Using algorithms, machine learning, and satellite technology for good: A New Method Has Been Enlisted to Help Save Elephants, And It Involves Space:
images from a satellite orbiting 600 km above Earth, could survey upward of 5,000 square km of land in … minutes.
I enjoyed Holy Camp! a bizarre Spanish comedy musical:
two 17-year-old girls spend summer at the camp they have attended since they were little. Both love … music; but God’s apparitions to and calling of María begin to change all their lives.
I adore listening to Spanish!
Good point:
only the impossible problems make their way to the [leader’s desk]. Everything that’s clean and easy? That gets decided down lower in the chain of command. It’s the intractable, no-win situations that get escalated to the leader’s desk.
The Ōtaki Festival of Pots opened today, and I bought a garden ornament of 3 birds on driftwood: a Tūī, a Kereru and a Piwakawaka. Now we need to work out where in the garden to put it.
I’ve never before paid the slightest attention to the inauguration of any US President, but today I watched the event live on the web. I’m so relieved that previous stain on humanity is now gone and no longer has delegated power. May Biden and Harris bring hope and humanity!
I frequently admire our neighbour’s large Tīkouka or cabbage tree. What a fine specimen!
Something to keep in mind — You Are Dying Every Day:
It’s easy to see death as this thing that lies off in the distant future. …We think of dying as an event that happens to us. It’s stationary—whatever date it will happen at—and we’re moving towards it, slowly or quickly, depending on our age and health.
Seneca felt that this was the wrong way to think about it… Instead, he said, death was a process—it was happening to us right now. We are dying every day, he said.
The Shoreline movie theatre in Waikanae is one of those small ones with two-seater couches. Since our last visit they have installed (presumably) Covid screens.
What an excellent movie! A Call to Spy:
inspired by the true stories of three women who worked as spies in Churchill’s Secret Army.
Their daunting mission: conduct sabotage and build a resistance.
Just watch it!
Processing: I’m imagining some factory worker in China polishing the Apple logo, dusting off the chips, inspecting the connections, tightening the screws…
What I currently miss most from my 2016 MacBook Pro: using my fingerprint to unlock 1Password. I’m so sick of typing the unlock password, and it’s only been 2 days.
Somehow I blocked all cookies in Safari on my 2012 MacBook Pro and couldn’t log in to anywhere. Before I figured it out I switched to Firefox. So glad to be back on Safari now. Apart from anything else it allows me to use an Applescript within TextExpander to grab URL and Title.
I’m using my ‘new' old 2012 MacBook Pro while I wait for my new M1 model to be shipped. Even though I’m doing only a few things on it, it still takes a lot of setting up to get it just how I like it. Love being back with this soft touch keyboard though after the 2016 version.
I came to very much enjoy The Complete Tyrone Swift Mysteries seven gripping crime thrillers by Gretta Mulrooney after some initial skepticism. That was a lot of reading for less than $1.50. I skipped one book that looked like it was about a serial killer. 📚
Waiting for a routine vet check. 🐶
∞
Our visiting friends have now left on the next stage of their motorcycle tour. These two bikes looked pretty good in our garage though.
After the tide had gone down and the heavy rain stopped my friend with the tractor took the old picnic table onto the beach and along to where the south track off Reay Mackay Grove meets the sand. We put the table in place, but it needs a little levelling tomorrow. Job done 👍
We inherited a picnic table but never use it — we have another better one. A neighbour has an ancient tractor he uses to take his boat to the beach. Today he loaded the table (and me) on the tractor tray so we can put it by the beach for the public. High tide thwarted us though…
Phew, short on sleep, and with visiting friends to consider, I forgot to take a suitable photo of Lake Papaitonga when we had a brief walk there today. It was pretty in the bush and the view over the lake was pleasant. A nice 20 minute walk.
Whew, with visitors arriving shortly, my room has had its most thorough clean in ages. I even pulled furniture out to vacuum and wet mop behind. And I cleaned the insides of the windows! (Outsides are high and tricky.) Plus all my usual junk has been put away. Quite nice really.