As a balance to my previous whingeing — Faith community rallies behind West Auckland conservation project:
The Indian Muslim community has pledged to plant 4000 native trees each year as part of a three-year partnership with Matuku Link, a 37-hectare bush and wetland restoration project in West Auckland.
This is what human beings do: aid, protect, nourish.
This is so wrong — implementing AI with all its flaws and problems to make decisions about the lives of our most vulnerable. Humans aren't just nice neat packages; we're untidy bundles of complexity and nuance. Social Security (Modernisation) Amendment Bill | NZ Legislation:
The … Bill … aims to enable the administration of a more efficient, modern welfare system through the use of automated decision making (ADM).
An automated decision is a decision within an automated process where there is no substantial human involvement in making the decision.
Deb and I have been meaning to update our wills for the longest time — more than a decade at least. Finally we visited our lawyer and provided information for a draft.
We're also discussing Enduring Power of Attorney and Advance Directives.
Looking forward to getting it all sorted and signed.
Photos reminded me today of a day in August 2018 when Oshi dug a big hole in the sand of our yard and settled down into it — seemingly legless. 😆 🐶
This is a truly remarkable book — not your average cosy mystery, not your average space scifi — it's a one of a kind and well worth reading. Hellspark by Janet Kagan. 📚
After being attacked, rescuing a young woman, and going before a judge, Tocohl has learned all she ever wanted to know about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now she is seeking answers to mysteries that could save a world.
I learned about this book via Lingthusiasm.
Wobblily in the wild:
Opting not to use a cutting tool, the RSCPA rescuers eased the pony’s head and shoulders out of the tire, allowing it to stand up and wobblily return to its comrades in the field.
Via: English Pony Found Unharmed Having Been Trapped Entirely Inside a Tractor Tire.
Finally it's not windy and though not specially warm it's not cold either so I biked the 10 Km round trip to the west side of the estuary (at Princes Street). 🐦
It was mid-tide but there weren't very many birds around. I did get snaps of Mt Manaia, a white-faced heron and a pied stilt.
There was a pleasing pink glow in the sky this morning.
As so often, The Spinoff gets it right — Is the NZ government sleepwalking into its own automation scandal?:
Efficiency is not the only value of government. The public do not want government making incorrect decisions about them efficiently. The government also owes different obligations from the private sector, as individuals cannot opt out from interacting with them. Values of open government, transparency, fairness and accountability can be impeded by the delivery of government services using opaque and fast-moving AI models hosted in other parts of the world.
This article was interesting Was Auckland the cradle of the Kiwi accent? An old theory gets a new hearing:
Why, for example, does our [NZ] accent have relatively little regional variation (other than Southlanders and their rolled Rs), despite many early centres such as Christchurch and Dunedin having distinct cultural identities?
But even more interesting was the embedded 18 minute radio interview with retired Linguistics Professor Elizabeth Gordon. Do listen.
I was looking (without success) for something today when I came across this ancient dark and almost unreadable copy of the notification that in January 1941 my father became a war prisoner of the Japanese.
Cpl Jordan L. D. Of the Royal Norfolk Regiment is now at No. 1 Prisoner of War Camp, Thailand, in Japanese hands.
As a person who enjoys reading cosy mysteries, I've also really enjoyed the Elsbeth TV series: 📺
The series focuses on the offbeat Elsbeth Tascioni, an unconventional but astute attorney who, after a successful career in Chicago, uses her singular point of view to make unique observations and corner criminals alongside the NYPD.
The Elspeth character is delightful and the show itself is light and humorous. Here's hoping for another season.
It's blimmin windy today. When we went for a walk we saw a bunch of gulls hunkered down on a sand bank in the river. 🐦
After 20 minutes brisk walking from the Racecourse beach entrance I reached the bird sanctuary and rested for a few minutes in a deep squat.
This gull arrived just a couple of metres from me to see what I was up to. 🐦
Finished reading Ruakaka (A Brief History), compiled by Judy Richards, 1984, $25 from the Post Office shop. Hard to believe it was written 40 years ago!
The book takes us from a presumed first settlement around 1,000 years ago to the early 1980s. 📚
While there is no certainty about the actual date of arrival of the earliest migrants to New Zealand from Eastern Polynesia … Radio-carbon dating techniques suggest that human occupation could have begun as early as 800 or 900 A.D.
There were numerous interesting snippets. Now I just wish there were a book to cover the 1980s to present day.
As the book went along I had my doubts about how things were occurring, but Kate Wells wove it all together quite cleverly in the end. A Midsummer Murder (The Malvern Mysteries Book 7). 📚
When a fatal accident shatters the peace, the weekend of relaxation descends into anything but tranquility. And Jude learns that Inigo’s connections to many of those at the retreat go back decades, and their shared secrets have been deeply buried.
This Frittata recipe from The Doctor's Kitchen is delicious.
Starting your day with a high-protein, high-fibre breakfast can really help with your energy and focus.
4 eggs, 75g cottage cheese, 25g frozen spinach, 25g frozen peas, 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed, 2 teaspoons dried oregano or parsley or tarragon, salt and pepper.
Preheat oven to 180C fan; Put mixed ingredients in lined baking dishes (1 x 16 cm x 12 cm); Bake for 30+ minutes
Sometimes the truth just slips out — we are but a line item on a spreadsheet:
… public service commissioner Sir Brian Roche on RNZ … Speaking about the recently announced 8,700 job cuts coming for the public service … : “It’s regrettable that this is going to occur, but change does require it being made – and there will be an impact on human capital.”
[Spinoff writer] There it was, as clear as day, a new way for me, a wage earner, to identify: I am human capital.
Via: Thanks to Nicola Willis and Brian Roche, I now get that I’m just human capital | The Spinoff.
Today I walked as far as the beach — 20 minutes and almost 2 Km each way.
There were two cargo ships on the horizon.
Things in my life are running very smoothly just now, for which I'm very thankful. Doesn't explain why I woke from a full-on stress dream this morning where I was supposed to be doing a thing by a deadline but one interruption after another kept hampering me.
Ugh. Weird.