Soon Lee
LightNews LightNews
banner
soonleenz.bsky.social
Soon Lee
@soonleenz.bsky.social
1.1K followers 930 following 3.3K posts
Malaysian Chinese Aotearoa (New Zealander), geek, food, wine & microbes interest. Best Auckland Restaurant Venn diagram (Onedrive): https://tinyurl.com/AucklandRestaurant TL50
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
soonleenz.bsky.social
Soon Lee @soonleenz.bsky.social · Jan 27
Text reads: "TRANS PPL EXISTING DOES NOTHING NEGATIVE TO YOUR LIFE, YOU CRYBABY BITCH" Background is the Trans flag bordered by a rainbow circle.
Reposted by Soon Lee
haydendonnell.bsky.social
did some data journalism thespinoff.co.nz/politics/11-...
In a 1992 study, researchers found humans produce a median 105g of faecal matter per day. Let’s assume that faeces takes two minutes to evacuate your bowels. If you started now, it would take you 2,535 years, 15 days, 13 hours, and 20 minutes of non-stop shitting to produce as much waste as the Moa Point plant is expelling onto schools of unsuspecting fish every day.
February 11, 2026 at 3:14 AM
Reposted by Soon Lee
marcdaalder.bsky.social
I found the NZ fairy tern / tara-iti! There are only about 50 adult fairy terns in New Zealand, making them the rarest bird that breeds here by far. It took a lot of trial and error (and some dumb luck) but yesterday, I succeeded! 🪶
www.instagram.com/reel/DUeIROk...
February 8, 2026 at 3:01 AM
Reposted by Soon Lee
auntietiffa.bsky.social
Everybody knows that Pupper just won Downhill Gold
February 10, 2026 at 1:27 PM
soonleenz.bsky.social
#Wordle #dailyWordleClub #Wordle1698 Wordle 1,698 3/6*
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟩🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Was all in the second guess.
February 10, 2026 at 5:08 PM
soonleenz.bsky.social
Weekend walk: Oakley Creek Path (Waterview/ Pt. Chevalier) is a bunch of connected city walkways one leading to Oakley Creek waterfall, the only waterfall in central Auckland. #Auckland #TamakiMakaurau #waterfall #somethingBeautiful #aucklandScenes
www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/en/parks-rec...
Calming view of Oakley Creek with New Zealand native plants including ferns & cabbage trees growing by the water's edge. Carp (an introduced species) in Oakley Creek. Roadside signage for Te Auaunga Oakley Creek Walkway. View of the Oakley Creek waterfall.
February 10, 2026 at 8:53 AM
soonleenz.bsky.social
Went to Rothko for lunch at the weekend. It's excellent.
House bread with misozuke butter
Duck liver donut with fermented cherry
Grilled pork belly, raw fish, coconut
Lamb ribs, jang glaze, tamarillo, soy mayo
Claypot beef: steak, saffron rice, bone marrow
#AucklandEats #kai #food #wine 🍜🍽️ 1/2
Duck liver donut with fermented cherry & Grilled pork belly, raw fish, coconut. Small bites presented on bowl of uncooked beans. House bread with misozuke butter Lamb ribs, jang glaze, tamarillo, soy mayo. Normally two ribs per serve but we got an extra one. View of dining area, well-lit, wooden floor, cosy. A glass of house rose is at the left foreground.
February 10, 2026 at 7:26 AM
Reposted by Soon Lee
kirstyjohnston.bsky.social
Bit late to it but if you want to know the chain of events that led to us importing gas (and charging electricity users to pay for it!!), I did this deep dive for RNZ last year www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
The fuel of ‘last resort’: How imported gas became New Zealand’s first choice
It's expensive, vulnerable to price shocks and terrible for the planet. So why are we importing gas?
www.rnz.co.nz
February 10, 2026 at 1:09 AM
soonleenz.bsky.social
It *might* be English, but it is not.

