Things that puzzle from a book published around 2011:
Luckily I'm old enough to remember that once upon a time we had to sign a piece of paper when making a credit card purchase — something I haven't done for so long now it's ancient history. What would kids make of this puzzling passage?
I warmed up to and enjoyed Terrors of the High Seas: Book 6 in The Dar & Kerry Series by Melissa Good. I bought it back in 2011 so this was a reread. 📚
This is essentially a fanfic for the Xena TV series, a show I used to really enjoy.
Expect a high over-the-top quotient.
The Kuaka | Godwits are back after their epic journey from the top of the northern hemisphere and they're hungry. 🐦
It's spring and this beautiful little Weweia | New Zealand dabchick was watching me from lake Puna o te Ora. 🐦
Today Deb and I went to the gym at Paraparaumu where I had a very successful workout. Afterwards we went to Longbeach Cafe where I enjoyed delicious fish, chips and salad. The batter was rather indifferent, but everything else was very good.
If you have any affiliation with or interest in Wellington in Aotearoa, this fascinating history is well worth a read — The first Wellingtonian | The Spinoff:
Te Whanganui a Tara, which translates to English as The Great Harbour of Tara, is a name that dates back centuries. Tara … was a rangatira who explored the lower North Island during the earliest days of Polynesian settlement in Aotearoa and founded the first villages in the harbour that bears his name.
So who actually did the hitting?
Image caption: Deer hits car.
First line: Deer hits car.
Later in the article: Police said … car hits deer.
Via: Deer on loose in Christchurch suburb, one hits car | RNZ News.
LOL: deer on the run!
The [wild] deer were last seen by [animal management] officers two hours ago, and "have not been seen since".
Via: Deer on loose in Christchurch suburb, one hits car | RNZ News.
2 years ago I blogged about enjoying this online concert: Faia Younan, so today I listened again. My favourite part starts at around 16 minutes and is about 5 minutes long: Faia Younan I فايا يونان. 🎶🎶
The singer has such a beautiful voice.
Back in June 2012 I bought a Wacom Intuos 5 Small Touch Tablet.
For a few years for some reason I didn't use it but a year or two ago put it back into use. And with relief …
I thought Sequoia killed it, but mucking around with reinstalling old drivers seems to have fixed it right up. Hooray!
There are many stories about the origin of the name Ruakākā. One tells of two kākā parrots that flew in different directions along the beach. But local iwi say it's actually an ancient name from Ngāti Manaia and Ngaitāhuhu tūpuna, who Patuharakeke descend from.
"The name applies to a small sentinel pā that was situated on the banks of the Ruakākā estuary or river," Carrington told Newshub Nation.
"In ancient times this pā had commanding views of the estuary from which the alarm would be raised to alert the other pā in the district, such as the main pā at Rangiora, Ngātītī and Pākauhokio at Takahiwai."
Via: Ruakākā community calls for macrons on road signs to stop 'two poos' mistranslation | Newshub, 07 September 2019.
Ahhh, that 3 am cup of tea really hits the spot…
There may well yet be more sleep in my immediate future. Hooray for Saturdays.
This was a clear and useful 15 minute video — AI Chatbots Comparison 2024 - Grace Leung from 24 August 2024:
ChatGPT4, Claude Pro, Gemini Advanced, Perplexity Pro
It includes discussion of the free versions.
It was a foamy day at the beach.
I used the Mono filter on this. It was already so 'gloomy' it didn't really make a huge change. Super high tide today with a strong push from the west so the bay was full. Cloudy, cool, rainy day.
Te reo Māori needs to go digital to survive - innovator | RNZ News:
A Māori tech innovator and language revitalist wants to see te reo Māori thrive in-person and digitally.
… Te Hiku Media … has been developing artificial intelligence (AI) tools that transcribe te reo Māori, give pronunciation feedback, and turn text into speech at a 92% accuracy rate
Apple’s AI feature set will expand to include localized English in the UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand in December, with India and Singapore joining the mix next year.
The supermarket carpark was surprisingly busy for its 7 am opening time.
Learning about prompt engineering for AIs. Here's an interesting (and surprising to me) conversation start with Claude:
You are a tutor of the Māori language. Ask me how I am today.
Kia ora! Kei te pēhea koe i tēnei rā?
Putting aside all politics, and purely on a mechanical level, how does anyone cause a pager to explode by remote control? I totally don't understand this at all.
eight people were killed and 2750 wounded in the pager explosions
Via: At least 8 dead, thousands wounded as pagers explode in Lebanon | RNZ News.