We watched Netflix ☛ Urzila Carlson: Overqualified Loser. Not entirely my taste in comedy but some good laughs. Best quip:

I’ve reached the age/weight ratio where you no longer ‘fall over’, but instead ‘have a fall’.

Born in South Africa, she’s a Kiwi now.

Screenshot Netflix  ☛ Urzila Carlson: Overqualified Loser.

In what world does this extract from our new oven’s manual make sense? The numbers aren’t in sequence and even the functions aren’t grouped.

We’re aiming to understand the incomprehensible symbols on the knobs. We had this oven 5 years ago, but have forgotten how to use it.

Diagram showing knobs and their uses, but the order is very mixed up.

As I see the Taruruas I realise I really like living beside hills. I spent 25 years growing up in Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand. The Canterbury Plains are flat, with the Southern Alps to the west. The Port Hills are nearby. My world view was of a flat world, ringed by hills.

A could that seems to be smoke pouring from the tip of a hill.

Taking 5 metres (depth) of the seabed must have an effect:

consider whether 50 million tonnes of the South Taranaki Bight seabed can be mined each year.

…the proposal … would not affect marine ecosystems, whales, dolphins, fishing or kaimoana.

That’s our bit of seabed! 👿

Wow. We have good friends in Whangārei — they live at the top of a hill:

220 millimetres [8.66 inches] of rain fell in Whangārei from 7pm last night until around 7am this morning.

we’re expecting that once in 500 years.

And the rain is showing no signs of easing.

If this is a boring flat rectangle, I think take-up will be slow. If a clever designer makes an attractive ‘badge of honour' lapel pin though…

a bluetooth contact tracing ‘CovidCard’…

people only have to carry the CovidCard and don’t have to download or scan anything.

Excellent: Netflix ☛ One Day at a Time, S3E3, abuelita has made a ‘bouquet list’:

Do you mean a bucket list?

No, that makes no sense.

It is a bouquet list because it is an arrangement of all of the beautiful things you still want to do before you kick the bucket.

Screenshot of the show, with English subtitles.

I was somewhat entertained by Netflix ☛ Warrior Nun

Warrior Nun revolves around the story of a 19-year-old woman who wakes up in a morgue with a new lease on life and a divine artifact embedded in her back.

The largely female cast was a bonus amongst all the mumbo-jumbo. 📺

Warrior Nun promo shot of the lead actor.

Sasha’s throat Xray didn’t show anything to worry about. She has a little throat inflammation. The benign but growing cyst was removed from her back. Now 10 days of taking her on a lead to pee or for brief walks. Carprieve pain relief. 🐶

Sutured wound in a shaved area on a dog’s back. SMall black dog waiting at the door.

Our dogs are brachycephalic which means flatter faces and shorter noses, breathing problems. Sasha snores a lot and has increasing episodes of ‘choking’. Today she’s with the vet for surgery to check her throat, and to remove a slowly growing harmless cyst on her back.

Small black dog looking at the camera.

Hmm, I just watched a preview of a movie about Marie Curie which includes her saying “My science could cure cancer”.

When I was a kid in the 1960s people around me didn’t say the terrible word “Cancer”. They’d whisper simply “C”, in case the word would conjure the phenomenon.

Nessie Hill encourages us all to be science communicators in this 10 minute video: How to Convince Others to Wear a Mask. She talks about methods that work … and methods that don’t.

Screenshot from video How to Convince Others to Wear a Mask.

Hey @martinfeld I listen to and enjoy most of the Lounge Ruminations. 😀 On #33 start at 6:15 you say: “the crucial element of a conversation is the words”. 🤔 Can’t speak for blind, deaf, folks with body movement issues, but gesture, posture, face, breathing etc are = crucial.

Interesting: Why Older People Really Eschew Technology

The assumption that seniors are “alienated” by technology…ignores the essence of her research: older adults’ resistance to technology is a value-based choice. Thus, many seniors resist some technologies and embrace others.

I cleaned the window so I could see the Tauhou better. The more I watch them, the more I love them. Look at this little cutie! 🐦

Tiny bird, looking up. Tiny bird looking straight at the camera and appearing cross-eyed.

All on for Mars:

The United Arab Emirates is about to launch its first mission to Mars. It will be the Arab world’s first flight to another planet.

The SUV-sized spacecraft, called the Hope probe, …will reach Mars by February 2021.

Also launching soon: NASA and China.

a detailed DNA analysis of the genomes of more than 800 Polynesians and Native Americans, both modern and prehistoric, [shows] evidence of contact … as far back as 1200 CE.

…a single contact event … between Polynesian individuals and a Native American group

Source

Oh, there was a blast from my youth, when the good music was! The Shangri-Las ‘Leader Of The Pack’ .

Screenshot from video.

Many thanks to @agilelisa for introducing me to musicians Abigail Washburn and Wu Fei. I found this enjoyable 30 minute video: Abigail Washburn and Wu Fei at the National Immigrant Integration Conference. A wonderful fusion of Appalachian and Chinese music. And in 2 languages. ♬

Still from the video showing Abigail Washburn and Wu Fei performing at the National Immigrant Integration Conference in 2016.

If you enjoy both nature and words then this 22 minute episode of Brit Garner’s Nature League is for you: Nurse Sharks and Other Strange Names

Brit investigates how the nurse shark and other species got their intriguing English names.

Seems one may have come from Portuguese.

Screenshot of Brit presenting the episode.