youtu.be/v5VpczwrSCc?...
February 10, 2026 at 12:26 AM
soonleenz.bsky.social
Just waiting for City Rail Link (CRL) to start before new train stations Karanga-A-Hape & Te Waihorotiu are open to the public. Some time in 2026, hopefully...
www.cityraillink.co.nz/meet-your-st...
#publicTransport #Auckland #TamakiMakaurau #train #rail #aucklandScenes #soon
Mayoral Drive entrance to Te Waihorotiu station with roller grilles down preventing public access. Beresford Plaza entrance to Karanga-A-Hape station with roller grilles down preventing public access.
February 10, 2026 at 12:12 AM
Reposted by Soon Lee
xkcd.com
Dinosaurs And Non-Dinosaurs

xkcd.com/3204/
Comic. [2x2 chart. Top left quadrant: seem like dinosaurs x are dinosaurs. Silhouettes of dinosaurs stegosaurus, triceratops, tyrannosaurus, velociraptor, and long-neck dinosaur. Top right quadrant: seem like dinosaurs x are not dinosaurs. Silhouettes of mosasaur, quetzalcoatlus, dimetrodon, plesiosaur, and pteranodon. Bottom left quadrant: don’t seem like dinosaurs x are dinosaurs. Silhouettes of penguin, egret, ostrich, pigeon, falcon. Bottom right: don’t seem like dinosaurs x are not dinosaurs. Silhouettes of squirrel, stapler, plant, person, and bicycle.]
February 9, 2026 at 9:10 PM
soonleenz.bsky.social
#Wordle #dailyWordleClub #Wordle1697 Wordle 1,697 4/6*
⬛⬛⬛🟩⬛
🟩⬛⬛🟩⬛
🟩⬛🟩🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Elimination game.
February 9, 2026 at 5:11 PM
soonleenz.bsky.social
This morning's view of the Whau River mouth from the bus. #publicTransport #Auckland #TamakiMakaurau #bus #somethingBeautiful #aucklandScenes
Boats moored at Whau RIver mouth in the morning light. The water is still, the sky is pale blue, but golden dawn light reflects off the boat hulls.
February 9, 2026 at 6:30 AM
soonleenz.bsky.social
Made a lamb stew. Had some sweetcorn that needed using p, and tomato. #cookingDiary #kai #food🍜 🍽️
Dinner as described served on a round white soup plate. Lamb stew ingredients clockwise from top left of a bowl of potato pieces in water, a bowl of carrot pieces, a black soup plate with chopped onion, sliced garlic, and a bay leaf, a mixing bowl of lamb pieces bone in.
February 9, 2026 at 6:26 AM
Reposted by Soon Lee
manigarm.bsky.social
I'm GenX. We grew up in an all-print world. We read really fast. So, my Millennial and GenZ peeps, I beg you for the love of Bananarama, please just send me the article and not the TikTok of the dude talking about the article. In Prince's funky name, amen.
February 8, 2026 at 8:41 PM
Reposted by Soon Lee
hendysh.bsky.social
Helen Petousis-Harris's piece on how the WHO is vital for New Zealand just nails it. While I am here, can I also just say that @helenp-h.bsky.social is a national treasure. theconversation.com/who-membersh...
WHO membership doesn’t threaten NZ’s sovereignty – walking away from it would
The World Health Organization is a global body, but decisions affecting New Zealand are made in Wellington, not in Geneva.
theconversation.com
February 8, 2026 at 6:23 PM
soonleenz.bsky.social
#Wordle #dailyWordleClub #Wordle1696 Wordle 1,696 3/6*
🟩🟨⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟨🟨⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Second guess removed lots of options.
February 8, 2026 at 5:07 PM
soonleenz.bsky.social
#Wordle #dailyWordleClub #Wordle1695 Wordle 1,695 4/6*
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟨🟨⬛⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩This one took me ages.
February 7, 2026 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Soon Lee
histoftech.bsky.social
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology
She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:09 AM
Reposted by Soon Lee
pookleblinky.bsky.social
I've mentioned this before: think about food. Food culture permeates across all borders, survives the worst atrocities. It is damn near impossible to kill a recipe.

