It's 3 months to Christmas Day. Farmers in Levin has a whole Christmas shop up and running with trees, and baubles and stuff.
3 months!
This really interesting 15 minute Howtown video explores nuances of measuring happiness — The happiness contest Finland keeps winning:
- Origins of the happiness list
- The data source
- The ladder question
- Positive emotions
- Cultural response styles
- What makes us happy
Good news up north near Whangārei:
Two hundred thousand solar panels [will] be installed to construct the 100-150MW [Ruakākā Energy Park] which would produce 150-200GWh of electricity annually.
Via: Consent granted for 172-hectare Bream Bay solar farm - Northland Regional Council.
I've spent years working on building up my sleep duration and this year am doing pretty well on it. This interesting 9 minute video by researcher Nessy Hill also mentions the importance of other factors such as sleep regularity. The Formula to Stop Feeling Tired.
Recent evidence indicates that sleep regularity, defined as the day-to-day consistency of sleep–wake timing, is a stronger predictor of some health outcomes than average sleep duration.
Things that puzzle from a book published around 2011:
Luckily I'm old enough to remember that once upon a time we had to sign a piece of paper when making a credit card purchase — something I haven't done for so long now it's ancient history. What would kids make of this puzzling passage?
I warmed up to and enjoyed Terrors of the High Seas: Book 6 in The Dar & Kerry Series by Melissa Good. I bought it back in 2011 so this was a reread. 📚
This is essentially a fanfic for the Xena TV series, a show I used to really enjoy.
Expect a high over-the-top quotient.
The Kuaka | Godwits are back after their epic journey from the top of the northern hemisphere and they're hungry. 🐦
It's spring and this beautiful little Weweia | New Zealand dabchick was watching me from lake Puna o te Ora. 🐦
Today Deb and I went to the gym at Paraparaumu where I had a very successful workout. Afterwards we went to Longbeach Cafe where I enjoyed delicious fish, chips and salad. The batter was rather indifferent, but everything else was very good.
If you have any affiliation with or interest in Wellington in Aotearoa, this fascinating history is well worth a read — The first Wellingtonian | The Spinoff:
Te Whanganui a Tara, which translates to English as The Great Harbour of Tara, is a name that dates back centuries. Tara … was a rangatira who explored the lower North Island during the earliest days of Polynesian settlement in Aotearoa and founded the first villages in the harbour that bears his name.
So who actually did the hitting?
Image caption: Deer hits car.
First line: Deer hits car.
Later in the article: Police said … car hits deer.
Via: Deer on loose in Christchurch suburb, one hits car | RNZ News.
LOL: deer on the run!
The [wild] deer were last seen by [animal management] officers two hours ago, and "have not been seen since".
Via: Deer on loose in Christchurch suburb, one hits car | RNZ News.
2 years ago I blogged about enjoying this online concert: Faia Younan, so today I listened again. My favourite part starts at around 16 minutes and is about 5 minutes long: Faia Younan I فايا يونان. 🎶🎶
The singer has such a beautiful voice.
Back in June 2012 I bought a Wacom Intuos 5 Small Touch Tablet.
For a few years for some reason I didn't use it but a year or two ago put it back into use. And with relief …
I thought Sequoia killed it, but mucking around with reinstalling old drivers seems to have fixed it right up. Hooray!
Ahhh, that 3 am cup of tea really hits the spot…
There may well yet be more sleep in my immediate future. Hooray for Saturdays.
This was a clear and useful 15 minute video — AI Chatbots Comparison 2024 - Grace Leung from 24 August 2024:
ChatGPT4, Claude Pro, Gemini Advanced, Perplexity Pro
It includes discussion of the free versions.
It was a foamy day at the beach.
I used the Mono filter on this. It was already so 'gloomy' it didn't really make a huge change. Super high tide today with a strong push from the west so the bay was full. Cloudy, cool, rainy day.
Te reo Māori needs to go digital to survive - innovator | RNZ News:
A Māori tech innovator and language revitalist wants to see te reo Māori thrive in-person and digitally.
… Te Hiku Media … has been developing artificial intelligence (AI) tools that transcribe te reo Māori, give pronunciation feedback, and turn text into speech at a 92% accuracy rate