Today I learned that Quiet parks are a thing.
Wilderness Quiet Parks are large pristine areas offering exceptional sonic beauty and opportunities for extended periods of pure natural quiet.
As with Dark Skies, I’m in favour of Quiet Places.
I watched the first 40 minutes (the lecture) of this. Its fascinating stuff: Kelly Wright: Raciolinguistic profiling: Passing for American means speaking without an accent. Sounding ‘non-standard’ has real consequences.
5 years ago this basic Westinghouse Saturn electric oven with spiral elements was brand new. Today we’ve replaced it with a Belling dual oven with induction hob — the same oven we used to have in Wellington. My partner, who enjoys cooking, is thrilled.
Today I spent an hour watching the front yard as my part in the Aotearoa New Zealand Garden Bird Survey. Something happens each year when I do this — all the birds go somewhere else for a nap or something. I hardly saw any birds today. 😒
Cold southerly at the beach this morning. For once I took my camera. Photo of Kuaka (Godwits), which usually return to the Arctic for our winter, but these stayed. Oshi and Sasha also enjoyed their outing.
🐦 🐶
This Micro Monday I suggest @jennifermjones , a local reporter who lives with her dog in the deepest darkest Southwest of Scotland and has a dailyish podcast.
[Posted again as I messed up the post yesterday and cant edit.]
We Dig Dinosaurs was great. Host Emily Graslie does a fabulous job and has so much fun.
Cretaceous … T. rex dominated the planet … what happened to these tremendous animals? … how did other life forms survive an apocalyptic asteroid crash into Earth 66 million years ago?
I knew mid-book in Lies to Tell: An utterly gripping Scottish crime thriller (Detective Clare Mackay Book 3) by Marion Todd who the bad guy was. I was so wrong!! Good book, enjoyable series. Love the Scottish setting. 📚
Clare realises too late she has trusted the wrong person.
Turns out Aotearoa New Zealand is just the tippy tops of the lost continent of Zealandia:
only 6% of the continent is above sea level. That part underpins New Zealand’s north and south islands… The rest is underwater
Map: A map of Zealandia, outlined in grey.
We abandoned Ad Astra half way through and switched to Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga which was way more fun. 🎬
Singing, dancing, Iceland, it had a lot going for it.
Our broadband died this morning. After 40 minutes on the phone to a very pleasant person in India Ive been given 100GB free data to hotspot from my phone until the issue is fixed. New modem on its way to replace the 5-year-old model. Indias in lockdown so there are some delays.
27-Jun-20: daily quake. 〰️ 4.9 near Rotorua, but quite deep. Shook us around slightly. I thought it would have been one of the Levin quakes.
Ive become the fun police and have reported this nearby smoke nuisance to the local Council. This green waste burnoff means I have to keep all doors and windows closed. Its crazy these fires are even allowed. Discouraged but still allowed. Pollution! Nuisance!
I didnt realise how poor this photo was — it makes Sashas eyes look really weird. Anyway, freshly groomed dogs looking fantastic. 🐶 And while they were being groomed I had breakfast at Taper in Levin 👍 and finally wrote the June newsletter for the Ratepayers Association.
It seems this year I need a section called My Daily Earthquake. There are so many quakes this year and so many nearby.
When Fri Jun 26 2020 6:52 AM
Where 10 km east of Upper Hutt
Shaking Light
Magnitude 3.6
Depth 26 km
Sigh, sexist assumptions… :
2,600-year-old Scythian remains … considered to be male because with him were … an axe, a bow, arrows,… But the child’s DNA revealed the remains were actually female … [so perhaps] girls also participated in hunting or military campaigns
I was surprised by how profoundly moving this was, both the views of the ‘audience' and the music itself: Barcelona Opera House Reopens With a Concert for 2,292 Plants
Gran Teatre del Liceu reopened … with … Puccini’s Crisantemi played before a packed house of 2,292 plants.
👍
The terror of the turn
Some mornings it can be terrifying trying to get across the road with the steady stream of truck and car traffic between the hours of 05.45 and 9 am.
That's what one resident said when talking about her usual daily commute to Wellington from Waikawa Beach. She went on to say: [I'm] taking my life into my hands turning south onto SH1 from Waikawa Beach Road.
In the last few years traffic has built up tremendously along State Highway 1 between Ōtaki and Levin. In the interests of safety NZTA made changes: now it's 80 Kph through Manakau, rather than the previous 100 Kph, and islands at each end help to slow traffic.
But at the same time road markings that Waikawa Beach residents and regulars really liked were removed. There is still a right-turn bay for those travelling from the north who want to turn into Waikawa Beach Road.
But for all others, turning into and out of Waikawa Beach Road was made more difficult and has been an ongoing source of frustration and annoyance.
A flush-median and flexible posts have been installed along the middle of the road through that 80 Kph zone, and the turning lane for those heading south was removed. It seems many people don't know you can turn onto the flush median while waiting to merge into the southbound lane.
Those who do know have difficulty with it for a couple of reasons: some worry how oncoming southbound drivers will react, while others complain that the flexible posts prevent them from getting up to speed while merging into southbound traffic.
To turn left into Waikawa Beach Road from the south requires moving onto the shoulder of the road while slowing and hoping following cars also slow sufficiently, given the median posts don't allow room for them to move aside.
Even those turning north out of Waikawa Beach Road have been dinged by the changes: where previously there was room to go round the corner and wait for a gap in traffic, reshaped kerbing makes that impossible. And if two vehicles wait side-by-side at the Waikawa Beach Road Stop sign, no-one can see what traffic is heading their way. For those turning towards the south a concrete pole right on the corner impedes clear vision too.
These gripes aren't new, but they are often repeated. Unfortunately, it seems no-one is listening.
Published in Ōtaki Today, June 2020, Page 19.
I thoroughly enjoyed the feel-good Netflix movie Feel the Beat 📺:
a 2020 American family dance comedy-drama film
Fairly standard plot, but lots of heart. Good to see the film include a deaf character.
First time in an extremely long time that Ive watched ISS go overhead. Experimented with night mode: iPhone 11, with 10 second exposure. The ISS is the bright blob near centre, just about to pass the ‘sting’ in the tail of Scorpius. (Remember, its upside down from N. Hemisphere.)