Now think of how many Native American *recipes*, not ingredients, there are

That is how thorough the genocide of manifest destiny was
pookleblinky.bsky.social Pookleblinky @pookleblinky.bsky.social · 5d
Because again, just fucking look at art.

Art has survived *genocides*.

What genAI promises is the ability to cast creative expression into the void in a way that *not even genocide* has been able to do.
February 6, 2026 at 5:11 AM
soonleenz.bsky.social
#Wordle #dailyWordleClub #Wordle1694 Wordle 1,694 3/6*
⬛🟨⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Second guess didn't leave other options.
February 6, 2026 at 5:21 PM
soonleenz.bsky.social
#Wordle #dailyWordleClub #Wordle1693 Wordle 1,693 3/6*
⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
⬛🟩🟨🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Quick three for me.
February 5, 2026 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Soon Lee
ahhmandah.bsky.social
Auckland Transport urging us to take public transport over Waitangi day long weekend.

also Auckland Transport:
February 5, 2026 at 1:02 AM
Reposted by Soon Lee
sarahtaber.bsky.social
Wow if only there were people who know how to do dairy that they could have talked to

like, literally anyone who works in dairy
newsjennifer.bsky.social @NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) @newsjennifer.bsky.social · 7d
This is bonkers. MAHA 'farmers' with ecoli tainted raw milk admit they really don't know how to make the stuff after all.

"Producing raw milk takes careful planning from a facility and infrastructure standpoint. Unfortunately, we learned this after the fact."

people.com/ballerina-fa...
Hannah Neeleman's Ballerina Farm Halts Sale of Raw Milk Due to Bacteria Concerns: Report
Hannah and Daniel Neeleman have paused Ballerina Farm's sale of raw milk following health violations discovered during routine testing. Screenings from summer 2025 showed high levels of coliform, the ...
people.com
February 4, 2026 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Soon Lee
kriswolfhe.art
I always think of this LeGuin spiel (roasting Rowling ofc)
“A writer sets out to write science fiction but isn’t familiar with the genre, hasn’t read what’s been written. This is a fairly common situation, because science fiction is known to sell well but, as a subliterary genre, is not supposed to be worth study—what’s to learn? It doesn’t occur to the novice that a genre is a genre because it has a field and focus of its own; its appropriate and particular tools, rules, and techniques for handling the material; its traditions; and its experienced, appreciative readers—that it is, in fact, a literature. Ignoring all this, our novice is just about to reinvent the wheel, the space ship, the space alien, and the mad scientist, with cries of innocent wonder. The cries will not be echoed by the readers. Readers familiar with that genre have met the space ship, the alien, and the mad scientist before. They know more about them than the writer does. In the same way, critics who set out to talk about a fantasy novel without having read any fantasy since they were eight, and in ignorance of the history and extensive theory of fantasy literature, will make fools of themselves because they don’t know how to read the book. They have no contextual information to tell them what its tradition is, where it’s coming from, what it’s trying to do, what it does. This was liberally proved when the first Harry Potter book came out and a lot of literary reviewers ran around shrieking about the incredible originality of the book. This originality was an artifact of the reviewers’ blank ignorance of its genres (children’s fantasy and the British boarding-school story), plus the fact that they hadn’t read a fantasy since they were eight. It was pitiful. It was like watching some TV gourmet chef eat a piece of buttered toast and squeal, “But this is delicious! Unheard of! Where has it been all my life?” ― Ursula K. Le Guin
October 24, 2024 at 10:17 PM
soonleenz.bsky.social
#Wordle #dailyWordleClub #Wordle1692 Wordle 1,692 4/6*
🟨⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟩⬛🟩🟨⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Elimination game.
February 4, 2026 at 5:16 PM