The whole hour of this Lingthusiasm podcast episode (#98) is fascinating — Helping computers decode sentences. The part about pragmatics, especially so:
if you really want the computer to behave the same way that a person would behave if they heard something and understood it, then you need way more than linguistics. …
if we want to get to “Okay, but what did the person mean by saying that? How does that fit in with what we’ve been discussing so far…?” that’s a whole other set of problems – that’s called “pragmatics”
I was struck by a phrase in an interview (my emphasis) with an Australian woman:
I grew up on Bunuba country, which became a pastoral property when colonisation came into the Kimberley … The land itself is country that we and our generations of families going back to time immemorial have occupied. We hold the stories and the knowledges of that country.
Via: June Oscar on First Nations gender justice - A Podcast of One's Own with Julia Gillard, Season 6, Ep. 17, November 21, 2024.
Out of nowhere I thought of Ena Sharples and Elsie Tanner and their huge shouting matches, from the early days of Coronation Street when I was a kid. Hooray for YouTube where I found this: Coronation Street - Elsie Tanner vs. Ena Sharples (27th January 1965).
I still remember many character names.
Not something I've seen in the skies above Waikawa Beach before now. 😳
This applies to Ruakākā, where we're moving to later this year — Fast-track legislation stirs up opponents of Northland sand mining plan | RNZ News:
If the proposal goes ahead, 250,000 cubic metres of sand will be removed per year from an area of seabed about 4km offshore.
The sand would be collected by a suction dredge
I've been suspicious that the Command key on my M1 MacBook Pro isn't working properly — I go to Paste with Command V and instead get the letter V.
Then I realised it's a user problem: I have arthritis in that thumb, verified by an X-Ray last year. I'm not pressing the Command key firmly enough. 🤣
The Kuaka | Godwits were resting or feeding near the Terns. 🐦
I don't visit the beach quite as much at the moment, but this morning's trip brought Caspian Terns, White-fronted Terns and a Gull hanging out with them. 🐦
Our house hasn't been this clean and tidy since before we moved in. 🤣 Even though we haven't yet finished prepping for sale next month a possible buyer is viewing it today. 🤞🏼
I laughed a lot while watching 2 seasons of Loot on Apple TV:
It follows newly single Molly Wells, whose divorce from her tech billionaire ex-husband has made her the third-wealthiest woman in the US, as she decides to run the day-to-day work of the charitable foundation she forgot she founded, much to its employees' chagrin.
This New Zealand native bird, the Huia, Heteralocha acutirostris, is one that can only be seen mounted in glass cases, like this pair on loan from Te Papa Tongarewa.
This pair was part of an excellent ‘Korori, Korora’ exhibition at Foxton:
A dynamic exhibition on Aotearoa’s native birds, featuring diverse artistic mediums
This fabulous map shows where any point on earth is in shade or sun at any given moment. Many thanks to HowTown for the link.
I already know our current house gets pretty much all day sun all year. Looks like the house we're building will do OK too. Whew!
Pronouns are interesting. As a native speaker of English I've never entirely come to grips with the intricacies of pronouns in Te Reo Māori, and that's on me. (2 or 3, including or excluding listener? 🤯)
Very handy though that when you refer to one other person there's just one pronoun to use: ia.
Change doesn't happen overnight. Back in the 1970s I lived and taught teenagers in small town New Zealand. When I made it clear that my correct title was neither Miss nor Mrs but Ms there was a huge ruckus.
It took about 2 years before the kids I taught stopped referring to me as Mzzzzz Jordan. 🤣
Before they can start building our new house they have to add some height to the building platform. 🏡
Yesterday started with an extremely delicious strawberry from the tunnelhouse.
I've long hated Facebook but there were one or two valid reasons to stay on there. With those reasons more or less gone, and with a birthday coming up in a few weeks I gave myself a cheap present today and cancelled my FB account.
It's a bit like enjoying a long hot shower. 😆
I enjoyed reading this book set in Australia but written by a Kiwi. The Beautiful Dead (Cal Nyx Mystery Thrillers Book 1) by Kim Hunt. 📚
Working alone in the vast reaches of the New South Wales bush, park ranger Cal Nyx finds a body. When the remains are identified as someone she once knew, detectives view her as a possible culprit. Then they find the dark blot on her past.
It made a great change to read about an identifiably lesbian character.
I see the book now costs 3 times what I paid for it and the rest of the series is outrageously expensive. I just won't pay those prices. 😒
Ours is not a seaweed beach, but this morning there were clumps like this all the way along.
The waves were calm at dawn. For the Pacific Wave Appreciation Society. 🌊
