Mastodawn

Iain MacLean Jul 26, 2023

I see in BusinessDesk this morning the hospitality sector is pushing for no COVID isolation period because “it’s hurting business.” My wife and I had done well to avoid COVID until April when she and six of her relatives at a family get together caught it at a restaurant and she brought it home to me. I know it’s a problem if staff get sick, but hospo is one of the riskiest places for catching respiratory infections. They can’t get off the hook that easily. Cheeky buggers. #COVID19nz

Iain MacLean Jul 26, 2023

Spotted this in a Herald story this morning about government cybersecurity shakeup.

“Ciaran Martin - the former head of the
UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (part of the GCHQ, Britain’s equivalent our GCSB) -is in Wellington today for a 4pm public lecture at Victoria University for the Centre for Strategic Studies.”

Wonder what he’s got to say about E2E encryption?

Iain MacLean Jul 25, 2023

Well, that was disappointing. NZ had twice the possession, better passing, more shots at goal. Philippines keeper and the video ref made the difference. #Fifawwc #Fifawwc

Iain MacLean Jul 24, 2023

Julian Oliver Jul 23, 2023

Folk are often confused at the link between dietary choice & the extinction crisis. It comes down to habitat loss. Fishing aside, about half of all habitable land on this planet is already dedicated to food production, the majority for animal meat, animal milks & feedcrops. A University of Leeds study predicts nearly 90% of all land species will lose their habitat by 2050 due to agri expansion, urging both shifts in how food is produced, & reducing demand for animal foods https://e360.yale.edu/digest/agriculture-will-threaten-habitat-for-90-percent-of-animal-species-by-2050

Agriculture Will Threaten Habitat for 90 Percent of Animal Species by 2050

Yale E360

Iain MacLean Jul 23, 2023

Bread and Circuses Jul 22, 2023

Humans and our livestock (plus our pets) now comprise 96% of all mammals still living on Earth, by body mass. Only 4% are wild animals.

SOURCE -- https://www.ecowatch.com/biomass-humans-animals-2571413930.html

That’s WAY out of line with anything except very recent history. Throughout almost all of our existence as a species, humans lived in a generally stable balance with our surroundings, existing as a *part* of Nature, rather than being at *war* with it.

But that began to change with the rise of civilization ~10,000 years ago, and got much worse in the last few centuries with the growth of industrialization, finally exploding out of control in the past 50 years or so. And it’s totally unsustainable. Anyone can see that.

You and I, along with our 8 billion friends and neighbors, are Icarus, flying too close to the Sun. The wax on our wings is melting, and we are — all of us — about to come crashing down.

Whose great idea was this, anyway? 🤔

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #Pollution #Biodiversity

Humans and Big Ag Livestock Now Account for 96 Percent of Mammal Biomass

A first-of-its-kind study shows that, when it comes to impacting life on Earth, humans are punching well above our weight. Humans account for about 36 percent of the biomass of all mammals. Domesticated livestock, mostly cows and pigs, account for 60 percent, and wild mammals for only 4 percent.

EcoWatch

Iain MacLean Jul 22, 2023

TobeB Jul 22, 2023

You think the scarier it is, the more we should talk about it. In fact, it’s often the reverse. It’s too scary to talk about.

“We’re really, really good at avoiding things that bother us in many cases,” she said. “It’s denial.”

#climateChange #climateCatastrophy #climateEmergency #climateBreakdown #tippingPoint

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/22/climate-crisis-fear-psychology

Why aren’t we more scared of the climate crisis? It’s complicated

Despite extreme heat and weather in the US, most Americans aren’t cowering in fear. There’s a psychological reason for it

The Guardian

Iain MacLean Jul 22, 2023

Tonight was our local Pukerua Bay Matariki celebration. We’ve been running it for a few years and hold it a week after the holiday weekend so people can go to the bigger events in town. It’s got an arts and crafts focus for children and for the past couple of weeks, local kids have been making lanterns and painting stars, which we decorated the community hall with.

There’re performances from local children (the school kapa haka group was fantastic - some beautiful singing) and a local band, food trucks, make your own crafts stand, and at the end, a big walk through the Secret Valley. It’s a bush walk next to a stream with lots of glow worms you can see if you’re quiet and don’t shine your torch on them. However, about 100 people went through, so the glow worms put their lights out pretty quickly.

A great night, with a couple of hundred locals coming together.
#matariki

Iain MacLean Jul 22, 2023

Björn Brembs Jul 19, 2023

What do these developments have in common?
- Libraries are running institutional #repositories
- Scholarly organizations are hosting #mastodon instances
- the EU council decides to foster #openscience infrastructures
- The EU launches #CoARA to deprecate #bibliometrics and journal brand

They are all steps towards replacing academic journals
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230206
with interoperable, not-for-profit infrastructures based on #foss and #openstandards
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230207

Iain MacLean Jul 22, 2023

Fat kererū in a tree above the path keeping a close eye on us. We see a lot of them about these days. The recent reintroduction came from the wildlife reserve on Kāpiti Island about 15 years ago.

Iain MacLean Jul 22, 2023

Wonder of Science Jul 20, 2023

Beautiful timelapse of Earth rising over the Moon captured by the Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft Kaguya.

Credit: JAXA/NHK

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