Speaking of organisations that attract the worst sort of people, this description of a former senior executive of Wilsons Car-parking does not surprise me one bit.

"The former South Island boss of New Zealand’s largest carpark management company has been described as “untrustworthy, devious and devoid of a moral compass” as a legal battle over his actions draws to a close."

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/lawyer-says-ex-wilson-parking-boss-peter-turner-lied-to-court-in-25m-dispute/NIXFUI46O5BPHBP6Q3GNFA7K4Q/

I have been quietly impressed with Iris, a macOS photo viewer/explorer. It can handle large numbers of photos with ease - my folders of photos has over 140,000 images. You can also point it to your photo library and external disks as well. Its real strength is that surfaces metadata to provide insights in your photo collection. For example you can set locations and then see all photos within a certain radius of that location. You can also tag faces/people in a similar fashion to Lightroom. A favourite feature of mine is 'photo trails' which map out photos from a particular day. But there are many other features available as well.

And it is reasonably priced - a one time charge of NZD25 which I don't think is too bad for a high-quality, native Mac app. It's on special until the end of July. If you've thousands of photos you want to browse and interrogate then give Iris a go.

#macOS #MacApps #iris

Go to the macOS App store or buy it direct. Free trial too.

https://irisphotos.app

This is a great news story and should be celebrated as such. It's big tech I know, but some things just need to be acknowledged and appreciated as such. And it's telling that big tech is doing more for te reo Māori than this government.

"“We can’t underestimate just how important this is in terms of normalising te reo Māori [Māori language],” Ngahiwi Apanui-Barr, the commission’s chief executive, told the Guardian.

“When everybody who is learning te reo Māori, or who speaks the language, hears those placenames being used, their language journey is being supported.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/02/new-zealand-finally-gets-a-google-maps-tool-that-correctly-pronounces-maori-placenames

PapersPast has a fresh addition of several smaller provincial newspapers in June. These include publications such as the Hawera Star (1936-1950), Hutt News (1949-1960), and the Matamata County Mail (1953-1965), but there are a number of others as well. Happy researching!

#genealogy #PapersPast

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz

Came across this interesting blog post on my morning wander through the inter-webs. The post describes how , "the girly wellness aesthetic as a white supremacist dog whistle" and it makes a strong case for how the whole 'body beautiful' movement is really just a form of white racism in the end. It argues, "What this content is after is somewhat an image of the Übermensch - the one basically never sick, always strong, beautiful, fertile, white or white-passing, disciplined, hardworking.".

I realise few, if anyone, here on Mastodon is in to this aesthetic, but the blog post does illustrate just how pervasive "whiteness" is in contemporary US-dominated culture.

https://blog.avas.space/clean-girl-klein-dogwhistle/

This is the Greek Orthodox Churches’ Sacred Monastery
Of The Holy Archangels near Levin. An amazing sight amongst the bush and farmland of the Horowhenua.

#OnTheRoad #GreekOthodox #Levin

I just saw the New Zealand Gazette Index from 1840 to 2017 is available with full text searching. This really is a goldmine for anyone researching genealogy here in Aotearoa. The site is fast and very accurate. An absolute must to bookmark.

#genealogy

https://gazette.howison.co.nz

My contract at the Department of Conservation, aka my Unnamed Government Agency, has now ended. Government departments typically off-board a number of us so-called contingent workforce just before the end of the financial year, i.e. 30 June. Especially these days😒. Things might pick up again in July/August for those of us happy to take contract work.

I enjoyed my time at DOC. Like all organisations, it has its frustrations and its faults, but at its heart, its mission is to preserve our natural heritage, that which makes Aotearoa unique. I like that. If you have a few minutes this promotional video, 'Find Your Way', on DOC's career website is worth watching. It's about half way down the page.

https://www.doc.govt.nz/careers

Hungary, 1980

The thinker. Or possibly someone who had a big night out!

Source: Fortepan [289178] / Imre Prohászka

#fortepan #hungary