Miraz Jordan

Huh! Making a hash of it: The lowdown on Inland Revenue and your data:

The encrypted details of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers are being given by Inland Revenue to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google for targeted advertising - but how good is the encryption? …

"So if I click on the IRD 'sort out your income tax debt' advert, that is logged ... giving information to Meta that, for instance, I am likely to have an income tax debt is pretty sensitive stuff.

"This is in a different league from Meta knowing that I am a fan of, say, popular science books."

How artificial intelligence may help NZ birds | RNZ News:

A study to identify individual kākā using AI has received a funding boost of $1 million, one of a number of research projects using artificial intelligence "for good". …

The project began with photographs taken in nesting boxes at Zealandia, perfectly set up to allow snapshots of the birds heads in profile while they fed.

They were now achieving 90 to 95 percent accuracy with this method, Lensen said, but in a surprise twist, the AI was using posture rather than beaks, which the team had initially thought would be easiest, to tell birds apart.

The next step would be to scale up the complexity and test the AI's ability to identify birds against a background of trees, rather than the inside of a feeding box.

A good review of a movie I really enjoyed — Review: Thelma | RNZ News:

Thelma succeeds because it didn't realise it was meant to be a cosy, old folks feel-good movie. It thought it was a Mission Impossible action film. So why not be both?

Urgh, that was a shock. I needed to add up a column of fractions, like this:

• 1/4
• 1/4
• 1/10
• 1/10
• 1/25
• 1/25
• 1/25

I quickly realised I had not the faintest idea how to do it! Thank goodness for spreadsheets.

An online calculator then converted the sum to a decimal. Hooray!

Update, 17-Sep-2024: in mac OS 15.0 Apple Notes makes this a whole lot easier with Math Notes: type an expression followed by the equals (=) sign. Done!

Bit of a rare double rainbow to the southwest just after dawn this morning. 🌈

Cow relaxing in the rain.

Beyond the wintry beaches of Bream Bay:

Spot endangered birds at the estuaries

The river estuaries at Waipū and Ruakākā are internationally significant bird-nesting habitats. The rare and endangered New Zealand dotterel, variable oystercatcher, New Zealand fairy tern, reef heron, wrybill, caspian tern, banded dotterel, and migrating godwits all nest in the area.

An amazing 9 minute video about train graphs — a ruler, paper and a pencil could prevent train crashes. How did this simple chart keep trains from crashing?:

Ibry displayed a chart that could show simultaneously the locations of all the trains between Paris and Le Havre in a twenty-four-hour period … the horizontal axis denoted the passing of time … down the vertical axis, each station was marked out along the route to Le Havre.

The other day we visited the Silky Otter movie theatre in Palmerston North. It was excellent and we'd go again.

There were two movie trailers, no ghastly ads. The seats were comfy leather recliners with a proper tray and a tiny light over the tray. Staff were friendly. Oh, and free parking.

In the last several decades I acquired more T-shirts than I ever needed. Most have been well-worn. Some were downgraded from 'good' or 'house' to 'garden' wear. Many are yellowed, saggy, faded, or have holes.

Today, as part of my ongoing spring-clean, many will now find a home as 'mulch' for plants.

Big day as we signed up for a land and house package at Ruakākā, on the east coast about 20 minutes drive south of Whangārei.

This time next year (or before) we'll be living up there.

The central city part of Palmerston North is full of pleasant surprises. Coleman Mall had blossom trees and some quirky bollards.

I ate a delicious chicken sandwich at Cafe Jacko in Palmerston North (Facebook link):

Chicken Sammie* $19 - Grilled chicken on sourdough w greens topped with brie and cranberry sauce w fries.

Unfortunately the green tea I ordered was one of the worst I've ever had: thoroughly stewed and bitter.

We really enjoyed Thelma (links to PDF) 🎥 :

Inspired by a real-life experience of Margolin’s own grandmother, THELMA puts a clever spin on movies like MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, shining the spotlight on an elderly grandmother as an unlikely action hero. With infectious humor, Margolin employs the familiar tropes of the action genre in hilarious, age-appropriate ways to tackle aging with agency.

It was funny, sad, and featured real old people. The lead actor is 94.

It was a pleasant enough day that Deb and I went for a little bike ride round the village. 8.5 km.

Dropped a small gift off to the neighbour who had given us lots of firewood from his felled pine trees earlier in the year.

Chatted briefly with a local who has two gorgeous white Great Danes. Each dog weighs more than I do. 🐶 😆