Question about privacy (New Zealand law)

If an organization collects your phone number when you sign a petition they have organized is it reasonable for them to use it for any other purpose?

Like cold calling to campaign for my vote?

Utterly unimpressed the caller continued to try to discuss voting after I said I was unhappy they used it that way.

I've heard a fair bit of discourse over the years about voting being bad as an implicit support of the current political system. Some of the slogans are kinda catchy too:

"Every time you vote a politician wins!"
But we could say:
"All politicians are evil, but some are more evil than others" (apologies to Orwell and O'Shaughnessy)

"If voting could change anything, they'd make it illegal"
But they are making it illegal. Especially in the US, but voter suppression rules are coming in here, along with people being removed from the roll.

I suggest if you do encounter people who are likely not to vote due to a touch of cynicism and doom, then some snarky encouragement to check their enrolment before the new cutoff.- People now need to be on the rollat least 13 days before the election, which is midnight on Sunday 25 October.

https://vote.nz/enrolling/enrol-or-update/troubleshooting-your-enrolment

Those Labour Party billboards with pink wafting through the red? What on earth are they thinking?Are they trying to show their wishy-washy colours? I doubt it'll make a difference to the swing voters they are dreaming of

"The people's flag is palest pink,
It's not as red as most folk think.
We must not let the people know
What socialists thought long ago.
Don't let the scarlet banner float;
We want the middle classes' vote.
Let our old fashioned comrades sneer,
We'll stay in power for many a year"

Disclaimer - I haven't entirely got over the association between pink and the whole sexist expectations of little girls thing.

There were at least 6 other people wearing masks at the urgent doctors waiting room last night. All of the others were using the medical.masks, presumably because the staff asked them to (symptomatic). Only one kept it over their nose the whole time

Late to the party I know, but too "If" statements that sort of go together

"if Luxon ever truly feels his ability to wield power has been hindered by the canyon between the apartment he no longer lives in and his office, he could always use the pedestrian crossing at the traffic lights 10 metres up the road"
The spin-off

"If pedestrian traffic on any part of any roadway is controlled by traffic signals, a pedestrian must not cross any other part of that roadway that is within 20 m of the part controlled by traffic signals"
Land transport rule, 21.3(2)

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/20-08-2026/i-lived-a-true-story-of-surviving-the-cycle-lanes-of-molesworth-street

As well as the overall point being really important I think the "appeal to authority" stuff is really well articulated. I get frustrated by the argu-cussion style of ascribing a supposedly flawed danate tactic to someone's opinion and claiming it invalidates what they have to say

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:htdsafwakqmzvuk2oivijzn6/post/3mtf5gdz6ak2g

This is rather good

"Then, the extremism really revved up.

I lightly criticised Stephen Fry for an event of avuncular chatting in which the panel of four included a professional white supremacist and a physicist with a hands on approach to teaching."

https://www.patreon.com/RobinInce/posts/how-i-became-166609715