to seize assets from drug dealers."

www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...

The Post

www.thepost.co.nz

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Jay Hulme @jayhulmepoet.bsky.social · 1d

My friend is nonbinary and had to get a breast reduction because their GP was worried about their spine, and now they have to get a hysterectomy because they've got endometriosis, and I can't believe a person can be so biologically transgender that the NHS accidentally insists on transitioning them.

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Darryl Carey @darrylcarey.bsky.social · 9h

This is a careful, cogent and chilling analysis of the impact of AI in health care. It’s long and directly applies to the USA’s for profit model, but has huge lessons for NZ and elsewhere.

“True care is not a transaction to be optimized; it is a practice and a relationship to be protected.”

Ms Hooper @mshooper.bsky.social · 10h

“The problem is that when it is installed in a health sector that prizes efficiency, surveillance and profit extraction, AI becomes not a tool for care and community but simply another instrument for commodifying human life.”
#nzpol

What we lose when we surrender care to algorithms | Eric Reinhart

A dangerous faith in AI is sweeping American healthcare – with consequences for the basis of society itself

www.theguardian.com

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Brady! 🏳️‍⚧️ @like-the-bunch.bsky.social · 1d

I’m so sorry

the navy sea copypasta but it’s in the zohran text

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 1d

Once again reminding everyone that "insane ripoff financial products/scams are awesome" vs "all debt is a sinful moral failing pushed by (((bankers)))" actually represents a huge wedge within the far-right.

David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 1d

Trying to think of a worse idea but I'm coming up short

FHFA's Bill Pulte pitches a 50-year mortgage.

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Nicole Prause @nicolerprause.bsky.social · 5d

I got tired of reading this fake statistic that strangulation during sex was the "second leading cause of stroke in young women".
It's not.
medium.com/@nicole.prau...

Is “strangulation” really the second cause of stroke in young women?

Here we go again

medium.com

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depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 20h

the only instance in recorded history of a traffic collision between a car and a u-boat!

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Dracula Enthusiast @kmfao.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah :D

The opening text of Master and Commander, but its the style of a Zohran for Mayor poster. "April, 1805. Napoleon is master of Europe. Only the British fleet stands before him. Oceans are now battlefields."

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David Hood @thoughtfulnz.bsky.social · 21h

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky

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Kirsten Bakis @kirstenbakis.com · 23h

TIME FOR BED in the Zohran campaign font

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Jesspooka Kant 🎃 @jessdkant.bsky.social · 1d

I think people believe the phenomenon is far more rare than it is, too. If you work with kids in any capacity, you see how hard it is for brains native to the internet to differentiate between a chatbot and a human. Brains are very bad at discerning truth when fiction is presented authoritatively.

Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 2d

Put another way, I think people are more scared of drinking something that they think could kill anyone, versus experiencing a condition that they believe could never happen to them—even though it very well could

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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 2d

This resonates with what the disability rights community talks about a lot, which is that people prefer to believe they’ll never be disabled even though you are guaranteed it the longer you keep living

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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 2d

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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 2d

Part of the reason I think there isn’t as much pressure around stopping ChatGPT re: suicide/psychosis as compared to stuff like Panera Lemonade is because people are inclined to blame it on mental illness versus the tech, a kind of victim-blaming mentality that fits neatly into just world fallacy

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Sly 🐺 @slywolfy.bsky.social · 22h

If a teacher was calling a cis student the wrong pronouns or name it would already be an issue they'd be disciplined for! Suddenly though if the student is trans it's now Compelled Speech. These people need to use their brains instead of instantly accepting right wing narratives.

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Jennifer @jennifilm.nz · 1d

Had a good yarn about US election results & UK polling showing that actually, politicians that stand up for diverse communities with their full throat are succeeding and cynical rights-bargaining incrementalism ain’t a winner

1/200 Media @1of200.bsky.social · 1d

1/200 S2E170 - Everybody HRRTs

We await a ruling from the Human Rights Review Tribunal in NZ, while Progressive populism, including trans rights, now seems a vote winner in both the UK & US - how is the NZ left positioned?

w @l11p.bsky.social @jennifilm.nz @kyledchurch.bsky.social & Angela

1/200 S2E170 - Everybody HRRTs — 1/200

As we await a ruling from the Human Rights Review Tribunal, Jen and Angela give us a rundown on what’s been happening during the hearings. Progressive populism, including trans rights, now seems a vot...

www.1of200.nz

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Rafe Meager (they/them) @economeager.bsky.social · 1d

i made this one for @lastpositivist.bsky.social

zohran sign but instead of zohran for NYC it says blood for the blood god

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Sage Anastasi @sageanastasi.bsky.social · 21h

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Sage Anastasi @sageanastasi.bsky.social · 22h

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Micah @rincewind.run · 1d

I do really think these folks are underestimating how bad the AI backlash can get if the industry needs a bailout

people are still furious about the 2008 bailout and that was almost two decades ago

Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 1d

Tech guys six months ago: haha yes we’re cutting all this WASTEFUL spending by eliminating medical research and USAID

Tech guys now: yes I think taxpayers will be excited to bailout my non consensual pornography machine

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